Vietnam: War Remnants Museum

We stayed in Ho Chi Minh from Monday through Friday. In that time, we also went to the War Remnants Museum which was a VERY interesting Experience. This was one of the places I really wanted to go to when I was here because I had heard really interesting things about it.

To give you a sense of what this museum was like, let me tell you that it used to be called the "Museum of American War Crimes." They changed the name because it was too negative and wasn't attracting as many people as they wanted. However, only the name was changed, not the contents of the museum.

In a word, very anti-American. Understandable, I suppose, given who owns the museum.

Jesi asked which was true: what they teach in America or what they teach in Vietnam. My dad told her somewhere in between. I am under no illusions that American soldiers were celebrated in every town they entered in Vietnam, but I also do not think that the Vietcong were as celebrated as the museum made them out to be either. That's about all I can say about the Vietnam War because my U.S. History class only ever made it trough WWII before the end of the year so our coverage of the Korean and Vietnam wars was limited to what I learned reading "The Things They Carried" in my Post-modern American Literature class.

These were some of the things we saw at the museum that I found interesting.

These were Tiger Cages made of metal frames wrapped in barbed wire. A small cage would hold up to three prisoners. It was hard to tell which side they were saying used the Tiger Cages, but I imagine it was both sides.



There was a yard filled with captured tanks and airplanes, mostly American.



This was a propaganda poster telling farmers to treat stranded American pilots nicely.



This was one portion I thought was really interesting. There was a wall talking about how Fidel Castro openly supported Vietnam and told the United States to leave Vietnam. There were inspirational pictures of Castro holding banners with quotes about Vietnam. My thought was, "Yeah... we should listen to what FIDEL CASTRO has to say about it." Heavy sarcasm, in case you didn't hear it. I might not know much about the Vietnam War, but if my friend Mindy's mom (who ran away from Cuba with her family when she was ten years old) is to be believed, then Castro's regime was DEFINITELY not about fuzzy bunnies and kittens.

So, I guess what I'm saying is people who put Fidel Castro as a referral on their resume don't get many points from me.



There was a section hung with art from children. I'm not sure what this picture was all about, but the visuals are slightly disturbing.



There was a section about Agent Orange as well. I had honestly only heard about Agent Orange only briefly before going to this museum. All I knew about it was that it was a toxic weapon used by the United States. I had no idea how devastating is was. Not only was it terrible in its destructive power, but it continues to affect children born from parents who were infected with it by eating fish or drinking water from contaminated water sources.

These are some before and after pictures of an area that was hit with Agent Orange.



Overall, the museum was very solemn and thought provoking. I had heard from lots of people that Americans who go there usually leave with a bad taste in their mouth, but I'm very glad that we were able to visit it. I would highly recommend visiting the museum if you are ever in Ho Chi Minh City.