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Vietnam War

50 years since US combat troops pulled out of South Vietnam: Look back in photos

Camille Fine
USA TODAY

Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of combat troops departing South Vietnam, the beginning of the end of the United States' direct military involvement in the unpopular war. 

Two months prior, representatives of the U.S North and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement, which included key provisions such as the withdrawal of U.S. troops,  a cease-fire throughout Vietnam, the release of prisoners of war, and the peaceful reunification of North and South Vietnam, once new elections were held. 

Military advisers to the South Vietnamese Army, Marines protecting U.S. installations and thousands of Defense Department civilians remained. 

Despite the peace agreement, North Vietnam military officials violated the cease-fire and resumed a full-scale war by 1974. Saigon surrendered to communist forces on April 30, 1975 – one day after the iconic photo was taken of an American helicopter helping people escape off the roof of a CIA safe house.

The following year, South Vietnam was officially united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

A bon voyage banner stretches overhead in Da Nang, South Vietnam, as soldiers march down a street following a farewell ceremony for some of the last U.S. troops in the country's northern military region, March 26, 1973.
In this March 27, 1973 photo, surrounded by luggage of other departing GIs, U.S. Air Force airman reads paperback novel as he waits to begin processing at Camp Alpha on Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon as troop withdrawals resume after 10 day-delay.
North Vietnamese Lt. Col. Bui Tin, center, waves as he bids farewell to the last U.S. troops to leave Saigon, South Vietnam, with the final withdrawal of American forces, March 29, 1973.
In this Thursday, March 30, 1973 photo, As the last 55 troops to leave Vietnam debarked their Air Force C-141 at Travis Air Force Base.
A Viet Cong observer of the Four Party Joint Military Commission counts U.S. troops as they prepare to board jet aircraft at Saigonís Tan Son Nhut airport, March 28, 1973.
U.S. soldiers are shown as they as they get ready to leave Saigon for the U.S., March 29, 1973.
Marine Wives at Camp Pendleton, California wait for prisoners of war to return on February 12, 1973.

In total, nearly 60,000 Americans and 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters were killed in the war, which also claimed the lives of as many as 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and more than 2 million civilians.

'The book from the enemy':A lifetime after Vietnam, U.S. veteran delivers a diary to its home

How did the war begin?

After two decades of indirect military aid against the communist North, President John F. Kennedy sent the first large force of U.S. military personnel in 1961 in support of South Vietnam.

This photograph shows President John F. Kennedy standing at a lectern in the State Department auditorium in Washington, DC. A map of Laos on the left reads "Communist Rebel Areas, 22 March 1961."
Napalm bombs explode on Viet Cong structures south of Saigon in the Republic of Vietnam in1965
Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade land at Da Nang in early 1965 for Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam that marked the first American ground troops in Vietnam.

A pivotal moment in the 30-year struggle for control over Vietnam happened in 1965, when the first American combat troops entered Vietnam. At the same time, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched a three-year bombing campaign in North Vietnam. By 1967, President Johnson’s administration increased U.S. troops in Vietnam to 500,000, all while anti-war demonstrators began to protest in major cities nationwide. 

Nixon's gradual withdrawal

A U.S. Marine with rifle, American flag on his pack and an inscription " Goodbye Vietnam " on his helmet, boards an Okinawa-bound transport plane at Quang Tri, South Vietnam, July 10, 1969.  He was one of 120 men of the 9th Marine Regiment which left Vietnam, and the first Marine contingent to be withdrawn from the war-torn country.

Republican Richard Nixon won the U.S. presidential election in November 1968 on the campaign promise to end the draft. 

U.S. troops peaked at about 549,000 men in 1969. Domestic tensions continued to escalate, the most notable incident being the Kent State shooting in 1970, where U.S. National Guardsmen shot and killed four anti-war demonstrators and injured nine others in Ohio. 

From 1969 until 1972, the Nixon administration gradually withdrew U.S. forces in South Vietnam, while simultaneously intensifying bombing and attempting to block enemy supply routes along Vietnam’s borders. President Nixon initiated a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam in 1972.

Students form a human chain to hold back the crowd and clear the way for rescue workers helping one of the shooting victims May 4, 1970, at Kent State University.
On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students.
A Vietnamese newsboy sells newspapers in Saigon with the headline announcing the U.S. troop withdrawals hours before Pres. Nixon was slated to formally announce the withdrawals, Sept. 16, 1969.

On Jan. 27, 1973, the same day that the peace agreement was signed in Paris, The Selective Service announced the end to the draft. In the following few months, 591 American prisoners of war in North Vietnam returned to the U.S.

Later that year, Congress overrode Nixon’s veto to pass the War Powers Act, a law stating that the president is required to consult with Congress before committing U.S. forces abroad.

Former American prisoners of war cheer as their aircraft takes off from an airfield near Hanoi as part of Operation Homecoming.
Capt. Jeremiah Denton Jr., USN, is hugged by his wife Jane and children after he arrived at the Norfolk Naval Air Station, Va., Feb. 15, 1973. Capt. Denton was shot down the night of July 18, 1965, during Operation Rolling Thunder, the first phase of the bombing of North Vietnam.
John McCain, a naval aviator, and other prisoners on March 14, 1973 after being released. McCain was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese while flying a bombing mission on October 26, 1967, during the Vietnam War.

More coverage from USA TODAY

Camille Fine is a trending visual producer on USA TODAY's NOW team. 

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