Today started off with religion but then evolved to looking at the history of the Vietnam War along with the others that came before it. We had a lecture on Buddhism followed by a visit to a pagoda. It was very neat to see another religion and the way and place they warship. The second part of the day however spoke a lot more to me. We first visited the Reunification Palace. This was the former residence of the President of South Vietnam. The second part was the War Remnants Museum.

The Reunification Palace was very cool inside. It looks like it is stuck in the 70’s. This is true though as it hasn’t been touched since then. Something I learned about the Palace was that it was completely rebuilt after it was bombed. The new version was built and paid for by the US. I found it a little funny for the US to pay for this with tax payer dollars for it to fall only a short time later. There is still a helicopter parked on top like there would always be during the war.

We then went to the War Remnants Museum. This was a very sad place. So many photos from war time. It was very sad to see the destruction of forests and town. Places where people live. The stats themselves were very shocking a upsetting too. 3 million Vietnamese were killed in the time period, of which 2 million were civilians. The saddest part of the museum was the section on the use of Agent Orange. Seeing the effect that Vietnam is still facing and will continue to face for years is hard to put into words. It was hard being in there knowing that our country did this to theirs.

Today was a very humbling day. We battled 110 degree temperature too as non of the places were air conditioned. Overall, it was neat to see the history first hand and I look forward to learning more!