The first thing that struck me here was the number of motorcycles & the lack of tuk-tuks as we travelled from the airport. So far we have visited Reunification (previously Independence ) Palace a french designed but Asian influenced building which is a snapshot from the past in its furnishing as well as housing lots of military equipment in its original settings from the time of the war.
A visit to the "War Remnants Museum" was much more sombre as it is sited in the prison used by the south vietnamese ( & their American allies/CIA) to interrogate prisoners of war. This may have been where the US acquired some of the techniques used subsequently in Cambodia & much later elsewhere in the world ( Iraq etc) e.g waterboarding or a variation on it. They also used equipment left by the french i.e. the guillotine - one of which is the first "exhibit" that we saw- and brought back into use an island prison built by the french when the South Vietnamese were fighting them for independence. The equipment on show used in the war was nothing compared to the statistics on the volume of bombs & mines used by the US in the conflict - particularly those containing napalm & dioxin (agent Orange) to defoliate vast tracts of the North. The birth defects from these are still appearing 40 years later ! They also exhibit a lot of photos which appeared in the west at the time of places such as Mai Lai where some 600 people - mainly women,children & old men were slaughtered by the US Marines.
Even the contemporary arts museum in HCM City - a lovely mix of French & Chinese architecture -is heavily influenced by the war , not surprising I suppose but does contain some beautiful pieces. After HCM w are looking forward to a more relaxed time in Nha Trang & only have to spend 7 hours on a train to get there.
A visit to the "War Remnants Museum" was much more sombre as it is sited in the prison used by the south vietnamese ( & their American allies/CIA) to interrogate prisoners of war. This may have been where the US acquired some of the techniques used subsequently in Cambodia & much later elsewhere in the world ( Iraq etc) e.g waterboarding or a variation on it. They also used equipment left by the french i.e. the guillotine - one of which is the first "exhibit" that we saw- and brought back into use an island prison built by the french when the South Vietnamese were fighting them for independence. The equipment on show used in the war was nothing compared to the statistics on the volume of bombs & mines used by the US in the conflict - particularly those containing napalm & dioxin (agent Orange) to defoliate vast tracts of the North. The birth defects from these are still appearing 40 years later ! They also exhibit a lot of photos which appeared in the west at the time of places such as Mai Lai where some 600 people - mainly women,children & old men were slaughtered by the US Marines.
Even the contemporary arts museum in HCM City - a lovely mix of French & Chinese architecture -is heavily influenced by the war , not surprising I suppose but does contain some beautiful pieces. After HCM w are looking forward to a more relaxed time in Nha Trang & only have to spend 7 hours on a train to get there.
No comments:
Post a Comment