War Remnants Museum, Vietnam

War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City - darkometer rating : 10 - The principal museum about the Vietnam War in Vietnam itself. And it's drastic, in some parts extremely graphic, and certainly one of the darkest museums in the world (and accordingly in the Top 20 list of dark tourism destinations). > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: If the name of the museum strikes you as somewhat odd, you're right. It's not the museum's original name. It used to be called the Museum of American War Crimes, but as a nod to the growing number of American tourists, the name was toned down, first to the shorter War Crimes Museum, then to its present name. Inside, however, it's still what it's always been, and the war crimes committed by the USA during the Vietnam War are documented in drastic detail. This seems to be too much for some American visitors, going by the museum's visitors' guestbook. One angry entry by a US visitor read: "pure propaganda!", to which another guest added the meta-comment "Ignorance – when will we learn?". Of course, the museum's perspective is and has to be slanted: it presents the war from Vietnam 's side, not America's. And it's accordingly selective, just as the museum's theme suggests (though it also covers the hardships endured by American soldiers caught up in this nasty war). But overall it's actually far less propagandistic than could have been expected. It more or less lets the exhibits speak for themselves. The language in the text panels does here and there take on a slightly accusing tone, but that's only natural, given the context and has to be accepted. What direct propaganda is to be seen is in the form of foreign posters, esp. from the international protest movement against the war.