If there was a single development that stbod out among everything that transpired in Asia in 1975 it was the capitulation of South Vietnam to a pro-Communist regime. The "fall" of Vietnam holds implications that extend far beyond contemporary Southeast Asia;it was an event that perfectly symbolized the play-out in Asia of the entire history of postwar politics. Regardless of how one may judge the war in Vietnam itself, or the whole issue of Indochina, for that matter, to overlook the wider significance of what culminated in 1975 is to lose one's grip on any real understanding of what the Vietnam war meant.