Name: Vietnam marks 50 years since end of war with celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-05-03T00:24:01.000Z
Duration: 4 min 50 s
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50 years ago North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon bringing down the u.s.

Supported regime in the south and ending more than two decades of war in Saigon now officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City They've been celebrating Reunification day with parades and fireworks our correspondent Rupert Wingfield Hayes is there in Ho Chi Minh City Rupert what have the celebrations been like?

Well If you'd join me here two or three hours ago Karen, I tell you I was surrounded by literally I'm not exaggerating a sea of people hundreds of thousands of people came out this morning To celebrate this day.

It was also a sea of red the color of Vietnam's national flag with the yellow single yellow star People came out to watch the fly past to try and get to see the parade most got nowhere near it But they were soaking up the atmosphere Asking people here what this day means to them does it is it about the victory of the north over the south?

Is it the victory of communism over capitalism?

They actually shake their heads They say no what this is about is about ending a hundred years or more than a hundred years of foreign domination and division of their country and regaining their independence and national sovereignty This country once defeated the greatest military power on earth Today they are celebrating that victory Watching over them the father of the revolution Ho Chi Minh Here to their fraternal allies from China the first North Vietnamese troops entered the city it was a moment of Humiliation for America and its allies as North Vietnamese troops entered the presidential compound When North Vietnamese tanks smashed through those gates behind me here on April the 30th 1975 it brought to an end the South Vietnamese regime and the country of South Vietnam It ended 20 years of incredibly brutal conflict between the north and the south That had taken anywhere between two and three million lives 75 year old Le Thanh Yen shows me a picture of his comrades who survived many others did not He himself was badly injured four times Many of our comrades were lost he tells me there were battles where it seemed like we would all be killed But somehow some of us survived and in the end we achieved victory They achieved victory, but their country lay in ruins in four years the u.s.

Had dropped more bombs on Vietnam than on Japan and Germany in World War two They're still exploding today In the forests along the old front line the painstaking work of finding unexploded bombs never ends Oh, okay, so it's that round ball in there.

It is black This team is from mag a british-based charity funded with u.s..

Money My uncle lost his legs and an arm from an unexploded bomb I want to stop this happening to other people Back in Ho Chi Minh City, they're getting into the festive spirit even those born long after the war ended This is the day that we reunite together the South and North we reunite together and become a country What do you know about the war?

I really basically know nothing about the war, but my grandparents They are fighting in the war and now we can like look at the sky and see the plane and not scare at all Vietnam is a young country 70% of its people were born after 1975 they have no memory of the war What they do know is their country was once divided and occupied and now is united and independent That is something to celebrate Now relations between Vietnam and America have improved dramatically in the last decade or so and trade with America is Incredibly important for this young country which has export oriented industries They have been very shocked in the last month when President Trump announced his tariff table at the beginning of April Vietnam was slapped with 46% tariffs on exports to the United States that has been temporarily suspended But there is a fear here now They are being dragged back into another struggle between China and the United States this time over trade and who will dominate the world economy in the future Rupert, thank you very much Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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Vietnam marks 50 years since end of war with celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City | BBC News

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