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The country had to sacrifice a lot to achieve victory during the General Offensive and Uprising in the spring of 1975, culminating with the the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, said Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Huy Hieu, former Deputy Minister of National Defence.
He made the remarks in a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the Liberation of South Vietnam and National Reunification Day (April 30, 1975).
Hieu, who commanded an attack on Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in April 1975, said the victory was the culmination of Vietnamese military knowhow. It demonstrated the whole nation and people’s will and determination to liberate the South.
He said previous generations had to sacrifice their lives for the country’s independence, freedom and peace.
The war to liberate the South and reunite the country lingered on for more than 20 years, he said, adding that during that time, the North played a signifcant role in supporting human strength, wealth and spiritual encouragement for the Southern front.
Children from most families in the North joined the army. Northern soldiers stood side by side with their southern counterparts on the battlefields with the ultimate goal of liberating the South, he said.
Looking back, cemeteries, from Dong Truong Son in the central province of Quang Tri to those in the South have tens of thousands of graves of unidentified fallen soldiers who came from the North and died during the war to liberate the South.
There are more than 30,000 people missing on the battlefields in Vietnam. The Party, State and people are sparing no effort to search for the remains of the fallen soldiers, he said.
He added that more than 3 million Vietnamese people are contaminated with dioxine. Most of those are from northern provinces and cities. In addition, bombs, mines and explosives left over from war have caused hundreds of thousands of casualties.
Vietnam has asked the US and other countries to help it overcome the consequences of the war in a humanitarian spirit, Hieu said.
Referring to lessons from the anti-French and American resistance wars, as well as in the national building and defence, the general emphasised the need to inherit and promote experience to continue the cause of safeguarding national independence and sovereignty.
