Patriotic spirit: Vietnamese People’s Army soldiers marching; and (below) tanks rolling down the streets during a parade marking Vietnam’s 80th National Day celebrations in Hanoi. — AFP/Reuters
The nation held its largest-ever public celebrations to mark 80 years since the declaration of independence, with legions of lock-stepped patriots marching under fluttering flags.
Around 40,000 troops and civilians began parading in the capital Hanoi after dawn yesterday, feting the date when communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh declared a “Democratic Republic of Vietnam” free from French rule in 1945.
