Chu Chi Tunnels/Museum

On our first full day in Vietnam, we did what all American tourists to Vietnam do and delved into the horror of our presence in Vietnam during the war.

About an hour from Saigon are the Cu Chi tunnels. (The following description is taken from the previous link.) The tunnels a network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district of Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Cu Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the war and were the Viet Cong base of operations for the Tet Offensive in 1968. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The role of the tunnel systems cannot be underestimated in its importance to the Viet Cong in resisting American operations and protracting the war, eventually forcing the Americans into withdrawal.

The site was really impressively preserved and educational without being touristy. Aside from the propaganda laden introduction video, the tour was quite interesting and showed us, not only the insides of the tunnels, but also how the people of Cu Chi managed to defend themselves and their families, through the creation of various really scary looking traps set in holes in the ground, to an intricate network of compartments dug above the kitchen designed to trap smoke from the fire and force it to travel slowly upward to a location further away and rise to the surface like fog, as opposed to coming straight up from above their location and giving them away. There was also a shooting range where for $1 a bullet, visitors could shoot off anything from an old Soviet rifle to an AK47. Both Steven and I found this abhorrent and I could not see the sense a country that is finally at peace glorifying weapons (although Steven brought up the drive for the almighty dollar).

After leaving the tunnels, we continued our tour of the atrocities committed in Vietnam at the War Remnants Museum which displayed American fighter planes, tanks and helicopters along with news articles on the war, a display dedicated to the effects of Agent Orange, and a display on the Anti-war peace movements across the world during that time. It was interesting, but not very easy to follow without knowing more about the specifics of the history of that time period. The most disturbing was the display about the victims of Agent Orange and the pictures of their horribly disfigured children as a result of being exposed.

Something else I'd read pertaining to the war is the current state of affairs for Southern Vietnamese men. Apparently after the war, those who fought for the US or the South were put into one year "re-education" camps and now many are unable to work, forced to work as cyclo-drivers for very little money, or like one man we met, forced to live in a temple and live off the tips of the tourists he takes through the temple each day. Even with all of the history and all of the continuing effects on the present, the Vietnamese do not seem to be at all mired in the past, but are very much looking to the future.