2RHPZ
03-10-2005, 02:47 PM
Start of End of Vietnam War This Day, 30 Years Ago
By Ho Binh Minh
BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam (Reuters) - Three decades ago, this strategic town in the Central Highlands was stormed before dawn by Northern Communist soldiers in a key victory that signaled the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War.
On Thursday, Buon Ma Thuot was filled again with red flags and young soldiers marched past the statue of Ho Chi Minh, the country's late revolutionary leader whose name was given to the historic final campaign in 1975.
An estimated 10,000 women, students and tribal people joined a nationally televised parade in the capital of Daklak province as 30 elephants -- to mark the 30th anniversary -- swung by a podium and its bemedalled veterans.
Buon Ma Thuot is now famed as the heart of the coffee belt of Vietnam, the world's top producer of the robusta variety used to make instant coffee.
Thirty years ago it was a stronghold of the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese army.
The fall of the city was a major shock to the South Vietnam government, whose predictions of where the northern army would strike were wrong, said Nguyen Van Lang, chairman of the provincial People's Committee.
"It gave the opening to the historical Ho Chi Minh operation," Lang told Reuters Television in an interview, referring to the campaign which led to the end of the Vietnam War under two months later, on April 30, 1975.
"The Buon Ma Thuot victory has an extremely huge meaning to the revolutionary struggle of the Vietnamese nation," he said.
The battle in Buon Ma Thuot, 220 miles north of Saigon, lasted 30 hours. It ended with South Vietnamese soldiers casting aside arms and uniforms as they fled to the coast where they lost Hue on March 26 and Danang on March 29.
HAUNTED WAR
"This was the opening battle, it was very fierce," said Do Anh Thiep, a 62-year-old veteran who was based in Daklak between 1965 and 1979.
"We looked up and saw our artillery opening fire and the whole of Buon Ma Thuot at night was lit up as if it was a major front," Thiep said in a visit to the city's cemetery to pay respect to fallen comrades.
The Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon, but the conflict still haunts those from both sides who fought in the dense jungles of this Southeast Asian nation.
When the northern Vietnam People's Army entered Buon Ma Thuot, casualties was heavy. Many of the commando units that stormed the airport were killed, Thiep said.
"Many brothers had fallen, having sacrificed themselves for the cause of the country's liberation," he said tearfully, the smoke from his joss sticks winding through fellow white-haired veterans on the same mission.
Commissar Nguyen Ngai, 75, spent his retirement searching for comrades and informing families where their loved ones were buried. He said he has found 367 fallen soldiers so far.
Vietnam said it lost 3 million people in the conflict it calls "the American War." Many still lie anonymously in war martyr cemeteries or in the jungles.
Link (http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=7858585)
By Ho Binh Minh
BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam (Reuters) - Three decades ago, this strategic town in the Central Highlands was stormed before dawn by Northern Communist soldiers in a key victory that signaled the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War.
On Thursday, Buon Ma Thuot was filled again with red flags and young soldiers marched past the statue of Ho Chi Minh, the country's late revolutionary leader whose name was given to the historic final campaign in 1975.
An estimated 10,000 women, students and tribal people joined a nationally televised parade in the capital of Daklak province as 30 elephants -- to mark the 30th anniversary -- swung by a podium and its bemedalled veterans.
Buon Ma Thuot is now famed as the heart of the coffee belt of Vietnam, the world's top producer of the robusta variety used to make instant coffee.
Thirty years ago it was a stronghold of the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese army.
The fall of the city was a major shock to the South Vietnam government, whose predictions of where the northern army would strike were wrong, said Nguyen Van Lang, chairman of the provincial People's Committee.
"It gave the opening to the historical Ho Chi Minh operation," Lang told Reuters Television in an interview, referring to the campaign which led to the end of the Vietnam War under two months later, on April 30, 1975.
"The Buon Ma Thuot victory has an extremely huge meaning to the revolutionary struggle of the Vietnamese nation," he said.
The battle in Buon Ma Thuot, 220 miles north of Saigon, lasted 30 hours. It ended with South Vietnamese soldiers casting aside arms and uniforms as they fled to the coast where they lost Hue on March 26 and Danang on March 29.
HAUNTED WAR
"This was the opening battle, it was very fierce," said Do Anh Thiep, a 62-year-old veteran who was based in Daklak between 1965 and 1979.
"We looked up and saw our artillery opening fire and the whole of Buon Ma Thuot at night was lit up as if it was a major front," Thiep said in a visit to the city's cemetery to pay respect to fallen comrades.
The Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon, but the conflict still haunts those from both sides who fought in the dense jungles of this Southeast Asian nation.
When the northern Vietnam People's Army entered Buon Ma Thuot, casualties was heavy. Many of the commando units that stormed the airport were killed, Thiep said.
"Many brothers had fallen, having sacrificed themselves for the cause of the country's liberation," he said tearfully, the smoke from his joss sticks winding through fellow white-haired veterans on the same mission.
Commissar Nguyen Ngai, 75, spent his retirement searching for comrades and informing families where their loved ones were buried. He said he has found 367 fallen soldiers so far.
Vietnam said it lost 3 million people in the conflict it calls "the American War." Many still lie anonymously in war martyr cemeteries or in the jungles.
Link (http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=7858585)