Presidential Palace in Saigon In 1966 a modern palace for the president replaced the original built in 1868 for the French Governor-General (and destroyed in 1964 in an internal attempt to assassinate president Ngo Dien Diem). The new palace, designed by Ngô Viêt Thu, an honorary AIA member, contained presidential living quarters, government rooms, an extensive underground network of escape tunnels, bomb shelters and the war rooms of the south Viet Nam government. Today Saigon is called Ho Chi Minh City, and the Presidential Palace it is now the Reunification Palace. Inside are the intact rooms with their original rich finishes and furnishings protected since the day that Saigon fell in 1975. We visit the war rooms showcasing the models and maps of the last troop deployments. On the roof terrace a moribund helicopter rests, an awkward visual memorial to the chaos the week the Americans were evacuated and the south Viet Nam government fell.
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Hoa Lo Prison in central Hanoi A chamber of horrors was constructed by the French in 1896 to imprison and terrify Vietnamese dissidents. Built for 450 prisoners, by 1930 it housed more than 2000. The French overlords were merciless; they conducted unimaginable torture on a frequent basis. The north Vietnamese used Hoa Lo from 1964-73 to imprison a group of American POW’s (including the now Senator John McCain) shot down during the poorly planned air raids over Hanoi. It became known around the world as the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ largely because international observers proclaimed the prisoners to be treated fairly. Today Hoa Lo Prison has been partially replaced by a sleek, contemporary commercial office tower of the reflective glass genre found in every city of the world since 1990, one of the many symbols of the new capitalism sweeping the country. A remaining quadrant is preserved for the curious as a memorial to man’s inhumanity. It provides glimpses into a torture chamber, small cells, the dining room and recreation courtyard. It exhibits guillotines, torture tools and archival photos illustrating the horrors in this prison up to the 1950’s. A visitor here cannot help but conceive an eternal message of hope, human rights, peace, and the need for mankind to end wars and political incarcerations.
18 On Site review 22: WAR
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