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Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them?
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New York Times
New York Times
N
New York Times
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Vietnam's 500-day campaign to find and identify its war dead has recovered hundreds of bodies, yet not every family will get a chance at closure. The effort, led by the Communist government, is reviving memories of a conflict that still divides many Vietnamese.
Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them? - The New York Times
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Asia Pacific|Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/31/world/asia/vietnam-missing-war-dead.html
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!Rows of glass cases on a red floor, each containing a red flag with a yellow star. White flowers and green plants are in the foreground.
Vietnam dispatch
Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them?
A 500-day campaign to find and identify fallen soldiers has unearthed hundreds of bodies, but not everyone gets a chance at closure.
*The remains of Communist soldiers found at a park in Ho Chi Minh City, lined up for a memorial service.*
Vietnam dispatch
Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them?
A 500-day campaign to find and identify fallen soldiers has unearthed hundreds of bodies, but not everyone gets a chance at closure.
The remains of Communist soldiers found at a park in Ho Chi Minh City, lined up for a memorial service.Credit...
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By Damien Cave and Tung Ngo
Visuals by Chang W. Lee
Reporting from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Oct. 31, 2026
At the edge of a closed amusement park where cartoon rabbits greet visitors, a dozen young soldiers tugged at the mud, searching for the remnants of comrades killed during the war.
Ho Chi Minh City — noisy, neon, frenetic — seemed to quiet down. It was a busy weekday in October, and only the scratch of a trowel could be heard near tiny Vietnamese flags marking the locations of decaying warriors, lost when the city was still the southern capital known as Saigon.
“Why are you moving the dirt there?” asked Lt. Col. Le Ngoc Ha, a commander, pointing toward a young soldier inside a pit the size of a soccer field. “Did you find something?”
The soldier nodded. He deposited a brownish lump into a red plastic tray. Another soldier carried it to a building with more than 700 bodies already pulled from the park’s graves.
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The exhumations led by Vietnam’s Communist government are part of a 500-day campaign that began in March. Returning to battlegrounds across the country, the goal is to find 7,000 “martyrs” who died fighting for North Vietnam’s victory over the South and the United States.
Video
*Soldiers searching through the mud for the remnants of comrades killed during the war.CreditCredit...*
The map locates Ho Chi Minh City, and its neighborhood of Hoa Hung, in southern Vietnam. It also locates the capital, Hanoi, in the north.
CHINA
VIETNAM
Hanoi
LAOS
Mekong
River
South
China
Sea
THAILAND
CAMBODIA
Ho Chi
Minh City
Hoa HUng
Gulf of
Thailand
200 miles
The New York Times
Damien Cave leads The Times’s new bureau in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, covering shifts in power across Asia and the wider world.
Tung Ngo is a Times reporter and researcher based in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Chang W. Lee has been a photographer for The Times for 30 years, covering events throughout the world. He is currently based in Seoul. Follow him on Instagram @nytchangster.
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Asia Pacific|Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/31/world/asia/vietnam-missing-war-dead.html
*
*
*
!Rows of glass cases on a red floor, each containing a red flag with a yellow star. White flowers and green plants are in the foreground.
Vietnam dispatch
Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them?
A 500-day campaign to find and identify fallen soldiers has unearthed hundreds of bodies, but not everyone gets a chance at closure.
*The remains of Communist soldiers found at a park in Ho Chi Minh City, lined up for a memorial service.*
Vietnam dispatch
Will Digging Up Vietnam’s War Dead Heal Old Wounds or Reopen Them?
A 500-day campaign to find and identify fallen soldiers has unearthed hundreds of bodies, but not everyone gets a chance at closure.
The remains of Communist soldiers found at a park in Ho Chi Minh City, lined up for a memorial service.Credit...
Supported by
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Listen · 9:35 min
*
*
*
By Damien Cave and Tung Ngo
Visuals by Chang W. Lee
Reporting from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Oct. 31, 2026
At the edge of a closed amusement park where cartoon rabbits greet visitors, a dozen young soldiers tugged at the mud, searching for the remnants of comrades killed during the war.
Ho Chi Minh City — noisy, neon, frenetic — seemed to quiet down. It was a busy weekday in October, and only the scratch of a trowel could be heard near tiny Vietnamese flags marking the locations of decaying warriors, lost when the city was still the southern capital known as Saigon.
“Why are you moving the dirt there?” asked Lt. Col. Le Ngoc Ha, a commander, pointing toward a young soldier inside a pit the size of a soccer field. “Did you find something?”
The soldier nodded. He deposited a brownish lump into a red plastic tray. Another soldier carried it to a building with more than 700 bodies already pulled from the park’s graves.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
The exhumations led by Vietnam’s Communist government are part of a 500-day campaign that began in March. Returning to battlegrounds across the country, the goal is to find 7,000 “martyrs” who died fighting for North Vietnam’s victory over the South and the United States.
Video
*Soldiers searching through the mud for the remnants of comrades killed during the war.CreditCredit...*
The map locates Ho Chi Minh City, and its neighborhood of Hoa Hung, in southern Vietnam. It also locates the capital, Hanoi, in the north.
CHINA
VIETNAM
Hanoi
LAOS
Mekong
River
South
China
Sea
THAILAND
CAMBODIA
Ho Chi
Minh City
Hoa HUng
Gulf of
Thailand
200 miles
The New York Times
Damien Cave leads The Times’s new bureau in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, covering shifts in power across Asia and the wider world.
Tung Ngo is a Times reporter and researcher based in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Chang W. Lee has been a photographer for The Times for 30 years, covering events throughout the world. He is currently based in Seoul. Follow him on Instagram @nytchangster.
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