War Remnants Museum

Lonely Planet review

Once known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, the War Remnants Museum is now the most popular museum in HCMC with Western tourists. Many of the atrocities documented here were well publicised in the West, but rarely do Westerners have the opportunity to hear the victims of US military action tell their own stories.

US armoured vehicles, artillery pieces, bombs and infantry weapons are on display outside. Many photographs illustrating US atrocities are from US sources, including photos of the infamous My Lai Massacre. There is a model of the notorious tiger cages used by the South Vietnamese military to house Viet Cong (VC) prisoners on Con Son Island and a guillotine used by the French on Viet Minh 'troublemakers'. There are also pictures of deformed babies, their defects attributed to the USA's widespread use of chemical herbicides. In a final gallery, there's a collection of posters and photographs showing support for the anti-war movement. There are few museums in the world that drive home so well the point that war is horribly brutal and that many of its victims are civilians. Even those who supported the war would have a difficult time not being horrified by the photos of children mangled by US bombing and napalming. There are also scenes of torture - it takes a strong stomach to look at these. You'll also have the rare chance to see some of the experimental weapons used in the war, which were at one time military secrets, such as the fléchette (an artillery shell filled with thousands of tiny darts). The War Remnants Museum is in the former US Information Service building, at the intersection with Ð Le Qui Don. Explanations are in Vietnamese, English and Chinese. Though a bit incongruous with the museum's theme, water-puppet theatre is staged in a tent on the museum grounds.