The Bình An Cemetery ( vi, Nghĩa trang Quân Đội Bình An) (formerly the Bien Hoa Military Cemetery ( vi, Nghĩa trang Quân Đội Biên Hòa)) is a
cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
in
Dĩ An,
Bình Dương Province, Vietnam. It was an
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) military cemetery.
The cemetery was apparently established in 1965,
although the earliest graves appear to date from 1968.
The location of the cemetery was marked by a tall statue on
Highway 1 by Vietnamese sculptor, Nguyen Thanh Thu, depicting a weary ARVN soldier seated with his
M1 rifle
The M1 Garand or M1 rifleOfficially designated as U.S. rifle, caliber .30, M1, later simply called Rifle, Caliber .30, M1, also called US Rifle, Cal. .30, M1 is a semi-automatic rifle that was the service rifle of the U.S Army during World War ...
on his lap that would come to be nicknamed ''Thuong Tiec''. The statue was originally caste in concrete at a cost of US$170 and put in place in 1966, however in 1972 it was replaced by a bronze version at a cost of US$22,000. Over time legends grew of the ''Thuong Tiec'' statue coming to life to warn of
Vietcong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
attacks.
The statue stood at the beginning of a ceremonial road leading to a hilltop pagoda accessible by stairs, behind the pagoda was a ceremonial walkway leading into the cemetery with the graves laid out in a series of circles around a circular monument and
obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...
. The cemetery was built to hold a maximum of 30,000 graves and by the time of the
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, t ...
in April 1975 approximately 16,000 burials had taken place there, with half the graves covered by cement and half simple dirt mounds. By 2009 total burials numbered approximately 12,000.
[
Following the ]Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, t ...
the ''Thuong Tiec'' statue was destroyed and access to the cemetery was restricted until 2006 when families were allowed to tend the graves.[ A sign was erected outside the cemetery which read "Here lie the Americans' puppet soldiers who have paid the price for their crimes."
In 2015 then ]United States ambassador to Vietnam
The United States ambassador to Vietnam (Vietnamese: ''Đại sứ Hoa Kỳ tại Việt Nam'') is the chief American diplomat to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. After the First Indochina War and the defeat of the French domination over Vietnam ...
Ted Osius
Theodore George Osius III (born 1961) is an American diplomat and the former United States Ambassador to Vietnam.
Early life and education
Osius grew up in Annapolis, Maryland. He attended The Putney School in Vermont, graduating in 1979.
Osiu ...
visited the cemetery.
References
External links
Photos of Bien Hoa Military Cemetery before and after 1975
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Binh An Cemetery
Cemeteries in Vietnam
Buildings and structures in Bình Dương province
Monuments and memorials in Vietnam
Vietnam War sites