Day 135 Sun May 28, 2023 Port: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

 Day 135 Sun May 28, 2023 Port: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

This is the information I read to chose the excursion.  The description is quite accurate.

OE Good Morning Vietnam (HCH-004) May 28, 2023 11:00-6:00

Tour Length: Full Day (Approximately 7 hours)   

Tour description

• Visit U.S. military sites that played key roles in the Vietnam War.
• YES View the former U.S. embassy and NO quarters for the soldiers.
• Browse the powerful, often disturbing exhibits in the War Remnants Museum.
• Explore parts of the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Viet Cong hid and lived during war time.

Explore sites that best illustrate the American military presence in Saigon during the Vietnam War, a time period depicted in the film “Good Morning, Vietnam.” One of the most indelible pictures from the Fall of Saigon in 1975 was that of American helicopters helping evacuees from the roof of the U.S. Embassy before communist troops took over. You will see that iconic building, as well as various quarters for the soldiers,NOT  including the residence of General William Westmoreland, Commander of the U.S. forces in the late 1960s. You will reach an even deeper understanding of the Vietnam War by browsing the graphic exhibits at the War Remnants Museum, where you will likely see a fighter plane and a helicopter with rocket launchers. Still, few attractions shed light on the war quite like the Cu Chi Tunnels, which the Viet Cong dug in the countryside outside Saigon for their protection. The section that you will view stretches for more than 100 miles.

We did tour the War Remnants Museum and I found the exhibits portrayed the Americans in a very poor light.  Our lunch spot was lovely and then we continued on our way to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels were interesting and all the traps were disturbing.  I did crawl through a tunnel for the experience.  

                                   

                                            Chinook Helicopter outside the War Remnants Museum

                                                Lunch Spot 

     I think this guy was going in.  Then he would pull the square covered with leaves that is in front of him down on this head.  

     This trap has poison on the tips of the spears.  The trap door looks green like the rest of the area when it is in the closed position.    

                                A trench is dug to trap the tanks.  Once a tank tips into the trench, it can't get out.

                                            Door trap above and clipping armpit trap below.

                                                                See-saw trap above.   
  

                                            Folding chair trap, looks nasty.  

                                                                    Cu Chi Tunnels

                                                        Following the man in front of me.

                                                            I am coming to the tunnel exit.  

                                        There is a rifle range here.  I think it is $3/bullet to fire a gun.  

                                        Above is a hole in the ground for the cook's smoke from cooking to escape.  

                                                            Bunker operating room.

                                                        Bunker kitchen

                                                Aircraft outside the President's Palace.  

                                                President's Palace

            Iconic building from the evacuation before Communist troops arrived.  This is an apartment house near the US Embassy.  About the picture - The building in front of the tall glass building is the location where the helicopter was evacuating the last people in 1975.  It is not the embassy as I had believed.  This was an apartment building which housed many embassy employees.  The building's address 22 Gia Long St. and the US Embassy's address was 18 Gia Long St.  The choppers were taking off from the parking lot of the Embassy and the roof of this building.  Eighty-one helicopters evacuated 5595 Vietnamese and 1373 Americans in nineteen hours.  It was the largest helicopter evacuation.  Many helicopters were overloaded and people had to leave their bags behind.  The smaller helicopters took people to the airbase that had been bombed, thus stopping plane evacuations.  From there, larger helicopters took people to waiting ships.  There were forty US ships and twenty-seven South Vietnamese Navy ships.   The South Vietnamese Navy headed to the Philippines accompanied by people in fishing boats, barges, homemade rafts, sampans, etc.  None of these people had adequate supplies and some set fire to their crafts in order to be rescued.  The US ships took people to the Philippines and Guam.  This was the end of the “American War” which is what the Vietnamese people called the conflict.  There is no effort to maintain this building as a piece of history.  There is interesting reading about Vietnamese immigration to the US.  

                                            US Embassy

                                                    Operating room in a bunker

                                            US Embassy