 
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sunday, April 30, 2000
By Reg Henry, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -- The fall of Saigon 25 years ago today may have been a victory for communism, but you can't keep free enterprise down entirely.
Yesterday, with only one more shopping day left before the big celebration, flag vendors were standing beside the road at busy intersections in Vietnam's major southern city to take care of everybody's patriotic and revolutionary needs.
Nguyen Thi Mai, shaded from the bright sunshine by her straw conical hat, said business had been good. At her spot, next to a gas station of Hoang Van Thu Street in the Tan Binh district, a red national flag with a yellow star in the middle was going for 15,000 dong -- slightly over a dollar. A 5-foot bamboo pole was included. A whole set of gaily colored flags -- green, pink, blue, yellow, purple -- could be purchased for 42,000 dong ($3).
Ho Chi Minh City is decked with red flags and colored bunting for this occasion. Red banners with yellow lettering stretch across streets. Huge posters in propagandistic socialist style -- workers and revolutionaries standing heroically together and pointing to a grand future -- are everywhere.
Perhaps they lose something in translation into English, but these banners do not appear to be written by a Vietnamese Oscar Wilde. "We are trying to make the country develop more and more in the 21st century," one says.
"Very warm welcome for the 25th year celebration for the Vietnamese citizens who against the Americans liberated the country," says another
To be fair, this may not be so stilted in Vietnamese, but the reference to Americans is a reminder that this is still the "American War" to them.
The most heavily decorated building is the Reunification Palace, the last known South Vietnamese address of President Nguyen Van Thieu,who handed over to hapless successors in the last days before the North Vietnamese tanks busted down the gate on April 30, 1975. That scene became one of the iconic images of the end of the Vietnam War; it is depicted on posters around the palace for this anniversary.
Even the nearby Roman Catholic cathedral has long red banners placed around it; they frame the large statue of the Madonna that stands in the square in front of the church. Bunting also has been strung up to the top of the twin spires.
What the government doesn't decorate, the people must do themselves.
Everybody is expected to put up a flag on the family house, according to 28-year-old Pham Huu Thien, a guide for a photographer and reporter from Pittsburgh.
It is not that the police will come to visit if you don't put up a flag; rather, it just might be a good idea.
We call this political correctness in America, which is not to say that many people here don't have a sincere regard for their government and its role in the reunification of their country.
By the same token, thousands of others in the city, which was the capital of the anticommunist regime supported by the United States, must be giving half a cheer for this anniversary, living as they must with their secret and bitter regrets about how it all turned out.
But Thien, the guide, is a big supporter of the holiday. "We are so happy this year. We love it," he said. "Americans and Vietnamese are no more the enemy. We are friends, close friends."
He explained why he liked this anniversary in particular. "Because many foreigners come to Vietnam, many journalists, many Americans come."
But why is this good? The money they bring?
"Yes," he said, merrily. "The economy."
Some 400 expense-account-heavy foreign journalists came to Vietnam for the 25th anniversary, giving media exposure to Vietnam that it normally could only dream of. Chief among them was the NBC outfit following Sen. John McCain around. McCain succeeded in giving the Vietnamese government a nightmare with negative comments about his treatment as a POW.
Other American veterans were also in town, including a high-powered delegation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund with a positive agenda for promoting educational and business ties and understanding.
Journalists and veterans of various stripes crowded the city's watering holes in the evening and recalled how things used to be here. But those reunions are beside the point: This anniversary is one for the Vietnamese to celebrate.
The troops who stormed the palace did it on the day before International Labor Day, May 1, thus guaranteeing future generations a long weekend. Some Vietnamese won't go back to work until Wednesday.
Today's celebrations are to be held early in the morning, before the heat sets in. There will be speeches and a parade. A Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City bike race will end up here.
It should be a good day for vendors.
School girls make their way along Duong Ton Duc Thang along the Saigon River in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. (Annie Oneill, Post-Gazette) 
The streets of Ho Chi Mingh City in Vietnam are lined with the nati8on's flag. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)