War Remnants Museum

The Museum of War Victims in Ho Chi Minh City is one of the few world collections of artifacts that show the war through the eyes of not the victors, but the victims - the civilian population who has experienced all the horrors of armed conflicts. More than half a million visitors come here a year, and this interest is easy to explain: the cruelty and senselessness of wars is rarely exposed to the public. The exposition of the Museum of War Victims is not for the faint of heart: guillotines and "tiger cages", which contained Vietnamese communists, photographs of the aftermath of the napalm attack and weapons of mass destruction are presented. In a word, even hardened cynics become convinced pacifists here. Perhaps the only bright spot in the gloomy collection is the documents on the international anti-war movement.

In the museum, you can see the famous photograph of Nick Ut, taken in 1972, of a naked Vietnamese girl running along the road. The photo subsequently received the Pulitzer Prize, and its heroine became the UN Goodwill Ambassador.

A bit of history

After Vietnam gained independence, the question arose of creating a museum, where the sad evidence of armed conflicts, during which the civilian population suffered primarily, would be preserved. The opening of the first museum of this kind took place in 1975, it was named "Exhibition Center for the crimes of the United States and the puppet government of South Vietnam" and is located in the building of the former United States Information Agency in Ho Chi Minh City. The exposition also includes evidence of earlier external aggressions - from France and the United States, starting in 1954. In 1990, the museum was renamed politically correctly, mentioning countries and governments was dropped. And in 1995, with the resumption of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam, the collection began to be called simply the Museum of War Victims.

In the courtyard of the museum, there is a BLU-82 bomb of mass destruction, which was the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the world during the Vietnam War.

What to watch

The exposition of the Museum of War Victims in Ho Chi Minh City is located in several buildings and includes outdoor exhibition spaces with captured military equipment from the United States and South Vietnam. Here you can see a helicopter, an F-5 fighter jet, assault planes and the historic M48 tank that broke into the Reunification Palace in 1975. A little further, it is worth paying attention to unexploded ordnance, of course, defused. Among them is the infamous BLU-82 bomb of mass destruction, which was the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the world during the Vietnam War.

The exposition of the covered part of the museum is divided into 8 thematic sections. In separate rooms there are photographs and archival documents, instruments of execution and torture, material evidence of the cruelty of the invaders, evidence of the effect of chemical warfare agents on the human body. Visitors' attention is invariably drawn to horrific photographs of the effects of the chemical agent orange, napalm and phosphorus bombs, testimonies and photos of victims of the Milai massacre, and preserved human fetuses mutated by the reagents. Exhibits are accompanied by explanatory text in three languages, including English.

In total, the exposition of the Museum of Military History covers eight topics and is located in several buildings. In the courtyard there are captured military equipment, helicopters, bombs, fighters, tanks and attack aircraft - all this can be seen here, and in the corner of the courtyard there are unexploded ordnance.

The most interesting exhibits

One of the buildings on its floors contains the "tiger cages" where political prisoners were held on the orders of the government of the southern part of Vietnam. There are exhibitions of photographs here that reflect the consequences of the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants, phosphorus bombs and napalm, cruelty, one of the moments is the massacre in Sunmi. All this is accompanied by explanations in Japanese, Vietnamese and English.

Among the exhibits of the museum there is a guillotine, which was often used to execute prisoners, the last one was carried out in 1960. As well as vessels with preserved fruits that have undergone mutations due to exposure to dioxin.

In addition, the collection of the sights of Vietnam includes a US-made attack aircraft, he served in the Air Force of South Vietnam, after which he was captured by the military in the northern part of the country, then continued to serve in the military forces of the country. In the museum, the plane stands with American insignia and the inscription "US Air Force" on its side.

Address, opening hours and cost of visit.

Address: Ho Chi Minh City, Vo Van Tan Street, 28 (at the corner of Le Quy Don Street), Ward 6, District 3.

Opening hours: daily from 7:30 to 12:00 and from 13:30 to 17:00.

Entrance - 40,000 VND . Prices on the page are for November 2018.