Gac Ma Memorial

Location and site

The memorial stands beside Nguyễn Tất Thành Avenue, the road that runs through the Bãi Dài coast, in Cam Hải Đông, on the Cam Ranh peninsula in what was Cam Lam district of Khanh Hoa province^[1][2]. OpenStreetMap records its position at about latitude 12.0852 and longitude 109.1924^[5]. Cam Hải Đông commune merged with neighbouring communes on 1 July 2025 to form the new Cam Lam commune, part of a province wide reorganisation of wards and communes^[10].

Construction and funding

The Vietnam General Confederation of Labour approved investment in the memorial's first phase in 2015, covering just over 20,000 square metres at a cost of nearly 130 billion dong; the phase was completed in July 2017^[7]. The memorial was formally opened on 15 July 2017^[1][2]. Other accounts describe the finished site as 2.5 hectares, about 25,000 square metres, a figure that appears to include land beyond the national newspaper's account of the first phase alone^[1][2][6][7].

Money for the project came from trade union members, workers, businesses and overseas Vietnamese under a fund raising programme launched in March 2014, and no state budget money was used^[2][7]. A further site of more than 2.5 hectares next to the memorial was earmarked in 2023 for a planned Truong Sa museum; no fetched source states whether that museum has since been completed^[7]. Management of the memorial passed to the Khanh Hoa province Labour Federation in March 2021^[7].

The monument and museum

The central sculpture group, titled Những người nằm lại phía chân trời (Those Who Remain at the Horizon), was made by the sculptor Lâm Quang Nới from granite quarried in Khanh Hoa, with a stainless steel frame shaped like a rising sun behind the figures^[8]. It shows sailors standing in a circle around the national flag in their final moments^[8]. One account gives the whole work as 15.15 m high^[6]; another gives 8 m for the figures themselves and 16 m for the sun shaped frame behind them^[8].

An underground museum beneath the site holds artefacts and documents on the history of the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos^[7][9]. The grounds also include a memorial area without remains known as the wind tomb, and an open peace square^[9].

The 1988 clash at Gac Ma

On 14 March 1988, Vietnamese and Chinese naval forces clashed at Gạc Ma, Cô Lin and Len Đao, three reefs of the Union Banks in the Spratly Islands (Truong Sa)^{[3][4][11][12]}. Vietnamese transport ships HQ-604, HQ-605 and the landing ship HQ-505 had approached the reefs; Chinese frigates, including vessels numbered 502, 556 and 531, opened fire, sinking HQ-604 and HQ-605 and severely damaging HQ-505^[4][11]. Vietnamese accounts name Lieutenant Trần Văn Phương among those killed while holding the national flag on the reef^[3].

Sixty four Vietnamese sailors were killed, 11 were wounded and 9 were captured; the prisoners were released on 2 September 1991^[4]. Vietnamese sources put Chinese casualties at about 25 killed or wounded^[11], while an account based on Chinese sources gives 1 wounded^[4]; the two figures disagree sharply and no neutral tally was found. China has held Gac Ma since 16 March 1988 and has since built up the reef with reclaimed land, given as about 0.11 km²^[3]; Vietnam kept its positions at Cô Lin and Len Đao^[11].

Commemoration and present day

Family members and delegations gather at the memorial around the anniversary of the clash on 14 March each year^[9]. In 2023 the site recorded more than 440 group visits and over 45,200 visitors^[6]. It functions as an educational site on Vietnam's claims in the Spratly Islands as well as a place of mourning for the 64 sailors^[7][9].