​It is a historical site located in a small park at the intersection of Nguyen Ai Quoc and April 30 streets, in the center of Bien Hoa city, which has been classified as a National Heritage by the Ministry of Culture and Information (the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the time being) under Decision No. 1288/VH-QĐ dated November 16, 1988. This architectural work features distinct national cultural characteristics with a shape resembling the Meridian Gate (Ngo Mon Gate) - an important entrance in the complex of Hue Imperial Citadel under the Nguyen Dynasty. Passersby may mistakenly think this is a shrine dedicated to a national hero, but if they carefully read the engraved words on the stone tablet in the park, they will realize that the monument exists as a testament to the atrocities and schemes of French colonizers against the Vietnamese people during a painful period of national history, a time when our people had to endure countless bitter hardships under the colonial yoke.

This unique architectural work was built and inaugurated in 1923. According to historical documents, the " Memorial Monument " was initially officially named "Memorial of Vietnamese War Victims." In the speech of the French Consulate official at the inauguration ceremony, the purpose of building the monument was to commemorate "the local young men who voluntarily left their homeland for France to fight to protect the 'Motherland' and sacrificed themselves for that noble and sacred cause!" The words in the speech make those who understand the nature of the colonialists unable to hold back their laughter, but why can the Vietnamese people, those who are oppressed, voluntarily dedicate themselves to their colonizer, France?

The "Memorial Monument” is located in a small park at the intersection of Nguyen Ai Quoc and April 30 street, in the center of Bien Hoa city.

To answer that question, the wheel of history must turn back 9 years earlier (in 1914), when World War I broke out, causing immense suffering for humanity. The perpetrators of war, whether from any country or any side, all have a primary goal of defeating the enemy to gain control over a large colonial system with abundant resources, cheap labor, and a lucrative market. At that time, France was an extremely wealthy colonial power (ranked second in the world, after England), with its colonial system spread across Asia and Africa, including the Indochina Peninsula. To eliminate dangerous enemies, protect its colonial system, and assert its strength, France, like other warring countries, vigorously mobilized, coercively harnessing manpower from within the country and from its colonies. This is a war of imperialist and unjust aggression, aimed at satisfying the thirst for world hegemony of the ruling class in the imperialist countries, but its victims are largely innocent people, the working class both in the mother countries and in the colonies, including the Vietnamese people.

The notebook made of stone at the monument inscribed with characters is evidence of the crimes and schemes of the French colonizers against the Vietnamese people.

At this point, the innocent people in Vietnam, who have already had to bear countless unreasonable taxes and other forms of exploitation during the colonial exploitation, now also have to suffer under the heavy burden of war that France has imposed on our people. In that unjust war, "seventy thousand native people set foot on French soil, and among them, eighty thousand people never again see the sunlight on their homeland" ("The indictment of the French colonial regime" (in French the “Le Procès de la Colonisation Française") – written by Nguyen Ai Quoc). It is indeed an extremely sorrowful figure. But at a time when the country was still groping for a path to independence, even the leader Nguyen Ai Quoc at that time was still working in foreign lands to find the right path to save the country; did anyone among the seventy thousand departing know that they were going to fight for a cause? One thing is certain: they did not “volunteer” to go on the road “to fight to protect the Motherland” as the French spokesperson had boasted.

Because of those simple, gentle farmers standing before the fierce invaders who once said: “Breaking through the barrier, seeing the enemy is like nothing / Crashing through the door, charging in recklessly as if there’s nothing” ("Funeral Oration for the Fallen Cần Giuộc Soldiers" – written by Nguyễn Đình Chiểu), how can one believe that they would willingly take up arms to sacrifice for the very land of those invaders? In the work "The Condemnation of the French Colonial Regime," Nguyễn Ái Quốc also exposed the deceitful face of the French colonial government with real images and sharp arguments: “If indeed the Vietnamese are enthusiastic about serving in the army, why is there a scene of groups being shackled and taken back to the provincial authorities, and groups being confined in a secondary school in Saigon before boarding the ship, with French soldiers guarding, bayonets drawn, bullets in the chamber ready? Do the bloody protests in Cambodia, the disturbances in Saigon, in Bien Hoa, and many other places represent the expression of the eager enthusiasm of those who are 'anxious' and 'unhesitant'? Thus, everything is clear; 700,000 people were coerced, forced to go to battle, sacrificed their own flesh and blood as human shields for France. And the "Memorial Monument" built by the French colonial government to deceive the public has become a grand indictment of their own crimes.

To this day, the "Memorial Monument" is still preserved, enhancing its value, the relic remains ancient with its ethnic cultural style, still solemn with a stone tablet engraved with the names of some young people among the eighty thousand youths who never returned, still stirring the hearts of those remembering a painful national past under foreign domination. Visitors to the site all light a stick of incense before the stone tablet, to commemorate the eighty thousand individuals who fell, their blood and bones clearly denounce the crimes of colonizers, so as never to forget a history filled with blood and tears, to be filled with pride for the achievements that shattered the chains of slavery of our ancestors in subsequent stages, and to be aware of the protection of the independence of the Vietnamese nation.