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| Military maps line the walls of the underground command center below the former Presidential Palace |
It’s
late in the afternoon, and the other visitors have left, so I have
the entire lower level all to myself, and it's eerie. I’m in the command room where maps line
the dark red walls. The huge maps reach from the floor to the
ceiling. There are even more maps down here, than there were outside
the president’s office a few levels above me. In
a military command center, field communications are crucial. That
takes a lot of electronics equipment, so most of the rooms down in
this maze are devoted to communications. Much of the old American
made equipment still remains, although all the cables are gone. In
room after room, I find transmitters, teletype machines, receivers,
switchboards, and old rotary phones. Signs in imperfect English list
the former function of each room: “THE SIGNAL TEAM CHIEF ROOM”,
“FIXED RECEIVING SITE SECTION”, “TELETYPEWRITER SECTION”, and
“THE HIGHFREQUENCY RADIO ROOM”.
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| Once buzzing with military activity, the President's command center is now eerily empty |
Farther
down a hallway, I enter a small room with only a twin bed, and two
phones on a night table. It’s nothing special; only the elaborate
wood frame of the bed gives a hint of its former importance. The sign
reads, “THE COMBAT DUTY BEDROOM OF THE PRESIDENT”. Thieu may have
slept down here during the Tet offensive when the palace was briefly
under attack, but he was long gone before the tanks arrived in 1975.
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| Captured US made radio equipment is still found in many rooms |
Down
the hall near the kitchen, I get to a nearly bare white walled room.
It’s been emptied of its contents, leaving only a desk, chair, and
an empty gun rack for M-16s. This was the “SECURITY SECTION” for
the president’s guards. An elite group, the guards even had an
indoor shooting range in the back of the palace to keep their
shooting skills sharp. During Thieu’s years in power, his security
team protected him well for most of the war years. But when the
communist tanks finally invaded the city and broke through the front
gates, they put up no resistance at all. With the palace captured,
the remaining loyal palace staff and guards were arrested, with most
were sent off to ‘re-education camps’. They joined hundreds of
thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers and government officials in
the camps, some never to return.
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| Old Motorola radio gear, originally given to South Vietnam as aid from the USA |
Even
though I’m below ground level in this bunker basement, I come
across stairs going further underground. Access is blocked here, but
I can’t help wondering if this is the escape tunnel going to the
former Deputy Governor’s Palace, where the former dictator Diem hid before he was
killed in the 1963 coup. As curious as I am, I go no further. I’ve
heard that section of tunnel isn’t safe anymore. Plus, as an
American in Vietnam, I wouldn’t expect much leniency if I was
caught in a restricted area. I really don’t want to spend time in a
Vietnamese jail.
Having
already seen the lowest level of the palace, I decide to go see the
highest. After climbing a few flights of stairs in dingy stairwells,
I find myself up on the palace rooftop. As
I reach the top level, I’m startled to find myself on a large
covered terrace, that was once used for official receptions. A riser
to one side of the terrace must have been used for live bands.
Perhaps President Thieu and his wife once waltzed across this fine
wooden floor, as ministers and honored guests looked on. With more
interest in the surrounding scenery, I open the clear glass doors,
and step across to the back railing.
On
the adjacent rooftop below, I’m surprised to see another Huey
helicopter parked there, marked with the flag of South Vietnam. Back
in the day, President Thieu used to fly around to the provinces by
chopper, meeting politicians, and rallying the troops. With the war
on, flying around the country was much safer for him than driving.
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| Rooftop of the Palace. A Huey chopper once flew President Thieu around South Vietnam. A red circle marks an old bomb strike from 1975. |
From
this same vantage point, I can see the sight of the second airborne
attack on this locale. In the spring of 1975 as the ARVN defenses
were crumbling, a South Vietnamese pilot decided to defect to the
communists. He took off in his US built F-5 jet, and before
heading north, he unleashed two bombs onto the rear section of the
palace, where the president’s living quarters were. Out in front of
the parked Huey, two large circles have been painted on the repaired
rooftop, marking the bomb strikes from the pilot’s asassination
attempt. A large piece of rusty bomb shrapnel lies close by. Since
the palace had been built strong enough to survive an attack, no one
was killed, but it was another propaganda victory for the communists.
With an audacious attack on the palace, it was becoming evident that
the end was near.
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| US made F-5 fighter that was flown by defector to bomb the Palace shortly before the war ended |
Walking
to the opposite rooftop railing, I look down on the front lawn. When
the final push came weeks later and the NVA tanks broke through the
front gates, the tank crewman scrambled out of their armored vehicles
and ran right into the palace. Encountering no resistance, one of the
crewman ran all the way up the stairwell to the roof, and stood at
the railing where I am now. As TV news cameras rolled, he then waved
a Viet Cong flag from the rooftop, for all of the world to see. The
communists had taken the palace, and the war was done. Looking around
me, I’m amazed to see that there is no plaque up here to mark the
event.
For
some time after the surrender, the former Independence Palace became
a government office building. For a while it was officially named the
“Office of the Military Management Committee of Saigon”. A giant
portrait of Ho, two stories tall, hung above the front entrance. That
portrait has since been removed, perhaps because the current
government has become less dogmatic. Still, there is a flag flying
from the palace rooftop today, only now it’s the flag of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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| View from atop the Palace, from the exact spot where a North Vietnamese soldier waved a Viet Cong flag to signal the end of the war. |
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