Vietnam Celebrates War’s End 30 Years Ago

This nation marked the 30th anniversary of its war’s end with a colorful parade of floats, some emblazoned with American business logos, down the same boulevard where North Vietnamese tanks rolled to victory against a U.S.-backed government.

Hundreds of aging veterans, their chests decked with medals, watched as uniformed soldiers and costumed dancers waving red national flags marched toward Reunification Palace. Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, military architect of the war, was among them, standing alongside President Tran Duc Luong.

Familiar themes of national unity and sacrifice were sounded, but the commemoration was striking for its focus on the country’s economic development, with leaders putting aside communist slogans in favor of touting an emerging prosperity, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly the South Vietnamese capital Saigon.

Ho Chi Minh City is the country’s “economic locomotive,” attracting the bulk of the country’s foreign investment, the president proclaimed.

Along the boulevard, capitalism has taken root. Downplaying the military’s role, this year’s commemoration featured corporate sponsorship. Some floats, sponsored by Vietnamese banks, sported the logos of American credit card companies.

On April 30, 1975, Communist tanks barreled through the gates of the former Presidential Palace, marking the end of the Vietnam War and the decade-long U.S. campaign against communism in Southeast Asia. The war claimed about 58,000 American lives and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.

These days, Le Duan Street also is home to Diamond Plaza, a glittering, upscale department store where French perfumes and Italian shoes are sold to a growing middle class. Along the same strip, a French-owned five-star hotel sits across the street from the U.S. consulate.