WITNESS THE HORROR OF WAR AT THE WAR REMNANTS MUSEUM IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

#Sights #Vietnam #HoChiMinhCity #museum #war
25 okt 2015
2 minuten om te lezen

You don't really have to visit this museum to see the scars left in Vietnam by decades of war. There's plenty of places that constantly remind you and even if you were to forget for a few seconds, there's always someone more than happy to tell you yet another gruesome story. War is omnipresent in Vietnam, so it was obvious the War Remnants Museum had to be on my to do list.

I'm not American and hadn't been to the US yet when I visited Vietnam, so I didn't know that much about the war and was completely impartial. My main interest was to get more information and especially to see the effects of the war on the people.

I soon discovered the museum is completely one-sided and its main objective is clearly to portray the Americans as the bad guys rather than to give an accurate version of history. The role played by the Vietnamese is the role of the victim and not one word is spoken about all the horrors caused by the Viet Cong. All you see is cruelty caused by Americans.

But it's not because the whole truth isn't shown that the part you get to see didn't happen or becomes less cruel. What happened, happened to real people and really touched me. Yes, the Vietnamese won the war, but seeing the consequences and human suffering, it's hard to call it a victory.

Obviously, this is not a 'fun' visit. I left the museum speechless and with tears in my eyes.

Below are some pictures that particularly touched me.

Caution: some of them can be shocking.