On April 30, 1975, communist tanks barreled through the palace gates in what was then Saigon, capital of South Vietnam. The city's fall marked the official end of the Vietnam War, and the decade-long US campaign against communism in Southeast Asia. The war claimed the lives of about 58,000 Americans and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese.
''I was listening to the radio with my family and heard that Saigon had been liberated," said To Thanh Nghia, 51, a government worker marching in the parade. ''I was very happy because for many years we weren't free. After 30 years . . . our land is safe and secure, and I think the future will be better for my children."
The atmosphere in the country three decades later has been mostly festive, focusing on the recent economic rejuvenation. Memories of the war and its aftermath are little more than anecdotes in history books for most Vietnamese who were born after it ended.
''My father and grandfather fought in the war, but I was too young," said Nguyen Thanh Tung, an 18-year-old student. ''My future will be good because they created opportunities for my generation."
Along the grand boulevard where communist tanks once rolled, capitalism has taken solid root. Some parade floats, sponsored by Vietnamese banks, sported the logo of US credit card companies. One float featured women pushing shopping carts filled with supermarket goods.
These days, Le Duan Street is home to Diamond Plaza, a glittering, upscale department store where French perfumes and Italian shoes are sold to an emerging urban middle class. Along the same strip, a French-owned five-star hotel sits across the street from the US Consulate.
While Vietnam proudly recalled its victories over both the United States and colonial France, the focus was clearly on the future.
''Through our two resistance [wars] against foreign aggressors, the historical clashes in Saigon will always be in the forefront," President Tran Duc Luong said to cheers from the crowd. He called Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, the nation's ''economic locomotive."
