Vietnam is celebrating the end of the Vietnam War on Wednesday with a grand military parade and an air show 50 years after the fall of Saigon, the event that marked the definitive conclusion of the decades-long conflict.

Vietnam marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War on Tuesday with a large-scale military-civilian parade in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, celebrating a historic moment that reshaped the nation.

Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops leading to the end of the Vietnam War, and the reunification of Vietnam. Around 3 million Vietnamese lives and nearly 60,000 American lives were lost in the 20-year-long conflict.