In Remembering War’s End, Vietnam Reaches Out to U.S.

This nation celebrated the 20th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War on Sunday with a festive parade here and official declarations that the country wishes to restore full relations with the United States.

Communist North Vietnam effectively defeated the U.S. military effort to support the South Vietnamese government when its tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace here in what was then the capital of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975.

But the military side of Sunday’s parade was underplayed. There were no displays of heavy equipment--no tanks, artillery or rocket launchers.

Instead, there were several columns of young-looking troops, including many women, passing in review before Vietnam’s senior officials near the old Presidential Palace--and only several dozen bemedaled veterans walking out of step.

Most of the ceremonies, which began at 7:30 a.m. to avoid the blazing midday heat, looked more like the Rose Parade, with cheerleaders waving red-and-white pompons.

Young Vietnamese in sports attire, resembling Olympic teams, disported themselves before Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, the architect of North Vietnam’s military victory, as well as Communist Party General Secretary Do Muoi, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet and a bevy of local civilian and military officials.

Before the parade, the leading generals placed wreaths in front of the statue of the late Ho Chi Minh, the nationalist leader revered as the father of the country.

Security precautions Sunday were paramount: The regime wanted no disruption of the parade. Consequently, access to the parade route in the center of the city was restricted to those with passes.

“This looks like a parade for VIPs,” one foreign observer said.

Ordinary Vietnamese, along with foreign visitors, were told by police officers guarding entry streets, “Go watch TV.”

In his eight-page address, the leading speaker at the ceremonies here, Mayor Truong Tan Sang, never even mentioned the United States as a former antagonist.

Rather, he emphasized the economic accomplishments of the country--and particularly of Ho Chi Minh City, the official name of the former Saigon--and the national efforts to improve the city in the future.

While Sang noted that Vietnam must “maintain eternal remembrance of millions of comrades and citizens who sacrificed their lives,” he concentrated on the city’s new open economy as a way of bringing prosperity to the country.

Earlier, Prime Minister Kiet complained about U.S. B-52 bomber raids, the My Lai massacre, the damage from the defoliant Agent Orange and other “genocidal crimes.”

But significantly, he then strongly urged Vietnamese to “shut the past and look to the future to raise our national spirits, expand international relations and work together with other countries for peace, cooperation and development.”

He said it is “high time for Vietnam and the United States to establish normal diplomatic ties as well as full commercial relations.”

U.S. combat troops were officially introduced to Vietnam in 1965. At the height of U.S. military involvement, about 550,000 U.S. service personnel were stationed in South Vietnam.

But beginning with the Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive in early 1968, public sentiment in the United States turned heavily against open-ended commitment to the South Vietnamese government.

Finally, under peace agreements signed by then-Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, the last U.S. troops were withdrawn in 1973 after the loss of about 58,000 American lives. Critics suggest that Kissinger and President Richard Nixon could have withdrawn the troops under the same terms in 1969--thereby saving thousands of those lives.

In early 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a military campaign against the South, capturing vital towns in the Central Highlands.

The South’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, rashly ordered the evacuation of the highlands, and a veritable rout ensued, with the South Vietnamese army collapsing as it abandoned the cities of Hue, Da Nang and Nha Trang in central Vietnam.

Finally, in late April, 1975, the ring closed around Saigon, and the U.S. Congress refused to appropriate additional emergency military funds.

Americans were forced to evacuate their remaining military advisers and civilian personnel--along with U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin--from the roof of the embassy by helicopter to the waiting ships of the 7th Fleet offshore in the South China Sea.

The Hanoi regime took over and imprisoned thousands of South Vietnamese civilian officials and military officers in so-called re-education camps, releasing them over the past 20 years.

In 1989, Hanoi decided to pursue more liberal economic policies, and today it is trying to encourage the United States to restore full diplomatic relations.

This, the leaders believe, would spur U.S. and foreign investment in the developing country and raise the national income level.

One outstanding issue is that of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action during the war.

Some American MIA lobbying groups maintain that the Vietnamese are dragging their heels in locating remains. Some even argue that there are MIAs still alive being held in prisons in Southeast Asia.

Most authorities reject that view, having investigated the available evidence, but some leading lawmakers have not been convinced that the MIA issue should be permanently laid to rest.

Thus, full diplomatic relations have not yet been restored, although there are liaison missions in Hanoi and Washington.

Sunday’s parade--which was followed in the evening by a more culturally oriented march--went past the old U.S. Embassy, now unused and, according to Mayor Sang, awaiting Washington’s decision on its future.

The Sunday evening march route was a blaze of color--pinks, blues, yellows, oranges, crimsons and purples--as the floats went by. There were dragons, butterflies, May Day workers, a Picasso peace dove, girls with teddy bears and many marchers carrying the national flag--a red background with a gold star.

One group of girls slung Hula-Hoops over their shoulders. Other young women were dressed like Viet Cong fighters in black pajamas, checkered scarves and floppy hats--although they all wore new white sneakers.

Almost as an afterthought amid the lively, lighthearted floats and displays was a papier-mache model of Tank 843, which barreled through the gates of the Presidential Palace 20 years earlier.

* WALL OF REMEMBRANCE: Americans honored war dead at Washington memorial. A17