But the story starts before the Americans..... Through the centuries this land has been fought over. The photo I posted in my earlier blog about Saigon shows the statue of Tran Hung Dao resplendent on the quayside. He warded off Mogul attackers led by Kublai Khan in the 13th century. For a while the south of Vietnam was ruled by the Khmer and was part of the Kingdom of Cambodia. It was also controlled by the Chinese. The French came in the mid nineteenth century, colonising vast tracts of land throughout the Indochine region of what is now Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. They have left a lasting legacy in the many colonial buildings and in some of the language of the Vietnamese, and of course the baguettes!
The Japanese invaded and occupied Vietnam during WW2 but after their defeat in 1945 and in line with thinking throughout the colonial world, Vietnam wanted to become an independent country and not return to French control.The First Indochine War to oust the French lasted from 1945-54. Early guerrilla fighting under Ho Chi Min as communist leader of the Viet Minh developed into full scale war in 1949 as Communist China gave him their support. Then with a fear that communism would spread throughout the world, the US supported France and the pro western government of the southern part of Vietnam. Finally in 1954 the French withdrew and the Geneva Accord created a temporary partition of Vietnam at the 17th parallel, the communists ruled to the north led by Ho Chi Min, and the pro western anti communist south was supported by the Americans. However many Vietnamese still wanted a unified independent country, free from external rule, and what followed was the Second Indochine War, or the Vietnam War or the American War, whatever you want to call it. This ran from the expulsion of the French in 1954 until the defeat of the Americans and their withdrawal in 1973.
I have gone into this in some detail to set the picture and the background to the conflict. The Americans left and the Vietnamese were free to run their country their way, a country that had been devastated, particularly in the south, and not only were millions of Vietnamese killed (along with thousands of Americans) but many are still paying the price today.
I went to the War Remnants Museum in Saigon. It tells the story of the build up of the conflict, the conflict itself and then the aftermath. There are many stories, and haunting photographs of people traumatised by war. These include many taken by American photographers, photos which are still well known today..... The little girl crying, running, trying to flee a napalm attack...
But what I hadn't realised is how much some people are still suffering.... not only those who lived through the war, and I include those from both sides of the conflict here, and those who subsequently have had limbs blown off through stepping on unexploded mines, but also the children, and grand children of people who were fighting at that time and came into contact with Agent Orange and other chemical weapons that were widely used during the conflict. Second and third generations on both sides who are still dealing with the physical deformities and mental disabilities and traumas caused by the use of chemical weapons. It seems that Vietnam was being used as a testing ground for chemical weapons and to explore the after effects of their use..... It is always humbling to remember past conflicts, and think..... There but for the grace of God.....
I also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, not far from Saigon, where the Viet Cong (Southern Vietnamese supporters of the Communist North wanting unification) and villagers hid from the Americans and where they initiated the Tet Offensive against the Americans in Saigon in 1968.
This is me going into an opening the size of the tunnels....
A replica booby trap for the American soldiers.... Spikes when they fell into the pit...
Back in Saigon I went to the Independence Palace, which was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and was the site of the end of war during the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, when a North Vietnamese army tank crashed through its gates. It is a very 1960s building preserved in time.....
This is the command centre for operations in the bomb proof shelter underground.
And the helicopter pad where a member of the Air Force tried unsuccessfully to blow up the building and assassinate the then president of south Vietnam. This accelerated the end of the war.
And trophies in the private wing of the palace... Not something you'd see today thank goodness.
The room at the very top of the building was built as a meditation room with fabulous views over Saigon city. The president turned it into a disco...
On a different note, most of the trees in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are painted white to about 4 feet off the ground. Legend has it that during the American War the young girls living along the Ho Chi MinTrail through Cambodia and Laos and in Vietnam itself used to line the darkened roads at night
wearing white gowns by which to guide the vehicles in the supply convoys and keep them safely on the road. Or it could just be to keep termites at bay. I know which story I prefer.....
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