Day Six: My longest post for sure

Saturday began early, as the trip to Cu Chi was a long one. Our drive out of the city was particularly interesting. Our ride to us out past the touristy and upper/middle class areas of the city, and we got to see what the city was like for most of its residents. There were fewer tall buildings and restaurants, but the streets were just as lively. Our trip brought us out of the metropolitan area of the city, and we found ourselves for the first time driving through rural Vietnam. The difference was stunning, a stretch of farms dotted with small huts and quiet street corners. Something interesting we noticed was the different types of houses that seemed to be most common. About half of the homes were wooden or metal shanties with thatch roofs, while the other half were colorful and made with brick. After about an hour of driving we pulled into a large parking lot with old war vehicles lining the sides. We arrived at the Cu Chi tunnels.
The tunnels were an incredible experience. We began our journey by meeting with a tour guide and heading into the nearby jungle. The busy sounds of the city had been replaced by the subtle yet eerie buzzing of insects. The jungle here was young and thin, as the original vegetation in the area had been destroyed by heaving U.S bombing and the use of chemicals such as Agent Orange. During wartime, much of the area we walked on would have been a wasteland. Dr. Berman printed out some bomb craters as we walked through the jungle, which would have gone unnoticed under the vegetation if it weren’t for his eye. We walked by piles of salvaged munitions and arms from the U.S forces, and got to see some of the weapons used by both sides. Before heading into the tunnels, Dr. Berman gave us a brief description of the Cu Chi district during war time, its strategic purpose, and the fighting that went on there. Dr. Berman explained how the 25^th Infantry, better known as Tropic Lightning, set up their basecamp in the Cu Chi district, and were harassed by Viet Cong using the tunnels to attack them from the inside, and slip away without detection. The tunnels had first been constructed to counter the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during WWII, and were subsequently expanded during the French and American occupations. At their height, the tunnels spanned over 250 kilometers.

Perhaps the most eye-opening experience of the trip for me however, was the video we watched next. It was a Viet Cong propaganda video from 1967, which focused on the methods, and successes of Viet Cong fighters against American Soldiers. Dr. Berman said he personally found the video offensive, and I could understand why. In the video, Viet Cong were considered “American Killer Heroes” for how many U.S soldiers they killed.  Particularly, the video told the story of a young girl, who lived as a rice farmer with her family in the Cu Chi district by day, and fought with the Viet Cong by night. The girl was a talented sniper, and was apparently credited with killing almost 100 U.S soldiers (although then again this was a propaganda video). Most people would expect me to find this offensive. And I did…a bit. But more than being offended, I was astounded. Throughout my high school career we had learned an American perspective of the Vietnam War. Even in AP U.S, we took a very macroscopic, political approach to our reasoning for entering and staying in Vietnam. The U.S at the time had a policy of containment, and in order to defeat communism, which in practice was oppressive and unfair to people (we knew this), we had to stop its spread. This I understood. I understood that the Vietnam War was tragic, an unnecessary loss of human lives, and in the end we did not achieve our objective. I also understood that it was necessary in order to continue our foreign policy, and I understood that we had an obligation to protect those who’s right to democracy was threatened around the world. All this was clear to me. I did not have a very definite opinion of the war, and truthfully I still don’t. But watching that video changed something for me. All I could think afterwards was, why the hell we were in Vietnam? Again, I understand all the political and moral reasons for sending American troops, but truthfully, we had no business being there. These were a people who had been oppressed not just by the French or the Japanese. They had been living under the boot of Imperialist nations for over a thousand years. These were simple rice farmers, who, after fighting back against aggressive invaders for generations, had learned to build a culture around killing the enemy. And I didn’t have spite for that. It would have been impossible for them to live any other way, after so much fighting. I want to keep this blog professional, but I really have no other way to describe how I felt about the war after watching that video than f*cked up (sorry mom). The Viet Cong were experienced killers fighting in their own backyard for their own perception of freedom. I can’t say whether one side was morally right or wrong in what they did. I can’t even say whether one is morally right for what they were fighting for. All I can definitively say, after learning about the life and culture of the Viet Cong in Cu Chi, is that the only true “objective” achieved by wither side, was putting lots of people to death. Sorry if I got a little dark there, but I felt like it was such an eye-opening experience that I had to share it.

After the video we headed deeper into the jungle, where got our first look at the tunnels. Our guide put us in a circle, and challenged us to find the entrance to the tunnel that was somewhere in between us. After we were unable to find it, he revealed a cleverly concealed trap door that could not have been larger than 1 foot by 1 foot, and slipped into the tiny space below, sealing it behind him. We stood awkwardly unsure of what to do for a bit until he emerged from a hole around 50 feet behind us. Afterwards we were taken to a series of expanded tunnels, which had functioned as command posts, hospitals, and battle stations during the war. The tunnels themselves were tiny, even after their expansion, often forcing you onto your hands and knees. The tunnels sometimes opened up to large rooms, which served various functions. The last stretch of tunnels we entered was 30 meters long with no large breaks, and had a series of turns, intersections, and slopes that made traversing it a bit more difficult, and a lot more nerve-racking. It would truly take a different kind of person to live down in those tunnels. After exiting the last tunnel, we walked to a pavilion where we saw some of the traps Vietcong would set up. After the tour ended, we took the bus to a restaurant on the nearby Saigon River. The river was full of floating hyacinths, which at some points completely covered our view of the water. After lunch we visited Den Ben Duoc temple, near the tunnels. The temple was truly interesting. The walls of the temple were covered in names of those who had died fighting in the Cu Chi district. The names ranged back to the beginning of the Japanese occupation. Was especially interesting however, was that the names were not just Vietnamese. The temple had the names of every person that died there, including the French, Japanese, and Americans. I thought it was truly incredible that they could still show respect to another nations dead, even after they had fought against them.  The outer walls of the temple were covered in murals that depicted every occupation Vietnam had experienced in its history. To complete our Cu Chi visit, we went to a Vietnamese soldier cemetery. We were only there for around fifteen minutes, but the experience was still a powerful one. You forget for a moment that they were supposed to be the enemy. All you see is graves, and pictures and names of young men who had died. Afterwards we made the long journey back to the city. We got back to the hotel and immediately headed to the pool (the tunnels had left us hot and dirty). For dinner a group of about six of us went to a nearby restaurant that specialized in Central Vietnamese foods, which is largely based on seafood. I had a sort of Pho with Tuna, which was great. We then returned to the hotel for a final fitting for the suits. I usually leave the nightlife out of the blogs for my parents, but I will say that the club we went to Saturday was on top of the second tallest building in the city, and had an incredible view. Hen gap lai!