Thousands of excited citizens – many wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the Vietnamese flag – began gathering on the streets of the renamed Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, preparing to sleep out overnight ahead of the start of the display.
The celebrations come half a century after tanks of communist North Vietnam crashed through the gates of the city’s presidential palace, defeating the US-backed South and delivering a painful blow to American moral and military prestige.
“I am proud of having contributed to liberating the south,” said 75-year-old veteran Tran Van Truong who had travelled – dressed in full military uniform – from the capital Hanoi to see the parade.
Around 13,000 people, including veterans, soldiers and ordinary members of the public, will march down Ho Chi Minh City’s Le Duan Street, a major thoroughfare which leads to the Independence Palace.
For the first time, more than 300 soldiers from China, Laos and Cambodia will take part in the spectacle. (Agencies)
