This week, largescale commemorations took place in Vietnam to mark the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, known in Vietnam as Reunification Day. North Vietnam forces captured the capital of South Vietnam, on 30 April 1975. As part of the 1975 ‘spring offensive’, this event led to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government and the evacuation of thousands of US personnel and South Vietnamese civilians linked to the Saigon regime. The formal reunification of the country as the ‘Socialist Republic of Vietnam’ took place on 2 July 1976.
Below is a short introduction and link to a book on this important subject, ‘Empire Defeated – Vietnam War, the lessons for today’ (first published in 2004), by Peter Taaffe, who sadly passed away last week (OBITUARY | Peter Taaffe – International Trotskyist Theoretician and Fighter for Socialism |)
socialistworld.net
The Vietnam War was the longest conflict of the twentieth century – unfolding over 30 years, 10,000 days in length. This war left an indelible impression worldwide in the minds of the generation who lived through these tumultuous events.
It helped to form the “1960s generation” of young people who participated in and sometimes led mass movements and demonstrations against the established order of world capitalism. It was a powerful factor in the revolt of the student youth, who sympathized with the Vietnamese masses and their tenacious resistance to US imperialism.
This youth revolt, in turn, was the spark which ignited a colossal working class uprising, the greatest general strike in history of ten million workers and the occupation of the factories in France in May-June 1968.
It was, therefore, a significant factor in shaping the outlook of the European and worldwide working class, decisive sections of whom, in the revolt against capitalism and searching for an alternative, found a road to socialism.
Empire Defeated – Vietnam War, the lessons for today – Socialist Party