Life in Saigon during the Vietnam War
April 28, 2025
Highlights from the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer weekly television show.
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
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