Vietnam prepares to celebrate 30th anniversary of war's end

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=10&u=/afp/20050424/ts_afp/vietnamuswar_050424205547

HO CHI MINH CITY (AFP) - Vietnam will celebrate next Saturday the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, a defining moment that sealed the catastrophic failure of US policy in Indo-China and cemented the communist victory in the long war.


A little after midday on April 30, 1975, a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon, the defeated South Vietnamese regime's capital, since renamed Ho Chi Minh City.


The war thus ended a few hours after the last Americans left by helicopter from the roof of the US embassy. The defeated South Vietnamese troops shed their uniforms and weapons while heading for the near empty city centre.

General Duong Van Minh, alias "Big Minh", who had been hastily made president of South Vietnam in the regime's dying days, admitted defeat. The Vietcong blue and red flag with a golden star flew aloft the palace.

[TahitiNut]

1. And how many millions fled the country by any means available?

:eyes: