HO CHI MINH CITY (Web Desk) – Vietnam is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War with a military parade through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
On 30 April 1975, the city – which was then called Saigon and was the capital of South Vietnam – was captured by communist troops from the North.
The North’s victory ended the war in which at least three million Vietnamese died, as well as 58,000 US soldiers.
The re-unification process was completed the next year.
Regiments of soldiers in dress uniform and elaborate floats are slowly making their way through city streets.
The mood here before the parade begins is pure excitement, at least for the young soldiers around me. Having put up their guns, they are busy taking photos of each other and posing for spectators.
Most of the participants here are very young. They were probably born after the war, or they have no memory of it and know little about it.
But the Vietnam War has left many deep scars. One veteran says to me: “I come here because we must keep history alive.”
In 40 years Vietnam, still a communist country, has come a long way. But some say the speed of social and political reforms are yet to catch up with the economic transformation.
Army Lt-Gen Nguyen Quoc Khanh told crowds: “The 30 April victory was a golden turning point for the Vietnamese people.”
Forty years ago the North’s tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace, the final assault on the US-backed South.
The North’s victory reunited Vietnam under the communist government after decades of war.
The war was very divisive in the US as well, as it was the first to be extensively covered by the Western media. It was also the first to be lost by a modern global superpower.
