5,000 turn out to mark victory anniversary

~ Le Vięt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

5,000 turn out to mark victory anniversary
HO CHI MINH CITY - Vietnam triumphantly celebrated the 25th anniversary of its victory in the so called "American War" yesterday with a ceremony and parade in the grounds of Ho Chi Minh City's Reunification Palace. The palace was where the US-backed southern regime surrendered to North Vietnamese tanks which crashed through its gates on the morning of April 30, 1975.

But security concerns meant only a tiny proportion of the city's five million residents actually witnessed yesterday's event, with police - some in riot gear and others armed with pistols and semi-automatic rifles - blocking adjacent streets and harassing several locals who had managed to slip through the cordon without security clearance. The event, much smaller than 20th anniversary celebrations of the capitulation of what was previously called Saigon, was originally planned as a street parade. But authorities decided two weeks ago to confine festivities to the palace grounds due to safety and budget concerns. Security forces in neighbouring Cambodia declared in February they had thwarted a plan to disrupt the celebrations by an overseas-based dissident group, and several foreign embassies took the precaution of issuing safety warnings to their nationals. But the event unfolded without serious incident, with about 5,000 people including Vietnam's senior political and military leaders, war veterans, students, workers and smartly turned-out soldiers assembling in the palace grounds in the cool of early morning.

Ho Chi Minh City Mayor Vo Viet Thanh delivered the event's only speech, which concentrated not on the past, but on the new and difficult challenges ahead. "Although the past 25 years have seen admirable achievements, we should not be complacent . . . a considerable gap still exists between the great and diverse potential the city possesses and the huge and pressing demands the city is facing," he said. Despite the sombre tone of his speech and a high-profile security presence, the ceremony was held with minimal formality and was followed by a parade marked by a pervasive sense of good humour.

Even the young soldiers, many of whom, ironically, were carrying US made M-16 rifles, appeared to be enjoying themselves and smiled at members of the 400-strong foreign media contingent which had come to Vietnam to cover the event. Foreign passport holders were among the 12,000 prisoners released in a "liberation day" amnesty, but officials refused to give further details.

By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - May 1st, 2000 - Photo by AFP

'American War' still makes good propaganda

HO CHI MINH CITY - For Vietnam's communist leadership, victory in the 30-year battle for independence and reunification has been a powerful propaganda tool, both in promoting a sense of national unity and in legitimising its exclusive hold on power. Never mind that the official version of events dramatically differs from the exhaustive research of foreign scholars - their work is generally not available in Vietnam and even local deviations from the party line are easily, if somewhat clumsily, deleted from the public record.

A foreign documentary series about the "American War" drew high ratings in the weeks before yesterday's anniversary celebrations, but references to the US withdrawal in 1973 - and its steady reduction of combat troops in the south over the previous two years - were not translated in the Vietnamese-language commentary. Less subtle was the censoring of Time magazine, which featured a cover story on Vietnam the country, not Vietnam the war. The article was praised in the state-controlled press as a fair portrayal of today's Vietnam and was reproduced prominently in a number of newspapers.

Not published, however, were the views of dissident novelist Duong Thu Huong, who in a profile that formed part of the Time coverage criticised Vietnam's leadership for appropriating the war to justify what she described as an unsocialist authoritarian system combining feudalism and Stalinist communism. That and other unorthodox comments were enough to severely restrict circulation of the magazine in Hanoi, while in Ho Chi Minh City censors took to Ms Huong's comments with heavy black marker pens. Such censorship serves to add credence to Huong's opinions, but even without such attempts to preserve one version of history, the question now is how long the war can be used as an instrument of national cohesion.

When the dedication and sacrifice of a small, impoverished nation prevails against the resources of the world's greatest power, what does its leadership do for an encore in the face of the different challenges confronting it in today's very different world?

By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - May 1st, 2000