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April 30, 1975 -- Communist troops overrun the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. In the chaotic frenzy of fleeing refugees and deadly enemy gunfire, U.S. Marines coordinate the evacuation of embassy personnel. As the last military helicopter clears the rooftops, the final chapter on America's struggle in a decade-long war comes to a close.



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Vietnam Video Collection




The final days of South Vietnam's Saigon were chaotic, brutal, bloody and sad. Communist troops streamed down from the north, toppling cities like dominoes at the end of April. Their glorious target: Saigon. On April 30, 1975 U.S. Marines coordinate the final evacuation of embassy personnel and thousands of desperate refugees hoping to flee from the advancing North Vietnamese army.













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href="190311.story">Hurt And Healing Over Vietnam

Twenty-five years to the day after the fall of Saigon, veterans and civilians alike remembered the end of the war that, more than any other, divided America.









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face="arial, helvetica" size=1>CBS
 
href="189348.story">Vietnam Marks War's End

In Vietnam, celebration of the fall of Saigon reflected both how far the country has come since then, but also how far it has yet to go. In a governmental gesture of forgiveness, some 12,000 prisoneers were granted amnesty.









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href="190318.story">War Orphans Visit Vietnam

CBS News arranged for a group of Vietnamese orphans, now grown up and living in the U.S., to visit Vietnam and record their impressions. Their responses are mixed, but all seem to feel their real home is America now.









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face="arial, helvetica" size=1>CBS
 
href="189992.story">The Homecoming That Wasn't

Company D's reservists went on 947 missions, killed at least 100 enemy soldiers and won 538 medals. But as Rita Braver writes, these Vietnam War soldiers were not ready for what awaited them back in America.









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face="arial, helvetica" size=1>CBS
 
href="189398.story">Cycling Back To His Heritage

He was just 9 years old in the terrifying days of Saigon's fall. With his family, he found haven in the United States. But he had to go back to Vietnam before he could discover what really is home.








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href="190147.story"> Cronkite Remembers

Walter Cronkite, who covered the war in Vietnam from overseas and the CBS News anchor chair, recalls April 29, 1975 and reflects on the lessons of the war.









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face="arial, helvetica" size=1>AP
 
href="189880.story"> Poll: U.S. Still Divided On Vietnam

Twenty-five years after the fall of Saigon, most Americans still feel that their country's involvement in the Vietnam War was a bad idea, according to a CBS News/New York Times Poll.














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href="189736.story">Ghosts Talking To Ghosts

CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather reflects on his time as a reporter covering the Vietnam War. He shares his fears, ambitions and growth as a journalist during a turbulent time in a strange land.
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face="arial, helvetica" size=1>AP
 
href="188308.story">Vietnam Attacks McCain

The Vietnamese govenrnment is blasting U.S. Sen. John McCain for his comments that the wrong side won the Vietnam War. The senator is touring the country where he was held as a POW for more than six years.









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href="188943.story">The Long, Last Day

The U.S. Marines who guarded the evacuation from Saigon recall angry crowds, exhausting work and the loss of two buddies just hours before America's final exit from a war-torn Vietnam.








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href="188622.story">The Other Evacuation

When South Vietnam fell in 1975, the world’s attention focused on the evacuation from Saigon. But at the same time hundreds of miles away a smaller, but no less heroic, escape was made.









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href="188812.story">Search For MIAs Continues

Almost 30 years after U.S. troops pull out of Vietnam, the arduous task of still trying to identify remains of lost soldiers continues in a small lab on the island state of Hawaii.









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href="188433.story">The Bitter End To A Bitter War

CBSnews.com's Gary Paul Gates recalls what else was happening in America in the spring of 1975 and what many at the time were trying to forget about the war in Vietnam.








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href="188400.story">To Saigon And Back

CBS White House Correspondent Bill Plante volunteered to return to the city everyone else was trying to flee -- Saigon in the spring of 1975.









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face="arial, helvetica" size=1>CBS
 
href="188372.story">The Greatest Story Never Told

CBS News Correspondent Bob Simon, one of the most experienced broadcast war reporters, reflects on his last days working as a foreign correspondent during the 1975 fall of Saigon.









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href="188316.story">Filming Under The Gun

On April 30, 1975 the last American troops left Saigon. South Vietnam had lost the war. CBS Cameraman Mike Marriott was one of the last to leave. He has some surprising memories of those final days.









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href="188476.story">Memories Of The Fall Of Saigon

Where were you in during the fall of Saigon in 1975? In Saigon, aboard a ship or stateside? CBSNews.com readers send in their memories of that turbulent time.








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face="arial, helvetica" size=1>AP
 
href="184477.story">Remembering The Killing Fields

Two weeks before the fall of Saigon, the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, beginning the period known as "the Killing Fields."

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