More than 50 years after the Vietnam War gripped the world’s attention, the battlefields where countless lives were lost have become poignant pilgrimage sites for veterans and tourists alike.
Locations like Hamburger Hill, Hue, the Ia Drang Valley, and Khe Sanh, once synonymous with conflict and etched in the annals of history, now draw visitors seeking to understand the war’s impact firsthand.
For US Army veteran Paul Hazelton, returning to Vietnam just shy of his 80th birthday was a journey through time. Revisiting places he served as a young draftee, including Hue, the former Phu Bai Combat Base, and Da Nang, evoked a stark contrast between the war-torn landscapes he remembered and the vibrant nation Vietnam has become.
“It was a war zone when I was here before,” Mr Hazelton reflected, walking with his wife through the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. The city, once a hub of military activity, now pulses with commerce and industry.
“Everywhere you went… it was occupied territory with our military, now you just see the hustle and bustle and the industry, and it’s remarkable,” he said.
Mr Hazelton’s sentiment echoes a broader shift in the relationship between the United States and Vietnam. Decades after the war’s end, the two nations have forged a new path based on trade and cooperation.
“I’m just glad that we’re now trading and friendly with Vietnam,” Mr Hazelton commented, adding, “And I think both sides are benefiting from it.”
Vietnam’s war with the United States lasted for nearly 20 years, from November 1955 to April 1975, and resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and many times that number of Vietnamese.
For Vietnam, it started almost immediately after the nearly decade-long fight to expel the colonial French, who were supported by Washington, which culminated with the decisive defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
The end of French Indochina meant major changes in the region, including the partitioning of Vietnam into communist North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and US-aligned South Vietnam.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrilla troops, and the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam.
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Tourism has rebounded rapidly since the Covid pandemic and is now a critical driver of Vietnam’s growth, the fastest in the region, accounting for roughly one in nine jobs in the country.
Vietnam had more than 17.5 million foreign visitors in 2024, close to the record 18 million set in 2019 before the pandemic.
The War Remnants Museum attracts some 500,000 visitors a year, about two-thirds of whom are foreigners. Its exhibits focus on American war crimes and atrocities like the My Lai massacre and the devastating effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant widely used during the war.
The US was to open the first exhibit of its own at the museum this year, detailing Washington’s extensive efforts to remediate wartime damage, but it is indefinitely on hold after the Trump administration slashed foreign aid.
Other wartime sites in Saigon, which was the capital of South Vietnam, include the South Vietnamese president’s Independence Palace where North Vietnamese tanks famously crashed through the gates as they took the city and the Rex Hotel where the US held press briefings derisively dubbed the Five O’Clock Follies for their paucity of credible information.
On the northern outskirts of the city are the Cu Chi tunnels, an underground warren used by Viet Cong guerrillas to avoid detection from American planes and patrols, which attracts some 1.5 million people annually.
Today, visitors can climb and crawl through some of the narrow passages and take turns at a firing range shooting targets with war-era weapons like the AK-47, M-16 and the M-60 machine gun known as “the pig” by American troops for its bulky size and high rate of fire.
“I can understand a bit better now how the war took place, how the Vietnamese people managed to fight and protect themselves,” said Italian tourist Theo Buono after visiting the site while waiting for others in his tour group to finish at the firing range.
Former North Vietnamese Army artilleryman Luu Van Duc remembers the fighting at first hand but his visit to the Cu Chi tunnels with a group of other veterans provided an opportunity to see how their allies with the Viet Cong lived and fought.
“I’m so moved visiting the old battlefields – it was my last dying wish to be able to relive those hard but glorious days together with my comrades,” the 78-year-old said.
“Relics like this must be preserved so the next generations will know about their history, about the victories over much stronger enemies.”
The former Demilitarized Zone where the country was split between North and South in Quang Tri province saw the heaviest fighting during the war, and drew more than 3 million visitors in 2024.
On the north side of the DMZ, visitors can walk through the labyrinthine Vinh Moc tunnel complex, where civilians took shelter from bombs that the US dropped in an effort to disrupt supplies to the North Vietnamese.
The tunnels, along with a memorial and small museum at the border, can be reached on a day trip from Hue, which typically also includes a stop at the former Khe Sanh Combat Base, the site of a fierce battle in 1968 in which both sides claimed victory.
Today, Khe Sanh boasts a small museum and some of the original fortifications, along with tanks, helicopters and other equipment left by US forces after their withdrawal.
Hue itself was the scene of a major battle during the Tet Offensive in 1968, one of the longest and most intense of the war. Today, the city’s ancient citadel and Imperial City, a Unesco site on the north bank of the Perfume River, still bears signs of the fierce fighting but has largely been rebuilt. West of Hue, a little off the beaten path near the border with Laos, is Hamburger Hill, the scene of a major battle in 1969.
About 500km (300 miles) to the southwest near the Cambodian border is the Ia Drang Valley, where the first major engagement between American and North Vietnamese forces was fought in 1965.
Fighting in North Vietnam was primarily an air war, and today the Hoa Lo Prison museum tells that story from the Vietnamese perspective.
Sardonically dubbed the “Hanoi Hilton” by inmates, the former French prison in Hanoi was used to hold American prisoners of war, primarily pilots shot down during bombing raids. Its most famous resident was the late senator John McCain after he was shot down in 1967.
“It was kind of eerie but fascinating at the same time,” said Olivia Wilson, a 28-year-old from New York, after a recent visit.
“It’s an alternative perspective on the war.”
