We saw hard-hitting displays that call out the past and present atrocities of Vietnam’s Communist regime and tributes to those who fought against it.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, was the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. As those who have been regular readers of The National Interest for the past few months may have noticed, the Vietnam War is a subject I’m very passionate about; I will defend until the day that I die that we could have and should have won that oh-so-controversial war, contrary to the assertions of the naysayers in academia and the mainstream media.
Accordingly, I decided to commemorate this important anniversary by visiting the Vietnam exhibits at two superb museums in the Washington, DC area: the Victims of Communism (VOC) Museum in the District of Columbia, and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, in the vicinity of the U.S. Marine Corps base that plays hosts to both USMC Officer Candidate School and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency headquarters.
A VOC Museum: “Vietnam: The Truth”
The VOC Museum is owned by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Their Vietnam exhibit, officially titled “Vietnam: The Truth,” opened in January 2025 and will run until June, sponsored by the Viet American Foundation. As VOC staff told me in a brief interview:
“The organizers of the Vietnam exhibit always showcase a different part of the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, They’ve had different Vietnam War veterans, Korean War veterans, different organizations around here, different nonprofit organizations around here come to do different events, bringing the Vietnamese community through here. So, this is a fantastic opportunity to commemorate those who died and to remember them.”
In addition to the hard-hitting displays that call out the past and present atrocities of the Communist regime in Vietnam since the fall of Saigon (such as the Viet Toon paintings titled “The Beggar And Her Death Baby” and “Tu Do: Freedom Is Written In Blood”), there are some moving tributes to the troops of the United States, South Vietnam, and other allies who fought against the communists.
For example, there is a cardboard cutout depicting two soldiers (one with his arm around the other) looking into the jungle; at the base of the cutout is a caption that reads “Forever Be Honored And Never Be Forgotten,” accompanied by the flags of the United States, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of Vietnam, aka South Vietnam.
There is also a tribute to the South Vietnam Navy’s valiant fight against Communist Chinese aggression in the 1974 Paracels Sea Battle aka Hoang Sa.
USMC Museum Highlights on Vietnam
The Marine Corps Museum’s Vietnam exhibit finally reopened earlier this year and, according to a couple of the docents, is still only about 33 percent complete. As might be expected, the exhibit covers many of the Corps’ most epic battles of the war, such as the Siege of Khe Sanh, a seventy-seven-day ordeal that lasted from January to July 1968 and cost the lives of 300 Marines in exchange for 10,000 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) killed in action (KIA).
You know the saying “You learn something new every day?” For me, two displays proved that truism during the tour:
First, while I already knew about the USMC’s elite Recon and Force Recon units, it was from this exhibit that I learned about a subsect of the Recon Marines known as the “Sting Ray” teams, who served as clandestine forward observers, directing air strikes and long-range artillery with devastating effect. Their metaphorical “sting” was so deadly that they received credit for nearly half of the enemy KIAs inflicted by the 1st Marine Division during the summer and fall of 1968.
Second, many USMC veterans and military history buffs know about the legendary sniper Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, who scored ninety-three confirmed kills in Vietnam (and for good measure, held the world record for longest-distance sniping kill, a record that wasn’t finally broken until the Afghanistan War). However, it was only via this exhibit that I learned about the existence and achievements of PFC Charles B. “Chuck” Mawhinney, a scout sniper who actually exceeded Gunny Hathcock’s tally with a mind-blowing 103 confirmed kills, thus owning the record as the deadliest sniper in the annals of the Corps.
Naturally, the exhibit includes a variety of weapons used in the war. Small arms on display include the M14 battle rifle, M16 assault rifle, and .45 caliber M3 “Grease Gun” submachine gun used by the Marines, as well as the AK-47 assault rifle and SKS carbine used by the NVA and Viet Cong (VC).
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
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