I am an American

where the bomb fell on the Unification Palace
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Now for my third try at this entry

The one full day in Ho Chi Minh City began with a surprisingly decent breakfast from the Yellow House Hostel which could be Vietnam's version of the Chunking Palace. I received some advice from a young Aussie couple on what to do in the city then promptly hired a cyclo for the day.

Tan was my driver and he pedaled me to the Unification Palace first.  The Palace used to be the Presidential palace for the former South Vietnam.  The building was built in 1963 and it is classic international style.  Only the tropics seem to work for the big slabs of concrete.  The interesting story I learned here was of a spy working for the North who was flying for the South's air force.  During the final days of the war he dropped two bombs on this building.  Luckily for the building and the president of the time they did not explode.  The Pilot became a revolutionary hero and now is a board member of Vietnam Airlines.  The ex-president lived out the rest of his days in Boston.

The Laquer room in the Uni Palace
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The next stop was a combo natural history and political history museum.  The most remarkable thing here was the  couple getting their formal wedding photos taken in the building.

After a quick stop at a Buddhist temple built during the Ming dynasty occupation of Vietnam by China We stopped for a delicious bowl of Pho.

My final stop was the war remnants museum.  Formally the museum of American atrocities the name changed but the content and effect remain.  The first room is the facts a figures area.  The number of bombs dropped, The number of dead from every country involved.  The fiscal price paid.

Where the S. Vietnamese president hung out in the bomb shelter
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The next area was a retrospective of international photojournallists who gave their lives to report the war.

The final area was the graphic displays of what the war cost in human flesh to the Vietnamese people.  Pictures  of napalm victims, of those hit by various exploding devices and of course Agent Orange.  Agent Orange continues to effect children born today.  You see handicapped people everywhere you go in the country. When I left the building I could not look another person in the eye.  I stopped to buy some water and a handless blind man approached me to buy a book.  I now have a copy of Graham Greene's A Quiet American.

Wedding couple at Natural Museum
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Tan and I ended our trip hanging out and drinking coffee.  He told me a bit about spending 4 years fighting to defeat the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.  We also talked about the changes from '94 when the government no longer provided the social services coverage for education and health.

And now for Cambodia