Among the attendees were Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan. In the early morning of January 31, 1968, President Ho Chi Minh’s New Year poem read on Radio the Voice of Vietnam inspired the Vietnamese army and people to launch a general offensive and uprising.

In his speech at the grand ceremony, Nguyen Thien Nhan, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh city Party Committee, said that the army and people simultaneously launched attacks on American and Southern Vietnamese bases in cities such as Hue, Da Nang, Saigon, and Can Tho: “The decisive strategic victory in 1968 drastically changed the war situation and promoted the role of the National Front for the Liberation of Southern Vietnam. The win dealt a strong blow to the invasion and war strategy of the US imperialists and their supporters, forcing them to accept direct talks with Vietnam at the Paris conference.”

The Spring 1968 feats of arms confirmed revolutionary forces’ strength in politics, military, and diplomacy and led to the complete liberation of southern Vietnam on April 30, 1975.