AKP Phnom Penh, April 29, 2025 --

It was the Việt Nam Thông tấn xã (Vietnam News Agency – VNA) that first published the triumphant news the nation had longed and fought to hear for over three decades. In that unforgettable moment, yellow-star-emblazoned red flags fluttered above every street, office building, and home.

The first dispatches – news reports, photos, and eyewitness accounts – came from reporters of the VNA and Thông tấn xã Giải Phóng (Liberation Press Agency - LPA). Their coverage swiftly swept across the country and reached global audiences, capturing with the historic moments of the nation’s victory against the US, the fall of the US-backed Saigon regime, and the collapse of Washington’s “Vietnamisation” strategy.

Photos and headlines that made history

According to veteran journalist Tran Mai Huong, it was the early hours of April 30, 1975, when the spearhead of Vietnam’s Army Corps 2 surged towards the heart of Saigon. Huong and his colleagues were already on the move, crossing the major highway bridge over the Dong Nai River at dawn. At multiple points along the road, the journalists’ jeep had to hug the flanks of an advancing tank, weaving between armoured columns to avoid crossfire from the enemy. The tanks led the charge, followed by armoured vehicles and infantry carriers, all flanked by 130mm field guns providing fire support. The long convoy thundered directly toward the Independence Palace.

The VNA team reached the palace just as the first tanks smashed through its gates. Huong leapt from the vehicle, camera in hand. Before him, Tank 846 charged through the shattered iron gates. The journalist’s instinct took over, he raised his camera and captured a single frame. That photo was later named, “Liberation Army Tank Enters Independence Palace, Noon, April 30, 1975.”

“Priority went to the photojournalists, and I, as a journalist, was only given two rolls of film,” Huong recalled. “By the time we reached the palace, I had just 13 frames left. But when I saw that tank and the flag waving in victory, I knew I had to preserve that moment. I pressed the shutter once, then sent the roll back to Hanoi.”

According to him, the photo was then widely published across Vietnam and picked up by international news agencies, becoming a symbol of the April 30 Victory Day. Huong said he did not see the iconic photo until more than a year later, when he returned to his agency in Hanoi.

Approaching from the western axis of advance, a team from the LPA, led by journalist Nguyen Thanh Ben, entered Saigon via the districts of Hoc Mon and Go Vap. What they encountered was a city alive with jubilation. Waves of cheers echoed from both sides of the streets as columns of liberation troops rolled past, accompanied by stirring music blasting from radios turned up to full volume.

“Once we reached Saigon, Chin Thep took us straight to his home on Cach Mang Street (now Nguyen Van Troi, in Phu Nhuan district),” Ben recalled. “After a quick reunion with his family, he jumped on his Vespa and took me on a whirlwind tour around Tan Son Nhat Airport; at a crossroads, a tank still smouldered, and every now and then, deafening bangs from unexploded shells were heard.”

He said their journey continued through the Bay Hien textile zone, past the Ben Thanh Market, and down Tran Hung Dao Street into the Cho Lon area.

That evening, back to Chin Thep’s home, Ben remembered sitting down to write his report, titled “Saigon May Gio Dau Giai Phong” (Saigon: The First Hours of Liberation). On the rooftop, the entire news team, including radio operators, worked non-stop and took turns cranking a hand-powered generator to transmit the report back to their base in Tay Ninh. “Sweat streamed down our faces and pooled on the generator,” he said.

Ben noted that Dao Tung, who commanded the editorial post in Tay Ninh, ensured the report reached Hanoi without delay. By 8pm that night, Ben heard his own words being read on the national radio. “That moment hearing my story broadcast, it’s hard to describe the feeling,” he said.

The war correspondents of the VNA and VPA stood on the news frontlines, documenting what would become one of the greatest victories in Vietnam’s struggle against foreign aggressors, the liberation of the South and the reunification of the nation.

In the hours and days following the news of liberation, an unrelenting stream of reports flowed in. News flashes were transmitted by Morse code and teletype, while thousands of photos – vivid, unfiltered records of Saigon’s early days after the liberation – were dispatched to Hanoi by air and telephoto transmission, finding their way into the hands of domestic newspapers, broadcasters, and international news agencies. Despite being two separate entities on paper, the LPA and the VNA operated as one seamless organisation throughout the war until the victory day.

Journalists turning the page with the nation

As night fell on April 30, 1975, VNA and LPA journalists, many embedded within the advancing liberation forces, converged in Saigon with a profound sense of elation.

To ensure the uninterrupted flow of information, they swiftly returned to their typewriters and transmission lines, with their reports detailing the liberation and the handover of key institutions. All roads of information from every military division, bureau, and regional desk led to the makeshift headquarters in Tay Ninh. There, under the direction of Editor-in-Chief Dao Tung, all reporters, editors, and technicians available worked around the clock to process and dispatch the latest developments to Hanoi.

Journalist Tran Mai Huong and his iconic photo of Tank 846 of the Liberation Army entering the Independence Palace on April 30, 1975. (Photo: VNA)

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