AP PHOTOS: The changing faces of Vietnam War landmarks

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This combination of photos shows members of the 9th U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force, going ashore at Da Nang, South Vietnam, March 8, 1965, top, and a boy playing at the same location on March, 6, 2025. (AP PhotoYannick Peterhans)

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This combination of photos shows the wrecked exterior of the Victoria Hotel, a U.S. officers’ billet in Saigon, South Vietnam, after it was attacked by Viet Cong fighters in April 1, 1966, top, and the same building in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/John Nance, Thanh Hue)

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This combination of photos shows a Vietnamese newsboy selling newspapers in Saigon with the headline announcing the U.S. troop withdrawals hours before Pres. Nixon was slated to formally announce the withdrawals, Sept. 16, 1969, top, and the same location in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, Thanh Hue)

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This combination of photos shows a Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) tank entering the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, May 1, 1975, top, and the same location in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Frances Starner, Hau Dinh)

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This combination of photos shows more than 40,000 South Vietnamese packed streets and squares of downtown Saigon in a catholic demonstration on June 7, 1964 in which they denounced U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, top, and Double-decker tourist buses driving past the same location in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Horst Faas, Hau Dinh)

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This combination of photos shows medic attending to the wounded, as American soldiers in Saigon’s Hai Ba Trung Street shoot and run on May 10, 1966, after an explosion of a claymore mine near a U.S. Bachelor officer’s quarters by Viet Cong, top, and the same location in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanh Hue)

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This combination of photos shows a U.S. Marine helicopter flying over Saigon Cathedral, April 1975, top, and the same location covered for conservation in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam on Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Franjola, Hau Dinh)

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This combination of photos shows a towering cloud of smoke marking the area in Saigon’s Oholon section on Feb. 12, 1968 where Allied troops and Viet Cong guerrillas are battling forcing thousands to flee, top, and the same location in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanh Hue)

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This combination of photos shows Vietnamese artillerymen prepare to reload a 105 mm gun after firing a round into a nearby area at the Phu Tho racetrack in western Saigon on May 6, 1968, top, and the same location which is now the Phu Nhuan Sports Center in Ho Chi Minh City on April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams, Thanh Hue)

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This combination of photos shows rebel tanks drawn up in front of the presidential palace in Saigon, Vietnam on Nov. 3, 1963 during a coup that brought downfall and death of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, top, and the same location in Ho Chi Minh City on April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanh Hue)

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This combination of photos shows streetcar tracks running through the middle of Hanoi’s busy Dong Xuan market in the North Vietnamese capital, April 2, 1973, top, and the same location on April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Horst Faas, Hau Dinh)

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This combination of photos shows victorious North Vietnamese troops aboard a tank outside Independence Palace in Saigon, April 30, 1975, the day the South Vietnamese government surrendered, ending the Vietnam War, top, and the same location in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam on Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Yves Billy, Hau Dinh)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

During the Vietnam War, Da Nang was a major base for both the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces. The first American combat troops landed there in 1965, and it became a hub for operations and supply. Today its beautiful beaches, including the one dubbed “China Beach” by the Americans and Australians who used it for R&R, boast resort hotels popular with tourists.

The past is somewhat easier to imagine at the former Victoria Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, known at the time as Saigon, which was used to house American officers and was attacked in 1966 by Viet Cong guerrillas. Three Americans died and the facade of the apartment building was damaged. That’s been repaired, but the faded and cracked balconies evoke memories of its past.

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By contrast, the Independence Palace, the former home and workplace of South Vietnam’s president, is today set up specifically to ensure people don’t forget what it was.

North Vietnamese tanks famously broke through its gates on the day Saigon fell, and today replicas are on display outside. Inside the building, rooms seem frozen in time, displaying the offices, dining rooms, lounges and other areas used by officials, including a helicopter landing pad on the roof and operations rooms in an underground bunker.

Likewise, much of the historic core of the city is little changed, like the Opera House, which dates to the French colonial era. From the same period, the Saigon Central Post Office, which served as a communications hub, still stands, overlooked by the twin-spires of the city’s Notre Dame Cathedral. Tourists frequently enjoy a drink from the rooftop of the nearby Caravelle Hotel, a haunt of foreign correspondents during the war.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.