City celebrates 30th anniversary of Vietnam War’s end
DANANG - Once a major U.S. military base, the port city of Danang on Tuesday was again filled with soldiers as it celebrated the 30th anniversary of communist forces’ victory here during the Vietnam War. Hundreds of goose-stepping Vietnamese troops marched behind a giant portrait of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh being driven around Chi Lang stadium in a jeep. Clusters of multicolored balloons filled the air as a procession of 10,000 costumed performers and colored floats streamed through during the two-hour nationally televised event.
The massive celebration reflected the significance of Danang’s strategic capture by the Communists during the Vietnam War. The landing of U.S. Marines in Danang in 1965 marked America’s official entry into the war. This port city housed the largest American military base north of Saigon, the capital of the U.S.-backed South Vietnam.
A decade later, on March 29, 1975, Danang became the third city to fall as communist forces advanced down the country’s coastline in an aggressive offensive that ended April 30 with the capture of Saigon. That victory reunited the country and ended a painful conflict that killed 58,000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese.
Speaking before a stadium filled with some 30,000 spectators waving Vietnamese flags, Nguyen Ba Thanh, the head of the city’s Communist Party, made references to Danang’s military past but focused on its future. ‘‘Before the liberation, Danang was a huge military base... Industrial production was almost nonexistent. The rural areas were mostly destroyed by the war. Rice fields were unused,’’ he said. However, in the years since the war, Danang has enjoyed an economic boom that has made it a thriving showcase in Vietnam, he said.
‘‘The whole city is like a big construction site, which is changing the city’s face and creating a new image praised by the whole country,’’ Thanh said. The bustling city of about 750,000 people is now marked by a rising skyline filled with scaffolding-covered construction, some 200 new roads and four modern bridges spanning the Han River.
During the war, the nearby white sands of China Beach was a favorite rest and relaxation spot for U.S. troops. The region is courting tourism again with the construction of several multimillion dollar resorts along its coastline. As he stood in his beribboned, cream uniform waiting to march in the parade with hundreds of other veterans, Lt. Col. Pham Van Lien, 72, recalled an earlier time of hardship and deprivation. ‘‘I’m very happy that I survived so many years of war. I’m witnessing major changes in Danang and my country now,’’ he said.
The Associated Press - March 29, 2005
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