Day Eleven: Chao Co!

Thursday marked our last day at UEF. We began the day with a last history and culture class. We learned about Taoism in Vietnamese religion and Vietnamese art. Taoism, although not directly practiced by a large portion of the Vietnamese population, is very evident in Vietnamese culture. Concepts of yin and yang, and traditional Chinese values on numbers are important to Vietnamese culture and tradition. Vietnamese art is not visually complex, but is typically full of subtle symbolism. After our final history and culture class we had about a thirty minute break, where we headed downstairs and a few buildings down to the small café we had frequently gone to the past two weeks, for our last cup of Café Sua Da. We sat in a line looking out at the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City. It was mostly quiet; everyone wanted to soak in the sights and sounds of the city for one of the last times. The coffee may have been sweet, but the experience was a bittersweet one. Afterwards we had finished our Cafe Sua Da, we headed back to the classroom for our final Vietnamese language class. We did some review games to go over everything we had learned over the past two weeks, and said our thanks to our teacher (in Vietnamese, “Co”). After class, we headed to Kent for the last time, and had an excellent lunch. We also took a ton of pictures overlooking the city from the eighth floor of the university.

We left straight from lunch and went to the Xa Loi Pagoda. The Xa Loi Pagoda is a very important place in Vietnamese culture and religion. During the Presidency of U.S backed South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, there was a great deal of persecution of the countries’ Buddhist population. Xa Loi was the sight of much of the unrest in Saigon. While the trip to the Pagoda was intriguing, it was surreal when considered in the context of our next visit. We left the Pagoda and walked just a few blocks down the street, where on our right emerged a small green space, lined with trees and flowers. A set of stairs led up to an impressive statue of a Buddhist monk meditating, his body crowned with flames. This was a memorial devoted to Thic Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk who famously publically immolated himself at the intersection we were standing on to protest the repressive policies of President Diem’s Administration. Behind the striking statue was a mural, which documented the persecution of the South Vietnamese Buddhist population, and their unification as a religion in culture in opposition to their persecutors. Much like the Cu Chi tunnels, this visit was eye-opening: this was a place where history happened, and although we did not take place, you could feel the energy and importance of the place in world history. After we had walked the grounds of the memorial, we walked as a group to the War Remnants Museum, just a block from the Victory. The War Remnants Museum, formerly named the War Crimes Museum, is a museum that documents the atrocities committed by the aggressors of the Vietnamese people, most notably the Americans during the war. Dr. Berman explained to us some background to the museum, but told us he would not go in with us. He does not particularly like the portrayal of the American soldiers, which is understandable, as he lived it. The first floor of the museum was devoted to showing the support of nations around the world for North Vietnam, Vietnamese Communism, and the NLF. The second floor was a bit more unsettling. One room was devoted solely to the atrocities of American forces against Vietnamese soldiers and people. While some images simply showed U.S soldiers being rough with Vietnamese prisoners, which I honestly did not considered that upsetting, as it is wartime, and any army is not going to pamper their POWs, other images were more upsetting. U.S soldiers waterboarding Vietnamese prisoners, setting fire to villages and relocating their residents, even dragging prisoners behind moving trucks. This is the kind of stuff that we would never talk about in history class, yet it is still important to consider. I believe, in order to be informed on the topic, more Americans need to understand the ugly side of the conflict. Of course the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese committed atrocities of their own, but American troops were not above these atrocities. It seems in wartime, there can never be a moral high ground. All the participants are guilty of some level of injustice. Another room showed the effects of the use of Agent Orange and other chemical defoliants, both environmentally and biologically, on Vietnam. The walls were covered with images of Vietnamese children born with grotesque birth defects in areas affected by the implementation of chemical defoliants. It is truly tragic that so many innocent people had to live through such terrible circumstances because of the poor decisions of the U.S military. Outside the museum was a replicated South Vietnamese POW prison, which showed tiger cages, small cells that would trap the brutal Vietnamese heat and hold large numbers of prisoners with very little food and water. While these prisons were operated by the South Vietnamese, and not the U.S, they were yet another atrocity of war.

After leaving the war remnants museum we headed back to the hotel, where we swam for a bit before heading out to dinner with the UEF kids. We went a noodle restaurant called Hong Phat, where I ate Cambodian Yellow Noodle Soup. It was a bit of a change from the rice noodles I was used to seeing in similar dishes. Xin Chao!