Vladivostok News May 21, 2002 Vietnam War recalled from Soviet perspective By Anna Malpas
A nostalgic celebration at the end of the Vietnam War was held at the Vietnamese Cultural Centre in Vladivostok on May 7, at the opening of an exhibition entitled 'The Vietnam War: looking back through the years', to run throughout May.
Among the guests at the exhibition, to mark the 27th anniversary of the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, were the Vietnamese Consul General, students at the Marine State University, and local Vietnamese residents.
The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the Vietnam War, assisting Ho Chi Minh's forces with supplies, arms and 22,000 military advisers. Soviet aid was loaded onto ships in Vladivostok, and local sailors were among the war-dead.
"We love the USSR very much and remember," said Nguyen Tien Zung, the chairman of Vladivostok's Vietnamese association. His compatriots quietly sang along to a wartime song, "We're going to free the South," performed by a Vietnamese language teacher.
The director of the Vietnamese Centre, based at the Far East State University, Professor Alexander Sokolovsky recalled the important role of the Bridge of Friendship, a Soviet organization supporting Ho Chi Minh.
"It was established in 1971, and everyone joined. The Russian people wanted to help the friendly Vietnamese people," he recalled.
"They demonstrated, gave money, and the state loaded big ships with rice, food and medicine."
"The main sense of our exhibition is that we have no right to forget the war. We don't want it to be repeated," he concluded.
Soviet military aid to Vietnam was officially acknowledged in 1999 at a conference of the Institute of Military History in Moscow. Its findings were published in a rare book, on display at the exhibition, called 'The Vietnam War: looking back through the years'. Other exhibits include a red sash given by Vietnamese school children visiting Vladivostok in 1968 and a marble statue of Ho Chi Minh presented by the Consul General.
The Vietnamese Consul General Nguyen Ngoc Binh told the gathering that, "Our people are close both spiritually and historically."
"We strengthened our friendship with our blood, sweat and tears."
However, he assured journalists that, "We now have normal diplomatic and economic relations with the USA, and relationships are developing in other spheres."
Vladivostok retains close links with Vietnam, and the Vietnamese Cultural Centre at the Far East State University was partly funded by the local Vietnamese population, which numbers around 1,0000, mainly businessmen and market traders.