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The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Vietnam war is over: Saigon gives in with a sigh of relief – archive, 1975
The 30 years old Vietnam war is over. The Saigon government today unconditionally surrendered to communist forces, ordering its soldiers to hand over their weapons to Liberation troops. It was a scene some had never expected to see and others had tried to imagine but never succeeded in envisaging. The North Vietnamese and the Vietcong rolled into Saigon just after noon. T-54 tanks flying the red and white flag of the Liberation Armed Forces going before and the camouflaged Molotova trucks of the infantry –grinning, olive skinned boys in dark green uniforms – following after in a triumphant entry into the heart of the city. The tanks roared down Cong Ly, the big street that leads to Saigon's centre from the north, and the first tank smashed through the gates of the Independence Palace, slewed, and turned. Then the other vehicles poured in, laagering in the park in front of the Palace. The troops, armed to the teeth with AK-47s, automatics, and revolvers, and with machine-guns mounted on the roofs of the cabs, waved and smiled. Two hours earlier and only 90 minutes after the final Americans had been evacuated from Saigon, President Duong Van Minh announced the surrender over the government radio in a brief speech. Minh, speaking slowly and sadly, said that 'our policy as a government is national reconciliation and concord. To save further bloodshed, I now order the armed faces to stop fighting. I also ask the forces of the National Liberation Front to do the same. We are ready and waiting to hand over full administrative power to you.' Later, Brigadier-General Nguyen Huu Hanh, the highest-ranking General Staff officer left in the city, ordered all units to 'remain calm,' wait until contacted by communist forces, and then hand over their weapons. The order was not immediately obeyed. One fight, witnessed by UPI reporter, Alan Dawson, broke out in front of the Palace itself. Dawson spent 10 minutes tucked between two Vietcong soldiers behind a tree. The communists put out a tremendous volume of tank, machine-gun, and rifle fire, and Dawson was able to pull out. When a boatload of people tried to set off down the Saigon river to the South China Sea, a Vietcong officer ordered a tank to fire a round across the ship's bow. The boat turned around and returned to the Saigon dock. Crowds greeted a victory parade along Tu Do street apprehensively, according to UPI. Many people waved at the communist troops, and some of the soldiers waved back. The communists laughed and cheered and shouted, 'Hello, comrade,' to bystanders from tanks bearing Vietcong flags. According to Hanoi Radio, the Liberation Army had been ordered not only to occupy 'all important positions and major lines of communication'' but to 'dissolve all armed organisations of the puppet administration.' 'It said troops had strict orders on how to behave. Lives and property of both Vietnamese and foreign residents should be protected. The army command, the radio went on, had instructed all employees of the previous administration to report to their offices. 'The command calls on the entire people to unite closely under the banner of the great cause of the National Liberation Front and the Provisional Revolutionary government of South Vietnam.' it said. The Liberation Front issued an order saying: 'Let all puppet army officers, soldiers, and air and naval personnel, no matter where they are hiding, quickly return to the nation, bringing with them aircraft, warships, and naval craft, and report in time to the Revolutionary administration. Saigon Radio itself announced that the city was henceforth to be called Ho Chi Minh City – 'the city which Uncle Ho dreamed of.' Ho died in 1969. In spite of some people's worst fears, the first day under communist control was relatively calm. In general, newsmen were allowed to operate at will, although there were severe communication difficulties. Radio photographs and radio circuits were ruled out, and no planes were allowed to land to pick up television film.
Hindustan Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
HT This Day: May 1, 1975 -- Peace at last in Vietnam: NLF forces take control in Saigon
Saigon: The National Liberation Front (NLF) and the North Vietnamese forces today occupied Saigon following the unconditional surrender of the Saigon Government putting an end to nearly 30 years of war in Vietnam. Many Government soldiers turned in their arms and tried to lose themselves amid the civilian population. But there were periodic outbursts of gunfire-some from scattered pockets of resistance and others from celebrating PRG and North Vietnamese firing into the air. The blue and red flag with a yellow star of the Provisional Government was hoisted over the presidential palace in Saigon. General Duong Van Minh, who took over the presidency only two days ago, watched resignedly as three NLF front tanks broke through the big main gate of the palace and soldiers leapt out of a lorry to hoist the flag. A Reuter correspondent was in the palace grounds when dozens of NLF tanks came rumbling at noon, prompting soldiers of the Saigon regime to raise their hands in surrender. Just minutes before, President Minh told the correspondent he was still awaiting word from the PRG, whose grinning green-uniformed troops waved to hundreds of Saigon residents cheering them as their convoys moved through a capital festooned with white flags of surrender. PRG flags fluttered atop many buildings. After 120 years of French colonialism, Japanese occupation during World War II and American military intervention, the Indo-China peninsula was free of foreign domination. Conciliation President Duong Van Minh announced his Government's unconditional surrender in a broadcast this morning and ordered the South Vietnamese soldiers to turn in their arms. 'All soldiers, be calm,' said the President in a 60-second radio address. 'I also call on soldiers not to open fire so that together we can discuss ways to hand-over the rems of Government without bloodshed.' 'In the interest of peace, national conciliation and concord of the people, to save the lives of the people, I believe deeply in conciliation among the Vietnamese people,' Minh said. 'Therefore, I call on all the soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam to stay where you are.' 'We also call on the soldiers at the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) not to open fire because we are here waiting to meet with the Government of the PRG to discuss the turnover of the administration, both civilian and military, without causing senseless bloodshed of the people.' Four hours later, a jeepload of North Vietnamese soldiers brought the 51-year-old President to the microphone, and he again appealed to the Government forces to give up. PRG Foreign Minister Nguyen Thi Binh said in an interview in Da Nang yesterday that Gen. Minh might 'still have some role to play in the future of Vietnam.' The 51-year-old retired General was taken into custody, one report said. Saigon fell with a whimper. Diehard palace guards fought a fierce last fight with the communist tanks which rolled into the grounds and elite Government paratroops fought to the finish near Tan Son hut airbase. But, as another Reuter correspondent reported, the city capitulated virtually without resistance and the population in fear of final bloodbath - greeted the NLF troops with great relief. The correspondent watched the first NLF troops enter the centre of Saigon - a jeepload of barefoot, teenage guerillas. They were followed by regular soldiers, perhaps of the North Vietnamese army. clad in jungle fatigues and carrying assault rifles and grenade launchers. A festive mood instantly replaced the anarchy and fear. As soon as the communists arrived, looting and armed robberies stopped. The collapse came only hours after the Americans completed their disorderly pullout which President Ford described as closing a chapter in the American experience. Four hours before the tanks entered at 9-30 a.m. (IST), the last American helicopter plucked the final dozen Americans from the roof of the now-pillaged US embassy. The end of US involvement came in chaos. Weeping Vietnamese begged to be taken out and tried to force their way into the Embassy. In all some 1,000 Americans and 5,300 Vietnamese were evacuated on the last day. Moments after the last marines left today, escorted by helicopter gunships people broke into and looted the building. The consular building was set ablaze, writing a fiery end to a war that claimed more than one million lives, some 33,000 of them Americans. The disarray of the evacuation was visible too at the other end of the helicopter flights from Saigon to offshore warships. The choppers were pushed wholesale into the sea to make room for others to land. President Minh gave up as the flow of Vietnamese refugees already had begun to land in the US, much as previous runaways from hostilities - Hungarians in the 1930's, Cubans in the 1960's had done. American relief agency officials said as many as 60,000 Vietnamese will eventually settle in the US.
