The Vietnam War is among the most complex conflicts in world history.
The war ended in 1975 when South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam, but the effects of the conflict continue to reverberate today, nearly half a century later.
According to the Congressional Research Service, “Congress considers the Vietnam Era to be ‘the period beginning on Feb. 28, 1961 and ending on May 7, 1975 … in the case of a veteran who served in the Republic of Vietnam during that period,’ and ‘beginning on Aug. 5, 1964 and ending on May 7, 1975 … in all other cases.’” Ultimately more than 2.5 million American troops would serve in South Vietnam alone. Since President Barack Obama signed a proclamation in 2012, Americans have commemorated the sacrifices its military personnel made during the war by celebrating Vietnam Veterans Day on March 29.
The holiday would be signed into law in 2017 by President Donald Trump.
The date is significant because the last U.S. troops left South Vietnam on March 29, 1973. One way to let Vietnam veterans know those sacrifices have not been forgotten is to learn about the war. Such knowledge can inspire a greater appreciation of the cost of the war on the service members who fought it.
•Though President Johnson ordered combat troops into Vietnam in 1965, the conflict between North and South Vietnam began much earlier than that. North Vietnamese fighters began helping South Vietnamese rebels in 1954, marking a start to the conflict.
•American involvement in combat began even before President Johnson sent troops to Vietnam in 1965. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. combat involvement is now recognized to have begun on January 12, 1962, which marks the launch of Operation Chopper. That operation required U.S. Army pilots to airlift more than 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers to an area west of Saigon to capture a territory that was being held by communist fighters.
•More than 58,000 American military personnel lost their lives as a result of the Vietnam War.
•Data from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency indicates that, as of April 2021, 1,584 Americans lost in the Vietnam War remain unaccounted for. The vast majority of unaccounted military personnel were lost in Vietnam, though hundreds were lost while serving in Laos, Cambodia and China.
•The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam peaked in April 1969. By that point, the U.S. government had deployed 543,000 troops to Vietnam.
