Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and many high- ranking officials attended the event.

The chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, addressing the ceremony, said that the liberation of South Vietnam and the reunification of the whole country were a victory won by the Vietnamese people through the struggle waged under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh.

History has turned pages over, but the values of the Vietnamese people's great resistance for national salvation will be maintained forever, he added.