As we mark the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War’s conclusion in 2025, we confront anew the enduring questions that follow in the conflict’s wake. How do societies move forward while honoring the truth of what occurred? The answer lies not in convenient forgetting but in the difficult practice of remembrance. There exists a fundamental distinction between forgiveness and amnesty and an even sharper distinction between amnesty and amnesia. While societies may grant legal pardons or establish reconciliation processes, these mechanisms cannot and should not erase the collective memory of suffering.

This challenge of comprehensive remembrance extends beyond traditional warfare. As we still grapple with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must ask ourselves how long it will take for our society to memorialize its millions of victims properly. Like war, political narratives and statistical abstractions obscure the pandemic’s toll. When will we create physical or cultural spaces that honor the individual suffering behind the numbers? How many years or decades might pass before we fully acknowledge this collective trauma? The difficulty we face in remembering pandemic victims reveals our broader societal discomfort with mass casualty events that don’t fit neatly into heroic narratives.

Memory serves as both a memorial and a safeguard. By remembering the full spectrum of war’s devastation, we create a psychological barrier against future aggression. The painful knowledge of previous conflicts becomes preventative — a societal immune response that recognizes the early symptoms of dehumanization and militarism before they can again manifest as violence. When we forget these painful lessons, we remove the protective warnings that history provides.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., exemplifies this approach to remembrance. As we reflect on half a century since the war’s end, this memorial takes on heightened significance. Unlike traditional war monuments celebrating victory or glorifying combat, the memorial’s black granite wall lists names — a somber acknowledgment of lives interrupted. Visitors don’t come to celebrate conquest but to mourn the loss and contemplate the consequences. In its design and purpose, the memorial shifts focus from abstract geopolitical narratives to concrete human suffering.

This reframing is essential. Wars are too often remembered through the lens of strategy, politics, or national mythology rather than through their human cost. When we remember Vietnam, we should remember not just American casualties but Vietnamese civilians, soldiers on both sides, and entire communities irreparably damaged by the conflict.

Many who participated in war often did so under various illusions — that they were liberators rather than occupiers, defending freedom rather than geopolitical interests, and that their sacrifice would lead to meaningful change rather than strategic stalemate. Acknowledging this complexity does not diminish their sacrifice but contextualizes it within systems that routinely convert human lives into strategic resources.

By remembering all victims, including those once designated as enemies, we perform an act of moral restoration. We acknowledge the shared humanity that conflict obscures and recover the ethical perspective that war inevitably distorts. Comprehensive remembrance of the war or pandemic is not merely retrospective justice for past victims but prospective protection for potential future ones.

The pandemic offers a parallel lesson in remembrance. Unlike war, where we have established rituals and monuments, our collective memory of COVID victims remains fragmented and incomplete. There is no wall listing their names, and no National Day of Remembrance is firmly established in our calendar. The sheer scale of loss and its uneven distribution across communities have made comprehensive mourning difficult. Yet remembering these deaths is equally essential for preventing future catastrophic failures of care and response. Our ability to honor pandemic victims will test whether we can extend our capacity for remembrance beyond traditional forms of conflict.

The uncomfortable truth remains war is often pointless. Whatever strategic objectives might be achieved through violence could almost always be better accomplished through other means. When calculated against the narrow interests of those in power, the moral, psychological, economic, and cultural costs invariably outweigh any benefits. By remembering war’s futility alongside its brutality, we strengthen a collective resolve to find alternatives. Societies that honestly confront their violent histories — acknowledging complicity rather than clinging to sanitized narratives — develop stronger resistance to future militarism. This 50th anniversary provides an occasion for remembrance and a renewed commitment to learning from our past. Memory becomes not just a backward-looking commemoration but a forward-looking prevention. We remember not to perpetuate trauma but to ensure its non- recurrence.

There is an effort in the state to remember the victims of the pandemic. This effort is spearheaded by a state alliance of advocates (Dignity Alliance of Massachusetts—https://dignityalliancema.org ) for older and disabled persons, many of whom were victims of the pandemic. In the past, it has sponsored legislation for a day of remembrance. Recently, it has developed a work group to develop a memorial web page on which families and friends can post a remembrance and keep their memory alive.

There is a popular saying that we die twice: once when our body dies and once when our name is spoken for the last time. In this way, the painful act of remembering transforms from burden to gift — something we owe not just to those who suffered in past conflicts but to generations yet unborn who deserve to inherit a world where such suffering has become increasingly rare. True remembrance honors all victims by working toward a future without more.

James Lomastro is a resident of Conway and on the Coordinaitng Committe of Dignity Alliance of Massachusetts.