December 23, 2017 | 17:31 (GMT+7)
Hanoi commemorates victims, martyrs in US’s 1972 airstrike
A requiem was held at the B52 victory monument in Hanoi’s Kham Thien street on December 22 to pray for victims and soldiers who lost their lives during the US airstrike in December 1972.
The annual event was organized by the Hanoi Peace Committee (VPC) and the city’s chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.
Speaking at the ceremony, VPC Chairman Uong Chu Luu said the victory of the “Hanoi – Dien Bien Phu in the Air” (called Operation Linebacker II or Christmas bombing by the US) stands out as an historic event in Vietnam’s national building and defense course in the 20th century.
He stated Vietnam will never forget wartime victims and people who died protecting national independence.
The US waged a bombing campaign in the North of Vietnam in late 1972, and the peak of this campaign was the bombing blitz by B52 aircraft in Hanoi from December 18-29.
In the night of December 26, 1972, Hanoi’s densely-populated residential areas, including Kham Thien street, the workers’ living quarter in An Duong street and even Bach Mai hospital, were relentlessly attacked by a large number of the US’s B52 aircraft.
As many as 278 people, including 91 women, 40 elderly and 55 children were killed and 178 children became orphans during that air raid.
In remembrance of the victims, a memorial was erected on the used-to-be House 51 on Kham Thien street. In the December 26 bombing, House 51 was destroyed and none of the seven people living in it survived.
Source: VNA