Saigon falls, the United States withdraws, and the country reunifies. For the next several decades, Vietnam will have to deal with the political and social divisions caused by the war, while the rest of the world broadcasts a one-sided story. Today, these divisions remain, and a peace beyond the end of the conflict still seems a distant goal.

April 30, 1975, marks an indelible date in Vietnamese history: a North Vietnamese tank smashed through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, capital of South Vietnam, decreeing its fall and marking the reunification of the country under a single government led by Tôn Đức Thắng. Images of U.S. helicopters evacuating diplomats and refugees from the roof of the U.S. Embassy, broadcast on televisions around the world, became a global symbol of the failure of U.S. policy in Southeast Asia.