April 28, 2025
On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, Mai Elliott recalls how witnessing the human toll of the Vietnam War firsthand changed her views—and forced her to keep a life-altering secret from her own family.
As a young researcher in Saigon working for the RAND Corporation during the Vietnam War, Mai Elliott had a rare window into the lives of North Vietnamese fighters and rural civilians. What she saw challenged everything she had been raised to believe. “I came from a very anti-communist family... but I began to change my views because I thought it was unjust for the peasants to pay for the cost of the war,” she says.
Elliott eventually became quietly anti-war, even lobbying members of Congress to stop funding the conflict—but she kept it hidden from her family. “I never told them... I think they would’ve felt I was betraying them,” she admits.
Watch full episode: 50 years after the Vietnam War
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
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