51�Թ�

Internet sleuths scoured the web for anyone who, like Tran, had appeared alongside the flag of South Vietnam and attacked them.

The U.S. first sent ground troops to Vietnam in March 1965 to support South Vietnam against revolutionary forces and North Vietnamese troops, but the war had been going on for years before then.

You would be hard put to find traces of the socialist ideology that led to the city's capture in 1975, when it was the capital of South Vietnam.

For example, Vu said official statements now have fewer references to a “puppet government” in what was formerly South Vietnam, a term used to delegitimize its former adversary and denounce America’s involvement in the war.

He got the chance in somewhat backward fashion: He was drafted straight out of a residency at Yale and shipped to Delta Med, a medical facility in South Vietnam close to the combat zone.