The Reality of War

21st
Today we rise early and head to the infamous chu-chi tunnels on the outskirts of Saigon; it was here that Vietcong revolutionaries resisted America in a bloody conflict. The tunnels stretch for over 100km all the way to the Cambodian border – comprising of an intricate and complex 3 level arrangements with some tunnels opening up to schools, hospitals and kitchens. During the American war the whole community was forced to live their days underground and showed amazing resilience to survive.
The story and background is amazing and luckily we downloaded a documentary about the area a few days prior to get the picture; I say luckily, because although the day was entertaining I wouldn’t say it is informative. The gritty reality of the place has been replaced with a somewhat disneyfied version, the tunnels widened for fat tourists to climb down and a macho shooting range added, where you can fire guns for a dollar a bullet. Admittedly I enjoyed crawling through the tunnel and laughed as the tour guide joked about Americans being snared by brutal bamboo traps that were primitive but ingeniously effective at killing and maiming their foe. I even bought a few bullets and fired off a few rounds; and yes it was pretty good fun.
The truth of the place though is brutal, harsh and shouldn’t be forgotten. The reason the Americans couldn’t win decisively in Vietnam is encapsulated here – these people are tough, they have been at war with the Chinese the French and the Americans and they always gave more and worked harder and came through in the end. You cannot fail to recognise the resilience and determination shown by these people, people who crawled on their bellies “like worms” to absorb the last remaining breaths of oxygen in a dark humid claustrophobic dungeon, while up above the Americans laid waste to their crops and their villages to deprive them of food or aid. They ate tapioca roots and drank squalid water and died of diseases and hunger, all underground, but no matter what they never gave up. These people should be remembered respectfully – but instead the only hint at the sombre mood is a bizarre 60’s propaganda film that explains how these Americans “like crazy devils” came and destroyed the land. The tunnels are 100% worth the visit, but do some researching before you go or you might well miss the whole point.
Bringing the situation to light though is the war remnants museum (formerly the museum of American War Crimes). We stop here after the tunnels and quickly the sombre mood is everywhere. A look around at the visitors and their sullen faces and grave expressions shows you what you’re in for. This is reality, it is no bullshit hard hitting truth, and in war the truth is not a nice thing to understand.
We begin with a pictorial display of children with deformities – born to soldiers and civilians who were sprayed with Agent Orange in the war. Agent Orange is the strongest of several strands of chemicals of which 100’s of thousands of tons were sprayed on Vietnam, effectively in order to stop the country from being able to produce food or anything else for that matter. The countryside was literally obliterated, napalm burnt the trees, Agent Orange killed the wild life, and bombs stripped everything down to muddy holes in the ground. The effect on the ecosystem was severe, and the effect on today’s generation is still being felt. All around Vietnam you see children without arms, old ladies without hands and men without legs in wheel chairs. Some were victims of combat, but others are born with extreme defects due to the lasting damage of hazardous chemicals. To see each picture blown up, with a story of the families and the people effected – you would have to be a robot not to feel the emotion welling up inside.
The next section featured photographs from journalists that were killed in the war: most were American, some European and a few from the South Vietnamese side. The photographs varied in their content but all of it was brutally real and some were downright harrowing. Many showed American soldiers smiling as they tortured and killed civilians, one particular one that sticks in the mind is a GI holding up the head and torso of a man clearly blown apart by a rocket launcher: he has a massive look of triumph and success in his expression as if he was holding up the FA cup or some other prestigious award.
Other images which were even scarier were those of innocent people, often clutching children, in their very last moments of life. A caption reads below the picture, I told them to stop as I took my picture, but as I went away I heard shots fired and bodies slumping to the floor – I didn’t dare to turn and look.
The experience as a whole left us shell shocked and angry, it is easy to forget about the atrocities committed by the powerful countries, including our own, but this really makes the truth hit home. There should be museums in other countries like this, to stop anyone becoming involved again in such horrific conflicts.