In March, 1973, the last U.S. troops left the war-ravaged nation of South Vietnam. American soldiers had been there since the early 1960s, helping the South Vietnamese government defend itself against Communist rebels and North Vietnamese forces. At the height of the war, in 1968, about 540,000 U.S. soldiers were fighting in Vietnam. But Americans at home disagreed bitterly about the U.S. role there. Some said that the U.S. should fight the spread of Communism. And others said that the U.S. had no right to interfere in a civil war so far from home.A four-year U.S. withdrawal began in 1969. America gradually transferred responsibility for the fighting to South Vietnamese soldiers. The last American soldiers left after the U.S. and North Vienam signed peace accords in January, 1973. But fierce fighting between North and South continued.
North Vietnam launched its sucessful final attack on South Vietnam early in 1975. In Saigon, the capital, American citizens and some frightened South Vietnamese who supported the U.S. made their way to the American embassy. There they crammed into helicopters that flew them to safety. On April 30, Saigon fell to the Communist. And the long, tragic war in Vietnam was over.
More than 58,000 American soldiers were killed or listed as missing in Vietnam.