REUNIFICATION (OR INDEPENDENCE) PALACE

The image of the tank which, at 11:30 a.m. on April 30, 1975, broke down the gates, putting an end to the Republic of Vietnam, has remained engraved in many minds. In 1868, at the request of Mr. Lagrandière, the first governor of Cochinchina, the residence of the governor general of Cochinchina was built on this site. Called the Norodom Palace, it was inhabited by President Ngô Dinh Diem when the French left. Following its destruction during a bombing in February 1963, its reconstruction was entrusted to the architect Ngô Viêt Thu trained in Paris. Completed in 1966 - Diem was meanwhile assassinated in 1963 - the new building was renamed the Independence Palace. It includes a fortified basement of 3 levels. It is 26 m high and houses several lounges and often very large meeting rooms. It is decorated with traditional furniture revisited by contemporary artists.

On the^first floor, in the Phu Dau Rông (head of the dragon) room, the president received foreign delegations. Notice the sentence engraved in gold letters on a red velvet background: "The water flows, the mountains collapse, but the people and the country are immutable in the face of adversity and bad weather." This is a phrase of Nguyen Trai, poet and strategist, who helped Le Loi get rid of Chinese invaders in the 15th century. After the fall of Saigon, the palace served as the headquarters of the city's military administrative committee. In December 1975, it was renamed Reunification Palace.