Fall of Saigon

The fall of Saigon was the capture of the capital of South Vietnam by the forces of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, which brought the Vietnam War to an end. North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace, and President Dương Văn Minh, who had taken office only days earlier, surrendered. In the hours and days before, the United States had evacuated its personnel, along with thousands of South Vietnamese, by helicopter from the US embassy and other points, in an operation known as Frequent Wind. Vietnam was formally reunified a year later, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Many South Vietnamese were sent to reeducation camps, and hundreds of thousands fled the country in the following years.

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