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US troops during the war in Vietnam in 1966. Sunday is the 25th anniversary of the pullout. (AP file photo) A conflict recedes, a country emerges By H.D.S. Greenway, 4/30/2000 HO CHI MINH CITY - I am a ghost wandering in this city, a shadow of another time that ceased to exist a quarter-century ago when the last American helicopters rose up over the red roofs of this city like departing souls in the death throes of the South Vietnam Republic. Today Vietnam is a country again, not just a war, as the government is fond of saying. More than half its people were not born when the final US evacuation took place in 1975. So fast has the population grown that no more than 15 percent could have experienced the 30-year war that ended the French and then the American effort here. As happens with ghosts, people passing on the street cannot see my reflection. Continued  RETURNING Journals from Vietnam By H.D.S. Greenway Danang: Foreign concepts Hue: Battered side to side Hanoi: An embalmed reminder Phnom Penh: Chamber of horrors Ho Chi Minh City: Unparalleled panic  WHAT DID YOU DO? What were you doing during the war, daddy? Paying any price, By Robert Timberg Situational ethics, By Richard Knox The gentleman's army, By Sam Allis O Canada, By David Cramer  25 YEARS LATER LEGACIES: It was us against us, By David Halberstam VIETNAM TODAY: Market Leninism, By Ben Bradlee Jr. Harvard teaches capitalism to the cadres, By Ben Bradlee Jr. ASSIMILATION: A new life in a new land, By Mitchell Zuckoff VETS: Gone home, By Charles A. Radin CULTURE: Lights, camera, war, By Mark Feeney GENERATION X: Vietnam boffo on campus, By Marcella Bombardieri SILVER LININGS: Why the US was fortunate to lose the war, By Neil Sheehan  OPINIONS GLOBE EDITORIAL: Still with us VIETNAMESE VOICES: 'It was a sheer crime. How can I forget that?', By Thai Ba Tan VIETNAMESE VOICES: 'I was denounced as a traitor', By Bui Tin VIETNAMESE VOICES: 'We sleep better now', By Nguyen Qui Duc      PHOTO GALLERY The Globe's Tom Herde captures life in Vietnam today. View the photos  YOUR THOUGHTS What do you think America learned from its involvement in Vietnam? Your view  TIMELINE & LINKS Modern Vietnam has been shaped by war; first with France, then the U.S., and finally with China. Follow the course of conflict and renewal in the Southeast Asia country over the last half century through this Interactive timeline  NECN REAL VIDEO Remembering the fallen Vietnam: An echo of war - Part.1 Vietnam: An echo of war - Part.2 Vietnam: An echo of war - Part.3

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