a facade similar to the Petit Palais in Paris, but
from 1955 to 1975, it served as South Vietnam's Congress House. However, it's the absence of a long-gone monument that tells an interesting tale about the state of the former nation. In the arcade just in front of the Opera House once stood a hulking statue of two South Viet- namese marines charging forward. However, the statue was positioned so that the barrel of a gun faced the front of the then Congress House. According to Gil Simpson, there was a long-running joke that the statue was a mes- sage from the army to the legislators: don’t forget who’s in charge. The statue was destroyed shortly after the South Vietnamese government surrendered, though a public park still occupies the space. Monument to Thich Quand Duc The Chemins de Fer Affair Even more so than the self-immolation of Thic Quang Duc, Eddie Adams’ 1968 photograph of the execution of a handcuffed NLF officer by the chief of the South Vietnamese National Police during the Tet Offensive epitomises the brutality of the war in many minds. The image shocked people across the world when it landed on the front pages of major news- papers, but in Saigon, it was perhaps not so uncommon a sight. Though the railway office opposite Ben Thanh Market has served the same purpose for more than a century, it was annexed for a more sinister purpose for a period. Until 1966, a por- tion of its façade was covered by sandbags and set off by barbed wire; the highly visible spot was the site of public executions carried out by the South Vietnamese government. Eventually, The Opera House French soldier, Continental behind says Gil Simpson and Thomas Hutchings, the spectacle was deemed damaging to South Vietnam’s image and public executions ceased to be carried out here. hidden in plain sight: the american war The Airlift of 1975 Perhaps the most iconic shot of the April 29, 1975 evacuation of Saigon depicts a stream of people ascending a steep ramp to a helicopter Though Saigon remained peaceful relative to shooting of nine protesters by South Vietnam- car bomb beneath the Brinks on Christmas Eve, perched on the roof of an elevator shaft. But the rest of Vietnam, the city was the staging 1964, killing two American officers and wound- Monument to NLF soldiers, Lam Son Square the building is often incorrectly mislabeled as ese soldiers on Vesak Day in Hue on May 8. ground for a number of historic events. Some of It also catalyzed opposition to the regime at ing nearly 60. the American Embassy. In fact, it was the Pitt- them, commemorated in plain sight, routinely home and around the world. Nguyen Huu Thai At the time, the Brinks was a popular hang- man Apartments, located at 22 Gia Long Street, go unnoticed amidst the city’s frenetic pace. (see “Ho Chi Minh City Historians”) was present out for American servicemen. According to Gil now 22 Ly Tu Trong. at the intersection and recalls that day and the Simpson, the rumour was that the attack was The photo was taken by Hubert Van Es, a Thich Quang Duc’s Sacrifice effect it had on him: “At first I was an outside meant to coincide with the arrival of Bob Hope, press agent for United Press International, from At the intersection of Cach Mang Thang Tam observer. Then I could no longer stand idle. I who was due in town for a USO performance. UPI’s penthouse office at the Peninsula Hotel. and Nguyen Dinh Chieu in District 3 is a small became a participant. I chose sides—the side of The attack was meant to demonstrate the Though Van Es asserted that he captioned the park centred around an ornate Buddhist stupa. oppressed people.” North’s ability to strike within Saigon. Though photograph correctly, the misidentification This is the spot where, on the morning of June Later that year, on November 1, with confi- urged to launch retaliatory air strikes by his persists widely today. 11 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a monk from Hue, dence in his leadership shattered, Diem was advisers, then U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson The Pittman Apartments served as hous- sat down in front of the Cambodian Embassy, assassinated after his own army staged a coup. refused. After the February 4, 1965 NLF attack ing for CIA staff during the war. The rooftop allowed fellow monks to douse him in gasoline on a U.S. Marines barracks in Pleiku, President platform was never intended to hold the and then set fire to himself. The Brinks Bombing Johnson approved air strikes. Also in 1965, the weight of a helicopter, but in the weeks before The photograph, captured by Malcolm Another little-noticed monument is positioned NLF bombed the U.S. embassy in March and the evacuation, when it became clear that the Brown, has since become one of the most on the northwest corner of Lam Son Square. the My Canh floating restaurant, which was South Vietnamese would surrender, the eleva- iconic images from the period, so much so that Though today the Park Hyatt occupies the moored along Ton Duc Thang on the Saigon tor shaft was reinforced so that it could serve as the intention behind Thich Quang Duc’s action space, the Brinks Hotel, a quarters for U.S. mili- River, in June. a helipad. Today, if you stand just east of Ly Tu has been eclipsed by the stark, disturbing imag- tary officers, was once located here. The history Trong on Hai Ba Trung or Dong Khoi, you can ery. In fact, the self-immolation was a response explains the monument’s imagery. The stone Charge! still see the makeshift landing pad. to persecution of Buddhists by the regime of is engraved with the image of a jeep erupting The main structure in Lam Son Square—the South Vietnam’s president, Ngo Dinh Diem. in flames in dedication to two members of Municipal Theatre, better known as the Opera Special thanks to Philippe Chaplain and Gil The event figured significantly in the Bud- the National Front for the Liberation of South House—also played a significant role in the Simpson for providing photographs and vintage dhist Crisis of 1963, which began with the Vietnam (NLF) who successfully detonated a short history of the Republic of Vietnam. It The Railway Administration Office, site of public executions postcards to these preceding pages.