War Remnants Museum

One of the things that has stuck out the most to me on this trip has been the war remnants museum. Coming into it, I was expecting to see very anti-American propaganda and images. However, the degree in which I experienced this was extreme. There were such terrible images of American soldiers torturing, beating, burning, and dragging Vietnamese civilians to death. It was such an overwhelming feeling of disgust and horror towards my own country, with conflicting feelings of patriotism and trying to rationalize what I saw. In the US, we have such strong patriotism and pride for our country, shown in holidays, parties, apparel, etc. so it’s difficult to accept the two ideas simultaneously. In addition, my aunt and cousins are Vietnamese, and it was hard to accept that my own family had suffered on both sides of the war, shown in those images. It was definitely a different perspective, but a very enlightening one.

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