by Our Foreign Desk

VIETNAM’S government and people united yesterday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the military defeat inflicted on US imperialism and the achievement of national unity.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told a commemorative rally in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, that April 30 1975 marked a new chapter in Vietnam’s glorious history of national construction and defence.

“With that victory, we accomplished a historic mission of liberating the South and reunifying the country, bringing Vietnam into a new era, the era of independence and reunification, and building socialist Vietnam into a strong nation with wealthy people and a democratic, just and civilised society,” he said.

The prime minister declared that all Vietnamese would bear in their hearts and minds their gratitude to former outstanding leaders of the Communist Party and the country, heroic martyrs, comrades and compatriots who sacrificed and dedicated their whole lives to the struggle for national independence, freedom and reunification.

The city was blanketed with red banners that read: “Long live the glorious Communist Party of Vietnam.”Thousands of people, including war veterans in uniforms heavy with medals, lined the streets to applaud a march divided up into blocks of those who contributed to liberation.

There were units of the armed forces, police, guerillas and local guards, veterans’ groups, young volunteers, workers, farmers, youth, women and social organisations.

Among those present was Nguyen Van Tap, who drove his tank through the iron gates of the presidential palace 40 years ago.

“The tank crashing through the gates … was a symbol of victory for the Vietnamese nation and the Vietnamese People’s Army, marking the end of the 30 years of national resistance against the French and then the Americans,” he said.

“For the Vietnamese, April 30 is a day of festivities and national reunification.”

Fellow veteran Nguyen Tran said the Vietnamese people feel happy whenever the Day of Liberation and National Reunification comes around.

“It is not because we are victors but because it marks a time when there is no more war in our country and peace has returned to our people,” he declared.