Vietnam Celebrates War's End

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Vietnam celebrates war's end

Associated Press
Saturday April 30, 2005

Marching troops paraded down the same route taken by North Vietnamese tanks when they rolled into Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, 30 years ago as tens of thousands of people today marked the end of the Vietnam war.

Watched by the country's top leaders and legendary figures such as war hero General Vo Nguyen Giap, soldiers, government workers and performers marched with red flags waving toward the palace gates. Hundreds of veterans, their chests decked with medals, watched from the sidelines.

Giant billboards of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's revolutionary leader, dominated the parade ground and adjoining streets, which had been blocked off to the public due to security concerns.

On April 30 1975, communist tanks barrelled through the gates of the presidential palace, the heart of the US-backed Saigon government. The fall of Saigon marked the official end to the Vietnam war, and America's more than decade-long attempt to halt the spread of communism in the region. The war claimed some 58,000 American lives and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1473963,00.html

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1. Then As Now

How can a people who do not know their identity become protagonists in history, making history instead of suffering it?

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2. Peace

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3. George Bernard Shaw said, bu$hler is PROVING it:

"The one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."