The last official American military action in Southeast Asia occurred on 15 May 1975, when 18 Marines were killed during a rescue operation known as the Mayagüez incident.
The dire predictions of a generation did not come to fruition. The domino theory, so widely trumpeted, prove an illusion. South East Asia did not collaspe into the arms of communism. The idea of a monolithic communist block also prove misguided, as Nixon pried China away from it's traditional ally, the Soviet Union. Vietnam, without the presence of the United States, showed itself to be of little economic or stategic value. The American position in Asia remained unaltered by the loss. Far from undermining it's credibility abroad, in 1972 the United States signed a strategic arms limitation treaty with it's arch foe the Soviet Union. At home, a generation of Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of military intervension without clear motives or objectives. The war demontrated that no power, not even a superpower, has unlimited strength and resources. But perhaps most significantly, the Vietnam War illustrated that political will, as much as material might, is a decisive factor in determining the outcome of any conflict.