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[h=4]Vietnam celebrates 40 years since end of war[/h]HO CHI MINH CITY — Under the shadow of a heavy security presence, Vietnam celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon on Thursday with speeches, martial music, dance performances and a massive military parade.
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Vietnamese students wave flags during celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in Ho Chi Minh City.(Photo: Le Quang Nhat, European Pressphoto Agency)
HO CHI MINH CITY — Under the shadow of a heavy security presence, Vietnam celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon on Thursday with speeches, martial music, dance performances and a massive military parade.
More than 6,000 troops and civilians carrying rifles and flags marched down Ho Chi Minh City's main boulevards before coming to a stop in front of Reunification Palace, the site of the final scene of the war, where communist troops from North Vietnam arrived in tanks on April 30, 1975 before hoisting their flag.
The marchers were received by viewing stands filled with Vietnam's political and military leadership, war veterans, dignitaries and delegates from Cambodia, Cuba and Laos.
A program of large-scale song-and-dance numbers concluded with a finale featuring dozens of women wearing Vietnam's traditional ao dai dresses dancing alongside men dressed as guerrilla soldiers.
USA TODAY
40 years later, Vietnam still deeply divided over war
In his opening speech for the celebration, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung praised "the great victory in 1975" for ushering in "an era of independence and reunification and building socialist Vietnam into a strong nation with wealthy people and a democratic, just and civilized society," state media reported.
Bitter rifts over the war between North and South Vietnam that left more than 3 million Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 American troops dead remain, but those who participated in the festivities reflected on the past with a deep sense of pride and accomplishment.
Major General Nguyen Ngoc Doanh, who fought in the Battle of Xuan Loc — the last major battle in the war — told USA Today: "This is the happiest day in Vietnam. Because we had to spend 30 years to have peace. Vietnam desires peace more than any country in the world."
The anniversary also attracted many visitors from around the world who still held a deep connection with Vietnam. A group of more than two dozen foreign journalists who covered the war, dubbing themselves the Old Hacks, held a reunion party here the night before the anniversary parade.
Famous faces such as Peter Arnett and Nick Ut, the photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his photo of Kim Phuc — the 9-year-old "Napalm Girl" pictured running screaming and naked after a bomb containing the liquid was dropped — were among those on hand to catch up with colleagues and greet young admirers from the Vietnamese press. The group has been holding reunions in Saigon every five years since 1995.
Peter Arnett told USA Today that no matter where all the journalists have been since, something about the time they spent in the war has left them with a special bond.
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"The Vietnam War has retained the ability to keep the journalists who covered it very tuned into each other," he said. "Everyone you meet here will say that Vietnam was their coming of age as journalist. We saw the bravery and the difficulties and the brutality of conflict. We become real experienced journalists here."
Army veteran Chuck Searcy has lived in Hanoi since 1995, working on projects to address the devastating consequences of a war that is still killing and maiming people years later through unexploded bombs and mines the U.S. left behind.
He first returned to visit Vietnam in 1992. "My reaction was the same as every vet I've spoken to since," he said. "I was stunned at how warm and welcoming the Vietnamese were. They had no sense of any sense of hostility or bitterness towards us at all."
A crowd of around 10,000 spectators, many who showed up at 5 a.m., lined the parade route, which was tightly cordoned off by police.
Teacher Lan My Hang, 56, said the anniversary reminded her of how frightened she was as a 16-year-old during the war's final days. "In the past, I was so scared," she said. "I didn't know what was going to happen. Now Vietnam is peaceful and I feel very content."
Many younger Vietnamese, however, view the pomp and pageantry of the anniversary celebrations with reactions ranging from gentle mockery to outright scorn.
Tran Hoang, 24, who works in public relations, said he planned to skip the parade. "All of the anniversaries each year are superficial," he said. "They're not very meaningful to me. And they're too expensive. They should be spending money on more important things."
While the tightly controlled official media covered the anniversary event with a triumphant glow, other voices on Facebook, blogs and websites have grown increasingly critical of a one-party state that they consider to be opaque, corrupt and stuck in the past.
Vietnam scholar Jonathan London, a professor at City University in Hong Kong, said: "The anniversary of the war is being greeted in a very solemn and conventionally patriotic way.
"But equally important in Vietnam right now is that the country is seeing very interesting and often surprising changes in its political culture."
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