Victory Day in Vietnam (30/04)

On April 30, Vietnam celebrates the national holiday Victory Day (Liberation Day /Ngày giriti phóng) or the Day of the Liberation of Saigon and the End of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975.

Victory Day — is a national day off. On this day, television invariably broadcasts feature films and documentaries about the events of the Vietnam War, rallies and memorial meetings are held in many cities, and war veterans are also honored. Also on this day, it is customary to visit churches and light memorial candles.

The Vietnam War is traditionally referred to as the Second Indochina War, which took place in 1965-1975, in which the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and the United States of America took part. Let us recall that the first Indochina War (1945-1954) ended with the temporary division of Vietnam into two parts: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with its capital in Hanoi in the north and the Republic of Vietnam with its capital in Saigon — in the south.

The Vietnam War of 1964 - 1975 was one of the most controversial armed conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. Having begun in the late 1950s as a guerrilla war, it quickly escalated into international confrontation: the United States and its allies took the side of the South, and the North was supported by the USSR and China.

Historians name several periods of the Vietnam War. The beginning of the final stage of the war is considered to be the withdrawal of the last American military units in April 1973. But the fighting did not stop then.

In 1973 and early 1974, the Saigon government made substantial gains, but in late 1974, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam struck back. In 1975, North Vietnamese troops launched a general offensive. As a result, Saigon was surrounded, and on April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese Army officially capitulated, marking the end of the war.

After the end of the war, the north and south of the country in 1976 managed to unite the Socialist Republic of Vietnam into a single state —.

In 1995, the Vietnamese government released official human casualty figures: 1.1 million North Vietnamese Army soldiers and a total of 2 million civilians in the north and south of the country. US losses were estimated at 58 thousand people.

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