Peace Day in Vietnam is Jan 27th
This year's focus for our events and displays is to salute our military, and particularly the contributions of African Americans to the military. On this date in 1973, the Paris Peace Accords arranged a ceasefire to take place on midnight, officially ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. This 20-year war was devastating to the people—not just the armies, but the Vietnamese civilians—and the environment of Vietnam, as napalm and defoliants burned and destroyed plant life. The Vietnam War saw the highest proportion of African Americans to ever to serve in an American war. During the height of the U.S. involvement, 1965-69, African Americans, who formed 11 percent of the American population, made up 12.6 percent of the soldiers in Vietnam. The majority of these were in the infantry, and although authorities differ on the figures, the percentage of African American combat fatalities in that period was a staggering 14.9 percent, a proportion that subsequently declined. Volun
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