A stop at the Gia Long Presidential Palace South Vietnamese President Diem, also a military headquarters, preserved in its state when communist tanks ran down the gates on "the fall of Saigon" (April 30, 1975). The sub-basements of the building house a command/control bunker.

Military museums that feature the US involvement in the war are everywhere. I think the US gets more attention for a few reasons: (1) Ho Chi Minh came to the US for help and was turned away, so there is a sense of that decision creating a fundamental difference in the relationships, (2) the level of press coverage and photo-journalism provided by US sources is unmatched, and so the artifacts and records remain solidly intact.

It was interesting to here about how the history of Vietnam, the CIA, and the assissinations of President Diem and President Kenedy are still woven together.

The CIA had had a number of high profile conflicts with the President Kennedy. The conflicts included disagreements over the CIA's assassination program, many details of which later becoming public as part of the Church Committee. In one instance, the CIA provided $42,000 to the plotters of the assassination of President Diem of Vietnam, which was carried out by Lucien Conein. Robert S. McNamara and White House historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. both stated that President Kennedy went pale when he heard the news about the coup, and was shocked that Diem had been murdered.

Diem and his brother were assassinated on November 2, 1963. I think if you ask the Vietnamese, they would favor the conspiracies that involved the CIA in Kennedy's shooting, 3 weeks later.

The city, which was renamed from Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976, was a center of military operations by the US. Images of the evacuation of CIA personnel from April 28 are famous, and the building still exists in the downtown area.