SAIGON: Cheering, grinning National Liberation Front troops marched to Saigon today [April 30] less than two hours after the head of the former Saigon military regime, General Duong Van `Big` Minh announced the regime`s capitulation. Hundreds of people lined the streets of the fallen capital to cheer the NLF troops in their tanks on their way to the presidential palace.

The surrender ends three decades of fighting in Vietnam in which over a million people died, including 56,000 Americans. (In Washington there was no immediate comment on the surrender announcement.

President Ford said yesterday the evacuation closes a chapter in the American experience.) The Front`s red, white and blue flag with a gold star was hoisted over the presidential palace. ... The occupation of the city ... was smooth.

[Meanwhile as reported from Singapore,] Saigon is to be re-named Ho Chi Minh City, according to South Vietnam`s Liberation Radio. ... A communique from the [NLF`s] Revolutionary Committee for Saigon ... called on the South Vietnamese people to `rise and take partin the battlefor the occupation of this great city, hearing the great name of President Ho Chi Minh`. News agencies