During the Vietnam War, Da Nang was a major base for both the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces. The first American combat troops landed there in 1965, and it became a hub for operations and supply. Today its beautiful beaches, including the one dubbed “China Beach” by the Americans and Australians who used it for R&R, boast resort hotels popular with tourists.
The past is somewhat easier to imagine at the former Victoria Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, known at the time as Saigon, which was used to house American officers and was attacked in 1966 by Viet Cong guerrillas. Three Americans died and the facade of the apartment building was damaged. That’s been repaired, but the faded and cracked balconies evoke memories of its past.
By contrast, the Independence Palace, the former home and workplace of South Vietnam’s president, is today set up specifically to ensure people don’t forget what it was.
North Vietnamese tanks famously broke through its gates on the day Saigon fell, and today replicas are on display outside. Inside the building, rooms seem frozen in time, displaying the offices, dining rooms, lounges and other areas used by officials, including a helicopter landing pad on the roof and operations rooms in an underground bunker.
Likewise, much of the historic core of the city is little changed, like the Opera House, which dates to the French colonial era. From the same period, the Saigon Central Post Office, which served as a communications hub, still stands, overlooked by the twin-spires of the city’s Notre Dame Cathedral. Tourists frequently enjoy a drink from the rooftop of the nearby Caravelle Hotel, a haunt of foreign correspondents during the war.
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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
