Around town
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Tourist brochure for 1961. "Visit Fascinating Vietnam." Must have worked. Quite a few would "visit" over the coming years.
Cercle Sportif, April 1961
Folks at The Cercle Sportif
Domino - Mr Saigon with an opinion.
The Hospital Ship Hope when it visited Saigon.
View of the Saigon river fromn the top of the Majestic.
Moto Cyclo (not the safest way to travel)
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 Another Cyclo. In the 90's. Hard way to make a buck but the tourists love it. |
The taxis...We loaded them up pretty heavy sometimes. Try that now.
Down near the Central Market
One entrance to the central market
The central market a few years ago.
Saigon policeman, all sorts of nicknames
The Palace before the 62 bombing (or the 75 bombing)
The Palace during the 62 bombing. (This picture was hard to find).
One of the planes doing the bombing in 62.
City Hall with a picture of President Diem (1961)
Now has a statue of Ho Chi Minh in front (see below) 1992
City Hall in 1992
Saigon street scene in 1979. Lotta Russians around. Lousy tippers.
Air France plane - the flight from Hong Kong
Replaced by Pan Am 707
 The Cathedral - then |
 View from behind the Cathedral today Do we feel old yet? |
 Another postcard - early 90's |
Enough money to get you nowhere (even then). The exchange rate was 70 piastres to 1 US dollar then. Runs about 20,000 to 1 these days.
President Diem (killed in 63) interacting with his people. (The police rode 47 Harleys').
It was a tough place to be president. Term limits can be a bitch.
The "Compound" which contained about 8 houses and the American Community School (until the new one was built). Later became the site of the US Embassy. Had to cut the trees down to get the choppers in during the 75 evacuation. Nice looking ranch style homes that looked like home - no water pressure, crappy air conditioning, small, one bathroom. Looked nice but they sucked.
 Houses in the Norodom Compound |
 Mrs Parker's class picture at the old school (1959). |
So, we moved to this place on Rue Flandin. In 92 we were unable to find anybody who knew the French names of streets. We stumbled on the joint instead. John Turner lived about three blocks from here. After the coup we found spent shells in the driveway. Our neighbors had their car shot up. The servants fed the rebel force folks who setup in the driveway.
Burton Parker's House (now a small Hotel)
Your basic country scene with a fortified hamlet in the background
Life Magazine, Oct. 27, 1961
Couple of pictures of current street scenes in Saigon. Many, many, many motorbikes.
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Rex Hotel. Includes the site of the old Abraham Lincoln USIS library (bombed like most other stuff).
The lovable "Hangin Sam" Williams, commander of MAAG. He and ambassador Durbrow couldn't stand one another. Made for interesting policy interpretations.
Double decker bus - Indochina style.
Did you ever wonder if the Phoenix program was cooked up at the Phoenix bar? Who knows.
Manila Times, 1964. Must have been a secret only in the US.
A slower way
- the standard cyclo