On Friday, at the Ho Chi Minh City's Reunification Palace, thousands of residents of the heroic Ho Chi Minh City took part in the celebration ceremony to celebrate the 40 Years of Spring - 1968 General Offensive Campaign and the 78th Anniversary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam .
The Communist Party's General Secretary, Nong Duc Manh and other of the nation and city's leaders also participated in the ceremony. One notable participant was Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh, who signed the 1973 Paris Peace Accord for the Southern Provisional Revolutionary Government and later became Vice-president of the reunified Viet Nam
The opening ceremony, saw military parades of the war's veterans and re-enactments of the surprise wave of urban assaults that marked a turning point in the war. Youths in soldiers' uniforms with models of AK-47 assault rifles and rocket launchers joined the parade, as did women carrying fruit baskets on shoulder poles, recalling the way arms and bombs were transported secretly into the city.
Addressing the meeting, Mr. le Thanh Hai, Chief of the Communist Party Committee of the city said that the 1968 Tet Offensive turned a new page in the Viet Nam war and struck a blow to the imperialist Americans' will to continue their aggression. "It is one of the most glorious chapters in Viet Nam's history", he reaffirmed.
On behalf of city's youths, the Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Communist Youth Union committee, Tat Thanh Cang affirmed the determination to develop the traditions of their fathers' generation, in an attempt to study and contribute in the country's future development.
The Tet Offensive started with several attacks on January 30, but was launched in earnest in the early hours of January 31, 40 years ago last Thursday. It was there that some 70,000 Vietnamese fighters attacked strategic targets in more than 100 towns and cities within South Viet Nam, including the former US embassy and the palace.
The offensive proved to be a psychological victory by strengthening the US's anti-war movement and forced US President, Lyndon Johnson to stop bombing over the North, open negotiations in Paris and declare he would not run again.
