The culmination of the 1975 spring offensive by the communist People’s Army of Vietnam, popularly known as the North Vietnamese Army, and the allied National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, generally referred to as the Viet Cong, the fall of Saigon includes the capture of the Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by communist forces and the establishment of a unified Vietnam under communist rule. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War. The iconic image of the fall of Saigon was captured on April 30, 1975, as a North Vietnamese tank smashed through the gates of the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace.