VietNamNet Bridge – Most of the following photos were taken by photographer Werner Schulze in March 1973 in Hanoi after the Paris Peace Accords were signed, putting an end to direct US military involvement in the Vietnam War.

This was the time North Vietnam started reconstructing its economy and infrastructure after it was gravely demolished by the American bombing campaign, which is called by Schulze as “Christmas bombings.” All the photos are posted on photo sharing site Corbis.


People carry plants and twigs with blooms, photographed in the flower

village Nghi Tam, Hanoi in March 1973.


Children in a kindergarten in Hanoi.






Children on a swing in a kindergarten in Hanoi.





116 pilots and soldiers of the US army, who had been captured by the North Vietnamese People's
 Army during Vietnam War, were turned over to the United States of America in Hanoi on the
12th of February in 1973. US military in grey jackets are called out by name in the presence
 of international observers, are welcomed by an US officer and walk to the planes with individual
accompaniment. International observers watch the process. The prisoners of war were brought to Clark
 Air Base on the Philippines within the "Operation Homecoming". The US flew about 2,000 air attacks
on cities and targets in North Vietnam during the "Christmas bombings" in 1972.






War-destroyed houses, ruins, rubble, destroyed trees and provisional huts in
Kham Thien Street, Hanoi.






Provisional huts to live in are built in the war-destroyed area of Kham Thien, Hanoi.






A red banner with characters blows on the destroyed Long Bien bridge, which spans the Red River
in Hanoi with a length of 1,683 metres. Workers start to reconstruct it.






Two young men do their laundry at a well in front of a hut in Kham Thien Street.





A beheaded palm tree, an expanse of rubble with water-filled bomb craters
and some poorly looking huts in Kham Thien Street.






Women clean bricks for the reconstruction in a field of debris between
 war-destroyed houses in Kham Thien Street.






Bicycles are the means of locomotion and transportation in Vietnam, as well here
 in Kham Thien Street.






Children in a field of debris of war-destroyed houses in Kham Thien.






Red flags on a war-destroyed house at a street in Hanoi.






A man directs lift works with a whistle and hand signs at the Long Bien bridge.






A man puts down bricks to reconstruct war-destroyed houses in Kham Thien.






Two children eat sweets.





Children play "Doctor" in a kindergarten in Hanoi.





Two girls with cap and red scarf.






An old woman with small child on her arm in Kham Thien.

PV