Ho Chi Minh-Ville is at the party: a scarlet sea of t-shirts, caps and pennants struck by the yellow star swept through the streets around the independence palace, of which just fifty years ago, on April 30, 1975, the North Vietnamese tanks smashed the portal. At the time, it was the seat of the Presidency of the Republic of Vietnam and Saigon was the capital. Since the day before, whole families, groups of friends, couples, drawn smartphones, camp on the sidewalks and along the parks to capture a moment of the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the reunification of the two Vietnam.
Two years earlier, on January 27, 1973, the Paris agreements had put an end to the war between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Communist (North) and the United States, which withdraw their troops from the Republic of Vietnam (South), saber their financial aid and finally abandon it to its fate in the illusion of future, peaceful and concerted reunification. The north, however smaller and less well armed, then launched its troops to the southern assault – until the fall, faster than expected, of Saigon.
The “Southern Liberation”, as the communist account wants, is celebrated every ten years, but it is the first time that it gives rise to a military parade as elaborated in the economic capital of Communist Vietnam: a sign of times, while more than 60 % of the 100 million Vietnamese are under 50, and which has imposed itself at the top of power a new strong man, to Lam.
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