The hotel was opened to the public on Christmas Eve 1959, when the city was known as Saigon. Contemporary journalists noted its use of Italian marble, bullet-proof glass and a "state-of-the-art air-conditioning system and a Berliet private generator."

The hotel’s modern design was the work of a Vietnamese architect, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, a graduate of École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Hanoi.

During the 1960s, the Caravelle was home to the Australian Embassy, the New Zealand Embassy, and the Saigon bureaus of NBC, ABC and CBS. As a hub of communication, it played an important role in the Vietnam War. The Manifesto of the Eighteen became better known as the Caravelle Manifesto after a press conference to announce it was held at the hotel. It also became part of Vietnam fiction and non-fiction literature, such as in Danielle Steele's novel "Message From Nam" and Morley Safer's memoir "Flashbacks". (Wikipedia)