1975: The Fall of Saigon

The Vietnam War was, and still is, the longest armed conflict in United States history. It waged from 1959 when the North Vietnamese began a campaign against the South, to April 30, 1975, when the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, fell. April 30, 1975 marked the first time that the United States had lost a war. After more than ten years of fighting, it was shown that the United States was no longer the nation it used to be. From the day the United States officially went to war on January 31, 1965, to the day the war ended, the capital city of Saigon played a major role throughout the war. As early as 1963, it was the main supply center and command post for all American operations. Later, it would become the focal point of the Tet Offensive. In January 1968, at the beginning of the Tet holiday season, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched a massive offensive against the Americans, breaking the truce that had always accompanied that time of the year. This was so bad for the Americans, that Congress passed an act that would prevent any more increases in American involvement. This meant that the only way to continue the war at the same pace was to train South Vietnamese and replace Americans with them. In 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed as a treaty between all parties involved with the war. Despite this, fighting continued until 1975, when the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong’s last major offensive, started in 1974, succeeded in capturing the capital of Saigon. After ten years of fighting and protesting back home, the United States had lost. The war had had a major effect on American politics, foreign relations, and culture, evoking deep divisions among the population over the justification for the war. The hippie youth rebellion movements of the sixties and seventies optimized this. The fall of Saigon not only marked the end of