Hanoi (VNA) – A requiem was held at Ba Da Pagodain Hanoi on December 18 to pray for victims and Vietnamese and foreign soldierswho died while protecting the country during a US airstrike in December 1972.
The event was organised by the Hanoi PeaceCommittee and the city’s chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.
The US waged a bombing campaign in the north ofVietnam in late 1972, and the peak of this campaign was the bombing blitz byB52 aircraft in Hanoi.
In the night of December 26, 1972, Hanoi’sdensely-populated residential areas, including Kham Thien street, the workers’living quarter in An Duong street and even Bach Mai hospital, were relentlesslyattacked by a large number of the US’s B52 aircraft.
As many as 278 people, including 91 women, 40elderly and 55 children were killed and 178 children became orphans during thatair raid.
In remembrance of the victims, a memorial waserected on the used-to-be House 51 on Kham Thien street. In the December 26bombing, House 51 was destroyed and none of the seven people living in itsurvived.-VNA