The War Goes On.....

To continue from my previous post, on the war memorabilia I saw in Vietnam....

The War Remnants Museum

The War Remnants Museum houses a collection of the machinery, weapons, photos, and documentation of Vietnam's wars with the both the French and Americans (though the emphasis is heavily on the latter). The museum was once called the War Crimes Museum, which should give you an idea of whose side of the story is being told here. The museum calls for peace and a hope that history is not repeated. 

The exhibit includes a room listing war facts: troop numbers, bomb tonnage, statistics on international involvement in the conflict, and numbers of casualties on both sides. Then there's a room dedicated to the journalists and war photographers who were lost during the war..... to me this was a fascinating and evocative exhibit, often incorporating prints of their last spool of photographs taken just before they died. There are some horrific, haunting images of the human aspect of war.

One room is devoted to biological warfare, another to weaponry, and another to worldwide demonstrations for peace. I was quite disturbed by some of the exhibits, such as wall-size photos of the My Lai massacre and the bottled deformed foetuses, supposedly damaged by Agent Orange. Not for the faint-hearted.

There is also a large collection of bombs, planes, tanks, and war machinery in the main courtyard, and  a model of the French colonial prisons, called the Tiger Cages, on the grounds....

Reunification Palace

Designed as the home of former President Ngo Dinh Diem, the US-backed leader of Vietnam until his assassination in 1962, this building is most notable for its symbolic role in the Fall of Saigon in April 1975, when its gates were breached by North Vietnamese tanks and the victor's flag hung on the balcony.

The Reunification Palace is a series of rather empty rooms that feel like everybody just up and left one day... which they did! I quite enjoyed the period kitsch....

The President's Office

Entertainment lounge

Lacquer Room

War Command Room

Huey helicopter on rooftop

Front gates

Iconic photo of the North Vietnamese army tank crashing through the gates (30 April 1975)

Rex Hotel
Originally constructed to be a French garage in the early 1900s, the landmark Rex Hotel was developed into a commerce centre in 1959. Later, during the Vietnam War, the American Forces Information Service was headquartered there and it soon became a favourite haunt for US military officers and the scene of daily press briefings to foreign correspondents, known as the “five o’clock follies.”

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the hotel was redeveloped into an international-standard hotel and renamed Ben Thanh, which it is still called by some locals today. The “Rex Hotel” was adopted as its international trademark name.

A good - if pricey - spot for a cocktail and live music at the rooftop bar....