If anything, older Saigon residents said the anniversary was a reminder that Vietnam was finally at peace after decades of war. They vividly recalled the day communist tanks and troops rolled in to claim the city on April 30, 1975. Kieu Thi Bich Nga, a restaurateur, was 20 at the time. Binh Nguyen, who took the last fixed-wing military plane out before the fall of Saigon, said the city was in a panic. On a balmy Saturday night, large neon signs advertising LG Electronics and Heineken beer shimmer across the water of the winding Saigon River, casting a glow over passing sampans.
Residents lounge in wicker chairs in front of shopfronts.
Sharply-dressed teens on a sea of motorbikes flash by. Vietnam may have mediocre economic prospects in the short term, but few seem to worry in Ho Chi Minh City. Perhaps some deals simply do not get recorded in the national accounts. Martin Gainsborough, a specialist on Vietnamese politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said the city would remain Vietnam's economic engine in the future. But the lid on concrete political change would stay shut.