An architect's decade-long effort to trace three wartime photographs has helped identify the suspected location of a mass grave containing nearly 900 soldiers killed during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
Nearly a decade of painstaking research based on just three historical photographs has enabled Vietnamese authorities to narrow down and identify the location of a mass grave believed to contain the remains of about 900 soldiers who died during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
Architect Nguyen Xuan Thang is a member of the Vietnam Association for Supporting Martyrs' Families and serves on the advisory team assisting the Deputy Prime Minister in the national "500 Days and Nights Campaign" to accelerate the search, recovery and identification of martyrs' remains.
After years of tracking photographic evidence and historical records, Thang's research team, working alongside government agencies, has identified at least five mass burial trenches containing hundreds of soldiers who died during the first phase of the 1968 Tet Offensive. The graves are believed to be located within the former Chi Hoa - Cho Quan Cemetery, now the site of Le Thi Rieng Park in Ho Chi Minh City.
A journey that began with a photograph found online
Nguyen Xuan Thang presents nearly a decade of collected evidence at a recent workshop on verifying information related to martyrs and burial sites in the former Chi Hoa - Cho Quan Cemetery area. Photo: Phuoc Sang.
Speaking with VietNamNet, Thang said his family, like millions of Vietnamese families, lost relatives during the war. His own search for a fallen family member led him to develop skills in tracing and identifying burial sites, eventually inspiring him to assist authorities in locating mass graves.
In 2016 and 2017, while participating in the search for remains at Bien Hoa Airbase, Thang learned from former US serviceman Robert Ambrose Connor, who had once served on the base's security team, that casualties among liberation forces during urban battles, particularly during the 1968 Tet Offensive, had been immense. Many bodies could not be removed from combat zones and were reportedly buried at locations that remained unidentified.
On April 13, 2017, a mass grave at Bien Hoa was excavated at coordinates provided by the former US veteran, leading to the recovery of more than 80 sets of remains. The discovery became a turning point, motivating Thang to begin collecting archival photographs in hopes of locating other mass burial sites in Saigon linked to the Tet Offensive.
The first image he found on Getty Images was a black-and-white photograph showing a young boy standing beside a trench filled with bodies. The clothing suggested the victims were Vietnamese, but the image contained no geographic information.
Suspecting it depicted the burial of civilians and soldiers killed in a major battle, Thang saved the photograph and spent years trying to determine its location.
Around 2020 or 2021, he discovered a second photograph on a war-history forum. The image showed a man holding a bottle of disinfectant standing in a cemetery next to a boy tending cattle. In the background, Thang identified a large burial trench where bodies had been partially covered with lime powder for sanitation purposes.
The key clue was a distinctive water tower and a residential area visible behind the burial site.
Drawing on his experience as an architect, Thang visited and examined water towers throughout Ho Chi Minh City, including locations near Military Hospital 175, District 12 and Military Region 7 facilities. Eventually, he concluded that the structure matched the water tower at Bac Hai Residential Area, now part of Hoa Hung Ward.
Nguyen Xuan Thang (far right) takes part in a search mission for fallen soldiers in An Hoa, former Quang Nam Province. Photo courtesy of the subject.
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra exchanges views with Nguyen Xuan Thang, members of a joint Vietnam-US research team and witnesses assisting efforts to locate and recover martyrs' remains. Photo: VGP/Thu Giang.
By comparing aerial photographs and historical images, Thang found that all visual details aligned. He subsequently identified the burial site as part of the former Chi Hoa - Cho Quan Cemetery, now Le Thi Rieng Park.
"Identifying the location resolved about 75% of the challenge," he said. "However, crucial information such as the date the photographs were taken, the identities of those buried and witness testimony was still missing."
Complicating matters, the cemetery was cleared in the late 1970s and converted into a public park in 1983, making it difficult to provide sufficient evidence to authorities.
The breakthrough from a third photograph
The decisive breakthrough came when Thang discovered a third image while searching online for material related to the Vietnam War.
Unlike the previous photographs, this was a high-resolution colour image taken by the Associated Press on February 12, 1968. It depicted a burial scene at the same location shown in the earlier photographs.
Its most valuable contribution came from the image metadata, which had not been removed from the archive.
The information revealed the existence of three large burial trenches. The accompanying caption stated that Saigon workers were burying soldiers and civilians in the "third trench" of three major mass graves. Each trench reportedly contained around 300 bodies, bringing the total to nearly 900 people.
One of the three colour photographs that helped identify information about the martyrs' remains believed to be located in Le Thi Rieng Park. Source: Ho Chi Minh City High Command.
The water tower visible behind the former Chi Hoa - Cho Quan Cemetery still stands today. Photo: Tuan Hung.
Additional notes attached to the image stated that two South Korean nationals had been found among the bodies in the third trench and were removed before the grave was sealed. This detail provided a crucial point of verification for the historical record.
Using professional mapping techniques, Thang digitized historical maps and compared them with current layouts, enabling researchers to pinpoint the location of the three trenches within today's park with only a minimal margin of error.
Historical records further indicated that the graves were located in the cemetery's "paupers' section," an area reserved for homeless individuals, poor families and unidentified deceased persons.
Importantly, records from the construction of the park in 1983 showed that some remains had been recovered at the time, but only from scattered individual graves. The number recovered was far smaller than the nearly 900 people described in the photographs.
This led researchers to conclude that the three mass graves likely remain intact beneath Le Thi Rieng Park.
At least five mass burial trenches identified
Thang eventually transferred the completed research dossier to government authorities.
Based on the available evidence, researchers now believe there are at least five mass burial trenches in the former cemetery containing soldiers killed during the first phase of the Tet Offensive.
They include:
Three trenches documented in Associated Press photographs and dated February 12, 1968, containing approximately 900 individuals.
One trench created on February 18, 1968, containing soldiers from Battalion 1 of the Dong Nai Regiment who died west of Binh Loi Bridge.
Another trench near the cemetery gate along Le Van Duyet Street, now Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, identified through witness testimony.
"Historical records show that a very large number of people lost their lives during the Tet Offensive and were buried in many different locations, not only in the Le Thi Rieng Park area," Thang said. "Our understanding remains limited."
He called on surviving witnesses and anyone with relevant information to share documents and testimony with authorities so that more fallen soldiers can be located and returned to their families.
A personal mission still unfinished
An aerial view of Le Thi Rieng Park, formerly the site of Chi Hoa - Cho Quan Cemetery. Photo: Tuan Hung.
Thang also proposed that authorities consider establishing a memorial at the site to honour both soldiers and civilians who died during the Tet Offensive, rather than focusing solely on the recovery of remains.
"I have seen many families spend decades searching for relatives who disappeared during the Tet Offensive without ever finding answers," he said. "A shared memorial space would be deeply meaningful and provide comfort to the families of the fallen."
The architect's dedication is rooted in his own family history.
In the early 2000s, at the age of 27, he left Ho Chi Minh City to search for the grave of his maternal uncle, who was killed in Quang Nam in 1972.
Working from fragmentary information and scattered witness accounts, he travelled to cemeteries across the region hoping to find his uncle's remains.
After comparing military records with local testimony, his family identified the area where the soldier had fallen. They believe local residents initially buried him before his remains were transferred to a military cemetery.
However, due to limitations in early post-war recovery efforts, temporary grave markers were lost or damaged over time. Thang believes his uncle's remains may now rest in a section for unidentified soldiers.
"The task my mother entrusted to me is only half completed," he said.
Yet the decades-long search provided him with invaluable experience in reading maps, comparing historical records and conducting field investigations - skills that ultimately helped uncover one of the most significant wartime burial sites discovered in recent years.
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