HCMC 14 October
This morning we decided to visit some of the historic sites from the Vietnam War. We walked to the Reunification Palace, a beautiful building built by the French at the time that they ruled here. It was built as a presidential Palace for the French governor. France forced the Vietnamese into being a French colony in the mid 1800’s. In 1975 the US was defeated by the Viet Cong and was forced to leave Vietnam. The communist north overcame all resistance of the south and the allies, and formed the reunification of the whole country. At the Reunification Palace all the formalities were held and the two parts of the country became one under communist control.
The Palace is a beautiful, large, four story building sitting in a large park with gorgeous trees, lawns and flowers. We visited the president’s and vice president’s formal quarters where they entertained heads of states and conducted state of affairs for South Vietnam. In the basement were many rooms that contained the communications center during the war and the old radio and teletype equipment are still on display. The walls in the hallways contain hundreds of pictures of visiting dignitaries from various countries during the time the US was involved here.
Our next stop was at the War Remembrance Museum. This was an extremely emotional experience as we saw more than 20 US tanks, artillery pieces and airplanes and helicopters that had been captured or abandoned at the end of the conflict. The walls inside the building were covered with hundreds of enlarged photos of the horrors of the war. One wall was dedicated to war correspondents that covered that war and lost their lives here. Another wall showed pictures of the fighting and another showed the terrible suffering of civilian women and children. Of course everything shown was slanted with a distinct prejudice against the allies. The pictures of the G.I.’s, wounded and killed were again a stark reminder of the horrors of war. We have appreciated their dedication in going into such a war, even if they did not believe in the purpose of being here. Many of the pictures showed the G.I.’s hunkered down in trenches with beards that had not been shaved in days. Understanding the weather here with temperatures in the high 90’s and humidity as high you wonder how they survived in such conditions.
This morning we decided to visit some of the historic sites from the Vietnam War. We walked to the Reunification Palace, a beautiful building built by the French at the time that they ruled here. It was built as a presidential Palace for the French governor. France forced the Vietnamese into being a French colony in the mid 1800’s. In 1975 the US was defeated by the Viet Cong and was forced to leave Vietnam. The communist north overcame all resistance of the south and the allies, and formed the reunification of the whole country. At the Reunification Palace all the formalities were held and the two parts of the country became one under communist control.
The Palace is a beautiful, large, four story building sitting in a large park with gorgeous trees, lawns and flowers. We visited the president’s and vice president’s formal quarters where they entertained heads of states and conducted state of affairs for South Vietnam. In the basement were many rooms that contained the communications center during the war and the old radio and teletype equipment are still on display. The walls in the hallways contain hundreds of pictures of visiting dignitaries from various countries during the time the US was involved here.
Our next stop was at the War Remembrance Museum. This was an extremely emotional experience as we saw more than 20 US tanks, artillery pieces and airplanes and helicopters that had been captured or abandoned at the end of the conflict. The walls inside the building were covered with hundreds of enlarged photos of the horrors of the war. One wall was dedicated to war correspondents that covered that war and lost their lives here. Another wall showed pictures of the fighting and another showed the terrible suffering of civilian women and children. Of course everything shown was slanted with a distinct prejudice against the allies. The pictures of the G.I.’s, wounded and killed were again a stark reminder of the horrors of war. We have appreciated their dedication in going into such a war, even if they did not believe in the purpose of being here. Many of the pictures showed the G.I.’s hunkered down in trenches with beards that had not been shaved in days. Understanding the weather here with temperatures in the high 90’s and humidity as high you wonder how they survived in such conditions.
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