Americans celebrate Vietnam Veterans Day annually on March 29 thanks to a measure signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in 2017.
The holiday, officially known as National Vietnam War Veterans Day, was made official by Trump through the "Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017," and encourages Americans to display the U.S. flag in honor of Vietnam veterans.
A similar holiday was previously observed on March 29, 2012, through a proclamation signed by then-President Barack Obama. That year marked the start of a 13-year-long celebration honoring Vietnam War veterans that runs through Veterans Day 2025.
In November 2017, Trump marked Veterans Day and the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War by meeting with U.S. veterans in Vietnam.
"One of my great honors is to represent the people standing right behind me -- great, great warriors and veterans of the Vietnam War," he said during a meeting with veterans at a hotel in Da Nang, Vietnam. "To each of you with me today, you are the heroes who fulfilled your duty to our nation. And each of you, under the most difficult conditions, did what you had to do, and you did it well."
During that meeting, Trump also pledged to continue to support efforts by the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which works worldwide to recover the remains of U.S. troops missing in combat.
"Our accountability efforts in Vietnam are very, very important to all of us," Trump said. "We will not rest until all of the 1,253 missing veterans are returned home. Our veterans are a national treasure, and I thank them all for their service, sacrifice and patriotism."
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![Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian Boase, dressed as Santa, waves to Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan, before being dropped off by a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.](http://images03.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-12/santa.jpg?itok=KFVvxUEU "Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brian Boase, an intelligence chief, Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team "Rakkasans," 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), waves to Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan, before being dropped off by a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to deliver Christmas presents, Dec. 25, 2012. (Spc. Brian Smith-Dutton/U.S. Army photo)")
![Members of Bashar Assad's army line up to register with Syrian rebels in Damascus, Syria.](http://images04.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-12/ApNewsroom_Syria_93981.jpg?itok=KtmjProB "Members of Bashar Assad's army, or a pro-government militia, line up to register with Syrian rebels as part of an "identification and reconciliation process" in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)")
![A Danish soldier onboard the Danish warship Esbern Snare.](http://images05.military.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail_large/public/2024-12/ApNewsroom_Cyprus_Syria_83465.jpg?itok=FpC0C1Xo "FILE - A Danish soldier onboard the Danish warship "Esbern Snare" as the Danish cargo ship Ark Futura, background, transports Syria's dangerous chemical weapons out of the strife-torn country, out of Cyprus coastal city of Larnaca, on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)")
