A week has passed since Australia and the world watched in horror as the decades-long conflict in Afghanistan took a dramatic, and perhaps final turn.
Following months of a Taliban offensive that saw provinces across the country fall in quick succession, the insurgent group seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, in a matter of days.
In scenes eerily similar to those seen in Vietnam, the US evacuated staff from the roof of its embassy in Kabul. 
These were coupled with images of chaos at Kabul airport, as countries such as Australia and the US attempted to evacuate their citizens and locally engaged employees (LEEs) who assisted their armies in the conflict.
A US Chinook helicopter flies over the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Source: AP
The scenes touched on what many in Australia's Vietnamese community had experienced many decades ago during the final stages of the Vietnam War.
In April 1975, North Vietnamese Communist forces swept through South Vietnam with a momentum that surprised US policymakers.
A CIA employee (probably O.B. Harnage) helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter from the top of the US Embassy. Source: Bettmann
Like Kabul, the city of Saigon fell faster than the Americans expected, and they were forced to evacuate more than 7000 US and foreign citizens by helicopter.
Nguyen Vi Tuy, the editor of the Chieu Duong newspaper in Sydney, experienced firsthand what happened in Vietnam on the day Saigon fell.
He believes the images coming out of the Afghan capital are reminiscent of what happened in his former homeland.
In this April 30, 1975 file photo, a North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon. Source: AP
“The image is too much for us to see.
"We see images of Afghans clinging to the last evacuation planes, Taliban soldiers wearing sandals, sloppy clothes and armed with weapons left by the Americans.
“The images of guerrilla forces seizing the presidential palace in Kabul, then the evacuation of government officials from the rooftops of American buildings, and scenes of Afghans tearing away the old ruins to replace the new flag, the new leader. The images are exactly like on April 30, 1975, in Saigon.”
On the day of the capture of Kabul, chaotic scenes emerged at the country's international airport of desperate Afghans clinging to a departing US military plane.
Nguyen Vi Tuy says during the period before South Vietnam fell, there were similar scenes of people clinging to a plane’s rotating front wheel in order to evacuate.
He says one of his friends was lucky to survive the conflict by doing exactly that.
“When talking about clinging to planes to escape, I remember something that I will never forget.
“That is, I have a friend, Tran Van Truc, an airforce officer who had to cling to the wheel of the last commercial jet that left Da Nang airport on March 29, before the airport fell to the Communists, and he was the only survivor when the plane landed in Tan Son Nhat Airport [in Saigon].”
Former diplomat Luu Tuong Quang believes the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan stemmed from the US evacuation from the war.
A baby being lifted across a wall at Kabul Airport as desperate Afghans scramble to flee the country. Source: Omar Haidari
Similar events occurred before the fall of Saigon.
“While the US military's withdrawal from Afghanistan was according to the agreement between Donald Trump and the Taliban in March 2020, the withdrawal of US troops from the Republic of Vietnam also happened after the Paris agreement on 27 January 1973.
“So, of course, from 1973 to April 1975, it was a long time while the compromise between Donald Trump and the Taliban and the implementation of President Joe Biden took place in only a few months. However, in essence, the two are the same.”
A difference to note, according to Luu Tuong Quang, is that the 1975 evacuation effort by the US was mainly to transport relatives and Vietnamese staff working for the US in the South.
Mobs of Vietnamese people scale the wall of the US Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, trying to get to the helicopter pickup zone. Source: AP
“The regulation of the withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam occurred immediately after the agreement was signed, so as for the withdrawal part, it did not happen in April 1975.
“Still, at that time, it was the evacuation of US embassy officials and officers serving in the US military attache mission to the Republic of Vietnam, so the number of withdrawals on April 30 from the US side was small.
“But, on the other hand, noteworthy was the mass evacuation of Vietnamese citizens who had cooperated with the US government as an ally of the US government.”
The fallout from the Vietnam War saw mass immigration to a number of Western countries.
A man cries as he watches Taliban fighters conduct crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside the Kabul Airport. Source: Los Angeles Times
Nguyen Vi Tuy was among the thousands of refugees who fled to Australia after the conflict.
The wave of displacement continued decades after the war and continues to this day.
Nguyen Vi Tuy believes the wave of refugees out of Afghanistan will not be as big as it was from South Vietnam after the Vietnam War.
“I believe that the wave of Afghan refugees will not rush and create a big wave like the people of South Vietnam who left the country in 1975.
“Because as you know, Afghanistan has no sea so that people can escape. So the refugee issue may be more complex and challenging for countries that want to extend a helping hand to this country.”
Looking ahead, a key aspect to focus on is whether relations between the US and the Taliban will be reestablished.
In the context of Vietnam, the US established ties in 1995 without firing a bullet.
Hundreds of vehicles fill an empty area as the refugees fleeing in the vehicles pause near Tuy Hoa in the central coastal region of South Vietnam in 1975. Source: AP
Following developments in Afghanistan, UK-based independent journalist Hong Nga believes the US will return to Afghanistan, just as it did in Vietnam.
“Yes, it's true, it's ironic but it's true. In the old days, people had to shake hands after shooting each other because the world had not only war but also peace and economic development, and the USA is still a great power.
“So I think, sooner or later, if an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban wants to develop, they must develop economically with other great powers. However, there is another great power that you must be interested in, China.
“The relationship between Afghanistan under the Taliban and China shows that China is using the limited international relations of Afghanistan to enter its friendship and take advantage of business opportunities and other strategic relationships.”
