The first thing you read in the guidebooks when in Vietnam is to forget the war, and to embrace the rest of the Vietnamese culture. However, as the war really wasn't that long ago (and our armed forces in NZ are still using same the aircraft we did during the war), there are some sites worth a visit.
One of the most interesting places we visited, during the entirety of our trip in fact, was the Reunification Palace, previously known before the war as the Independence Palace. It was the home and workplace of the president of South Vietnam during the war. It also has historical significance as the site of the end of the Vietnam war, with the fall of Saigon on 30th April 1975, when a tank of the North Vietnamese Army crashed through the palace gates.
The original palace had been bombed in 1962, and the new Independence Palace commissioned the same year. When the war ended in 1975, the palace was left exactly as it had been on that day. As you walk through the building, it really does feel like everybody has suddenly upped and left (as they did). The 1970's decor is interesting in itself. You can tour the president's office, the various official reception rooms, private quarters, cabinet room and ballrooms. Fascinating are the assorted gifts that the president had acquired from dignitaries, among them a stuffed leopard, and elephant hooves. Some parts of the palace, such as the conference room, are still used today for diplomatic functions.
One of the most fascinating parts of the palace is the basement, where a labyrinth of rooms and tunnels make up the war command HQ. Among the old communications equipment, rooms with huge charts and maps and escape tunnels, are the President's War Room and Wartime Sleeping Quarters. It was amazing to think that some huge decisions, and ultimately the fall of a country, had originated in that room.
In the President's War Room, dwelling on the fact that loss to the North is imminent
Another engaging site is the War Remnants Museum, which documents the Vietnam War (known here as the 'War of Resistance Against America', or more commonly, 'The American War'), and also the First Indochina War of 1946 to 1954, when Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh gained independence from the French. Also featuring strongly are the effects of Agent Orange, with galleries dedicated to the after effects of the chemical. The museum is still heavy with propaganda, which makes for an interesting look at the other side of the story, with posters encouraging civilians to 'Destroy the American Infidel' and talk of the 'Puppet Regime'. The museum was actually previously known as 'The American War Crimes Museum' as recently as 1993, when improved relations with the USA led to a less accusatory name.
The end of the Vietnam War, as the North Vietnamese tank crashes through the gates of the Reunification Palace in Saigon
The history is fascinating, especially history as recent as this.
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