HANOI, October 14: Vietnam on Wednesday held a solemn burial ceremony for the remains of 731 people believed to have been killed during the 1968 Tet Offensive, nearly six decades after the deadly fighting.
Thousands of people carrying white flowers lined the streets of Ho Chi Minh City as the remains were transported for burial. Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung attended the memorial service at Le Thi Rieng Park, where the remains were recovered from mass graves following more than three months of excavation.
The remains were later laid to rest at Ho Chi Minh City Martyrs’ Cemetery in the city formerly known as Saigon.
For decades, Vietnamese families have searched for relatives who went missing during the war, hoping to recover their remains and provide them with a proper burial.
Mass graves discovered after months of excavation
The Tet Offensive began on January 31, 1968, when North Vietnamese communist forces launched coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam during the Lunar New Year holiday. The offensive triggered intense fighting and heavy casualties, including in Saigon, where attacks targeted the US Embassy, military installations and government buildings.
Although the offensive ended in a military defeat for communist forces, it weakened public support for the war in the United States and became a major turning point in the conflict.
According to Vietnamese government reports, the bodies of communist fighters and civilians were collected and buried in mass graves during and after the fighting.
Excavations at Le Thi Rieng Park began on June 23. Investigators recovered bones and fragments alongside weapons, ammunition, military hammocks and personal belongings.
Among the items discovered was a wallet containing a faded military document bearing the name Huynh Van Quen. The document helped authorities identify him as a soldier from the 1st Long An Battalion, a communist unit involved in a seven-day battle near Saigon’s Y-shaped Bridge.
One of the mourners, 70-year-old Vo Huy Thinh, recalled witnessing bodies being buried at the site when he was 12.
“The memory of that burial pit has stayed with me,” he told Vietnamese state media.
Wartime photograph helped locate the graves
The discovery followed years of research by architect Nguyen Xuan Thang, who studied photographs from the Vietnam War in an effort to identify the burial site.
A breakthrough came when he found a colour photograph taken by an Associated Press photographer on February 12, 1968. Its caption described three large burial trenches, each containing around 300 bodies.
The photograph showed people carrying a body near a site with a water tower in the background, providing an important clue to the location.
Thang spent months comparing historical military maps with present-day landmarks across Ho Chi Minh City. His research formed part of an effort lasting nearly eight years, from November 2018 to May 2026, involving researchers and the military.
Investigators also examined wartime photographs, satellite imagery, military maps and archival records from Vietnam and abroad, alongside field surveys and accounts from witnesses.
Nationwide campaign to recover and identify war dead
The recovery is part of a nationwide 500-day campaign running until July 2027 to locate the remains of around 7,000 people killed during the war and establish their identities.
Vietnamese government figures indicate that the remains of approximately 175,000 soldiers have yet to be recovered, while hundreds of thousands more lie in graves without confirmed identities.
Of the 731 sets of remains recovered in Ho Chi Minh City, 307 were found with personal belongings. Most of the individuals have yet to be identified.
Nguyen Manh Cuong, who heads the city’s efforts to identify war dead, said the passage of time and the difficult conditions during the conflict had made identification challenging.
DNA samples have been sent to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in Hanoi for testing and comparison with samples provided by relatives.
Further memorial and burial ceremonies are scheduled for Thursday in three other parts of Vietnam. The remains of an estimated 93 people will be buried in Tuyen Quang province, another 65 in Hai Phong and 120 in Can Tho.
