Vietnam Holiday – Ho Chi Minh City: Day 1 Museums

Well the first day involved visiting several of the museums and locations around District 1. This ranged from a Vietnam War Museum, the Independence (aka Reunification (and formerly the Presidential)) Palace and the War Remnants Museum. So I decided to visit all 3 🙂

Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Campaign Museum
This particular location at 02 Le Duan are the remnants are displays of the North Vietnam army aircraft and land vehicles during the Vietnam war – when Vietnam was liberated from the US during 1975.

The Independence (aka Reunificiation) Palace
Formerlly the Presidential Palace, this was the base of South Vietnamese army (the symphasisers and supporters of the US occupation) until the Fall of Saigon on 30th April 1975 – when the North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through the gates which signified the end of the war. The entry fee is VND30k + VND10k for a brochure – I bought the brochure option. The total equates to GBP0.90 🙂

I walked on Le Duan street pass the new US embassy, I tried to take a couple of photos – but unfortunately, the security guards didn’t see to welcome that…shouting ‘no photos’ at me – whoopsie… I guess it’s “national security”!!

War Remnants Museum
I then went on to visit the War Remnants Museum – which cost VND15k (equiv to about GBP0.45).  It was an interesting visit, with the artefacts of the US military positioned around the place.

It also opened by eyes to what the US did in Vietnam – the Chemical War that they imposed on the middle and north of Vietnam was just mind-boggling. Unfortunately, the third generations of the Agent Orange campaign are still feeling the full impact – with birth defects and premature deaths throughout. The museum explained the impacts very vividly – which really created an emotional feeling when reflecting upon the full impacts it has since caused.  The aim was to defoliate forested and rural land – the areas which the Northern Guerillas were based, to bring them out of cover!  So when we walk about Chemical Warfare (even the words of Weapons of Mass Destruction (ring any bells?) have been used to refer to Agent Orange) – it has actually stated in the 1970’s 🙁  But it wasn’t just Vietnam – Laos and Cambodia have also been affected by it!