Photos: Vietnam, US marks 40th anniversary of war

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FILE – In this April 29, 1975, file photo, a helicopter lifts off from the U.S. embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, during the evacuation of authorized personnel and civilians. More than two bitter decades of war in Vietnam ended with the last days of April 1975. Today, 40 years later, former Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett has written a new memoir, “Saigon Has Fallen,” detailing his experience covering the war for The AP. (AP Photo/File)

Ho Chi Minh City was blanketed in red banners on Thursday that read “Long Live the Glorious Communist Party of Vietnam,” 40 years after northern forces seized control of the country and America walked away from a divisive and bloody war that remains a painful sore. Thousands of Vietnamese watched a parade through the streets of what was once Saigon. Across an ocean, U.S. veterans remember April 30, 1975 as the day North Vietnamese tanks rolled into the city, and the U.S. lost a war.