Vietnam celebrates 50th anniversary of victory over US

Vietnam celebrated the 50th anniversary of the victory of then communist North Vietnam over the United States, in which 3 million Vietnamese and 60,000 Americans had died.

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It was the defining war of the Cold War, which was an overt rivalry between democracies ostensibly led the United States and communism symbolised by the Ho Chi Minh-led North Vietnam.

Of course, then Soviet Union, now Russia, and China had supported the communist government in North Vietnam. It was a war that the Americans did not win. It took another 15 years for communism to collapse in Russia and in Eastern Europe.

But Vietnam remains defiantly communist. Like China, Vietnam does not follow the old communist-style ideology. Vietnam had embraced market economy, shook hands with old foe United States and it has prospered. Even as Vietnam staged a spectacular victory parade in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in which Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian and Laotian soldiers participated, Vietnam Communist Party chief To Lam described the victory as a nationalist triumph of the Vietnamese nation.