Hanoi prays for victims, martyrs in US’s 1972 airstrike

Hanoi (VNA) – A requiem was held at Ba Da Pagoda in Hanoi on December 18 to pray for victims and Vietnamese and foreign soldiers who died while protecting the country during a US airstrike in December 1972.

The event was organised by the Hanoi Peace Committee and the city’s chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.

The US waged a bombing campaign in the north of Vietnam in late 1972, and the peak of this campaign was the bombing blitz by B52 aircraft in Hanoi. 

In the night of December 26, 1972, Hanoi’s densely-populated residential areas, including Kham Thien street, the workers’ living quarter in An Duong street and even Bach Mai hospital, were relentlessly attacked by a large number of the US’s B52 aircraft.

As many as 278 people, including 91 women, 40 elderly and 55 children were killed and 178 children became orphans during that air raid.

In remembrance of the victims, a memorial was erected on the used-to-be House 51 on Kham Thien street. In the December 26 bombing, House 51 was destroyed and none of the seven people living in it survived.-VNA