Vietnam celebrates 35th anniversary of war’s end
Ben Stocking
Vietnam marked the 35th anniversary of the Communist victory in the
Vietnam War with a grand military parade Friday through the former
Saigon, with the government basking more in its economic achievements
than its historic military defeat of the United States.
The city is now named for Ho Chi Minh, the father of the revolution,
but signs of the burgeoning market economy are everywhere, with
Communist banners competing for space with corporate ads and logos.
Some 50,000 invitees, many waving red and gold ruling party flags,
crowded the parade route. They marked the day that North Vietnamese
tanks smashed through the gates of the former Presidential Palace in
Saigon and ousted the US-backed South Vietnam government - the
culmination of one of the most seismic military achievements since World
War II.
Vivid memories
The parade brought back vivid memories for Do Thi Thanh Thuy, 49, who
watched the tanks roll by her home on April 30, 1975, when she was a
junior high student. She and her neighbours on the outskirts of the city
had run into the streets to cheer.
Vietnamese soldiers wave from a tank replica during a parade in
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on Friday. Courtesy: AP |
“When I saw those tanks, I felt so happy,” said Thuy, who on Friday
carried a hammer and a sickle flag. “The South had been liberated, the
country was united, and the war was over.”
The fall of Saigon marked the official end of the Vietnam War and the
decadelong US campaign against communism in Southeast Asia. The conflict
claimed some 58,000 American lives and an estimated three million
Vietnamese.
The war left divisions that would take years to heal as many former
South Vietnamese soldiers were sent to Communist re-education camps and
hundreds of thousands of their relatives fled the country.
In Friday’s re-enactment of the war’s end, everyone in the former
Saigon greeted the Communist troops with jubilation. A tank replica
rolled by and soldiers in white uniforms goose-stepped their way down
the former Reunification Boulevard, later renamed Le Duan Street after a
former Communist Party chief.
Battalions of women soldiers marched by carrying rifles and wearing
the black-and-white checkered scarves made famous by the former Viet
Cong guerrillas. Patriotic songs blared, some to a pulsing disco beat.
Foreign journalists
In a reminder of how the Communist Party retains a strong grip on the
flow of information despite the opening of the economy, foreign
journalists were forbidden from conducting interviews along the parade
route. The area was sealed off from ordinary citizens, apparently due to
security concerns.
President Nguyen Minh Triet was joined at the parade by leaders and
dignitaries from Cuba, Russia and neighboring Cambodia and Laos. Most of
those in the crowd were war veterans, party cadres and others selected
by local communist organisations.
Among the veterans was Huynh Van Quan, 70, who helped build the
famous Cu Chi tunnels outside Saigon, an elaborate underground network
where Viet Cong guerrillas sought refuge from American bomber planes. He
sat beneath one of the hundreds of portraits of Ho Chi Minh that dotted
the route.
Anniversary ceremonies
Quan, who has attended each of the anniversary ceremonies since the
war’s end, declared the anniversary a “very important day for the
Vietnamese nation.” He reminisced about how skilled his comrades were in
fighting the United Sates.
A usual honored guest, former Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, 98, architect of
Vietnam’s military campaigns against their former French colonial rulers
and then the Americans, was too ill to attend.
Friday’s speeches were sprinkled with timeworn communist slogans and
quotes from Ho Chi Minh, including perhaps his most famous, which was
invoked by Le Thanh Hai, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Party chief: “There
is nothing more precious than independence and freedom.” But Hai focused
his remarks on Vietnam’s economic achievements, for which Ho Chi Minh
City has served as the engine. The city generated more than 20 percent
of the nation’s gross domestic product last year and 30 percent of its
tax revenues, Hai said. The city’s economic growth has averaged more
than 10 percent a year since 1986.
Press freedom
Much of Vietnam’s growth is being fueled by foreign investment and
trade, and in recent years, the United States has become Vietnam’s main
trading partner.
“The U.S. is a friend of Vietnam now,” said Do Phuoc Man, 17, who
woke up at 3 a.m. to attend Friday’s festivities, which began at 6:30
a.m.
“We’ve seen growing investment from the United States, which is to
our mutual benefit.”
Although the two nations have grown much closer since the war, they
disagree over issues such as human rights and press freedom.
In a speech, Lt. Gen. Le Thanh Tam, the chairman of the Ho Chi Minh
City Veterans Association, warned that Vietnam must be wary of “hostile
forces who use democracy and human rights as a pretext to sabotage
Vietnam.”
“We affirm that the Communist Party of Vietnam is the only party
which has the prestige to lead the Vietnamese people to stable
development and international integration,” Tam said.
Courtesy: AP |