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Published: December 19th 2015
There is a saying in French “
L'histoire est écrite par les vainqueurs , et non par les vaincus,” History is written by the victors and not by the vanquished.
The War Remnants Museum I was in high school and college during the height of American involvement in the Vietnam War. It was my classmates, my friends, who were being drafted. I watched the war unfold on the six o’clock news every night. I thought the war was stupid then, and I still think war is stupid today. A visit to the War Remnants Museum in Saigon didn’t change my opinion.
Originally called the War Crimes Museum, this place is pretty grim. Detailing the hardships of the Vietnamese people under the Japanese, then the French, and then during the war with the United States, I admit to feeling a certain grudging respect for the Viet Minh lead by Ho Chi Minh.
Make no mistake, this is a propaganda museum. The war with the US is referred to as the “American War of Aggression,” the French are known as colonial oppressors, and the Viet Minh are always described as brave and patriotic. But you can’t really argue with photographs
detailing the horrors of war, many taken by American and French photographers. A number of the pictures were familiar to me from seeing them in American magazines and newspapers.
In addition to the pictures, there are displays of captured armaments: a Chinook helicopter, an F-5A fighter plane, a tank, innumerable guns, and the list goes on. There are also recreated tiger cages used by the South Vietnamese government to hold political prisoners, and a guillotine used by the French and South Vietnamese as recently as 1960. One room detailed the effects of Agent Orange in chilling detail.
I will admit there were sections of the exhibition I didn’t – couldn’t – walk through because they were just too intense.
Regardless of your feelings about the necessity of any given conflict, I walked away with great sadness, and a certain anger, at the wastefulness of war. Sure, there is the cost in lives and human misery, but there is also a great cost in time and money. The war with Vietnam cost the American people over 58,000 lives, 17 years, and US$ 111 Billion (US$ 738 Billion in 2011 dollars.) The cost to the Vietnamese was even greater.
What an incredible waste.
The Reunification Palace Walking into the Reunification Palace – formerly the Independence Palace – is like walking into a time warp stuck in the 1960’s, orange leather and all. It was designed by an award winning architect to be the home of the President of Vietnam, who was Ngô Đình Diệm at the time. However, Diem was assassinated before he could move in, and the palace is most associated with
Nguyen Van Thieu. The building was used as his family’s residence, a location for state functions and as a military command center. However, on April 8, 1975, a Communist pilot who had infiltrated the South Vietnam Air Force dropped two bombs on the palace. Thieu resigned two weeks later, and was succeeded by his vice-president.
One of the coolest features of the palace is a structure on the roof. Called the Salon of the Four Cardinal Directions, it was designed by the architect as a place where the president could meditate and find peace during his stressful days. Thieu used it as a party room, with a wooden dance floor that could accommodate 100 people. Also on the roof is a helicopter pad
medic in Life magazine photo
The army medic in this photo was killed in combat three months later.where a Bell UH-1 military helicopter was always waiting for the president.
Today the palace has been renovated to look much as it did during the 1960’s. The official reception rooms have been restored, along with the really cool ‘60s furniture. There is also a fighter plane and a tank on the grounds. These are popular exhibits, though I can’t quite fathom why people want to take pictures of their cute little kids in front of war machines.
But perhaps what people remember most about the palace is when on April 30, 1975, tanks of the People’s Army of Viet Nam crashed through the gates of the palace. What Americans refer to as “the fall of Saigon,” the Vietnamese call “the liberation of Saigon.”
The gates have been repaired, and the gardens surrounding the palace have returned to their green and peaceful state. It’s an architecturally interesting building, and well worth a visit.
But I still think war is stupid.
Further reading Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, Bernard Fall
A definitive account of the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Sand in the bomb casings
Note the thickness of this exploded bomb casing Wind, Robert Roth
A novel, but considered to be one of the most realistic portrayals of the Vietnam War.
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, Robert S. McNamara
A memoir written by McNamara, Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1967 under both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I went to school in Dalat, Vietnam...
from 1956 to 1964 and experienced the war expanding from just the Viet Cong to include the Viet Minh. Our school was evacuated by the U.S. Air Force with several C-123's in 1965. I returned with my wife after college and served as acting design director for the U.S. Navy's design and construction office in Oct/Nov 1973, the year the peace treaty was signed. I was still in Thailand when Vietnam fell on 30 April 1975, and saw the many evacuees. I returned to Dalat with my son in 2009 and was graciously received by the Director of the school which was now a communist cadre training center for district and provincial officers. Pictures of Ho Chi Minh were in every room. It was wonderful to have access to the entire school and was able to show my son my dorm rooms and class rooms. in one class students called us in to sing a song. Then they sang a song. I learned that the Vietnamese do not hold grudges as we were welcomed by everyone we met. It's a wonderful country!