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Veterans from both sides of conflict on 40th anniversary of US withdrawal

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• published: 31 Jul 2015
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AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST Hanoi, Vietnam 1. Wide of Vietnam Military History Museum 2. Close-up of American tank on display 3. Wide of tank 4. Mid of museum visitors 5. Mid of American aircraft, markings read (English): "US Air Force" 6. Mid of Vietnamese veterans looking at displays 7. Mid of Ho Van Minh, Viet Cong veteran of the Vietnam war, sitting on a bench 8. SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Ho Van Minh, Viet Cong veteran of the Vietnam war: "We were fighting fierce battles, putting more pressure on the Paris Peace Treaty negotiation table. That led to the withdrawal of the US troops, out of Vietnam." 9. Close-up of Minh's legs, one of them is prosthetic 10. SOUNDBITE (Vietnamese) Ho Van Minh, Viet Cong veteran of the Vietnam war: "(When the US troops withdrew) we fought in important battles at the gates of Saigon. The news of the withdrawal gave us more strength to fight. The US left behind a weak South Vietnam army. Our spirits were so high and we all believed that Saigon would be liberated soon." Bangkok, Thailand 11. Wide of journalist Denis Gray working on his desk 12. Close-up of Gray 13. Close-up of Gray's hands on computer mouse 14. Wide of Gray during interview 15. SOUNDBITE (English) Denis Gray, former Vietnam war veteran and journalist: "Personally, I came to Vietnam in the military, and willing to believe that I was in a possibly, maybe not a just war, but a war that might have to be fought. But I was there for a year, and towards the end of it, myself and most of my fellow officers, and the men we were commanding, didn't quite believe that. And this was specially reinforced by the fact that we were pulling out and we hadn't really finished the job. And we probably sensed that the war will probably not be won by us or by the Vietnamese, so that made the situation really complex." Hanoi, Vietnam 16. Various of veterans looking at exhibits on display 17. Mid of US Air Force helicopter 18. Mid of B-52 bomber wreckage STORYLINE On 30 March 1973, the last American troops withdrew from South Vietnam, ending the United States' direct military role in the Vietnam war. Ho Van Minh, a Viet Cong veteran of the Vietnam war, first heard about the American combat troop withdrawal during a weekly meeting with his commanders in the battlefields of southern Vietnam. Sitting in the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi 40 years later, Minh recalls the day he heard the news while fighting for the Viet Cong. "We were fighting fierce battles, putting more pressure on the Paris Peace Treaty negotiation table. That led to the withdrawal of the US troops, out of Vietnam," said Minh, as he sat among captured American tanks and destroyed aircraft. The news gave the northern forces fresh hope of victory, but the worst of the war was still to come for Minh. The 77-year-old lost his right leg to a land mine while advancing on Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City), just a month before the city fell, signalling the end of the fighting. "(When the US troops withdrew) we fought in important battles at the gate to Saigon. The news of the withdrawal gave us more strength to fight. The US left behind a weak South Vietnam army. Our spirits were so high and we all believed that Saigon would be liberated soon." Minh, who is on a two-week tour of northern Vietnam along with other veterans, said he bears no ill will to the American soldiers, who fought against him in a war that destroyed much of his country, and led to the deaths of an estimated three million of his fellow country men and women. "Personally, I came to Vietnam in the military, and willing to believe that I was in a possibly, maybe not a just war, but a war that might have to be fought," said Gray in Bangkok on Thursday. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1094e586d004bea05b1152d66ea088e0 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork