SAIGON
[Mission Civilization] America's influence was very noticeable in Saigon in two
significant ways. One way can be summed up in a phrase I think was coined during
France's colonial rule of Vietnam in the early half of the 20th century that I
felt was a better description of America's influence in the subsequent decades.
Back when the French were commercially exploiting Vietnam's cheap labor and natural
resources, the French did all this under the guise of their "mission of civilization"
of their Vietnam colony which was more vulgarly known in Vietnam as the "mission
of syphilization". While I'm sure this type of activity occurs throughout Vietnam
and in all developing countries that have occupying foreign armies, it was just
much more established and blatant here in Saigon than anywhere else.
[The American War] Even though French's occupation of Saigon was at least twice as long as that of America's, the major tourist museums' exhibits focused their attention on America's role in the Vietnam War (or as the Vietnamese sardonically refer to it as the American War). Perplexed as to why it was called the American War, our tourguide explained to me that this general sentiment stems from the aftermath of the Geneva Conference in 1954. Signed by the Viet Minh and the French Union, it called for an armistice and temporarily divided the country at the 17th Parallel into the Communist North and the French-backed South and that pledged to hold general elections in two years time to unify the country under one elected government. Because the elections would have favored the Communist North, the South led by Ngo Dinh Diem refused to abide by the Geneva agreements, and declared South Vietnam a sovereign nation.
The problem our tourguide had with the U.S. was that by acknowledging Ngo Dinh Diem's sovereign government, it blatantly ignored the Geneva agreements for free elections that would have allowed the Vietnamese people to decide for themselves the form of government that would govern them. She pointed out that the U.S. government had a long and unsavory history of promoting the democratic process in countries only when the outcome suits their purpose.
[Museums] The Museum of Ho Chi Minh City and the War Remnants Museum, major tourist destinations, both have sizable collections of American equipment abandoned after the Vietnam War (i.e. leftover bombshells, tanks, airplanes, etc.). The two most disturbing exhibits were both located in the War Remnants Museum. One displayed in gruesome pictures the terrible effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese people and on the countryside and the other described the different techniques of torture used by the Americans on the Viet Cong POWs. Neither really put America in an endearing light.
[Pagodas/Cathedral] There's no shortage of Buddhist temples and pagodas in Saigon which were clustered around the Cholon district. All of the ones we visited (the more notable ones include Phuoc An Pogoda and the Jade Emperor Pagoda) were still active temples which didn't allow us to get more than a cursory glance of their interiors. The quintissential building of Saigon would have be in my opinion the Notre Dame Cathedral, with its twin gothic towers protruding from the top. It's also the place where most spy legends are made. We were told that during the Vietnam War, the Cathedral was a favorite haunting ground for agents and their informants, and the preferred unofficial meeting place between diplomats.
[Reunification Palace] A place of important historical significance and immaculately maintained by the government, I was disappointed by the lack of tourists at this premier tourist attraction in Saigon although it was quite possible we visited it on a very slow day. Hesitant on appearing too American, we opted for the palace tour in Chinese. As a tourguide should be, our tourguide was very informative about the history and about the political situation during Ngo Dinh Diem's led South Vietnamese government than ended in 1963. She, like the previous tourguide, also had a noticeable animosity toward the U.S. government, and in her case towards the CIA especially. She believed that the U.S. inspired coup against and the deaths of South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem, and his closest advisor, his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu was directly ordered by the CIA. She recants that the coup that began in the Palace ended with the voluntary surrender of the President and his brother. Once put under military arrest, pictures record them being led into an armored carrier securely handcuffed behind their backs. But upon arriving at their destination, they were both found dead in the car and was incredulously ruled an accidental suicide. I don't doubt the accuracy of her accounts, and this just further confirmed to me how even the Vietnamese intelligentsia continues to view the actions of the Unites States, past and present, with suspicion.
[Mekong Delta] The one thing Vietnam has an abundance of is rivers, the most famous of which is the Mekong. The Mekong River begins somewhere in the mountains of China and flows through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam before it empties itself into the Pacific. While other tourists liked the boat ride on the Mekong and enjoyed exploring its many tropical islands, I wasn't as impressed with it as I was with the other rivers in Vietnam.