No conflict since the Civil War divided the nation as much as the long, slow war in Vietnam, a war that saw more than 2.5 million Americans serve and cost 58,202 soldiers their lives. Political turmoil at home meant there were no ticker-tape parades for returning veterans. Instead, despite their sacrifice, they were sometimes treated with scorn.

It took Congress nearly 40 years to decide to honor Vietnam War veterans with a “Welcome Home” day of their own and help the nation assuage its guilt for their shabby treatment. In 2009 it declared March 30, the day in 1973 when the last troops left Vietnam, a national day to honor those who served in that divisive war.

Thirteen months after that day in 1973, in an image burned into the minds of a generation, a helicopter plucked panicked CIA personnel and South Vietnamese allies from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, which had just fallen to North Vietnam.

Last year, the Legislature decided New Hampshire should join the list of states that formally recognize the celebration.

The federal resolution, like the state law, calls for the day to be recognized annually. That was probably a mistake. The veterans of the Vietnam War are now senior citizens. In time, Welcome Home Day will devolve, like Presidents Day and many other holidays, into a token celebration. The nation hasn’t, until now, allocated each war its own holiday. That’s what Veterans Day is for: a day for honoring all veterans of all eras of who served and sacrificed for their country.

That said, the national memory of its shameful treatment of Vietnam War veterans would benefit from the balm of several years of Welcome Home days. Next year, Welcome Home Day for Vietnam War veterans should be an opportunity to benefit from living history, one that gives veterans the opportunity to share their experiences.

Young people need to know that and everything else, good and bad, about that long and tragic war. And all of us need to give thanks to those who fought it.

— The Concord (N.H.) Monitor