Forty years after fall of Saigon, Vietnam now directs anger at China

Asia-Pacific

Forty years after fall of Saigon, Vietnam now directs anger at China

Vietnamese national flags — with a gold star on a red field — fly everywhere in the run-up to today’s big parade marking the fall of Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City, on April 30, 1975. However, this country is no longer obsessed with the “American war” or the regime in Saigon that Washington worked very hard to support until the end of the war. Admiral Tran Thanh Minh, deputy chief of Vietnam’s small navy, says the stronger memory today is of Vietnam’s border war with China in 1979 and the current threat posed by China’s claim to control a large portion of the South China Sea.

For thousands of years, the Vietnamese people have been fighting invasions from China. We defeated China with endless spirit.
Admiral Tran Thanh Minh, deputy chief of Vietnam’s navy

Vietnam now looks to the U.S. as a partner and potential source from which to buy weapons to modernize the country’s military, says the admiral. The two countries have also hosted high-level visits, and Vietnam has welcomed military cooperation and visiting U.S. naval ships. China continues to spar with Hanoi and other neighbors over disputed islands in the South China Sea in what is viewed as a growing maritime threat in the region.

U.S. companies have invested billions here, integrating Vietnam into the global supply chain, creating quality jobs for Vietnamese workers.
Ted Osius, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam