John J. Dunphy

A Captured Memorial

In Ho Chi Minh city—the city Americans will always remember as Saigon—there are two museums devoted to Vietnam War memorabilia: the War Remnants Museum, housed in a compound used by the U. S. Information Agency during the war; and the Revolutionary Museum in the old Gia Long Palace, built in neoclassical style by   the French in 1886, which served as the presidential palace.

In one display in the latter museum there is a plaque inscribed with the names of GIs killed when Vietcong “sappers” (commandos who infiltrated American facilities, often on suicide missions) assaulted the U. S. Embassy during the 1968 Tet Offensive. It had been hung there as a memorial, but was left behind when American forces pulled out of South Vietnam. Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, it had been the property of the opposition.

on a plaque
in the enemy’s museum
names of our dead