Doug Lorimer
On April 30, tens of thousands of Vietnamese participated in celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi on the 30th anniversary of the nation's great victory in 1975 over the US and its Saigon puppet regime.
In Hanoi, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai told Vietnamese leaders, war veterans, foreign diplomats, including US Ambassador Michael Marine: "Our people's victory in the resistance against the Americans for national salvation is forever written in our nation's history as one of the most glorious pages." But he added that Vietnam needed to "avoid self-satisfaction, and realise the weaknesses and challenges posed to us".
The only high profile foreign visitor attending the celebrations was Cuban defence minister Raul Castro. On the day of the celebrations, Cuba disclosed that its military engineers took part in the widening of the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail in the midst of Vietnam's war with the US.
In Ho Chi Minh City, crew members of Tank 390, which at 11am on April 30 knocked down the gates of the palace where the US-backed regime had spent its final hours, watched a re-enactment of the dramatic breakthrough which signalled the end of the what Vietnamese call the "American War".
Vietnamese Communist Party mouthpiece Nhan Dan commented in its April 30 edition: "Our victory is the victory of an advanced society and a thousand-year culture. It is the victory of the close solidarity among the people from
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia which was fostered in the fight against the same enemy. It is also due to the heartfelt assistance given by Russia, China and other socialist countries as well as the support and sympathy from
independent and democratic forces and the peace loving people around the world including those from the US.
"To reach the ever glorious victory in the anti-US war in particular and in the 30-year struggle for national liberation in general, the Vietnamese people had to pay a high price concerning huge losses with many still suffering the pains of the war. The Vietnamese people have gained national independence, freedom and reunification. We have restored the right to master our nation, to control our fates and to build and develop the country according to the path selected by Uncle Ho and the people."
From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.
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