For many people, the war is the first thing they associate with Vietnam. But visitors to the country are often struck by how absent this history is from their experience. It is possible, however, to grapple with the country’s complicated past while savoring its magnificent present. 

In my 20s, I spent two years teaching English in Vietnam. Throughout my time there I was struck by the complete lack of animosity towards America and Americans. Many of my colleagues were from the US (I’m South African) and they were in great demand – Vietnamese parents wanted their kids to speak English with American accents. 

American TV, movies, music, and food were all the rage. Youngsters listened to Katy Perry (I was there a while ago – I have no doubt she’s now been replaced by Taylor Swift), ate KFC, and wore T-shirts and motorbike helmets emblazoned with American flags. At the risk of generalizing, older people and those from the north were a bit more skeptical of Western influences, but I never got the impression that America was subject to closer scrutiny than other Western nations. 

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American flags and Vietnamese flags at the VIP Terminal of the airport in Hanoi, Vietnam.

This isn’t just my opinion either. Surveys from the Pew Research Center show that 84 percent of Vietnamese adults view America favorably – compared with just 10 percent who have a positive impression of China. And there is good reason for this: Vietnam was at war with America for 20 years, but their conflict with China dates back more than 1,000 years. Today, the US considers Vietnam an important ally (and vice versa) in the fight against Chinese hegemony in Asia. 

The years immediately following the end of the American War were some of the bleakest in Vietnam’s history, with Soviet aid being the only thing preventing all-out famine. Only in 1986, with the implementation of Doi Moi (literally “renovation”), did the country’s fortunes start to turn. This gradual embrace of capitalist principles (while remaining a one-party communist state) has seen Vietnam achieve remarkable economic growth – and the US is without a doubt Vietnam’s biggest export market. 

Ho Chi Minh City and surrounds 

On April 29, 1975, North Vietnamese troops began their final attack on Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City), the capital of US-backed South Vietnam. Seeing the writing on the wall, tens of thousands of Americans and American sympathizers were evacuated from Saigon in a matter of days. At noon on April 30, 1975, the inevitable happened when the first North Vietnamese tank breached the gates of South Vietnam’s Presidential Palace. This marked the official fall of Saigon, and the end of America’s 20-year involvement in the war. 

The palace, which has been renamed Independence Palace and is open to the public, is well worth a visit. Not only is it one of the finest examples of 1960s government architecture anywhere in the world, but it is also the place where many important decisions were made about the war. Vietnam’s history is so much easier to comprehend when you are actually standing in the old presidential office, the cabinet ministers’ meeting hall, or the bombproof war rooms in the building’s basement. 

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The old war room underneath the palace. (Photo: Kelisi, ReunificationPalaceWarroom, CC BY-SA 3.0

Despite being the center of South Vietnamese (and American) power, the areas immediately surrounding Saigon were first infiltrated by the Viet Cong as early as 1960. HCMC’s War Remnants Museum offers soul-numbing insight into the hardships suffered by regular people during Vietnam’s many wars. A visit to the museum can hardly be described as pleasant – but this does not make it any less important. A few hours spent exploring its exhibits will make you appreciate anew the forward-looking optimism of the people you meet in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Another fantastic way of reliving the horrors of the war is to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels outside HCMC. This vast network of tunnels started life as a place to store ammunition during the war with the French in the 1940s. By the 1970s, it had expanded to encompass a staggering 155 miles of tunnels, reaching depths of 33 feet. Both soldiers and civilians used the tunnels for everything from launching attacks and cooking meals, to treating the wounded and sheltering from aerial bombing. 

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Hidden trap door that leads into the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Tunnel systems (Cu Chi is one of many) were one of the reasons the Viet Cong were able to win the war. The area around Saigon became known as the Iron Triangle, allowing guerillas to infiltrate the South Vietnamese capital at will. Although the American forces went to great lengths to find, infiltrate, and destroy the tunnels, a combination of cunning and subterfuge meant that they seldom succeeded. Vietnamese forces went to great lengths to ensure the tunnels were never found (some tunnels were accessed underwater, for example) – and they booby-trapped them for good measure. A guided tour of the tunnels is a fascinating (albeit claustrophobic) experience. 

The DMZ and Central Vietnam 

Central Vietnam was another hotbed of fighting. The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) along the 17th parallel served as the official dividing line between North and South Vietnam from July 1954 to July 1956. While not included in any of our standard itineraries, a visit to the DMZ can easily be incorporated into your Vietnamese adventure. Attractions include important battle fields (most notably Khe Sanh), bridges, and the Vinh Moc tunnel system – a more spacious (and thus more rewarding for tourists) alternative to Cu Chi. 

The city of Danang, about 120 miles south of the DMZ, served as an important US military base: at one time Danang Air Base was the busiest single-runway airport in the world. Modern Danang does not shout about its wartime past: the beach where many US troops landed is now a popular swimming beach; the seaside coves beneath Son Tra radar station are now dotted with hotels; and the erstwhile air base has been transformed into a slick international airport. 

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Demilitarized Zone Map (1969)

Arguably Central Vietnam’s biggest attraction is Hoi An – a delightfully picturesque fishing village that was spared bombing because it wasn’t of strategic importance. (There are also rumors that an open-minded American general thought it too gorgeous to destroy.) Founded by the Chinese in the 15th century, Hoi An was at one point the most important trading port in the whole of Southeast Asia. These days, it has become a living, breathing museum on the banks of the languorous Thu Bồn River. 

The narrow, cobbled streets are off-limits to motorized traffic during the day, so it’s easy to imagine what it must have been like in its heyday. Old ladies in conical hats sell peeled pineapples from bamboo baskets, while goateed men sell dumplings from their bicycles. Did we mention that the food is fantastic and the beaches are among the best in Vietnam? 

Hanoi and the North 

Apart from the Christmas bombings of 1972 (which resulted in around 1,600 civilians being killed), Hanoi didn’t see much action during the war. The deadliest bombing occurred on Kham Thien Street on Boxing Day 1972 (more than 200 people were killed), but the most infamous attack was the dropping of more than 100 bombs on Bach Mai Hospital. The most interesting tourist attraction relating to the Christmas bombings is Huu Tiep Lake (aka B-52 Lake) whose calm pea-green waters were interrupted by a B-52 bomber downed by Hanoi’s air defenses on December 27, 1972. (Contrary to popular misconception, Senator John McCain was not the pilot of the plane: McCain crash-landed his A-4E Skyhawk in another of Hanoi’s many lakes more than five years earlier.) 

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The wreckage of a US Air Force B-52 bomber, shot down over Hanoi in 1972. (Photo: Mark Limb, Wreckage of B52 bomber, downtown Hanoi, Vietnam, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Hanoi’s other major war-related tourist site is the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. This imposing grey edifice houses the embalmed body of Vietnam’s great leader. (Ho died in 1969, seven years before his dream of a unified Vietnam was realized.) Queuing with the masses is at least half of the experience – although all the pomp and ceremony does seem to be at odds with Ho’s unassuming and egalitarian persona. His dying wish, after all, was to be cremated, with his ashes scattered equally in the north, south, and center of the country. 

But perhaps the most fascinating thing about Hanoi is the way the city embraces both its communist roots and its capitalist reality. Ho Chi Minh City has always been big, brash, and money-grabbing. But Hanoi has been more tentative in its embrace of Western ideas. Vietnam’s capital only lifted its midnight curfew in 2016 – much to the relief of local and foreign party animals. And as recently as 2022, loudspeakers on lampposts blared communist propaganda and encouraged residents to wake at 5am for morning exercises. 

A final snapshot 

Just outside HCMC, the Mekong River meanders sluggishly through Vietnam’s rice bowl, a pastoral contrast to the urban mayhem. The floating villages, markets, and fish farms are a languorous reminder of what Vietnam used to be like before Doi Moi transformed a stagnant peasant economy into the vibrant, market-driven, capitalist system of today. Vietnam has at various times during its long history been occupied by the Chinese, French, Japanese, and Americans – but its people and their spirit have always triumphed in the end. These days the only conflict is between the past and the present, and it is a fascinating duel to witness.