Washington, D.C. (May 8, 2025): In this photo by Army Sergeant Justin Rachal, service members assigned to the Joint Armed Forces Color Guard conduct a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Unlike any other American conflict, Vietnam War veterans came home to an ungrateful nation. In the years since, America has come to grips with this unpopular conflict and the those that fought there.

The Vietnam War lasted ten years, from 1955 to 1975, which pitted the United States and its South Vietnamese allies against the Communist North Vietnamese who were backed by China. The war resulted in the deaths of over three million people, including nearly 60,000 Americans.

The roots of the conflict can be found in the Cold War, a period of intense geopolitical tension between western democracies and communist regimes. After the end of the French Indochina War, Vietnam was split in two with the communists occupying the north and a democratic regime in the south. American support for the south began in the 1950s and gradually escalated. On March 8, 1965, then President Lyndon Johnson sent 3,500 U.S. Marines to Da Nang and over 500,000 Americans would eventually serve in the conflict. As the war dragged on, a virulent anti-war movement emerged among the American public that peaked in 1968.

Vietnam veterans came home to a changed nation and many of them experienced unfair criticism for simply having done their duty. After fifty years, Americans no longer blame the warrior for unpopular conflicts.