Good Morning Viet Nam

Saturday, February 23, 2013 - Non- stop day!

Day 15: Cu Chi Tunnels - Ho Chi Minh City

Meals included: 1 breakfast

Activities:

​​Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam and the nation's economic capital. A short city tour takes us to the Reunification Palace, War Remnants Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral, and allows us to admire the many beautiful French colonial buildings such as the main post office and the former Hotel de Ville (city hall). 

The bustling Ben Thanh Market in Cholon (Chinatown) allows us to view the city from another perspective and to see the abundance of fresh local produce that is such an important feature of Vietnamese cuisine. In the afternoon, we head out of town to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. Cu Chi is actually the name of the district which covers an extensive underground network (approximately 200 kilometres) of tunnels dug initially by the Viet Minh and later expanded by the Viet Cong. 

The tunnels contained hospitals, plus accommodation and schools, and were used extensively for refuge and storage and also utilised as a military base for the Viet Cong close to Saigon. The 1968 Tet Offensive was launched from Cu Chi with surprising effect. A section of the tunnels has been widened to allow tourists to get a feel for what the life  1948underground must have been like (please note that this will be hot and sweaty and also a s war crimesbit claustrophobic!).

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We just couldn't help ourselves when we awoke this morning in Saigon/HoChi Minh City, and had to say "Good Morning Viet Nam!" even though we didn't quite sound like Robin Williams.  We are here 40 years after the Viet Nam war ended.  The city is bustling with motor bikes, cars, and the unexpected upscale shopping centers of a "market" or capitalist economy rather than that of a communist economy.  Tuk-tuks, rimorks, and bicycle tourist vehicles are absent.  The capitol city is modern and is far more prosperous than Laos and Cambodia.

PROPAGANDA - History rewritten

Ho Chi Minh City is the official name of the city, but many older locals still refer to the city as Saigon.  As those who remember the war and the events that lead up to the war grow older and fade away, the younger generation here will know little of the real war other than the anti-American propaganda which is thematic throughout the city.  

America is portrayed as the heartless aggressor, the South Vietnamese army as the Puppet Military of the Americans who had the "intention of conquering" South Viet Nam for America's Security, and North Viet Nam (communists forces supported by the Chinese and Russians) as the reunification forces.  The Viet Cong (poor agrarian locals) trained and led  by the North Vietnamese Army are referred to as martyrs who fought and died to save their country from America, the aggressor.  America at the worst was a supporter of the democracy side of a civil war against communist ideology.

The Geneva convention signed in in 1948 specifies that which is considered war crimes by an aggressor. Communists labeling the US as an aggressor are then free to claim war crimes of genocide, massacre of civilians, torture, and the like in the "American War" against the people of Viet Nam.  According to our historical guide, when the French pulled out not wanting to fight the communists anymore in 1954,  through United Nations agreement, Viet Nam was divided into two sections at the 17th parallel.  Citizens were given three years to freely decide whether they wanted to move either North to live the communist ideology or South to live if an independent democracy.   Reportedly, About 1,000,000 people moved South and 100,000 people moved North during this free movement period. The Russians and Chinese supported the north, and America supported the South.

Discontent with the division, the communists started to push against the borders into South Viet Nam.  Unbeknownst to Americans at the time, this was just the beginning of the "war" starting with American advisors and police action along the border and escalating to a full scale war.

There is no question that war is hell for all parties, and that atrocities of war occurred on both sides. The propaganda here is over the top for us, but unfortunately the young people believe it to be the facts because it also corresponds with what they are taught in school, and the government does not allow for journalistic contradiction.  Our guide, said that the historical accounts on the Internet are helping to dispel the propaganda.

We visited the War Remnants (not history) Museum, which depicts the war from Ho Chi Minh's perspective.  It was powerfully persuasive in its one-sided depictions of the war with photographs of torture, massacre, protest marches against American involvement "aggression" in  the war, Kent State, use of agent orange (immediate and long term effects).

We also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels (Viet Cong) command post for the Saigon area, about an hour and half drive out of the city.  Many American GI 's lost their lives here fighting an enemy that would pop out of holes connected to 230 km of underground tunnels.  Fighting has been a way of life for the Indochinese for thousands of years.  The people are resourceful and close to the land.  These tunnels were started before and during the war , one bucketful at a time.  There were three different levels of tunnels that included command center, kitchen, dining, sleeping, teaching, and hospital. Tunnels and rooms were small, designed for the small people of the land.  Crawling and crouching even for them was the norm in the tunnels.

Fighting the Viet Cong here was next to impossible.  Outside of the tunnels, the VC set up booby traps for foot soldiers and their tracking dogs.  Escape routes led to the Mekong River where the VC could swim across the river to Cambodia and disappear.  Bombing and chemicals here had limited affect on the VC who lived primarily under ground and would pop out of their holes to shoot at the SVN and American Troops, then disappear again.  One could try out an Ak47 here, but just the sound of the gunfire made me sick and brought tears to my eyes as I could imagine so many young Americans fighting and dying here.

When the American involvement in Viet Nam ceased, the North Vietnamese communists took over the rest of the country.  You may recall the image of the tanks rolling through the gates of the Capital of Saigon.  The propagandists would have the world believe that the North's intentions were solely to reunite the country, and those who resisted were the enemy.  The capitol is now a museum known not as a place of South Viet Nam's resistance to communism, fight for democracy, and ultimate surrender, but of reunification by the benevolent Uncle Ho, Ho Chi Minh.  

In 1975, after the communist take over, the war in Viet Nam continued until 1979.  Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge now being supported by China were attacking Viet Nam from the west.  Russia was supporting Viet Nam in the fight against against the Khmer Rouge.  China and Russia were only buddies while fighting Americans and the South Vietnamese army.  In 1979, the unified Vietnamese army (now a very strong and experienced fight dorce) supported by the Russians defeated the Khmer Rouge on the west and the Chinese who invaded in the north.  Ho Chi Minh is the Vietnamese hero

Uncle Ho's picture is everywhere watching over the people of Viet Nam.

After a full day of depressing war touring and propaganda, we finished the day on an upbeat note, with an excellent cultural and non-political production at the Opera House.  We enjoyed skilled performances of tumblers, singers, dancers, and musicians.  This production is only done on the 15th and 23rd of every month and costs $25.00.  Yippee!  It was the 23rd.  Plan your visit around one of these dates.  It was well worth it.

All is well with the Worrall Travel R's