Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9505010058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: HO CHI MINH CITY LENGTH: Medium
A parade with 30,000 participants - including decorated veterans, mini-skirted pom-pon girls and some of the country's best athletes - was scheduled to pass the former U.S. Embassy, ending at the old Presidential Palace, which was overrun April 30, 1975, by troops in Soviet-made tanks.
But while the former city of Saigon was gussied up for a festive, gala affair, government leaders spent the week stressing reconciliation with the United States, whose defeat here ended in a helicopter evacuation from the embassy rooftop.
In Hanoi, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet asked Vietnamese to ``shut out the past and look to the future to raise our national spirits, expand international relations and to work together with other countries for peace, cooperation and development.''
Indeed, in an era of new openness and economic reform within Vietnam, most people seemed to view the holiday weekend as a chance to stroll downtown or cruise on Honda motorcycles, not extol political ideology. Crews of police, some in riot gear, patrolled streets to maintain order.
But just as Robert McNamara's new book on the Vietnam War, ``In Retrospect,'' is reopening wounds of that war in the United States, some Vietnamese are searching for a more complete understanding of both their victory and its costs.
``People today want to see the overall picture, the victory and the price,'' said Vo Van Thanh, 62, a communist veteran of wars against the French and the Americans who came downtown to view a new film about a veteran driven to insanity by the war.
At the same time, said Vo Van Thanh, ``We are very proud of our victory!''
City officials, however, seemed ambivalent.
The city postponed a scheduled concert by legendary American soul singer James Brown, fearing it would upstage local events.
In speeches, government leaders and city officials focused on economic progress. Posters celebrating the anniversary depicted tanks alongside bulldozers and thatched huts next to high-rise buildings.
The Vietnamese government wants to establish full diplomatic relations with the United States as well as gain a reduction in trade barriers.
The two countries established liaison offices in each other's capitals in January. But President Clinton has said further progress depends on additional information about the fate of Americans missing in action from the war.
``We are ready to close the chapter on the past,'' said Truong Tan Sang, chairman of the city's government, a position akin to mayor.
by CNB