What happened during the Vietnam War charted life afterward for those involved, its influence inescapable and outsized.
The official withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam on Jan. 27, 1973, signaled the unofficial start of postwar life in the United States. How those who returned were received and treated would be a subject of controversy for decades and continues even today.
The steepest price was paid by the 58,000 troops who were killed and the families left behind. Another 150,000 vets were wounded, many returning with missing limbs or suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Fifty years later, another 1,600 service members remain missing.
But the conflict’s tentacles were infinite, and many more were affected in myriad ways. Everybody lost something — the only difference is the degree.
