nbsp; At 8:00 hours on the morning of April 30, 1975 , my unit crossed the Saigon Bridge . At 9:00 hours it arrived at Hang Sanh intersection, then the Thi Nghe Bridge , the Zoological Garden. Tanks and motorized vehicles of the Liberation Army made speedy advances along the Red Cross Boulevard (now Le Duan Road), straight to the Independence Palace. Getting to the mansion, Tank 843 under Bui Quang Than’s command failed to crash down the side-gate on the left, but Tank 390 under Le Dang Toan’s command successfully smashed the main gate, roaring into the front yard. My jeep following Toan’s tank turned to the left toward the Palace. I jumped to the lawn and ran as fast as my legs could carry me to the mansion to hoist up the flag and it was out of my expectation that the entire Duong Van Minh Cabinet had been there along with several western press reporters.nbsp; I ran up from the ground floor to the first floor, encountering a man who identified himself as “Brig. Gen. Nguyen Huu Hanh, aide to President Duong Van Minh”. nbsp;He said, “All members of the Duong Van Minh Government are in the Conference Hall. Commander, please come in to start work.” As I entered, Duong Van Minh said:nbsp;nbsp;“I know the liberation forces are advancing into the inner city. I’m waiting for the Liberation Army to hand over (the power).”

As a victor, I said promptly: “You’re all captured. You must declare unconditional surrender and there’s no question of handover at all.”nbsp; I resolutely asked both Duong Van Minh and Vu Van Mau to go to the radio station. Duong Van Minh was frightened, refusing to go there.nbsp; I said the Liberation Army had occupied all of Saigon . After a brief discussion, both Minh and Mau agreed to get onto my jeep.nbsp; At the radio station, I took the two up to the recording-room to write the declaration of surrender: “I, Gen. Duong Van Minh, President of Saigon Administration, hereby declare unconditional surrender to the power of the South Vietnam Liberation Army. I call upon the authorities from the center down to the localities to lay down their weapons and hand them over to the revolutionary power.” Having written it, I passed it over to Duong Van Minh to read but he said: “I can’t read the Commander’s handwriting.nbsp; Please, Commander, read it for me to write it down.” Duong Van Minh took out his pen from his pocket and paper from the recording room to copy down the declaration of surrender, without mentioning the word “President”. Duong Van Minh said: “I’m only a General and not President. As Mr. Huong had run away, I had to take up the duty.” nbsp;I said promptly: “Even though you take up the job for one day or even for one hour, you’re actually President.” Only after that did he agree to literally copy down the declaration of surrender. nbsp;After his reading it twice, his voice was to be recorded.nbsp; But the recorder that had been captured at the battlefront broke down. Luckily, a German reporter lent his professional recorder and the job was well done.

While preparations were made for the recording, a big and tall liberation armyman came over to me and asked me in whisper:nbsp; “Who are you?” I answered “I’m Pham Xuan The, Deputy Commander of Dong Son Army (i.e. a special name of Regiment 66).” He introduced himself to me as Bui Tung, Lieutenant Colonel and Political Commissar of Brigade 203. After a brief discussion, Lieut. Col. Bui Tung, on behalf of the South Vietnam Liberation Army, accepted Duong Van Minh’s declaration of surrender.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;

At 14.00 hours of April 30, 1975 , I handed Duong Van Minh and all of his Cabinet over to Army Corps II Command.

Thirty years have passed by since the grand event and it has gone through my life like a sweet dream. Recalling that moment, I have got mixed feelings, both heartened and worried. I feel heartened because the Saigon regime was toppled and the country liberated, but I still feel worried, wondering whether there was anything wrong with my own solution of the situation.nbsp; Things unfolded too fast, without prior preparations. Our initial purpose was to hoist up the flag on the Independence Palace , without anticipation of the capture of the Duong Van Minh Cabinet.nbsp; At the decisive moment, I made every effort to execute what I had got from the direction of the superior authority:nbsp; As a soldier, when you fight a battle, you must win it; when you capture the enemy’s highest commander, you must force him to call for surrender to avoid bloodshed.nbsp; I had gone through quite a few grim campaigns in the war against US imperialism, and I had seen my buddies, my fellow-countrymen and even those on the other side of the front line suffering from such big losses. During the Ho Chi Minh Campaign alone, nearly half of Regiment 9 (of Division 304) sacrificed, about 40-50 of my comrades-in-arms in Regiment 66 laid down their lives, and I felt deeply grieved for them. Therefore, as opportunity cropped up, with the Saigon cabinet’s surrender, I at once thought about forcing them to declare surrender in public over the radio, with a view to promptly drawing the war to a close, and bringing peace for the fatherland and happiness for the people.nbsp;

Today, in retrospect, I still feel excited and proud that I did something beneficial for the country, although I was then only 27 years old.

Story: Hoang Chuongnbsp;- Photos: Hoang Ha