Compared to World War II or the Civil War, American classrooms and newsrooms love to neglect the Vietnam War. Why? Because we don't get to say we "won," and we don't get to say we were the "good guys."
But the war with the most living American veterans was very real and consisted of horrors that few other conflicts have ever experienced.
Here are 25 photos from the Vietnam War to remind you of its horrors.
1
US paratroopers of the 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade, hold their automatic weapons above water as they cross a river in the rain.
2
Lieutenant Commander Donald D. Sheppard, of Coronado, California, aims a flaming arrow at a bamboo hut concealing a fortified Viet Cong bunker on the banks of the Bassac River, South Vietnam, on December 8, 1967.
3
A black U.S. soldier reads a message left by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, the message reads: "U.S. Back Armymen, You Are Committing The Same Ignominious Crimes In South Vietnam That The KKK Clique Is Perpetrating Against Your Family At Home.” 1970.
4
An unidentified soldier of the 25th Infantry Division pauses for a cigarette. Vietnam War, 1969, colorized.
5
Caught in a sudden monsoon rain, part of a company of about 130 South Vietnamese soldiers moves downriver in sampans during a dawn attack on a Vietcong camp on 10 January 1966.
6
Servicemen often creatively decorated their helmets.
10
American paratrooper after combat, 1966.
11
A 6ft 5in machine gunner with the US 9th Infantry Division is submerged except for his rifle as he crosses a muddy stream in the Mekong delta south of Saigon on September 10th, 1968. Photograph: Henri Huet.
12
A combat medic after a night when North Vietnamese attacked his fire support base.
