Costly legacy of Vietnam War continues 40 years later
A ugust 15, 2013, marked the 40 th anniversary of the final bombing mission that the United States conducted during the Vietnam War. Although the Vietnam War officially concluded on April 30, 1975, the legacy of the bitter conflict continues to the present-day. On April 30, 1975 the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) seized control of Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital. This event brought a thirty-year struggle to unite the country to a conclusion. American military/political involvement in the war lasted from 1954 – 1975. At the time, the Vietnam War was the longest conflict in American history. It cost the U.S. $150 billion to fight the war. Also known as the Second Indochina War, the conflict resulted in the deaths of about 1 million North Vietnamese/NLF troops and ¼ of a million South Vietnamese troops. Over 58,000 U.S. service members died in the conflict. The Vietnam War presented several unique occurrences in the history of warfare. The Vietnam War was an u