SAIGON, Vietnam — Russian-built Vietnamese air force planes and helicopters zoomed overhead, ambassadors and bureaucrats cheered from the stands, and floats cruised down the avenue leading to the presidential palace through whose iron gates the first “North” Vietnamese tank had roared to victory 50 years ago.

Fifty years ago, the North Vietnamese military toppled the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, effectively ending the Vietnam War and sparking a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees to the United States.

Ho Chi Minh City lined its streets with flags and posters on Tuesday (April 29) as it prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war when North Vietnamese tanks burst through the gates of the presidential palace and Communist forces took control of the city.