Chao Ong Bloggers,
We apologize in advance for our plethora of history lessons, but this should be the last big one. With that said, the Vietnam War has done as much, if not more than any other event to shape modern America. Most Americans feel strongly about the conflict in some way. When you look at all of the political or cultural movements in America over the last 40 years, you realize that a vast majority are directly or indirectly rooted in the war. We think that a brief history (trying to be objective) is therefore justified.
France dominated Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) for a hundred years up until World War II. The Japanese took over what seems like all of Asia, including Indochina, before being defeated in 1945. Afterwards the French decided they wanted it back. The only problem, however, was that they were exhausted after two world wars and had no money. There was also the fact that Mao and China recognized Ho Chi Minh's government in the north and the West recognized the French puppet government in the south. America, thinking long term economically, paid over half of France's bill in their fight against Ho Chi Minh from 1946-54. Ho Chi Minh was a communist, but what he wanted most was independence for Vietnam. He fought with America's OSS (now CIA) against Japan during WWII and declared independence in 1945. With Japan out of the way, America saw the communist government as a threat to maintaining free trade, and therefore threatened the many natural resources it received from Vietnam. The solution was to pay France to regain control and keep trade flowing. It didn't work. The communist army struggled for 8 years before sending France packing from the north. The Geneva Accord recognized two states, north and south, and called for free elections. Both South Vietnam and America refused to sign it, fearing an easy communist victory. The next ten years was a Cold War showdown with the Soviets supporting the north and the U.S. supporting the the south. By now Vietnam was more than a source of resources but a battleground with its new nemesis, the Soviet Union. The south could never maintain control, however, and it was on the verge of collapse by 1964. Instead of bowing to the will of the majority, the U.S. fully committed itself. The next 10 years don't need to be elaborated on much. The main point is that America couldn't successfully keep an invasion force, the same as France. We'll go into it a bit when we talk about the Cu Chi Tunnels, but the Vietnamese soldiers knew Vietnam and the U.S. soldiers didn't. American money stopped flowing in 1975 and South Vietnam fell. That was the end of America's involvement, but Vietnam went on to fight 5 more years; 3 against the insane Pol Pot in Cambodia, and 2 against Chinese aggression in the north. 35 years is a long time to fight, but Vietnam is now united.
With that out of the way, we move on to Ho Chi Minh City (which will be called Saigon from here on, as the local population calls it). We flew from Siem Reap in Cambodia directly to Saigon. We were immediately impressed by this chaotic yet chic cosmopolitan city. With 7+ million people it is Vietnam's cultural capital. The best shopping, eating, etc all happens here. Our first full day we walked over 8 hours taking in the French influence (architecture, parks, wide boulevards), the frenetic motor bike culture, and the historical aspects of the city. We saw the "Reunification Palace", made famous in America from the pictures of northen tanks ramming down its gates. We saw the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a famous Chinese temple, with the help of a Vietnam veteran. We hopped on some bikes with this guy and his father, as the pagoda was some distance away. It turned out the father fought for the south (and the U.S.) and showed us all these pictures from his personal struggle. Spending just a little time here and you can still see the scars of the war. Amputees are common, much more so than an average city. Besides the amputees, everyone is young. We were told 10 percent of the population is 60+. Every woman has a baby on her hip. There were 20+ million people left in 1980, and there are now over 85 million! That's an explosion. We found the people to be over the anger of the past. Everyone is extremely friendly, and everyone is an extremely hard worker.
We spent a couple hours in the War Remnants Museum. It was definitely interesting. Outside sit several large American instruments of war, including helicopters, fighter planes, tanks and canons. There is also a section on torture the French and American occupying forces committed on the "comrades in arms". This to us seemed biased almost to a laughable degree, but who knows. Inside were some interesting exhibits. One focused on the world's "unified" front against the "War of American Aggression", and another on American soldier's atrocities committed on "innocent" civilians. The atrocities section was straight propaganda. While these things did happen, the museum forgets to point out these "civilians" (women and children) grew rice by day and killed American soldiers by night. The soldiers could not tell who was an enemy and who wasn't, so eventually terrible things started to occur. It was funny to see and overhear Europeans shaking their heads and denouncing America like their hands are clean. Anyway, the one exhibit you could not deny was the ill effects people suffered from the chemicals used to destroy the jungle. There were several, but Agent Orange was the most widely used. The pictures are horrible, and it is a powerful exhibit. Unfortunately the effects are still visible on the streets along with the amputees. Second generation deformaties are not uncommon.
The next day we got up early and went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 70km west of the city. These are an extensive series of tunnels used by the Viet Cong (VC, Charlie, etc..) against the U.S. There were always southen Vietnamese people who supported the communists. That's why America got so heavily involved, to force a political settlement the other way. These southern Vietnamese had no way of militarily supporting themselves with the Americans in their backyard, so they relied on the north. The U.S. had complete air superiority and mostly cut off the supply line from north to south through Vietnam. In response, the north used the famed Ho Chi Minh trail, through Laos and Cambodia, before they crossed back into southern Vitnam via the Cu Chi Tunnels. The VC would then run operations against the Americans from here. The Americans knew all this was going on, but they couldn't publicly bomb wherever they wanted. With the go ahead from the previously discussed pro-western Cambodian government, the Americans secretly bombed the hell out of eastern Cambodia and Laos. It didn't do much good since it is all dense jungle, but it still caused a lot of devastation to the local populations. Back to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Americans knew they were there, as discussed. They completely destroyed the jungle with chemicals and tried to smoke the VC out. They never could, however, as the tunnels were simply amazing. Booby traps were set all over. American trash such as cigarettes were placed over air ventilation holes to disguise the scent from below. All sorts of tactics were used and it frustrated the Americans to no end. There were three levels, with the last and deepest leading to the Saigon River. The first set had a kitchen room, a hospital room, and an ammunitions room. The second set was deeper and could withstand the American bombing. The third set was over 25 feet deep! In emergencies they could take a deep breath and swim through a tight hole into the river itself. Amazing. Believe us when we say that's amazing. We went through the first set of tunnels, maybe 6 or 7 feet deep. These have been widened slightly, to account for the average western derriere, but were still claustrophobic. Notice the best picture we got was an albino blob (Pat). Shauna was literally shaking with terror. It's worth pointing out that this picture was our second attempt to crawl through the tunnels. The first time Shauna held up the line, started shaking and crying before running back up to daylight. Pat followed after realizing he was in the middle of 30+ tourists. Getting stuck behind one freaked him out. We waited for the crowd to pass and chest bumped before trying again. We had to do it, of course. After Shauna took the wonderful shot, Pat told her to hand him the camera and she silently passed him the water bottle. She had lost it. We crawled as fast as we could until we reached the other side. Shauna continued to shake and did not talk for 10 minutes. To Shauna's credit she faced her fear of intense claustrophobia. That morning we said we were not going to have another drink until we reached the beaches of Phu Quoc (one week). After a two hour, all you can drink happy hour later, we decided to start the following morning.
We were in Saigon three days and enjoyed it very much. It sounds like we did more history than pleasure, but it was actaully a good mix of both. We're there again for 24 hours in between flights up north, and we decided we're to get a fancy hotel for the night and go to a nice dinner. It will be a month since our last one. It's due. Next up is the Mekong River Delta. After the next blog you won't hear anymore of the Mekong, as we're getting tired of writing about it ourselves!
As always much love and appreciation.
S&P
We apologize in advance for our plethora of history lessons, but this should be the last big one. With that said, the Vietnam War has done as much, if not more than any other event to shape modern America. Most Americans feel strongly about the conflict in some way. When you look at all of the political or cultural movements in America over the last 40 years, you realize that a vast majority are directly or indirectly rooted in the war. We think that a brief history (trying to be objective) is therefore justified.
France dominated Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) for a hundred years up until World War II. The Japanese took over what seems like all of Asia, including Indochina, before being defeated in 1945. Afterwards the French decided they wanted it back. The only problem, however, was that they were exhausted after two world wars and had no money. There was also the fact that Mao and China recognized Ho Chi Minh's government in the north and the West recognized the French puppet government in the south. America, thinking long term economically, paid over half of France's bill in their fight against Ho Chi Minh from 1946-54. Ho Chi Minh was a communist, but what he wanted most was independence for Vietnam. He fought with America's OSS (now CIA) against Japan during WWII and declared independence in 1945. With Japan out of the way, America saw the communist government as a threat to maintaining free trade, and therefore threatened the many natural resources it received from Vietnam. The solution was to pay France to regain control and keep trade flowing. It didn't work. The communist army struggled for 8 years before sending France packing from the north. The Geneva Accord recognized two states, north and south, and called for free elections. Both South Vietnam and America refused to sign it, fearing an easy communist victory. The next ten years was a Cold War showdown with the Soviets supporting the north and the U.S. supporting the the south. By now Vietnam was more than a source of resources but a battleground with its new nemesis, the Soviet Union. The south could never maintain control, however, and it was on the verge of collapse by 1964. Instead of bowing to the will of the majority, the U.S. fully committed itself. The next 10 years don't need to be elaborated on much. The main point is that America couldn't successfully keep an invasion force, the same as France. We'll go into it a bit when we talk about the Cu Chi Tunnels, but the Vietnamese soldiers knew Vietnam and the U.S. soldiers didn't. American money stopped flowing in 1975 and South Vietnam fell. That was the end of America's involvement, but Vietnam went on to fight 5 more years; 3 against the insane Pol Pot in Cambodia, and 2 against Chinese aggression in the north. 35 years is a long time to fight, but Vietnam is now united.
With that out of the way, we move on to Ho Chi Minh City (which will be called Saigon from here on, as the local population calls it). We flew from Siem Reap in Cambodia directly to Saigon. We were immediately impressed by this chaotic yet chic cosmopolitan city. With 7+ million people it is Vietnam's cultural capital. The best shopping, eating, etc all happens here. Our first full day we walked over 8 hours taking in the French influence (architecture, parks, wide boulevards), the frenetic motor bike culture, and the historical aspects of the city. We saw the "Reunification Palace", made famous in America from the pictures of northen tanks ramming down its gates. We saw the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a famous Chinese temple, with the help of a Vietnam veteran. We hopped on some bikes with this guy and his father, as the pagoda was some distance away. It turned out the father fought for the south (and the U.S.) and showed us all these pictures from his personal struggle. Spending just a little time here and you can still see the scars of the war. Amputees are common, much more so than an average city. Besides the amputees, everyone is young. We were told 10 percent of the population is 60+. Every woman has a baby on her hip. There were 20+ million people left in 1980, and there are now over 85 million! That's an explosion. We found the people to be over the anger of the past. Everyone is extremely friendly, and everyone is an extremely hard worker.
We spent a couple hours in the War Remnants Museum. It was definitely interesting. Outside sit several large American instruments of war, including helicopters, fighter planes, tanks and canons. There is also a section on torture the French and American occupying forces committed on the "comrades in arms". This to us seemed biased almost to a laughable degree, but who knows. Inside were some interesting exhibits. One focused on the world's "unified" front against the "War of American Aggression", and another on American soldier's atrocities committed on "innocent" civilians. The atrocities section was straight propaganda. While these things did happen, the museum forgets to point out these "civilians" (women and children) grew rice by day and killed American soldiers by night. The soldiers could not tell who was an enemy and who wasn't, so eventually terrible things started to occur. It was funny to see and overhear Europeans shaking their heads and denouncing America like their hands are clean. Anyway, the one exhibit you could not deny was the ill effects people suffered from the chemicals used to destroy the jungle. There were several, but Agent Orange was the most widely used. The pictures are horrible, and it is a powerful exhibit. Unfortunately the effects are still visible on the streets along with the amputees. Second generation deformaties are not uncommon.
The next day we got up early and went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 70km west of the city. These are an extensive series of tunnels used by the Viet Cong (VC, Charlie, etc..) against the U.S. There were always southen Vietnamese people who supported the communists. That's why America got so heavily involved, to force a political settlement the other way. These southern Vietnamese had no way of militarily supporting themselves with the Americans in their backyard, so they relied on the north. The U.S. had complete air superiority and mostly cut off the supply line from north to south through Vietnam. In response, the north used the famed Ho Chi Minh trail, through Laos and Cambodia, before they crossed back into southern Vitnam via the Cu Chi Tunnels. The VC would then run operations against the Americans from here. The Americans knew all this was going on, but they couldn't publicly bomb wherever they wanted. With the go ahead from the previously discussed pro-western Cambodian government, the Americans secretly bombed the hell out of eastern Cambodia and Laos. It didn't do much good since it is all dense jungle, but it still caused a lot of devastation to the local populations. Back to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Americans knew they were there, as discussed. They completely destroyed the jungle with chemicals and tried to smoke the VC out. They never could, however, as the tunnels were simply amazing. Booby traps were set all over. American trash such as cigarettes were placed over air ventilation holes to disguise the scent from below. All sorts of tactics were used and it frustrated the Americans to no end. There were three levels, with the last and deepest leading to the Saigon River. The first set had a kitchen room, a hospital room, and an ammunitions room. The second set was deeper and could withstand the American bombing. The third set was over 25 feet deep! In emergencies they could take a deep breath and swim through a tight hole into the river itself. Amazing. Believe us when we say that's amazing. We went through the first set of tunnels, maybe 6 or 7 feet deep. These have been widened slightly, to account for the average western derriere, but were still claustrophobic. Notice the best picture we got was an albino blob (Pat). Shauna was literally shaking with terror. It's worth pointing out that this picture was our second attempt to crawl through the tunnels. The first time Shauna held up the line, started shaking and crying before running back up to daylight. Pat followed after realizing he was in the middle of 30+ tourists. Getting stuck behind one freaked him out. We waited for the crowd to pass and chest bumped before trying again. We had to do it, of course. After Shauna took the wonderful shot, Pat told her to hand him the camera and she silently passed him the water bottle. She had lost it. We crawled as fast as we could until we reached the other side. Shauna continued to shake and did not talk for 10 minutes. To Shauna's credit she faced her fear of intense claustrophobia. That morning we said we were not going to have another drink until we reached the beaches of Phu Quoc (one week). After a two hour, all you can drink happy hour later, we decided to start the following morning.
We were in Saigon three days and enjoyed it very much. It sounds like we did more history than pleasure, but it was actaully a good mix of both. We're there again for 24 hours in between flights up north, and we decided we're to get a fancy hotel for the night and go to a nice dinner. It will be a month since our last one. It's due. Next up is the Mekong River Delta. After the next blog you won't hear anymore of the Mekong, as we're getting tired of writing about it ourselves!
As always much love and appreciation.
S&P
AWESOME entry.
ReplyDeleteTerrific, concise account of Vietnam's history. I've been brushing up on the Cold War w/regard to SeAsia and Korea and I think you're pretty right on! Have a friend who was there (he's still alive) and he told me about the tunnels. Crazy! A good book to read would be Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, especiall the 1st chapter. Great to see our soldiers' lives over there. Chest bump, huh?
ReplyDeleteHave a great time in Hong Kong; so excited for you and Matt to be there together w/W & S. Matt's finally getting to go.
Great pictures by the way.
Mom
So good. Thanks again for the history lessons! Wow, Shauna! Good work getting through a tunnel...don't know if I could have done it. I'm claustrophobic as well. Sounds intense.
ReplyDeleteHope you're having fun with Matt, Will & Sashie! Shauna, you made it through a solid amount of countries with no sign of our family. Guess it's time...
Love
Cece