More than 50 years after the Vietnam battle controlled headings, some bear in mind the fights of Hamburger Hill, Hue, the Ia Drang Valley, and Khe Sanh from report, motion pictures, and background publications.
For hundreds of Americans and Vietnamese, these places are the last relaxing locations of enjoyed ones. Today, the combat zones of Vietnam act as expedition websites for experts from both sides and visitors looking for a first-hand understanding of the battle’s battlefields.
“It was a war zone when I was here before,” mirrored United States Army expert Paul Hazelton as he strolled with his partner via the premises of the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, which was called Saigon when he offered there.
Hazelton’s scenic tour simply reluctant of his 80th birthday celebration took him back for the very first time to locations he worked as a young draftee, consisting of Hue, the previous Phu Bai Combat Base on the city’s borders, and Da Nang, which was a significant base for both American and South Vietnamese pressures.
“Everywhere you went, you know, it was occupied territory with our military, now you just see the hustle and bustle and the industry, and it’s remarkable,” he said.
“I’m just glad that we’re now trading and friendly with Vietnam. And I think both sides are benefiting from it.”
Vietnam’s war with the United States lasted for nearly 20 years, from November 1955 to April 1975, and resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and many times that number of Vietnamese.
For Vietnam, it started almost immediately after the nearly decade-long fight to expel the colonial French, who were supported by Washington, which culminated with the decisive defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
The end of French Indochina meant major changes in the region, including the partitioning of Vietnam into communist North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and US-aligned South Vietnam.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrilla troops, and the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam.
Tourism has rebounded rapidly since the Covid pandemic and is now a critical driver of Vietnam’s growth, the fastest in the region, accounting for roughly one in nine jobs in the country. Vietnam had more than 17.5 million foreign visitors in 2024, close to the record 18 million set in 2019 before the pandemic.
The War Remnants Museum attracts some 500,000 visitors a year, about two-thirds of whom are foreigners. Its exhibits focus on American war crimes and atrocities like the My Lai massacre and the devastating effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant widely used during the war.
The US was to open the first exhibit of its own at the museum this year, detailing Washington’s extensive efforts to remediate wartime damage, but it is indefinitely on hold after the Trump administration slashed foreign aid.
Other wartime sites in Saigon, which was the capital of South Vietnam, include the South Vietnamese president’s Independence Palace where North Vietnamese tanks famously crashed through the gates as they took the city and the Rex Hotel where the US held press briefings derisively dubbed the Five O’Clock Follies for their paucity of credible information.
On the northern outskirts of the city are the Cu Chi tunnels, an underground warren used by Viet Cong guerrillas to avoid detection from American planes and patrols, which attracts some 1.5 million people annually.
Today, visitors can climb and crawl through some of the narrow passages and take turns at a firing range shooting targets with war-era weapons like the AK-47, M-16 and the M-60 machine gun known as “the pig” by American troops for its bulky size and high rate of fire.
“I can understand a bit better now how the war took place, how the Vietnamese people managed to fight and protect themselves,” said Italian tourist Theo Buono after visiting the site while waiting for others in his tour group to finish at the firing range.
Former North Vietnamese Army artilleryman Luu Van Duc remembers the fighting at first hand but his visit to the Cu Chi tunnels with a group of other veterans provided an opportunity to see how their allies with the Viet Cong lived and fought.
“I’m so moved visiting the old battlefields – it was my last dying wish to be able to relive those hard but glorious days together with my comrades,” the 78-year-old said.
“Relics like this must be preserved so the next generations will know about their history, about the victories over much stronger enemies.”
