It always amazes me, what I can find on the Internet. I am stuck in the 60's I will admit it.



While serving in Vietnam in 1969~1970 I drove by South Vietnam's equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery, and took this picture from the main highway. It was easily seen from the main road, there was a statue of "The Mourning Soldier" at the entrance, with a large hill and pagoda at the top. The cemetery sat behind the pagoda. The pagoda held the tomb of the unknown South Vietnamese Soldier.



At the end of the war in 1975 when the South lost to the North, the winning side decided that the statue would come down, and the cemetery be closed and off limits to everyone.



For decades it sat unattended and neglected, cattle were allowed to graze on the weeds that grew up between the graves.






Fast forward to 2009, and a American ex soldier returned, and found the cemetery and took some photos. Most striking is the condition it is still in. Compared to the photo above, this one shows the weeds and neglect continuing.

"This is the gateway to a stairs that lead up a hill to the tomb of the unknown soldier. He was an ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) soldier and he was interred here. Behind this hill is a large cemetery with a large monument. The government removed the soldier in 1975 and desecrated the tomb."



He was shown a grave, took this photo and filed the following report.





"On our last trip to the National Military Cemetery in Thu Duc, the assistant in charge of the cemetery asked us if we wanted to see something interesting. We followed him to a grave and the photo on the grave was the statue of the Mourning Soldier. The Officer in charge told Hong something but she was not really sure if he meant the statue is buried or the man who posed for it. The writing on the stone tells us that this is the Unknown Soldier who had been buried in the tomb at the top of the hill in 1968."