Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. When President Lyndon Johnson sent the first U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam in March 1965, few Americans recognized that they were entering a grueling war of attrition that would leave a lasting scar on American politics and society.

Vietnam has celebrated the end of the war with the United States and the formation of its modern nation 50 years ago with a military parade and a focus on a future of peace.

Today marks 50 years since the end of a war so divisive that even half a century later, it remains a source of controversy and pain for those who lived through it, fought in it, or lost loved ones