Solemn Communists observe Vietnam war's end
HANOI - Vietnam's communist leaders held a solemn
commemoration in Hanoi on Saturday of their victory in the
Vietnam War, and used the occasion to highlight U.S.
brutality during the conflict.
A day before, U.S. Senator and ex-prisoner of war John
McCain had touched a raw nerve ahead of celebations to
mark Sunday's 25th anniversary of war's end by saying the
wrong side won and the Communist Party was holding
back development.
McCain, who failed in his bid to secure the Republican
presidential nomination, went further by suggesting a
possible trip to Vietnam by President Bill Clinton later this
year might improperly reward Hanoi.
His comments on Friday in Ho Chi Minh City have taken
the shine off anniversary events, sharpening a war of words
with the government and shocking many ordinary
Vietnamese.
In Hanoi, the communist leadership, bemedalled veterans
and representatives of the younger generation attended a
modest commemoration ceremony at the National
Assembly Building.
They heard stirring patriotic songs from the war era while a
large screen showed wartime newsreel footage of U.S.
soldiers burning and bulldozing villages, and roughly
interrogating suspected communist sympathisers.
Dancers clad in the jungle uniform of black pyjamas and
checkered neck scarves celebrated the courage of the
communist guerrillas who fought the Americans.
The ceremonies were kept deliberately low-key ahead of
more elaborate festivities in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday.
Formerly Saigon, the city was renamed after it fell to the
communists on April 30, 1975.
Contrast to reconciliation mood five years ago
But the stress on the brutality of the U.S. war was in
marked contrast to 20th anniversary celebrations five years
ago, which highlighted reconciliation with Washington just
ahead of the normalisation of diplomatic ties.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai paid tribute in a speech to
the sacrifice of the estimated three million Vietnamese who
died in the war. More than 58,000 Americans were also
killed.
While praising the younger generation of Americans of the
1960s and 1970s for opposing the war, Khai repeated
Hanoi's call on Washington to do more to help ease
war-related suffering.
"Common sense in relations among nations demands that
countries that took part in the war of aggression against
Vietnam should contribute, in an active and responsible
manner, to doing away with the consequences of the war,"
he said.
In recent days, Vietnam has urged the United States to
assist in accounting for more than 300,000 Vietnamese war
missing and the one million people it says suffer from the
effects of U.S. chemical defoliants like Agent Orange.
Earlier, under a heavy grey morning mist in Hanoi, the
communist leaders laid wreaths at the mausoleum of late
revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh, then stood silently to
attention for a minute at a monument to an unknown
Vietnamese soldier.
The national flag, blood red with a yellow star, hung limply
from a pole in the square, adding to the sombre mood.
Conspicuously absent was General Vo Nguyen Giap, the
military mastermind behind the defeat both of the colonial
French in 1954 and and U.S.-backed South Vietnam 21
years later.
A Foreign Ministry official said he thought Giap had already
gone to Ho Chi Minh City for the celebrations there.
Khai said Vietnam could be proud of its victory, but faced
"grave challenges" as it entered the 21st century.
The efficiency and competitiveness of the economy
remained low and the country risked falling further behind
unless it did away with red tape and corruption and pushed
ahead with modernisation and industrialisation.
"These celebrations urge us to make ourselves deserve the
services and contributions of the older generations and
combatants who fought so we can lead a happy life today,"
he said.
In Ho Chi Minh City, workers were putting the finishing
touches on the former South Vietnamese presidential
palace, venue of Sunday's celebrations.
A giant billboard of a smiling Ho Chi Minh, the country's
late revolutionary leader, had been erected over the front of
the palace. Amid steamy tropical heat, workers were also
stringing up Communist Party flags and trimming the grass
of the sprawling palace grounds.
On the streets, traders were trying to sell Communist Party
flags and red-stripped conical hats, but there appeared to
be few takers in a city where party membership is minimal.
Reuters - April 30, 2000.
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