In the 1950 s and 60 s many strongly interacting particles (mesons and baryons) were discovered String theory was originally invented to describe them, but 50 years ago Quantum Chromodynamics ( emerged as the precise theory of the strong nuclear force A quarter century later it was understood that string theory and certain gauge theories akin to QCD are different descriptions of the same physics I will review the relations between gauge theories and strings The formation of QCD strings is a manifestation of the confinement of colored quarks and gluons The confinement is observed numerically using Lattice Gauge Theory, and I will review evidence that large N QCD provides a good approximation to the masses of hadrons The gauge/gravity duality has shed new light on confinement, but its analytic understanding remains a deep unsolved problem in theoretical physics I will include a discussion of some 2 D models for QCD.