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PLACES OF INTEREST

 

 

 

  Salon of the Four Cardinal Directions

 

Vietnam

 

 

View from the Salon of the Four Cardinal Directions i.e. the penthouse-like room at the top floor of the former Saigon Presidential Palace in Ho Chi Minh City which is today renamed Reunification Palace (fig.). It offered a view in all directions and was intended as a meditation room for the Head of State, where he could withdraw in tranquility to reflect on matters of State. It was from this room that on 30 April 1975 a Viet Cong tank commander and his team (fig.) went on the balcony and replaced the flag of the Republic of Vietnam with that of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, i.e. the VC flag (fig.), thus proclaiming the Fall of Saigon. The red circles on the roof mark the spot where the palace was bombed on 8 April 1975 by a pilot of the Vietnam Air Force, who was in fact was a communist spy, yet without causing any significant damage.

TRAVEL PICTURE 1 TRAVEL PICTURE 2 TRAVEL PICTURE 3 THAILAND'S NEIGHBOURS & BEYOND MAP LOCATION DIRECTIONS