The U.S. involvement in Vietnam began due to a combination of factors. Primarily there was domestic pressure to act against the spread of communism; and, Stalin and Mao’s offer to support the Viet Minh guerrillas fight against France’s colonial rule which changed the battlefield dynamic and geopolitical character from and independence struggle to part of the Cold War.

In 1969, at its peak, 550,000 American military personnel were based in Vietnam. The loss of life on both sides was staggering – over 50,000 American personnel; two-million Vietnamese civilians and one-million Vietnamese fighters never returned home.

The war featured in the terms of four American presidents, starting with Kennedy, Johnson,  and Nixon. It was U.S. President Gerald Ford who ordered all American military forces and civilian organizations to leave Vietnam under an evacuation code-named Operation Frequent Wind.

On April 30, 1975, the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam fled Saigon ending 25 years of the American direct intervention in the country.

Mike reviewing the U.S. military hardware at the war museum in Ho Chi Minh City.