Vietnam recap: Hugo Van Es

Hugh Van Es, the Dutch photographer whose iconic picture of the fall of Saigon in 1975 became a symbol of America's failure in Vietnam has died aged 67. Mr Van Es was one of the best of an outstanding generation of journalists who covered the war in Vietnam. His photograph of a helicopter rescuing people from a Saigon rooftop became one of the most enduring images of the conflict and a metaphor for America's humiliating withdrawal from Vietnam. The picture above is made by Van Es, the pictures below are from other photographers.

VIETNAM OUT TO GO WITH "VIETNAM-US-WAR-ANNIVERSARY"
(FILES) This 30 April 1975 file photo shows North Vietnamese soldiers running past destroyed aircraft on the tarmac of Saigon's Tan Son Nhat airport where a column of black smoke rises after Communist troops shelled the airport. Several hours later, on the same day, the former South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell into the the hands of the Communist troops, marking an end to the Vietnam War. Vietnam will celebrate 30 April 2005 the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, since renamed Ho Chi Minh City, a defining moment that sealed the catastrophic failure of US policy in Indo-China and cemented the communist victory in the long war. AFP PHOTO/FILES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: UH-1D helicopters airlift members of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment from the Filhol Rubber Plantation area to a new staging area, during Operation πWahiawa™ a search and destroy mission conducted by the 25th Infantry Division, northeast of Cu Chi, Vietnam on 16 May,1966. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES/VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: UH-1D helicopters airlift members of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment from the Filhol Rubber Plantation area to a new staging area, during Operation πWahiawa™ a search and destroy mission conducted by the 25th Infantry Division, northeast of Cu Chi, Vietnam on 16 May,1966. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: A US Marine walks through a gully saturated with punji sticks 28 January, 1966, during a patrol in Vietnam. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES/VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: A US Marine walks through a gully saturated with punji sticks 28 January, 1966, during a patrol in Vietnam. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

DCV32 - 19680206 - UNKNOWN, VIET NAM : VIETNAM WAR- 25TH ANNIVERSARY: D.R. Howe treats the wounds of Private First Class D.A. Crum, πH™ Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, During Operation Hue City in Vietnam 06 February, 1968. EPA PHOTO AFP/NATIONAL ARCHIVES/DCV32 - 19680206 - UNKNOWN, VIET NAM : VIETNAM WAR- 25TH ANNIVERSARY: D.R. Howe treats the wounds of Private First Class D.A. Crum, πH™ Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, During Operation Hue City in Vietnam 06 February, 1968. EPA PHOTO AFP/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

The lst fights in april near Saigon.

South Vietnamese Navy operation 60 kms south west of Saigon on the Eastern Vaico when a patrol is ready for landing.

VIETNAM WAR- 25TH ANNIVERSARY: Operation ¶Oregon¨ a search and destroy mission conducted by an infantry platoon of Troop B,1st Reconnaissance Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), three kilometers west of Duc Pho, Quang Ngai Province. An infantryman is lowered into a tunnel by members of the reconnaissance platoon, Vietnam, 24 April 1967. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES/VIETNAM WAR- 25TH ANNIVERSARY: Operation ¶Oregon¨ a search and destroy mission conducted by an infantry platoon of Troop B,1st Reconnaissance Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), three kilometers west of Duc Pho, Quang Ngai Province. An infantryman is lowered into a tunnel by members of the reconnaissance platoon, Vietnam, 24 April 1967. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: A Viet Cong prisoner awaits interrogation at the A-109 Special Forces Detachment in Thuong Duc, Vietnam, (25 km west of Da Nang), 23 January 1967. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES/VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: A Viet Cong prisoner awaits interrogation at the A-109 Special Forces Detachment in Thuong Duc, Vietnam, (25 km west of Da Nang), 23 January 1967. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: Operation ¶Billings¨ Medic from the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, searches the sky for a Medevac helicopter to evacuate a wounded soldier, following an air assault into LZ Rufe, Vietnam, June 1967. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES/VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: Operation ¶Billings¨ Medic from the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, searches the sky for a Medevac helicopter to evacuate a wounded soldier, following an air assault into LZ Rufe, Vietnam, June 1967. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Spectators watch as flames engulf young Buddhist monk as he commits ritual suicide on Saigon¨s Market St. in this 10/5/1963 photo, protesting the government¨s religious policies. Self-immolation became a tactic of some demonstrators during the Vietnam war.

North Vietnamese tanks continue to roll 12 May 1975 into the city of Saigon, ending US's 15-year involvement in Vietnam. The war in Vietnam ended 31 April when Saigon surrendered almost without fighting to the Viet-cong communist forces.

Picture released 12 May 1965 by Chinese official agency with a caption saying: "US aggressors' "helicopter tactics" have proved to be bankrupt, with their helicopters being shot down by the south Vietnamese Liberation forces. Photo shows a US helicopter pilot running (...) after his plane was shot down". The conflict in Vietnam continued to escalate in March 1965. Following the US bombing of targets in North Vietnam in February, in retaliation for Vietcong raids on US bases, US President Johnson has sent, end of March, 3,500 Marines into Da Nang to help protect the sprawling air base against guerrilla attack.

Picture released 02 May 1972 in Hanoi by North Vietnamese official agency with following caption: "Mistress Nguyen Thi Nga, 32, and her two daughters, Nguyen Thi Tuyen ,8, and Nguyen Thi Hueng, 4, killed during the (...US...) raid on Phe Yen school 27 April 1972." Since mid-April 1972, US bombers, including B-52 Strato-Fortresses, started bombing Hanoi and its port Haiphong. This was the first time the US has raided this area since March 1968.

US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announces during a press conference in Washington that the evacuation of Americans from Vietnam and Saigon is complete, thus ending US involvement 29 April 1975.

Picture taken 31 January 1964 in Saigon of South Vietnamese General Duong Van MInh. Van MInh, the last president of South Vietnam who surrendered his country to North Vietnam in 1975, has died 06 August 2001 at a Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Ca, USA. For many years before his downfall, General Duong Van was the symbol of power of in South Vietnam's political and military circles. He was among several military officers who, with US backing, overthrew the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. He returned to the political arena in 1968, serving as an opposition leader against President Nguyen Van Thieu. Minh returned as president very briefly in 1975 in an unsuccessful conciliation effort but was placed in detention after the Northern army took over. AFP PHOTO

An U.S plane is burning on the Khe Sanh American base, as North Vietnamese divisions, operating out of the DMZ that separates North and South Vietnam, launch heavy bombardments of American bases, from January to May 1967, including Khe Sanh, the Rockpile, Cam Lo, Dong Ha, Con Thien and Gio Linh.

VIET NAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: A Viet Cong base being burned in My Tho, Vietnam on 05 April,1968. In the foreground is Private First Class Raymond Rumpa, St Paul, Minnesota, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, with a 45 pound 90mm recoiless rifle. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: Vietnamese paratroopers jump from U.S. Air Force C-123 transports in the initial air assault wave during Operation Phi Hoa II, a tactical air-ground envelopment strike during March 1963 against the Viet Cong in the Tay Ninh Province of South Vietnam. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY:An infantry patrol moves up to assault the last Viet Cong position after an attempted overrun of the artillery position by the Viet Cong during Operation Hawthorne, near Dak To, South Vietnam on 07 June 1966. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: Spc.4 Richard Champion, squad leader, Company B, 4th Battalion, 21st Infantry, 11th Light Infantry Brigade, shouts instructions to his squad after receiving sniper fire while on patrol on Hill 56, 70 miles southeast of Chu Lai, Vietnam on 19 January 1971. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

VIETNAM WAR-25TH ANNIVERSARY: The air evacuation of siege-stricken Vietnamese from Saigon to the US was conducted after the Babylift operation. Vietnamese militants and civilians await their C-41 journey during a stopover, in Utapo RTNAF, Thailand, 29 April 1975. AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Picture dated 08 February 1965 of a F100 of the US Army bombing a military target near Saigon during the Vietnam War.

A Vietnamese boy plays with a gun in a street of Saigon in March 1971.

Een Vietcong verdachte wordt met een band om de nek door een Zuidvietnamese soldaat voor ondervraging aan een boomtak gehangen. De man zou bekend hebben, dat hij verzetsstrijder was en als gids voor de Noordvietnamese militairen had gediend. Tan Troe ligt ongeveer 28 km ten zuidwesten van Saigon./Een Vietcong verdachte wordt met een band om de nek door een Zuidvietnamese soldaat voor ondervraging aan een boomtak gehangen. De man zou bekend hebben, dat hij verzetsstrijder was en als gids voor de Noordvietnamese militairen had gediend. Tan Troe ligt ongeveer 28 km ten zuidwesten van Saigon.