PHOTOS: A look back at the Vietnam War on the 50th anniversary of U.S. withdrawal (2024)

Spc. Ruediger Richter of Columbus, Ga., 4th Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade, gazes into the smoke of a directional grenade for the arrival of an evacuation helicopter in a jungle clearing on Long Khanh Province, South Vietnam, October 1966. Sgt. Daniel E. Spencer of Bend, Ore., stands by the poncho wrapped body of a dead comrade.

Two infantrymen sprint across the clearing in War Zone D where a U.S. battalion is trapped under automatic weapons fire from surrounding Viet Cong troops, 50 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam, in this June 18, 1967.

South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a Viet Cong officer with a single pistol shot in the head in Saigon, Vietnam on Feb. 1, 1968. The photo, by photojournalist Eddie Adams, became one of the Vietnam's War's most indelible images, winning a Pultizer Prize in 1969.

New recruits arriving at Fort Bragg during the Vietnam War era. [18th Airborne Corps Command Historian Collection]

An unidentified U.S. Army personnel wears a hand lettered "War Is Hell" slogan on his helmet, June 18, 1965, during the Vietnam War. He was with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Battalion on defense duty at Phouc Vinh airstrip in South Vietnam.

A cross dangling from her neck, a 12-year-old girl with multiple wounds uses a stick to hobble through battle debris to an evacuation helicopter in South Vietnam, June 19, 1965. The girl's father, sister and a brother were killed, and their home was destroyed, during combat operations. She was claimed at a Saigon hospital by her mother and two surviving brothers.

Troops of the U.S. 173rd airborne brigade dash for cover after helicopter landing in the Viet Cong infested D-zone stronghold 20 miles Northeast of Saigon, Vietnam on May 4, 1966. Loaded down with ammo belts and holding machine gun under one arm, trooper has to use other hand to hang on to his helmet in the dash for cover. These men are from the 2nd battalion, 503rd infantry of the brigade. They have left their blood in many parts of Viet Nam and are the true veterans of the U.S. troops. They are confident and swaggering but have learned to respect the hard-bitten, ill dressed Viet Cong guerillas.

A squad leader urges his men with a rifle as they speed toward Viet Cong positions in the jungles of Warzone C, South Vietnam, in March 1967. The area was saturated with U.S. artillery fire and bombs from air strikes before troopers of the 173rd Airborne brigade moved into eastern section of zone, 60 miles northwest of Saigon.

U.S. Paratroopers dash from helicopters in the jungle clearing in War Zone C during an assault on suspected Viet Cong positions about 65 miles northwest of Saigon in South Vietnam as part of Operation Junction City during the Vietnam War on March 8, 1967. These men are to secure the jungle clearing by occupying the tree line around it to make the landing of the rest of the 1st Battalion 173rd Airborne Brigade safe. Smoke from artillery rounds that prepared the landing zone still hovers in the air.

Armored Personnel Carriers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade rumble along in a tanks as they move through Vietnam's War Zone C to a new area of operations, March 9, 1967, during the Vietnam War. The troops, part of the massive search and destroy mission Operation Junction City, were swinging outside the horseshoe-shape that originally defined the operation area to expand their search for the Viet Cong.

A company of the 2nd batt./173rd airborne brigade was attacked on June 22 at 0700, just as platoons moved out for day patrols from the jungle at bivouac 2 miles from Dak To. Fighting at very close range the North Vietnamese managed to disperse and disorganize the company soon. Four officers were killed, when the fight slackened off at 1400 and evacuation of the dead and wounded began evacuation helicopters met heavy ground fire, no landing zones could be found and hoists had to be used. 12 wounded and 6 dead were evacuated, by nightfall the remnants of the company were brought out - 42 of them. Some 80 soldiers were left behind as missing. Rescue operations to find the missing began only next day. The action was not announced by MACV headquarters up to 48 hours after the battle. Here a dead paratrooper is hustled to an evacuation helicopter Dak To is 310 miles NNE of Saigon, Vietnam on June 24, 1967.

A U.S. trooper of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, bleeding from a slight head wound and with other wounds swathed in bandages, limps along with other walking wounded through the jungle to an evacuation point near Dak To, Vietnam on Nov. 15, 1967 during the Vietnam War.

Soldiers of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade crouch in a jungle clearing after a rocket landed close by in a battlefield eleven miles south of Dak To, Vietnam on Nov. 18, 1967 during the Vietnam War.

Graves registration trooper of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade checks the dog tags of victims of battle for hill 875 south of Dak To, Vietnam on Nov. 23, 1967 during the Vietnam War.

At a memorial service held at Fire Support Base 12 in Vietnam Central Highlands, Nov. 25, 1967, five rows of empty boots represent the 99 men who died in the battle for Dak To. Most the dead belonged to the 173rd Airborne Brigade's 2nd Battalion.

A U.S. soldier, carrying a portrait of himself and his girlfriend, walks across the Phu Bai Air Base, June 27, 1972, as he starts his trip back to the United States. Most of his unit, the 196th Brigade, is being returned to the U.S.

Weighted down with ammunition and other gear a trooper of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade leans against a battered tree wiping the dust of battle from his eyes after the battle of Hill 875 came to an end during the week of Nov. 19, 1967. The Americans fought entrenched North Vietnamese troops for four days before taking the crest of the hill located near Dak To, South Vietnam, Nov. 23, 1967.

The furious clangor of battle stilled, a weary U.S. paratrooper of the 173rd airborne brigade sits in the stillness with head in his hands after an intense firefight between his company and entrenched Viet Cong guerrillas in the Vietnam Jungle on March 1, 1966. His weapon rests on bullet shattered underbrush. Casualties in that U.S. unit were heavy on February 27.

George Pappas hold his .45 pistol in one hand and flashlight in the other as he crawls from a Vietcong tunnel in Vietnam on April 18, 1966. Paratroopers of the 1st Batt. 173rd Airborne Brigade searched through hilly jungle 60 miles north of Saigon near the Cambodian border and came across several Vietcong hideouts. Most of them were under tunneled and well fortified with bunkers and air raid shelters. Pappas serves in B Company, 1st Batt. 173rd AB Brigade.

Weary paratrooper of the U.S. 173rd airborne brigade sits on his duffel bag awaiting the airlift to carry him and his mates from a field near Song Be in South Vietnam back to base at Bien Hoa, Vietnam on May 3, 1966. A large element of paratroopers moved to song be the week of April 24, about 60 miles north of Saigon, in search of Viet Cong. Contact with the enemy, however, was light.

A grizzled and muddied paratrooper awaits the command to move out in jungle operation of ÒCÓ company, 2nd battalion, 173rd airborne brigade in Vietnam on July 14, 1966.

Members of the 2nd Battalion, 173rd U.S. Airborne Brigade lower an inflated rubber boat complete with footboard motor, down a steep bank into the swift Song Be River in South VietnamÕs D Zone on Sept. 25, 1966, for a combat assault crossing. The paratroopers slide down a rope into the boat during Operation Sioux City. Boats and troops were flown in by helicopter. The paratroopers crossed into an area where no chopper landing could be found in the dense jungle.

ÔFloatÕ on the shoulders of paratrooper Ð engineers through high elephant grass towards the Song Be river in D zone for a assault crossing into thick jungle some 30 miles north west of Saigon, Vietnam on Sept. 30, 1966. A company of the 2nd Batt/ 173rd airborne brigade crossed the 150 wide fast flowing river in these boats under cover of machine gun fire and air strikes. Troops and boats were landed minutes earlier on this side of the Song Be River by helicopters. The 173rd airborne brigade is conducting operation Sioux City in the D zone jungles some 30 miles north west of Saigon.

American troops walk alongside well-traveled road through D-Zone used by Viet Cong trucks and large oxcarts to transport food, rice, equipment and men to their D-Zone strongholds from Cambodia and other supply points in Saigon, Vietnam on Sept. 30, 1966. Troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade (Alpha Company, 2nd Battn.) assaulted the area 30 miles n.n.e. of Saigon by helicopters and rubber boats to discover the network of roads, trails, service stations and river crossing stations. Some had been used no more than two days earlier and had been built within the last three months. Aerial spotters first note the D-Zone traffic and have directed air strikes and artillery against the trails.

Paratroopers jump off rubber rafts in a combat crossing of the Song Be River in D Zone, some 30 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam on Sept. 30, 1966. The 173rd Airborne Brigade began Operation Sioux City with several helicopter assaults. Boats followed the troops and an hour later a company of the 2nd Battalion/173rd Airborne Brigade headed north across the 150 feet wide, fast flowing river, in rubber boats with outboard engines under cover of machine guns and air strikes.

Paratroopers of the 173rd U.S. airborne brigade make their way across the Song Be River in South Vietnam en route to the jungle on the North Bank and into operation Sioux City in the D Zone on Oct. 4, 1966. Troopers and equipment were flown in by helicopter to the central highlands area, but the choppers couldnÕt land in the D zone jungles. The operation began late in the week of September 25.

Paratroopers of the 173rd airborne brigade slosh through mud caused by the monsoon season as they cross a jungle clearing in D zone, some 80 miles North Northeast of Saigon, Vietnam on Oct. 7, 1966. The paratroopers on operation Sioux City were following touch tracks made by Viet Cong trucks as they moved surprise from the Cambodian border into the D zone.

Paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade slosh through mud and a monsoon downpour across a jungle clearing in D zone, some 30 miles north northeast of Saigon, Vietnam on Oct. 7, 1966. The paratroopers on operation Sioux City, were following tracks of the Viet Cong along which the enemy moved supplies from the Cambodian border into D zone.

American GI uses muzzle of a 105-mm howitzer for an in-the-field shower while on operation Junction City in VietnamÕs war zone C on Feb. 16, 1967. The trooper of the 173rd airborne brigade is using an Australian water bag fitted with a shower nozzle.

Ammunition and other supplies needed by troops of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade are strung beneath parachutes that are dropped in War Zone C near the Cambodian border on Feb. 25, 1967. The unit is part of Operation Junction City, a U.S. assault on a Viet Cong stronghold located some 70 miles northwest of Saigon, Vietnam.

A paratrooper - motorman of the 173rd airborne brigade pulls his shirt over his head and cowers on the ground under his 81 mm tube as a helicopter sits down in a C zone jungle clearing to deliver some mortar ammunition in Vietnam in March 1967. The jungle clearing, overnight base for the mortars of a paratrooper battalion, had to be cut out with machetes and when the helicopter landed it swirled up dust, branches and wood splinters. The 1st Battalion of the 173rd U.S. airborne brigade operates in war zone C on operation Junction City.

Phase one of operation junction city, the war’s biggest operation so far, has not produced much-but the troops keep trying. All three battalions of the 173rd U.S. airborne brigade made new helicopter assaults to the east of their first operational area and began phase II of ?junction city. Here the paratroopers of 1st battalion, 173rd airborne brigade, are landed and head for the jungles of C zone to begin another search for the elusive units of the 9th Vietcong division. The assault took place some 65 miles northwest of Saigon, Vietnam, March 9, 1967.

U.S. paratrooper, foreground, throws himself to the ground after dashing from helicopter during Operation Junction City in Vietnam’s war zone C on March 14, 1967. In background, other GIs run from another helicopter whose rotor blades swirl up ashes and dust from the burned but grassy landing zone. These troops of the U.S. 173rd airborne brigade were landed under protective heavy air bombardment, artillery, and machine gun fire from assault helicopters. They were to secure the clearing for other units to fly in the week of March 5.

Chaplain Charles Watters of New Jersey holds Easter services in a jungle clearing in war zone C, March 26, 1967, in Vietnam. The paratroopers are from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and services were held just two hours prior to a helicopter assault in a new sector of war zone C.

Firing bursts from their weapons troops of the 2nd Battalion, 173rd U.S. airborne brigade advance toward suspected Viet Cong positions through jungles clouded over with smoke and dust from an earlier artillery barrage in Vietnam on March 31, 1967. Operation was week of March 26 and was second phase of operation Junction City in war zone C., in South Vietnam.

Even heavy equipment is as mobile in Vietnam as the helicopter borne soldier. When the 173rd airborne brigade moved from Pleiku north into the area of Dakota (300 miles NNE of Saigon) they carried their heavy floating pontoon bridges on trucks as long as the road permitted in Vietnam on June 20, 1967. Then a bridge was blown and the bridge was needed up front to keep the convoy moving. A Chinook helicopter picked the bridge up in a sling load.

Crew of 81mm mortar coordinate commands hold their ears and recoil from the blast of the round shooting towards the jungle in support of a force of 173rd Airborne Brigade troops in Vietnam in July 1967. The troops were searching an area near the Laotian Border, about 310 miles north of Saigon, where strong forces of North Vietnamese regulars have been operating.

The 105mm Howitzer manned by these U.S. troops must fight rust as well as the Viet Cong in the central highlands of South Vietnam on August 8, 1967. Monsoon rains are turning bases into bogs where rice, not soldiers, can thrive. This position is on the 173rd airborne brigade’s base at Dak to, near the Laotian border.

Paratroopers of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade carry poncho-covered body of a buddy to a clearing for evacuation during savage fighting for Hill 875 in Vietnam on Nov. 22, 1967.

Paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade stare grimly ahead as they file past bodies stacked up on edge of helicopter landing zone on Hill 875 in Vietnam on Nov. 22, 1967. The troops were setting out to establish a new defense perimeter around the landing zone; a clearing hacked out of the Vietnamese jungle. The U.S. troops took heavy losses from the enemy, which was well protected in ridge line bunkers. The battlefield is in the remote western sector of the Dak To region near the Laos-Cambodia border.

Paratrooper of the 173rd airborne totes weapon during advance to crest of hill 875 and passes the poncho-covered body of a soldier killed in fight up the slope in South Vietnam on Nov. 23, 1967. The U.S. paratroop who made four attacks on the hill, capture it. November 23.

Artillerymen of the 173rd US Airborne Brigade adjust their 105 artillery for a fire mission conducted from a ridge in the foothills of Binh Ding against observed North Vietnamese infiltrators in a valley leading toward the An Lao valley, which spills into the Bon Son plains in Vietnam on Dec. 17, 1969. North Vietnamese regulars try to interfere with Allied pacification progress in the populated lowlands. From a defense belt between the population centers and the jungled mountains US and Vietnamese regulars try to block the enemy.

A platoon sergeant and a radiotelephone operator of the U.S. 173rd airborne brigade peer into thick bamboo jungle atop a hill in midst of fighting near Dak in South Vietnam’s central highlands on Nov. 16, 1967.

U.S. paratroopers dash across clearing to helicopters that will lift them out of this section of jungle in War Zone C in Vietnam in March 1967 and drop them in another to continue their pursuit of the Viet Cong along the Cambodian border. Troops clutching helmets and grimacing are being swept by gritty dust whipped up by the helicopter rotor blades. Blunt –nosed, fat barrel weapons carried by some are M79 grenade launchers. Troops are of (4th Battn) 173rd Airborne Brigade, about 65 miles North West of Saigon.

U.S. paratroopers dash across clearing to helicopters that will lift them out of this section of jungle in War Zone C in Vietnam in March 1967 and drop them in another to continue their pursuit of the Viet Cong along the Cambodian border. Troops clutching helmets and grimacing are being swept by gritty dust whipped up by the helicopter rotor blades. Blunt –nosed, fat barrel weapons carried by some are M79 grenade launchers. Troops are of (4th Battn) 173rd Airborne Brigade, about 65 miles North West of Saigon.

Sitting cross-legged like the Buddha statue above him, Spec. 4 Mark L. Caywood of Bakersfield, Calif., heats his can of C-rations in the ruins of a Vietnamese pagoda near Xuan Loc, in the jungles 35 miles east of Saigon, South Vietnam, Sept. 1966. Caywood and other members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade battalion, moved into the area by helicopter to try to trap the Viet Cong. The enemy had fled before the paratroopers arrived.

In this 1966 file photo, Berlin-born paratrooper Ruediger Richter patrols in the jungle northeast of what is now called Ho Chi Minh City as a member of the U.S. Army’s 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade. As a boy, Richter saw bodies in the streets of Hitler’s Germany, where he spent his childhood. He then became a professional killer, first as a member of the French Foreign Legion and later as a member of the U.S. Army. A gunshot through the head ended his Vietnam combat service in 1967, leaving him with a shattered face and a heart hollowed out by anger and addictions. He has since found his peace living in the rural Southern United States near Columbus, Georgia.

Working from the northernmost outpost along the Demilitarized Zone, about a mile south of the DMZ in South Vietnam, a U.S. Marine sniper team fires on Viet Cong positions, June 27, 1968. One man uses a set of binoculars, while the sniper sights through a powerful telescopic site on his rifle. Both receive credit for each kill. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)

A field phone operator with the U.S. 173rd Airborne brigade rests while he can but remains ready for calls with three handsets close at hand and loudspeaker at his elbow on the crest of Hill 875 near Dak To, South Vietnam, Nov. 23, 1967. He lies behind bunker on ground littered with splintered trees caused by U.S. artillery and aerial bombardment, after the four-day battle for the hill ended.

A young paratrooper with a mud-smeared face stares into the jungle after an early morning fire fight with Viet Cong patrol somewhere in Vietnam, July 14, 1966. He is a member of "C" company, 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade.

An American paratrooper, burdened with equipment, walks through water-logged reeds in the pouring rain during a search operation, about 15 miles northwest of Saigon in Vietnam on Sept. 27, 1969. He is a member of the 82nd airborne division, which will be withdrawn from Vietnam according to President Nixon’s latest plans.

Scores of American GIs reach up to shake the hand and get his autograph after evangelist Billy Graham spoke to some 5,000 combat soldiers at the long Binh headquarters of field force II north of Saigon in South Vietnam, Dec. 22, 1966.

Machine gun at the ready, a paratrooper of the 82nd Airborne Division advances cautiously near Hue, South Vietnam on April 3, 1968.

Looking as if they were scudding over grass save for a telltale ridge of spray, American paratroopers in the 82nd division ride their flat-bottomed boat through a swampy area, about 10 miles northwest of Saigon, South Vietnam on Oct. 3, 1969. The men are looking for enemy soldiers and arm caches.

A Green Beret soldier clutches his M-16 rifle as his wife clutches him, just after some 102 members of a Green Beret commando raiding party returned to Ft. Bragg, Carolina on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1970. The raiding party went into North Vietnam in an unsuccessful attempt to free American prisoners of war.

Sgt. Robert M. Patterson rides in a parade rounding Market Square in downtown Fayetteville in 1969. Patterson, who won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam, is from Massey Hill.

Evangelist Billy Graham speaks a crowd of more than 5,000 U.S. troops at Long Binh, Vietnam, December 23, 1966.

Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division inspect ammunition uncovered in a cache in the "Iron Triangle" in Phu Loi, Vietnam.

Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division recon an area in Phu Loi, Vietnam. [Spc. Robert Schoenecker/U.S. Army]

Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division medivac a wounded man at Camp Rodriguez in Vietnam.

President Johnson talks to American Troops at Cam Ranh Bay, during the Vietnam war in this Oct. 26, 1966. Behind Johnson, left to right, are Gen. William Westmoreland, Commander of the U.S. troops in Vietnam, Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, Vietnamese Chief of State, Premier Nguyen Cao Ky of Vietnam, and U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The final decision to go was made the day before in secret with urging by Gen. Westmoreland.

A trooper of the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, carries an M-60 machine gun as he moves out on patrol during the Vietnam War.

In this May 1966 file photo, U.S. Air Force planes spray the defoliant chemical Agent Orange over dense vegetation in South Vietnam in this 1966 photo. Because of concerns about Agent Orange, more than one-quarter of the 1 million Vietnam veterans receiving disability checks are getting compensation for diabetes and other common ailments of age, with erectile dysfunction among them, according to millions of VA claims records obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act.

3 August 1969. Box Bridge defensive position, located approx. 11 km NE of Saigon. A member of Hq. Sec., "B" Troop, 1/17th Cav, 82nd Abn. Div. sits next to a "Think Safety" sign, an ironic notion considering this is a war zone.

3 August 1969. Box Bridge, approx. 11 km NE of Saigon. After pulling all night guard duty, a member of Hq Sec., "B" Troop, 1/17th Cav., 82nd Abn. Div. sleeps. Note bridge and sandbagged positions in background. South Vietnamese soldier guard the bridge during the day.

The 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam in 1969 during the Vietnam War.

A trooper of the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam looks over a captured Viet Cong cache sapper unit 12 miles northeast of Siagon during the Vietnam War.

The 82nd Airborne Division found another effective tool against the Viet Cong complexes during the Vietnam War. The bulldozer, complete with a protective housing and armament has been very successful in crushing tunnel complexes in the "Iron Triangle.Ó

Paratroopers of the 1/505 Inf. Bn. of the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam negotiate the roadway leaving their firehouse during part of the Vietnam War.

At a hilltop firebase west of Chu Lai in Vietnam, a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter prepares to life a disabled small one to a base for repairs April 27, 1969. The firebase was named LZ West and was manned by the 196th Light Infantry Brigade forming part of the American Division. The small helicopter -- a Huey HU-ID -- had developed engine trouble.

A medic lights a cigarette for Spc. 5 Gary Davies of Scranton, Pa., who was awaiting evacuation by helicopter from Ben Het in South Vietnam, where he was wounded June 27, 1969.

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. More than 900 will leave with all U.S. troops out by Thursday. As the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam 40 years ago, angry protesters still awaited them at home. North Vietnamese soldiers took heart from their foes' departure, and South Vietnamese who had helped the Americans feared for the future. While the fall of Saigon two years later Ñ with its indelible images of frantic helicopter evacuations Ñ is remembered as the final day of the Vietnam War, Friday marks an anniversary that holds greater meaning for many who fought, protested or otherwise lived it.