This Vietnamese boy stares intently at an American soldier beside a South Vietnamese ally in a display at the museum in 2000.

I debated whether or not to share this post but after reading and thinking about it, I’ve concluded that it’s important for us [Americans] to see how we are viewed by other countries–propaganda (?) and all. I’ve only shared part of this photo journal, it continues through the link at the end of this article.

The Vietnamese government-run War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, is one of Vietnam’s most popular museums. It draws 500,000 visitors annually, according to Christina Schwenkel, who wrote about the museum in her 2009 book “The American War In Contemporary Vietnam: Transnational Remembrance and Representation.” Foreigners comprise two-thirds of the visitors.

The museum’s roots date back to 1975, when it was called the Exhibition House for U.S. and Puppet Crimes. The name was shortened to Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression in 1990, then changed again to War Remnants Museum in 1995, amid improving relations with the U.S. and increasing numbers of American visitors who sometimes complained about the choice of language.

Although its name has been toned down, the museum has been criticized for lacking balance by linking American soldiers to aggressive and criminal actions while neglecting atrocities committed on the North Vietnamese side.

The War Remnants Museum maintains “pedagogical aims to teach about the ‘crimes’ of U.S. occupation,” Schwenkel wrote. Museum curators make concerted efforts to educate foreigners, especially Americans, about the war, but based on a certain government-sanctioned Vietnamese interpretation of events.

Nevertheless, some foreign visitors appreciate the museum for offering a different point of view on the conflict — one that they can’t really find anywhere else.

Although the museum has claimed to have made efforts since 1993 to include information and artifacts from western sources, many American visitors have continued to criticize the museum as a propaganda organ. Below, the museum’s courtyard displays captured or abandoned American military aircraft, helicopters, tanks, and artillery.

One controversial display implying American criminality is an image of a smiling U.S. soldier holding up the severed head of a Viet Cong combatant, with a caption reading, “After decapitating some guerrillas, a GI enjoyed being photographed with their heads in his hands,” according to Schwenkel. The gruesome photos appear to show Americans mistreating dead Vietnamese combatants, with one corpse referred to in the caption as a “liberation soldier” — implying it was his side, not the Americans, fighting for freedom.

One of the museum directors had this to say about the importance of educating American visitors about crimes committed by their country’s troops, as reported by Schwenkel:

Americans have told me that they do not have a lot of information about Vietnam in the United States. They didn’t even know that Vietnam was fighting for independence and that the involvement of their country was not necessary! When they come here and see for themselves the war crimes committed by U.S. troops, they feel ashamed.

“Crucial words from the Declaration of Independence, thoughtfully positioned next to a picture of an American soldier executing a Viet Cong soldier,” Stephanie Yoder recalled of the contents of one display for her blog Twenty-Something Travel. “… What about all the horrible things that the Viet Cong did? Not even mentioned among the debris. I see pictures of locked up Viet Cong, but where is the exhibit on the infamous Hanoi Hilton? War is hell no doubt but it’s a two-sided inferno.”

Yoder recalled one photo caption that read, “Even women and babies are targets of U.S. American division mopping-up operations.” She also saw a souvenir mug for sale printed with an image of fleeing Vietnamese civilians and the words, “American soldiers and soldiers of Saigon execute innocent patrior” (sic). The caption for one anti-war poster reads, “GIs with beheaded Vietnamese patriots,” below a photo of smiling soldiers — allegedly American — with disembodied heads lined up in front of them.

“It’s one-sided,” one American student told Schwenkel after visiting. “They should include the North Vietnamese atrocities. A lot of my dad’s friends were here during the war and that’s not what they were doing. The museum takes all these photos from the war and adds captions to turn them into propaganda.”

To view the rest of this photo journal, follow the link below.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/vietnam-war-remnants-museum-portrays-us-as-enemy-2014-8#ixzz3BbaaSxIX