PHOTOS: Vietnam celebrates 50th anniversary of war’s end with grand parade

Vietnam marked the 50th anniversary of the end the Vietnam War on Wednesday with jubilation and a grand military parade – but also with a message of reconciliation.

Flag-waving crowds teemed the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, once known as Saigon, where the decades-long conflict against U.S.-backed forces that had divided the nation came to an end April 30, 1975.

Vietnamese communist party chief To Lam struck a note of reconciliation in his speech at the gathering that included a fly-past by Russian-made fighter jets and helicopters and parades by marching troops from Vietnam as well as China, Laos and Cambodia.

“In a spirit of closing the past, respecting differences, aiming for the future, the whole party, the people and the army vow to make Vietnam become a country of peace, unity, prosperity and development,” To Lam said.

Alongside him on the dias for the parade was Lao communist party chief Thongloun Sisoulith and Cambodian Senate president and former prime minister Hun Sen. Of the leaders, only Hun Sen was dressed in military uniform.

The fall of Saigon was an epoch-making event in the geopolitics of Southeast Asia. It came two years after the U.S. had withdrawn its last combat forces from Vietnam. Some 3 million Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 Americans died in the war, many of them young soldiers conscripted into the military.

The U.S. and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations 30 years ago, and economic and security ties have grown since then although a U.S. threat to impose high tariffs by July to address a major trade imbalance between the nation could strain the relationship.

The Associated Press reported that U.S. Ambassador Marc E. Knapper didn’t attend Wednesday’s celebrations but the U.S. consul general in Ho Chi Minh City Susan Burns did.