Original Vietnam War Pre 1975 U.S. Marine Captured & Signed Flag of South Vietnam - 22 x 32”

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a rare Flag of South Vietnam which was taken home by a US Marine named “Bob” before the fall of Saigon in 1975. Bob had the flag signed by several of him comrades in a yearbook style, making it a truly unique piece. This example is constructed of a nice cotton and is offered in very good condition and measures approximately 22 x 32”. It is a dyed one-piece construction with a hang side channel.

The flag is very soft and has 11+ inscriptions on the front and back with well wishes to Bob, who appears to have been at the end of his tour. One of the inscriptions reads To a great guy and fellow Marine, take care + good luck in the states, G.L. Turner (Barney).

Another reads To one of the nicest, most handsome, sexy, intellectual, slant-eyed, slope-headed, black-haired, people I know. - Big “D” Jack Waller. Another inscription makes a reference to Big “D”: To a short timer going home, but I offer you good luck Bob. A Fried Oilly prize to *... *Will complete 1 Nov. 68 in Big “D”. There is certainly a lot of soldier culture inscribed on this great flag. The top left inscription even has a small depiction of Bob.

A really tremendous bring-back flag with tons of character, ready for further research and display.

The flag of South Vietnam served as the South Vietnamese national flag during that country's existence from 1948 to 1975. The flag, being of a defunct state, is no longer officially used in Vietnam today, but is still shown and used overseas by many Vietnamese emigrés, particularly those residing in North America and Australia.

The flag was originally inspired by Emperor Thành Thái in 1890, and was revived by Lê Văn Đệ and re-adopted by Emperor Bảo Đại in 1948. It was the flag of the former State of Vietnam (the French-controlled areas in both Northern and Southern Vietnam) from 1949 to 1955, and later of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) up until 1975, after the fall of Saigon. The flag consists of a yellow field and three horizontal red stripes and can be explained as either symbolizing the unifying blood running through northern, central, and southern Vietnam, or as representing ☰, the symbol for "south" (as in, south from China (Vietnam itself) and also nam meaning south), in Daoist trigrams.

Although the South Vietnamese state ceased to exist in 1975, today the South Vietnamese flag still finds use among private citizens in other countries. Many Vietnamese emigrés (Việt kiều), particularly former South Vietnamese citizens who fled Vietnam in the late 1970s and 1980s as Boat People, consider the current Vietnamese flag offensive as they see it as being representative of the socialist administration they opposed and fled. From June 2002 onward, in the United States, at least 13 U.S. state governments, seven counties and 85 cities in 20 states have adopted resolutions recognizing the yellow flag as the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag. In contemporary Vietnam, attempts to display this flag had resulted in prosecutions for "propaganda against the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".