The cemetery was apparently established in 1965, although the earliest graves appear to date from 1968.[citation needed]
Thuong Tiec or weary soldier statue, November 1966
The location of the cemetery was marked by a 13 feet (4.0 m) tall statue on Highway 1 by Vietnamese sculptor, Nguyen Thanh Thu, depicting a weary ARVN soldier seated with his M1 rifle on his lap that would come to be nicknamed Thuong Tiec. The statue was originally caste in concrete at a cost of US$170 and put in place in 1966, however in 1972 it was replaced by a bronze version at a cost of US$22,000. Over time legends grew of the Thuong Tiec statue coming to life to warn of Vietcong attacks.[3]
The statue stood at the beginning of a ceremonial road leading to a hilltop pagoda accessible by stairs, behind the pagoda was a ceremonial walkway leading into the cemetery with the graves laid out in a series of circles around a circular monument and obelisk. The cemetery was built to hold a maximum of 30,000 graves and by the time of the Fall of Saigon in April 1975 approximately 16,000 burials had taken place there, with half the graves covered by cement and half simple dirt mounds. By 2009 total burials numbered approximately 12,000.[citation needed]
Following the Fall of Saigon the Thuong Tiec statue was destroyed and access to the cemetery was restricted until 2006 when families were allowed to tend the graves.[4] A sign was erected outside the cemetery which read "Here lie the Americans' puppet soldiers who have paid the price for their crimes."[5]
^Vietnam, Now: A Reporter Returns – p. 99 David Lamb – 2003 "This cemetery, the South Vietnam equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery, was just off the highway in Bien Hoa and marked clearly with a sign. I don't remember the soldier's name, but I know he wasn't anyone prominent. He was just part of ..."
^Christina Schwenkel – The American War in Contemporary Vietnam: Transnational ... – p. 218 2009 "3. This contrasts with official military commemoration in the former Republic of Vietnam (see Figure 3.5). In the spatial configuration of the (now empty) graves at the RVN military cemetery I visited at Biên Hòa, men of rank were separated from ... As stated, this practice is generally not found in war cemeteries in contemporary Vietnam, with two important exceptions: Hanoi's Mai Dịch Cemetery, which contains the hierarchically arranged graves of government leaders and other famous revolutionaries, ..."
^Gloria Emerson (14 November 1971). "Near Saigon, ghostly legends grow around statue of a grieving soldier". The New York Times. p. 16.
