Vox Populi:

“It was a big show.” That is how Robert Levering described the celebration in Ho Chi Minh City on April 30, marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam.

Levering was attending the celebration as part of a delegation from the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee, one of three delegations invited by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations, or VUFO, a non-governmental organization promoting people-to-people diplomacy between Vietnam and countries around the world.

The other delegations were from the National Council of Elders and the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, bringing to Vietnam an intergenerational, cross-movement cadre of organizers and activists to commemorate the anniversary of the war’s end.

The “big show” was the largest celebration and parade in Vietnam’s history, with international dignitaries as well as the current and former leaders of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the state of Vietnam in attendance.

Military demonstrations also contributed to the day’s atmosphere, causing conflicted feelings among some of the delegations’ attendees, who were looking to Vietnam for lessons on moving away from militarism.

Still, transnational solidarity and diplomacy were major themes of what is officially known as the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day.

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