---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Huy Dang
From: Huy Dang
Photos: A Look Back
at the Vietnam War on the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon
Editor’s Warning: The
following photo collection contains some graphic violence and depictions of
dead bodies.
(AP) Today, April
30th, marks the 41th Anniversary of the fall of Saigon, when communist
North Vietnamese forces drove tanks through the former U.S.-backed capital of
South Vietnam, smashing through the Presidential Palace gates. The fall of
Saigon marked the official end of the Vietnam War and the decadelong U.S.
campaign against communism in Southeast Asia. The conflict claimed some 58,000
American lives and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.
The war left
divisions that would take years to heal as many former South Vietnamese
soldiers were sent to Communist re-education camps and hundreds of thousands of
their relatives fled the country.
In Vietnam, today is
called Liberation Day and the government staged a parade down the former
Reunification Boulevard that featured tank replicas and goose-stepping soldiers
in white uniforms. Some 50,000 party cadres, army veterans and laborers
gathered for the spectacle, many carrying red and gold Vietnamese flags and
portraits of Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnam’s revolution. In a reminder of
how the Communist Party retains a strong grip on the flow of information
despite the opening of the economy, foreign journalists were forbidden from
conducting interviews along the parade route. The area was sealed off from
ordinary citizens, apparently due to security concerns.
The photos below
offer a look back at the Vietnam War from the escalation of U.S. involvement in
the early 1960’s to the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
1 A South Vietnamese soldier
holds a cocked pistol as he questions two suspected Viet Cong guerrillas
captured in a weed-filled marsh in the southern delta region late in August
1962. The prisoners were searched, bound and questioned before being marched
off to join other detainees. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to
feed
2 A U.S. crewman runs from a
crashed CH-21 Shawnee troop helicopter near the village of Ca Mau in the
southern tip of South Vietnam, Dec. 11, 1962. Two helicopters crashed without
serious injuries during a government raid on the Viet Cong-infiltrated area.
Both helicopters were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands. (AP
Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
3 3A Helmeted U.S. Helicopter
Crewchief, holding carbine, watches ground movements of Vietnamese troops from
above during a strike against Viet Cong Guerrillas in the Mekong Delta Area,
January 2, 1963. The communist Viet Cong claimed victory in the continuing
struggle in Vietnam after they shot down five U.S. helicopters. An American
officer was killed and three other American servicemen were injured in the
action. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
4 Caskets containing the bodies
of seven American helicopter crewmen killed in a crash on January 11, 1963 were
loaded aboard a plane on Monday, Jan. 14 for shipment home. The crewmen were on
board a H21 helicopter that crashed near a hut on an Island in the middle of
one of the branches of the Mekong River, about 55 miles Southwest of Saigon.
(AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
5 Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk,
burns himself to death on a Saigon street on June 11, 1963, to protest alleged
persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. (AP Photo/Malcolm
Browne, File) Photo by Add this to feed
6 Flying at dawn, just over the
jungle foliage, U.S. C-123 aircraft spray concentrated defoliant along power
lines running between Saigon and Dalat in South Vietnam, early in August 1963.
The planes were flying about 130 miles per hour over steep, hilly terrain, much
of it believed infiltrated by the Viet Cong. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) Photo
by Add this to feed
7 A South Vietnamese Marine,
severely wounded in a Viet Cong ambush, is comforted by a comrade in a sugar
cane field at Duc Hoa, about 12 miles from Saigon, Aug. 5, 1963. A platoon of
30 Vietnamese Marines was searching for communist guerrillas when a long burst
of automatic fire killed one Marine and wounded four others. (AP Photo/Horst
Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
8 A father holds the body of his
child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armored vehicle
March 19, 1964. The child was killed as government forces pursued guerrillas
into a village near the Cambodian border. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by
Add this to feed
9 General William Westmoreland
talks with troops of first battalion, 16th regiment of 2nd brigade of U.S.
First Division at their positions near Bien Hoa in Vietnam, 1965. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
10 The sun breaks through the
dense jungle foliage around the embattled town of Binh Gia, 40 miles east of
Saigon, in early January 1965, as South Vietnamese troops, joined by U.S.
advisors, rest after a cold, damp and tense night of waiting in an ambush
position for a Viet Cong attack that didn't come. One hour later, as the
possibility of an overnight attack by the Viet Cong diasappeared, the troops
moved out for another long, hot day hunting the elusive communist guerrillas in
the jungles. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
11 Hovering U.S. Army
helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of
South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north
of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam in March
of 1965. (AP Photo/Horst Faas, File) Photo by Add this to feed
12 Injured Vietnamese receive
aid as they lie on the street after a bomb explosion outside the U.S. Embassy
in Saigon, Vietnam, March 30, 1965. Smoke rises from wreckage in the
background. At least two Americans and several Vietnamese were killed in the
bombing. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
13 Capt. Donald R. Brown of
Annapolis, Md., advisor to the 2nd Battalion of the 46th Vietnamese regiment,
dashes from his helicopter to the cover of a rice paddy dike during an attack
on Viet Cong in an area 15 miles west of Saigon on April 4, 1965 during the
Vietnam War. Brown's counterpart, Capt. Di, commander of the unit, rushes away
in background with his radioman. The Vietnamese suffered 12 casualties before
the field was taken. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
14 U.S. soldiers are on the
search for Viet Cong hideouts in a swampy jungle creek bed, June 6, 1965, at
Chutes de Trian, some 40 miles northeast of Saigon, South Vietnam. (AP
Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
15 The strain of battle for Dong
Xoai is shown on the face of U.S. Army Sgt. Philip Fink, an advisor to the 52nd
Vietnamese Ranger battalion, shown June 12, 1965. The unit bore the brunt of
recapturing the jungle outpost from the Viet Cong. (AP Photo/Steve
Stibbens) Photo by Add this to feed
16 An unidentified U.S. Army
soldier wears a hand lettered "War Is Hell" slogan on his helmet, in
Vietnam on June 18, 1965. (AP Photo/Horst Faas, File) Photo by Add this to
feed
17 South Vietnamese supply
trucks take a detour around a destroyed bridge en route to Pleiku on Route 19,
July 18, 1965. The original bridge, and a temporary bridge placed on top of it,
were both destroyed by the Viet Cong. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams) Photo by Add
this to feed
18 Wounded marines lie about the
floor of a H34 helicopter, August 19, 1965 as they were evacuated from the
battle area on Van Tuong peninsula. (AP Photo)Photo by Add this to feed
19 The Associated Press
photographer Huynh Thanh My covers a Vietnamese battalion pinned down in a
Mekong Delta rice paddy about a month before he was killed in combat on Oct.
10, 1965. (AP PHOTO) Photo by Add this to feed
20 Elements of the U.S. First
Cavalry Air Mobile division in a landing craft approach the beach at Qui Nhon,
260 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam, in Sept. 1965. Advance units of 20,000
new troops are being launched for a strike on the Viet Cong during the Vietnam
War. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
21 Paratroopers of the U.S. 2nd
Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade hold their automatic weapons above water as
they cross a river in the rain during a search for Viet Cong positions in the
jungle area of Ben Cat, South Vietnam, Sept. 25,1965. The paratroopers had been
searching the area for 12 days with no enemy contact. (AP Photo/Henri
Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
22 Wounded U.S. paratroopers are
helped by fellow soldiers to a medical evacuation helicopter on Oct. 5, 1965
during the Vietnam War. Paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade's First
Battalion suffered many casualties in the clash with Viet Cong guerrillas in
the jungle of South Vietnam's "D" Zone, 25 miles Northeast of Saigon.
(AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
23 College students carrying
pro-American signs heckle anti-war student demonstrators protesting U.S.
involvement in Vietnam at the Boston Common in Boston, Ma., Oct. 16, 1965. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
24 A U.S. B-52 stratofortress
drops a load of 750-pounds bombs over a Vietnam coastal area during the Vietnam
War, Nov. 5, 1965. (AP Photo/USAF) Photo by Add this to feed
25 Chaplain John McNamara of
Boston makes the sign of the cross as he administers the last rites to
photographer Dickey Chapelle in South Vietnam Nov. 4, 1965. Chapelle was
covering a U.S. Marine unit on a combat operation near Chu Lai for the National
Observer when she was seriously wounded, along with four Marines, by an
exploding mine. She died in a helicopter en route to a hospital. She became the
first female war correspondent to be killed in Vietnam, as well as the first
American female reporter to be killed in action. Her body was repatriated with
an honor guard consisting of six Marines and she was given full Marine burial.
(AP Photo/Henri Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
26 Berkeley-Oakland City, Calif.
demonstraters march against the war in Vietnam, December 1965. Calif. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
27 A napalm strike erupts in a
fireball near U.S. troops on patrol in South Vietnam, 1966 during the Vietnam
War. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
28 A U.S. paratrooper moves away
after setting fire to house on bank of the Vaico Oriental River, 20 miles west
of Saigon on Jan. 4, 1966, during a "scorched earth" operation
against the Viet Cong in South Viet Nam. The 1st battalion of the 173rd
airborne brigade was moving through the area, described as notorious Viet Cong
territory. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett) Photo by Add this to feed
29 Women and children crouch in
a muddy canal as they take cover from intense Viet Cong fire at Bao Trai in
Jan. of 1966, about 20 miles west of Saigon, Vietnam. (AP Photo/Horst Faas,
File) Photo by Add this to feed
30 U.S. Army helicopters
providing support for U.S. ground troops fly into a staging area fifty miles
northeast of Saigon, Vietnam in January of 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet,
File) Photo by Add this to feed
31 First Cavalry Division Medic
Thomas Cole, from Richmond, Va., looks up with his one uncovered eye as he
continues to treat a wounded Staff Sgt. Harrison Pell during a January 1966
firefight in the Central Highlands between U.S. troops and a combined North
Vietnamese and Vietcong force. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)Photo by Add this to feed
32 Weary after a third night of
fighting against North Vietnamese troops, U.S. Marines crawl from foxholes
located south of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Vietnam, 1966. The helicopter
at left was shot down when it came in to resupply the unit. (AP Photo/Henri
Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
33 Water-filled bomb craters
from B-52 strikes against the Viet Cong mark the rice paddies and orchards west
of Saigon, Vietnam, 1966. Most of the area had been abandoned by the peasants
who used to farm on the land. (AP Photo/Henri Huet) Photo by Add this to
feed
34 In a sudden monsoon rain,
part of a company of about 130 South Vietnamese regional soldiers moves
downriver in sampans during a dawn attack against a Viet Cong camp in the
flooded Mekong Delta, about 13 miles northeast of Cantho, on Jan. 10, 1966. A
handful of guerrillas were reported killed or wounded. (AP Photo/Henri
Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
35 Pfc. Lacey Skinner of
Birmingham, Ala., crawls through the mud of a rice paddy in January of 1966,
avoiding heavy Viet Cong fire near An Thi in South Vietnam, as troops of the
U.S. 1st Cavalry Division fight a fierce 24-hour battle along the central coast.
(AP Photo/Henri Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
36 President Lyndon Johnson
speaks during a televised address from the White House, Jan. 31, 1966,
announcing the resumption of bombing of targets in North Vietnam. The
president, who was photographed from a television screen at the New York
studios of NBC-TV, said he was requesting Amb. Arthur Goldberg to call for an
immediate meeting of the U.N. Security Council. (AP Photo/Marty
Lederhandler) Photo by Add this to feed
37 U.S. troops carry the body of
a fellow soldier across a rice paddy for helicopter evacuation near Bong Son in
early February 1966. The soldier, a member of the 1st Air Cavalry Division, was
killed during Operation Masher on South Vietnam's central coast. (AP Photo/Rick
Merron) Photo by Add this to feed
38 A helicopter lifts a wounded
American soldier on a stretcher during Operation Silver City in Vietnam, March
13, 1966. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
39 Seen here are pickets
demonstrating against the Vietnam War as they march through downtown
Philadelphia, Pa, March, 26 1966. (AP Photo/Bill Ingraham)Photo by Add this to
feed
40 Soldiers of the 101st
Airborne Division carry a wounded buddy through the jungle in May 1966. (AP
Photo/Henri Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
41 A helicopter hovers over the
field, ready to load personnel and equipment during Operation Masher in the
Vietnam War, May 7, 1966. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
42 A young paratrooper with a
mud-smeared face stares into the jungle in Vietnam on July 14, 1966, after fire
fight with Viet Cong patrol in the morning. He is a member of C company, 2nd
battalion, 173rd airborne brigade. (AP Photo/John Nance) Photo by Add this
to feed
43 A U.S. Marine CH-46 Sea
Knight helicopter comes down in flames after being hit by enemy ground fire
during Operation Hastings, just south of the Demilitarized Zone between North
and South Vietnam, July 15, 1966. The helicopter crashed and exploded on a hill,
killing one crewman and 12 Marines. Three crewman escaped with serious burns.
(AP Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
44 Pinned down by Viet Cong
machine gun fire, a U.S. medic looks over at a seriuosly wounded comrade as
they huddle behind a dike in a rice paddy, near Phu Loi, South Vietnam, August
14, 1966. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
45 A U.S. infantryman from A
Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry carries a crying child from Cam Xe
village after dropping a phosphorous grenade into a bunker cleared of civilians
during an operation near the Michelin rubber plantation northwest of Saigon,
August 22, 1966. A platoon of the 1st Infantry Division raided the village,
looking for snipers that had inflicted casualties on the platoon. GIs rushed
about 40 civilians out of the village before artillery bombardment ensued. (AP
Photo/Horst Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
46 An American F-105 warplane is
shot down and the pilot ejects and opens his parachute in this photo taken by North
Vietnamese photograper Mai Nam on September 1966 near Vinh Phuc, north of
Hanoi. This photo is one of the most recognized images taken by a North
Vietnamese photographer during the war. The pilot of the aircraft was taken
hostage and held in a Hanoi prison from 1966 to 1973. (AP Photo/Pioneer
Newspaper/Mai Nam) Photo by Add this to feed
47 Paratroopers of the 173rd
U.S. airborne brigade make their way across the Song Be River in South Vietnam
en route to the jungle on the North Bank and into operation Sioux City in the D
Zone on Oct. 4, 1966. Troopers and equipment were flown in by helicopter to the
central highlands area, but the choppers couldn't land in the D zone jungles.
The operation began late in the week of September 25. (AP Photo) Photo by
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48 U.S. President Lydon B.
Johnson reviews troops assembled in honor of his visit to the U.S. base at Cam
Ranh Bay in South Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1966 during the war. Beside the President
is Gen. William Westmoreland, Commander of the U.S. Military forces in Vietnam.
(AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
49 Empty artillery cartridges
pile up at the artillery base at Soui Da, some 60 miles northwest of Saigon, at
the southern edge of War Zone C, on March 8, 1967. (AP Photo/Horst
Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
50 Three American marines sleep
atop ammunition boxes during a pause in the fighting at Gio Linh on April 2,
1967, just south of the demilitarized zone in Vietnam. (AP Photo) Photo by
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51 A wounded U.S. soldier of the
1st Infantry Division, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, receives first
aid after being rescued from a jungle battlefield south of the Cambodian border
in Vietnam's war zone C, April 2, 1967. A reconnaissance platoon ran into enemy
bunkers, and their recuers were pinned down for four hours in fighting that
left 7 U.S. dead and 42 wounded. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
52 Anti-Vietnam war
demonstrators fill Fulton Street in San Francisco on April 15, 1967. The
five-mile march through the city would end with a peace rally at Kezar Stadium.
In the background is San Francisco City Hall. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this
to feed
53 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., leads a crowd of 125,000 Vietnam War protesters in front of the United
Nations in New York on April 15, 1967, as he voices a repeated demand to
"Stop the bombing." (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
54 A U.S. Marine sergeant points
directions to a group of newly arrived replacement soldiers atop embattled Hill
881, below the demilitarized zone near the Laotian border, South Vietnam, in
May 1967. The men were flown in by helicopter to enforce U.S. Marine lines
badly weakened by casualties after several days of fighting for the strategic
hills. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
55 A wounded member of the 1st
Plt. Company "C," 25th Infantry Division, is helped to a waiting
UH-1D "Iroquois" helicopter in Vietnam, May 10, 1967, during the
Vietnam War. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
56 U.S. Marines of the 3rd
Battallion, 4th Marines, crouch in the cover of a pagoda entrance as their
patrol moves through a village along the Ben Hai river in the southern sector
of the DMZ in South Vietnam, on May 22, 1967. The pagoda walls are richly
decorated with images of dragons and snakes. (AP Photo/Kim Ki Sam) Photo
by Add this to feed
57 American infantrymen crowd
into a mud-filled bomb crater and look up at tall jungle trees seeking out Viet
Cong snipers firing at them during a battle in Phuoc Vinh, north-Northeast of
Saigon in Vietnam's War Zone D on June 15, 1967. (AP Photo/Henri Huet,
File) Photo by Add this to feed
58 Medic James E. Callahan of
Pittsfield, Mass., gives mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dying soldier in war
zone D, about 50 miles northeast of Saigon, June 17, 1967. Thirty-one men of
the 1st Infantry Division were reported killed in the guerrilla ambush, with
more than 100 wounded. (AP Photo/Henri Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
59 Secretary of Defense Robert
S. McNamara (second from left), and Gen Earle Wheeler, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, huddle in one corner while Ellsworth Bunker, U.S. Ambassador
to South Vietnam (second from right), and Gen. William C. Westmoreland, right,
commander of U.S. Forces in Vietnam, go over a report at the beginning of
briefings for the secretary at U.S. Army Headquarters on Tan Son Nhut Air Base,
Friday, July 6, 1967 in Saigon. (AP Photo/Cung)Photo by Add this to feed
60 Defense Secretary McNamara
and Gen. William Westmoreland, commander U.S. Forces in Vietnam, sit with
muffler type radio earphones as they ride in helicopter toward the DMZ on
McNamara's first field trip during his current visit to Vietnam, July 10, 1967.
(AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
61 Vietnamese Navy boats laden
with Vietnamese Army infantrymen swing along the Bien Tre river to launch a
search mission some 50 miles south of Saigon in the Meking Delta's Kien Hoa
province, July 11, 1967. Viet cong guerrillas fired on the flotlla from the brushy
shoreline, but no major contact was made. (AP Photo)Photo by Add this to feed
62 William Morgan Hardman is
interrogated by North Vietnamese military authorities in front of Hoan Kien
Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam on Aug. 24, 1967. Hardman, a U.S. pilot, was
captured after his plane was shot down. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to
feed
63 This general view shows a
direct hit with North Vietnam 122 mm shell explosion in a U.S. ammunition
bunker of 175 mm cannon emplacements at Gio Linh, next to demilitarization zone
between north and south Vietnam, Sept. 1967, during the Vietnam War. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
64 The address is muddy bunker
and the mailman wears a flak vest as CPL. Jesse D. Hittson of Levelland, Texas,
reaches out for his mail at the U.S. Marine Con Thien outpost two miles south
of the demilitarized zone in South Vietnam on Oct. 4, 1967. (AP Photo/Kim Ki
Sam) Photo by Add this to feed
65 Anti-war demonstrators gather
opposite the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Oct. 21, 1967. In the
background is the Reflecting Pool, the base of the Washington Monument, and
barely visible through the haze is the Capitol Building. (AP Photo) Photo
by Add this to feed
66 Part of a crowd of
pro-Vietnam War demonstrators hold up signs and American flags in support of
U.S. policy in Vietnam in Wakefield, Mass., on Oct. 29, 1967. The demonstration
was organized by 19-year-old Paul P. Christopher, a Wakefield high school
senior who became "burned up" by anti-Vietnam War demonstrators. (AP
Photo/J. Walter Green) Photo by Add this to feed
67 Local members of the
"Hell's Angels" motorcycle club form a human pyramid to wave flag and
lead cheers at rally supporting American men fighting in Vietnam. A crowd
estimated by police at near 25,000 turned out for the rally held this on
October 29, 1967 on Wakefield, Massachusetts, common. (AP Photo/J Walter
Green) Photo by Add this to feed
68 U.S. troops move toward the
crest of Hill 875 at Dak To in November, 1967 after 21 days of fighting, during
which at least 285 Americans were believed killed. The hill in the central
highlands, of little apparent strategic value to the North Vietnamese, was
nevertheless the focus of intense fighting and heavy losses to both sides. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
69 General views of the
destroyed montagnards of Dak son new life Hamlet, December 7, 1967 in Vietnam.
Vietcong killed 114 of the villagers and wounded 47. (AP Photo) Photo by
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70 More than 12,000 U.S. Marines
crowd into an outdoor amphitheater to watch comedian Bob Hope and Phil Crosby
open Hope's USO Christmas Show tour at Da Nang, Vietnam, with Raquel Welch and
singer Barbara McNair, left, Dec. 19, 1967. Crosby, wearing a wig, carries a
"Make Love Not War" sign. (AP Photo)Photo by Add this to feed
71 U.S. Marines pass a Catholic
church as they patrol near Danang, Vietnam, during the Vietnam War in 1968. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
72 Two U.S. military policemen
aid a wounded fellow MP during fighting in the U.S. Embassy compound in Saigon,
Jan. 31, 1968, at the beginning of the Tet Offensive. A Viet Cong suicide squad
seized control of part of the compound and held it for about six hours before
they were killed or captured. (AP Photo/Hong Seong-Chan) Photo by Add this
to feed
73 South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen
Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, fires his pistol into the head of suspected
Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop, on a Saigon street,
early in the Tet Offensive on Feb. 1, 1968. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams) Photo
by Add this to feed
74 President Johnson prepares to
open a news conference February 2, 1968 in the White House Cabinet room. He
told reporters that the military phases of the Communist offensives in Vietnam
had failed. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
75 A large section of rubble is
all that remained in this one block square area of Saigon on Feb. 5, 1968,
after fierce Tet Offensive fighting. Rockets and grenades, combined with fires,
laid waste to the area. An Quang Pagoda, location of Viet Cong headquarters
during the fighting, is at the top of the photo. (AP Photo/Johner) Photo
by Add this to feed
76 First Lt. Gary D. Jackson of
Dayton, Ohio, carries a wounded South Vietnamese Ranger to an ambulance Feb. 6,
1968 after a brief but intense battle with the Viet Cong during the Tet
Offensive near the National Sports Stadium in the Cholon section of Saigon. (AP
Photo/Dang Van Phuoc) Photo by Add this to feed
77 A U.S. Marine shows a message
written on the back of his flack vest at the Khe Sanh combat base in Vietnam on
Feb. 21, 1968 during the Vietnam War. The quote reads, "Caution: Being a
Marine in Khe Sanh may be hazardous to your health." Khe Sanh had been
subject to increased rocket and artillery attacks from the North Vietnamese
troops in the area. (AP Photo/Rick Merron) Photo by Add this to feed
78 American soldiers take
shelter in a sandbagged bunker as North Vietnamese rockets hit the U.S. Marine
base at Khe Sanh on Feb. 24, 1968. (AP Photo/Rick Merron) Photo by Add
this to feed
79 An American C-123 cargo plane
burns after being hit by communist mortars while taxiing on the Marine post at
Khe Sanh, South Vietnam on March 1, 1968. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett) Photo by
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80 U.S. Air Force bombs create a
curtain of flying shrapnel and debris barely 200 feet beyond the perimeter of
South Vietnamese ranger positions defending Khe Sanh during the siege of the
U.S. Marine base, March 1968. The photographer, a South Vietnamese officer, was
badly injured when bombs fell even closer on a subsequent pass by U.S. planes.
(AP Photo/ARVN, Maj. Nguyen Ngoc Hanh) Photo by Add this to feed
81 Riverine assault boats,
Operation of the Riverine Force of the U.S. 9th Division, glide along the My
Tho River, an arm of the Mekong Delta near Dong Tam, 35 miles southwest of
Saigon, Vietnam, March 15, 1968. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
82 Bodies lay in the road
leading from the village of My Lai, South Vietnam, following the massacre of
civilians on March 16,1968. Within four hours, 504 men, women and children were
killed in the My Lai hamlets in one of the U.S. military's blackest days. (AP
photo/FILE/Ronald L. Haeberle, Life Magazine) Photo by Add this to feed
83 Police struggle with anti
Vietnam War demonstrators outside the Embassy of the United States in Grosvenor
Square, London, Mar. 17, 1968. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
84 View of the Anti-Vietnam war
demonstration held in Trafalgar Square, London, on March 17,1968. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
85 U.S. President Lyndon B.
Johnson addresses the nation in a radio and television broadcast from his desk
at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 1968. In his speech the
president talked about plans to de-escalate the war in North Vietnam and his
plans not to run for re-election. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
86 As fellow troopers aid
wounded buddies, a paratrooper of A Company, 101st Airborne, guides a medical
evacuation helicopter through the jungle foliage to pick up casualties during a
five-day patrol of Hue, South Vietnam, in April, 1968. (AP Photo/Art
Greenspon) Photo by Add this to feed
87 Pfc. Juan Fordona of Puerto
Rico, a First Cavalry Division trooper, shakes hands with U.S. Marine Cpl.
James Hellebuick over barbed wire at the perimeter of the Marine base at Khe
Sanh, South Vietnam, early April 1968. The meeting marked the first overland
link-up between troops of the 1st Cavalry and the encircled Marine garrison at
Khe Sanh. (AP Photo/Holloway) Photo by Add this to feed
88 Air Cavalry troops taking
part in Operation Pegasus are shown walking around and watching bombing on a
far hill line on April 14, 1968 at Special Forces Camp at Lang Vei in Vietnam.
(AP Photo/Richard Merron) Photo by Add this to feed
89 Anti-Vietnam war protesters
march down Fifth Avenue near to 81st Street in New York City on April 27, 1968,
in protest of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnamese war. The demonstrators
were en route to nearby Central Park for mass "Stop the war" rally.
(AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
90 Smoke rises from the
southwestern part of Saigon on May 7, 1968 as residents stream across a bridge
leaving the capital to escape heavy fighting between the Viet Cong and South
Vietnamese soldiers. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
91 This is a general view of the
first meeting between the United States delegation, left, and North Vietnam delegation
on the Vietnam peace talks at the international conference hall in Paris, May
13, 1968. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
92 A supply helicopter comes in
for a landing on a hilltop forming part of Fire Support Base 29, west of Dak To
in South Vietnam's central highlands on June 3, 1968. Around the fire base are
burnt out trees caused by heavy air strikes from fighting between North
Vietnamese and American troops. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
93 A helicopter full of Marines
heading out on patrol lifts off the airstrip at the Khe Sanh combat base on
June 27, 1968 in Vietnam. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
94 U.S. 25th Infantry division
troops check the entrance to a Vietcong tunnel complex they discovered on a
sweep northwest of their division headquarters at Cu Chi on Sept. 7, 1968 in
Vietnam. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
95 A South Vietnamese woman
mourns over the body of her husband, found with 47 others in a mass grave near
Hue, Vietnam in April of 1969. (AP Photo/Horst Faas, File) Photo by Add
this to feed
96 At a hilltop firebase west of
Chu Lai in Vietnam, a huge army "Chinook" helicopter prepares to lift
a conked-out smaller one to a base for repairs, April 27, 1969. The firebase
was named LZ West and was manned by the troopers of the 196th Light Infantry
Brigade forming part of the American Division. The smaller helicopter - a Huey
UH-ID - had developed engine trouble so its crew chief called in the local
aerial towing service. One sturdy nylon strap to the chopper's winch and the
two were off. (AP Photo/Oliver Noonan) Photo by Add this to feed
97 A small boy holds his younger
brother and looks at the remains of what was once his village, Tha Son, South
Vietnam, 45 miles Northwest of Saigon, Vietnam on June 15, 1969. He and his
family fled the village when Viet Cong troops infiltrated. Counter-attacking
allied troops used artillery and bombs to push the Viet Cong out. The allies
had told the people to leave their homes before the barrage began. (AP
Photo/Oliver Noonan) Photo by Add this to feed
98 A medic lights a cigarette
for Spec/5 Gary Davies of Scranton, Pa., awaiting evacuation by helicopter from
Ben Het in South Vietnam where he was wounded, June 27, 1969. (AP Photo/Oliver
Noonan) Photo by Add this to feed
99 Banners of appreciation from
the Vietnamese decorate the dock at Danang where a farewell ceremony was held
by the Vietnamese Government for departing Marines of the 1st Battalion/9th
Regiment, July 14, 1969. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
100 Some of the 300 troops of
the 9th Infantry Division scheduled for departure from South Vietnam line up to
board aircraft bound for Hawaii, August 27, 1969. (AP Photo) Photo by Add
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101 Supporters of the Vietnam
moratorium lie in the Sheep Meadow of New York's Central Park Nov. 14, 1969 as
hundreds of black and white balloons float skyward. A spokesman for the
moratorium committee said the black balloons represented Americans who died in
Vietnam under the Nixon administration, and the white balloons symbolized the
number of Americans who would die if the war continued. (AP Photo/J. Spencer
Jones) Photo by Add this to feed
102 Vietnamese soldiers of the
21st Recon Company rush to board waiting Huey choppers in the rice paddies near
their forward command post in South Vietnam on Nov. 14, 1969. The men are to be
transported into the interior of the U-Minh forest, the large marshy and swamp
and forest area at the southern tip of Vietnam, long considered to be a VC
strong-hold. For the previous month, an all Vietnamese operation called
"Operation u-minh" had been attempting to drive the VC and NVA
regulars from the area. It was the second such operation within the year. (AP Photo/Godfrey) Photo
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103 Demonstrators show their
sign of protest as ROTC cadets parade at Ohio State University in May of 1970
during a ceremony in Columbus, Ohio during the Vietnam War. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
104 Mary Ann Vecchio gestures
and screams as she kneels by the body of a student lying face down on the
campus of Kent State University, Kent, Ohio on May 4, 1970. National Guardsmen
had fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four. (AP Photo/John
Filo) Photo by Add this to feed
105 Photographer Larry Burrows,
far left, struggles through elephant grass and the rotorwash of an American
evacuation helicopter as he helps GIs to carry a wounded buddy on a stretcher
from the jungle to the helicopter in Mimot, Cambodia, May 4, 1970. The
evacuation was during the U.S. incursion into Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
(AP Photo/Henri Huet) Photo by Add this to feed
106 American flag-bearing
construction workers, angered by Mayor John Lindsay's apparent anti-war
sympathies, lead hundreds of New York City workers supporting U.S. war policy
in Vietnam in a demonstration inside a barricaded area near Wall Street in
lower Manhattan, May 12, 1970. More than 1,000 police were on the scene to
prevent possible clashes with anti-war student demonstrators, who were among
office workers along the barricades. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
107 With a helmet declaring
"Peace," a soldier of the 1st Cavarly Division, 12th Cavalry, 2nd
Battalion, relaxes June 24, 1970, before pulling out of Fire Support Base
Speer, six miles inside the Cambodian border. The troops were returning to
South Vietnam after operations against enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
108 Vietnam veterans opposed to
the war assemble on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, April 19, 1971, to protest
the U.S. action in Indochina. Addressing the crowd is Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY),
wearing hat. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
109 John Kerry, 27-year-old
former navy lieutenant who heads the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW),
receives support from a gallery of peace demonstrators and tourists as he
testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, D.C.,
April 22, 1971. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin) Photo by Add this to feed
110 South Vietnamese troops move
out on patrol from Firebase Fuller, a hilltop position four miles south of the
demilitarized zone, Vietnam on July 20, 1971. (AP Photo/Jacques
Tonnaire) Photo by Add this to feed
111 A South Vietnamese Marine
carries the dead body of a comrade killed on Route 1, about seven miles south
of Quang Tri Sunday, April 30, 1972. Marines were fighting to reopen the road
in order to break the North Vietnamese siege of the provincial capital. (AP
Photo/Koichiro Morita) Photo by Add this to feed
112 South Vietnamese forces
follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they
run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected
Viet Cong hiding places on June 8, 1972. A South Vietnamese plane accidentally
dropped its flaming napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians. The
terrified girl had ripped off her burning clothes while fleeing. The children
from left to right are: Phan Thanh Tam, younger brother of Kim Phuc, who lost
an eye, Phan Thanh Phouc, youngest brother of Kim Phuc, Kim Phuc, and Kim's
cousins Ho Van Bon, and Ho Thi Ting. Behind them are soldiers of the Vietnam
Army 25th Division. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) Photo by Add this to feed
113 South Vietnamese parents,
with their five children, ride along Highway 13, fleeing southwards from An Loc
toward Saigon on June 19, 1972. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) Photo by Add this to
feed
114 Lightly-wounded civilians
and troops attempt to push their way aboard a South Vietnamese evacuation
helicopter hovering over a stretch of Highway 13 near An Loc in Vietnam on June
25, 1972. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
115 A line of South Vietnamese
troops move along a devastated street in Quang Tri City as the battle continues
for the provincial capital on July 28, 1972. Government forces were the midst
of a campaign to retake the northern South Vietnamese city which was captured
by enemy forces two months earlier. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
116 Then presidential adviser
Dr. Henry Kissinger tells a White House news conference that "peace is at
hand in Vietnam" on Oct. 26, 1972. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to
feed
117 Police in Da Nang cover the
eyes of a woman who was an alleged member of a Viet Cong terrorist unit on Oct.
26, 1972. The woman was captured carrying 15 hand grenades, during the previous
night's battle in Da Nang. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
118 The flag comes down at the
U.S. Army base at Long Binn, 12 miles Northeast of Saigon, as the base is
turned over to the South Vietnamese Army, Nov. 11, 1972. It was at one time the
largest American base in Vietnam with a peak of 60,000 personnel in 1969. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
119 Unaware of incoming enemy
round, a South Vietnamese photographer made this picture of a South Vietnamese
trooper dug in at Hai Van, South of Hue, Nov. 20, 1972. The camera caught the
subsequent explosion before the soldier had time to react. The incident
occurred during one of many continuing small scale fire fights in South
Vietnam, despite talk of a forthcoming ceasefire. (AP Photo) Photo by Add
this to feed
120 President Nixon confers with
Henry A. Kissinger in New York on Nov. 25, 1972, after the presidential adviser
returned from a week of secret negotiations in Paris with North Vietnam's Le
Duc Tho. Documents released Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008, from the Nixon years shed
new light on just how much the Nixon White House struggled with growing public
unrest over the protracted war in Vietnam. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to
feed
121 An American POW talks though
a barred doorport to fellow POWs at a detention camp in Hanoi in 1973. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
122 The four delegations sit at
the table during the first signing ceremony of the agreement to end the Vietnam
War at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, Jan. 27, 1973. Clockwise, from foreground,
delegations of the Unites States, the Provisonal Revolutionary Government of
South Vietnam, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. (AP Photo) Photo by Add
this to feed
123 John S. McCain III is
escorted by Lt. Cmdr. Jay Coupe Jr., public relations officer, March 14, 1973,
to Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport after the POW was released. (AP Photo/Horst
Faas) Photo by Add this to feed
124 Released prisoner of war Lt.
Col. Robert L. Stirm is greeted by his family at Travis Air Force Base in
Fairfield, Calif., as he returns home from the Vietnam War, March 17, 1973. In
the lead is Stirm's daughter Lorrie, 15, followed by son Robert, 14; daughter
Cynthia, 11; wife Loretta and son Roger, 12. (AP Photo/Sal Veder) Photo by
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125 An iron door opens on a
compound of the "Hanoi Hilton" prison, where the French once locked
up political prisoners, shown March 18, 1973. When 33 Americans were freed from
it days earlier, all the cells were empty for the first time in more than eight
years. Journalists were allowed to visit the prison, located in downtown Hanoi
days after it was emptied. (AP Photo/Horst Fass) Photo by Add this to feed
126 A South Vietnamese soldier
rests his eyes at a lonely outpost northeast of Kontum, 270 miles north of
Saigon, March 25, 1974. The hill overlooks a vital North Vietnamese supply road
and is located rear the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in South
Vietnam since the cease fire. The soldiers on the hill say the enemy is
"all around them." (AP Photo/Nick Ut) Photo by Add this to feed
127 Mrs. Evelyn Grubb, of
Colonial Heights, Va., left, follows her husband Wilmers coffin at Arlington
National Cemetery, Thursday, April 4, 1974, Washington, D.C. Col. Grubb's name
was released by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as one of the prisoners of
war who died in captivity. Mrs. Grubb holds the hands of two of her sons, Roy,
7, right, and Stephen, 10. The rest of the group is unidentified. (AP
Photo/Henry Burroughs) Photo by Add this to feed
128 Riot police block path of
hundreds of anti-government demonstrators who sought to parade from suburban
Saigon to the city center on Thursday, Oct. 31, 1974. (AP Photo) Photo by
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129 A woman villager holding a
small rock yells at a South Vietnamese military policeman on Feb. 10, 1975
during a confrontation near Hoa Hao in the Western Mekong Delta in Vietnam.
Villagers had erected barricades along the highway to protest a government
order disbanding the private army of a Buddhist sect in the area. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
130 South Vietnamese troops fill
every available space on a ship evacuating them from Thuan An beach, near Hue,
to Da Nang as Communist troops advanced in March, 1975. (AP
Photo/Cung) Photo by Add this to feed
131 A refugee clutches her baby
as a government helicopter gunship carries them away near Tuy Hoa, 235 miles
northeast of Saigon on March 22, 1975. They were among thousands fleeing from
Communist advances. (AP Photo/ Nick Ut) Photo by Add this to feed
132 Hundreds of vehicles of all
sorts fill an empty area as the refugees fleeing in the vehicles pause near Tuy
Hoa in the central coastal region of South Vietnam, Saturday, March 23, 1975
following the evacuation of Banmethuout and other population centers in the
highlands to the west. (AP Photo/Ut) Photo by Add this to feed
133 Jubilation as a C-141 takes
off from Hanoi on March 28, 1973 heading home. (GNS Photo by Historical Office,
Office of the Secretary of Defense) Photo by Add this to feed
134 A South Vietnamese father
carries his son and a bag of household possessions as he leaves his village
near Trang Bom on Route 1 northwest of Saigon April 23, 1975. The area was
becoming politically and militarily unstable as communist forces advanced, just
days before the fall of Saigon. (AP Photo/KY Mhan)Photo by Add this to feed
135 South Vietnamese troopers
and western TV newsmen run for cover as North Vietnamese mortar round explodes
on Newport Bridge in the outskirts of Saigon on Monday, April 28, 1975. (AP
Photo/Hoanh) Photo by Add this to feed
136 A joint session of South
Vietnam's National Assembly votes on Sunday, April 28, 1975 to ask President
Tran Van Huong to turn over his office to Gen. Duong Van Minh. The assembly
made a move in the 11th hour to attempt to negotiate a settlement with the
Communist forces. (AP Photo/Errington) Photo by Add this to feed
137 U.S. President Gerald Ford
discusses the Vietnam evacuation of Americans by telephone with a senior aide
while Mrs. Betty Ford looks on in the living quarters of the White House in a
picture released by the White House, Tuesday, April 29, 1975 in Washington. (AP
Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
138 Americans and Vietnamese run
for a U.S. Marine helicopter in Saigon during the evacuation of the city, April
29, 1975. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
139 U.S. Navy personnel aboard
the USS Blue Ridge push a helicopter into the sea off the coast of Vietnam in
order to make room for more evacuation flights from Saigon, Tuesday, April 29,
1975. The helicopter had carried Vietnamese fleeing Saigon as North Vietnamese
forces closed in on the capital. (AP Photo/jt)Photo by Add this to feed
140 A North Vietnamese tank
rolls through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, April 30, 1975,
signifying the fall of South Vietnam. (AP Photo) Photo by Add this to feed
141 Evacuees mount a staircase
to board an American helicopter near the American Embasy in Saigon. (Hubert van
Es/AFP/Getty Images) Photo by Add this to feed
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