Just months after the fall of Saigon, in 1975, the government of Vietnam opened the “Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes.” From its inception, the museum featured propaganda that highlighted the horrors of war with a heavy political bent. American atrocities, both real and exaggerated, were the primary message. But when America and Vietnam normalized relations in the 90s, the name of the museum changed to the “Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression,” before finally ending up as the name it still has today — a diplomatic trade off for the lifting of sanctions, which had crippled the Vietnamese economy.

What there is to see

The first thing you’ll notice are the large pieces of authentic military hardware outside the main building. As the northern troops pushed south, toward the end of the war, the ARVN — the southern army — fled in droves, leaving behind billions of dollars of American equipment in their wake. With that new hardware, as well as what the Americans jettisoned when Saigon finally fell, the government in Hanoi had plenty of display pieces to choose from.

The F-5A fighter inside the front entrance gets the most publicity, but it’s the UH-1 “Huey” that foreigners will more likely recognize, as some of the most dramatic footage of the war came from the landing zones where these choppers ferried mobile units into intense firefights. But, while these pieces are impressive, it’s the exhibits inside that leave the deepest impression.

Price: 15,000 VND ($0.66 USD) per Foreigner , 2,000 VND for Vietnamese

Hours: 7:30am – 6:00pm, Mon – Sun

Just 03 km from Winsuites Saigon