Vietnam marks the 30th anniversary of the day it drove American troops out

In the city once known to the West as Saigon, thousands of cheering Vietnamese took to the streets yesterday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their victory over the US. Meanwhile, in Washington, the capital of their once deadliest foe, any commemorations were entirely private affairs.
In Ho Chi Minh City troops paraded down the same route taken by North Vietnamese tanks when they rolled into the city. Watched by government officials and war heroes such as General Vo Nguyen Giap, soldiers, workers and performers marched with red flags.
Hundreds of ageing 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.
In the US too this week, there have been gatherings of veterans to honour the friends that never returned. But in Washington - where the Vietnam memorial on the Mall remains a constant magnet for visitors - there has been little official recognition of the war that cost the lives of 58,000 US troops and more than three million Vietnamese.
It was on 30 April 1975 that Communist tanks barrelled through the gates of the presidential palace, the heart of the US-backed Saigon government. The fall of the city marked the official end of the Vietnam War, and a more than decade-long American attempt to halt the spread of Communism in the region. The vast majority of US troops had left two years earlier but Washington continued to support the government of South Vietnam.