Vietnam buries remains of 731 war dead nearly 6 decades after the Tet Offensive

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Thousands carrying white flowers lined the roads in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City Wednesday as the remains of 731 people believed to have been killed during the 1968 Tet Offensive were taken for burial nearly six decades after their deaths.Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung attended the memorial services at Le Thi Rieng Park, where the remains were recovered from mass graves after over three months of excavations. They were laid to rest at Ho Chi Minh City Martyrs’ Cemetery in the city previously known as Saigon.Generations in Vietnam have spent decades searching for loved ones who never returned from war, hoping to recover their remains, give them a proper burial and finally find some measure of closure.Hundreds were buried in mass graves after bloody fightingThe Tet Offensive began on Jan. 31, 1968, when North Vietnamese communist forces launched coordinated surprise attacks across South Vietnam during the Lunar New Year holiday, known in Vietnam as Tet. One of