Vietnam’s Independence Palace

By PANDITHA BANDARA
I was a child when the Vietnam War started and as I grew up, the war also progressed.
During this period, I was studying in lower grade school. I came to know about such a war from newspapers and radio broadcasts because my father had a habit of buying daily papers and listening to radio news.
It was not my interest to know about what was happening in the country and around the world but it was a spillover benefit. As I became a youngster, I saw posters and heard of protest meetings organised by left wing parties, particularly communists forcing America to stop the war.
When I became an adult, I had the exposure to international television channels where I watched a large number of documentaries and Hollywood movies based on the Vietnam War.
With this background, I had an opportunity to visit Vietnam recently. During my tour, I visited the Independence Palace – a national, cultural and historical monument in Ho Chi Minh city (formerly Saigon) where the Vietnam war come to an end on April 30, 1975 exactly 43 years ago when North Vietnam Liberation Army tanks crushed the iron gates of the Independence Palace in Saigon which was used as the South Vietnam war headquarters led by American troops.
This article is based on my visit.
The history of Independence Palace goes back to the 1860s. In 1867, France invaded six provinces of Vietnam (Cochinachina) and the French Government appointed Lagrandiere as the governor-general to rule the colony. He thought of building a palace in Central Saigon to consolidate the newly-established colony and laid the foundation stone on Feb 23, 1867, to replace the old wooden palace built in 1863 on the same location.
The new palace was designed by Charles Hermite, who was the architect of the Hong Kong City Hall. All the building materials to build this palace were imported from France. In 1873, the palace was completed and named Norodom Palace after the then king of Cambodia, Norodom (1834-1904).
Since then Norodom Palace became the French governor-generals’ residence and the work place. Therefore, Norodom Palace is also known as the Governor’s Palace.
On March 9, 1945, Japan defeated the French. Then Norodom Palace became the headquarters of Japanese colonial officials in Vietnam.
However, in September 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allied forces in World War II and the French returned to Vietnam and took over Norodom Palace.
OnMay 7, 1954, France surrendered to the Vietnam forces and signed the Geneva Accord. This led France to withdraw its troops from Vietnam and divide Vietnam temporarily into North Vietnam Democratic Republic and South Vietnam Republic pending general elections.
North Vietnam was under Viet Minh communists with the support of Soviet Russia and China. South Vietnam, an anti-communist state was headed by NgoDinh Diem with the support of United States of America.
On Sept 7, 1954, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem took over the Noromdom Palace. He became resident of the newly-proclaimed Republic of Vietnam and renamed the Norodom Palace as Independence Palace. Since then this building is known as Independence Palace.
With the Cold War intensifying worldwide, the US hardened its policies against any allies of the Soviet Union. In 1955 President Eisenhower had pledged his firm military support to Dinh Diem.
The Vietnam War started in 1955 and ended on April 30, 1975 with the fall of Independence Palace.
Dinh Diem was an unpopular authoritarian ruler who often had disagreements with his own cabinet. On Feb 27, 1962, Independence Palace was bombed by a coup faction of Dinh Diem’s air force.
President Diem survived this unsuccessful assassination attempt but the palace was severely damaged. As it was almost impossible to restore, he ordered a demolition of the damaged building and commission a new palace on the same location with a bunker to resist any future bomb attacks.
The new palace was designed by Ngo Niet Thu, a Vietnamese architect trained in France who also won the Grand Prize of Rome from the Beaux Arts School in Paris.
The palace was completed by 1966 but President Diem was not able to see his dream palace as he was assassinated in a coup led by General Duron Van Minh on Nov 2, 1962. The completed palace was inaugurated on Oct 31, 1966 by the chairman of the National Committee, General Nguyen Van Thieu who was also the head of a military junta.
The palace is a harmonious combination of wind, water and sunlight. It reflects the Eastern traditional philosophy and Vietnamese national characters. It covers 12 hectares with a spacious modern green garden.
It consists of four floors and a bunker. The first floor includes the cabinet room, state banqueting hall, a central staircase and conference hall that can cater for nearly 800 guests.
The second floor includes the national security council chamber, the presidential office, presidential reception rooms, the vice-president’s reception salon, the ambassador’s chamber, private apartments, the vice-president’s office and the president’s bedroom.
On the third floor are the library, the first lady’s reception room, a cinema and a game room.
The unique feature of fourth floor is the salon of the four cardinal directions.
When entering this salon one can see the entire Ho Chi Minh City. There is a helipad also fitted on the rooftop few meters away from the salon. Currently a UH-1 type helicopter is parked there as an exhibit.
The bunker has the most important components that are necessary to coordinate war. A command center, communications, preventive radio room, the president’s bedroom, the president’s war room and security are located in the bunker.
The ground floor has a documentary film library, a kitchen and the shooting gallery. Currently two exhibits – a jeep and a Mercedes are also in the ground floor. These were the vehicles used by the president. The newly-built Independent Palace became the residence and office of Van Thieu until a tank of the North Vietnamese Army bulldozed thorough the gate on April 30, 1975 and captured the Palace.
These Russian made tanks are placed near the gate as exhibits. Soon after that President Duron Van Minh and his ministers who were inside the palace surrendered to the Liberation Army. President Minh delivered the surrender speech which was broadcast by Saigon Radio station.
After this series of events the Vietnam War that took more than three million lives came to an end and the Palace became a historical site in Vietnam.
In November 1975, the political consultative conference was held in the palace to reunify the North and the South parts of Vietnam. Therefore, this palace also referred to as the Reunification Palace.
Independence Palace is an iconic building in Ho Chi Minh City that no tourist would want to miss. A large number of local and foreign tourists visit this palace daily.
In 1976, it was declared as national cultural and historical monument and designated as one of the very first 10 national relics in August 2009.
Currently Independence Palace is used for state functions.

•  The author is a senior lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea.