Beez Neez now Chy Whella - Reunification Palace 2

Reunification Palace 2

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Sat 30 Dec 2017 23:57

The Reunification Palace, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam - Part Two.

The architect Ngo Viet Thu making a visit to the Palace. 20 December 1966.

The architectural design of the Palace: Situated in a 12 hectare park, the Palace occupies a 4,500 square metre ground space. It is 26 metres in height, and its 95 rooms comprise an interior space of 20,000 square metres. The Palace’s architect Ngo Viet Thu wished to achieve a fruitful harmony of tradition in his ground-breaking design. Its combination of concrete and wooden embellishments, without any curved wood design, makes the structure at once distinctively modern and in tune with the ancient Vietnamese architectural design.

The external sun canopies evoke the shape of tall bamboo. The interior design is a series of spacious rooms opening onto grand corridors, grouped around a monumental central staircase. The architect Ngo Viet Thu, born in 1927 in Hue, was the first Asian recipient of the prestigious Prix de Rome. He died in Ho Chi Minh City in 2000.

Architectural symbols explained.

We thought it was really clever to have wide corridors each side of the important rooms and outside the windows these shaped concrete pillars. Almost impossible for a sniper’s bullet to hit anyone important.

Presidential Office and in use – too many people have rubbed the man and worn a patch on him. President Nguyen Van Thieu (centre), Prime Minister Tran Van Hurong (right) and the new Minister of Culture, Education and Youth, Le Minh Tri (left). 25 September 1968.

Nguyen Van Thieu was born in 1923 in Tri Thuy village, Ninh Hai District, Ninh Thuan Province. He was trained at the national officer’s school at Da Lat and subsequently in the USA and France. Having taken part in the coup d'état against President Diem in November 1963, he made a rapid rise to power, becoming Prime Minister with the associated portfolios of Minister of Defence and National Assembly President, then President of the Southern Republic in 1967.

Thieu wrote to the US President on 25 March 1975 appealing for an air assault against the areas under the control of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Forces and for continuing American support for the Southern Republic. His appeal was rejected. He resigned on 21 April 1975 and then he fled the country. He died in Boston, USA, in 2001.

Tri Thuy Bridge, ancestral village of the President. Oil on canvas. 1968. To the far left of this painting is a secret door leading down to the bunker.

In the far corner of the President’s Office is this silk embroidery of pines and flamingoes, on velvet. 1971.

The next room beyond the Presidential Office and round the corner at the end of the building on this floor was the National Security Council Chamber with an impressive bank of telephones.

This room was used for meetings between the President and his senior officers and US advisers. The walls are hung with maps documenting the war situation in the South. on 25 March 1975 at 9:30 am, faced with the continuing advance of the liberation forces, President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered his senior General Ngo Quang Truong to evacuate the city of Hue and mount a last-ditch defence at Da Nang. This prompted US President Gerald Ford to dispatch the last of the many fact-finding missions sent to report on the situation in the South. On 3 April 1975, the delegation assembled in this room for a meeting with President Thieu and his senior military leaders, seeking unsuccessfully to find a solution to the military impasse confronting them.

The very stark reception office to the National Security Council Chamber.

Ambassador’s Chamber and in use. The Argentine Ambassador presenting his credentials to President Nguyen Van Thieu. 15 March 1968.

Before 1975, many countries had embassies in Sai Gon. Newly arrived ambassadors presented their credentials to the President in this room in the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The furnishings and pictures in the room are in fine Japanese-style lacquer-work, created by the artist Nguyen Van Minh. The larger painting in 40 small panels entitled “Declaration of victory over Ming” depicts a famous scene from the reign of King Le Loi. The wall sconces were lit during ambassadorial presentation ceremonies.

On 18 April 1975 at 11:30 am, President Nguyen Van Thieu received the newly appointed Japanese Ambassador, Hiroshi Hitomi. This was the last such ceremony ever enacted in the Independence Palace.

The back-to-back Presidential Reception Rooms and President Nguyen Van Thieu and guests.

In the first of the two presidential reception rooms, the President’s chair is placed on a platform in front of a striped panel symbolising the flag of the Republic of Viet Nam. Facing the President’s throne-like seat is a chair intended for the guest of honour. Both are carved with dragon’s head motifs. The other chairs are carved with a phoenix head or characters symbolising longevity. The second room is considerably simpler.

Between 19 and 23 October 1972, six meetings were held in this room between President Thieu and Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s National Security Advisor, during which Kissinger sought to persuade President Thieu to accept the agreement which was eventually enacted as the Paris Peace Accords of January 1973.