<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/29/50-years-on-from-the-fall-of-saigon-and-the-end-of-the-vietnam-war>
"The day that Saigon fell, Xuan Phuong, a war correspondent, could only hear
shouting and commotion. It was 30 April 1975, and helicopters were frantically
lifting personnel and civilians from the US embassy.
Phuong, who had travelled down from the north, was initially held back by
troops who said fighting was still continuing. When she was finally able to
reach the centre of the city the following day, 1 May, she found chaos. Clothes
and luggage were scattered and discarded along the streets. Buildings were
being looted.
It felt like a dream, Phuong, now 96, said. She stood inside the Presidential
Palace on 2 May, watching as the president of South Vietnam, Duong Van Minh,
surrendered.
“He left through the palace’s back door, because at the front there were all
the tanks [of the North Vietnamese],” said Phuong.
North Vietnam was victorious and the country was to be reunified after a
decades-long war that had killed as many as 2 million Vietnamese civilians. For
the US, which lost 58,000 servicemen, the episode was one of its most
humiliating in history.
On Wednesday, Vietnam will celebrate the 50th anniversary of 30 April, known
officially as the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day, with
huge parades planned in what is now Ho Chi Minh City, after the revolutionary
leader.
In the run-up to celebrations, streets and alleys have been lined with the red
flag and the gold stars of the nation, and fighter jets have roared through the
skies above, rehearsing formations.
The Trump administration has told its senior diplomats in Vietnam not to
participate in anniversary events, according to a report in the
New York
Times – a decision that has dismayed veterans who have dedicated their lives
to reconciliation.
Relations between the US and Vietnam have shifted vastly since the war, from
former foes to close economic partners – though some fear the decades of
progress is being put at risk."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
