How TIME Has Covered the 50 Years Since the Vietnam War

How TIME Has Covered the 50 Years Since the Vietnam War

April 30 marks half a century since the official end of the Vietnam War, which killed more than three million Vietnamese and 60,000 American servicemembers over two bloody decades of fighting—and which has left a lasting impression on both nations ever since. TIME (and its then-sister publication LIFE) covered the 20 years of conflict with a range of groundbreaking reporting and photojournalism, documenting everything from the politics and prote…

The Vietnam War Is Still Killing People, 50 Years Later

When a tank crashed through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon 50 years ago today, the Potemkin state of South Vietnam collapsed, and the Vietnamese war of independence, fought in its final phase against the overwhelming military might of the United States, came to a close. America lost its war, but Vietnam was devastated. “Sideshow” wars in Cambodia and Laos left those countries equally ravaged. The United States unleashed an estima…

50 years ago, North Vietnamese troops conquered the South Vietnamese capital Saigon. The population still suffers from the late aftermath of the war.

On April 30, 1975 North Vietnamese tanks roll capitulated by Saigon, South Vietnam: The Vietnam War is over, the trauma caused by it is still noticeable today.

Today marks 50 years since tanks from North Vietnam entered Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). The capital of South Vietnam fell, just hours after the last Americans had fled in haste. The Vietnam War was over, after 20 years of fighting that began as a colonial conflict. The consequences are still felt today.

Exactly today, 50 years ago, the Vietnam War ended. Millions of people died in this 20-year war. Today, the state recalled its end of 1975, including a large military parade. We are talking about it with our correspondent Jennifer Johnston.