Places where countless lives were lost have become poignant pilgrimage sites
More than 50 years after the Vietnam War gripped the world’s attention, the battlefields where countless lives were lost have become poignant pilgrimage sites for veterans and tourists alike.
Locations like Hamburger Hill, Hue, the Ia Drang Valley, and Khe Sanh, once synonymous with conflict and etched in the annals of history, now draw visitors seeking to understand the war’s impact firsthand.
For Army veteran Paul Hazelton, returning to Vietnam just shy of his 80th birthday was a journey through time. Revisiting places he served as a young draftee, including Hue, the former Phu Bai Combat Base, and Da Nang, evoked a stark contrast between the war-torn landscapes he remembered and the vibrant nation Vietnam has become.
“It was a war zone when I was here before,” Mr Hazelton reflected, walking with his wife through the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. The city, once a hub of military activity, now pulses with commerce and industry.
“Everywhere you went… it was occupied territory with our military, now you just see the hustle and bustle and the industry, and it’s remarkable,” he said.
Mr Hazelton’s sentiment echoes a broader shift in the relationship between the United States and Vietnam. Decades after the war’s end, the two nations have forged a new path based on trade and cooperation.
“I’m just glad that we’re now trading and friendly with Vietnam,” Mr Hazelton commented, adding, “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, 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 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.
