The DMZ
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2006
1
18
108
Trip End
Ongoing
17th Parallel,
Vietnam
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
The tour started with a brief history listen from our tour guide who spoke very good English and was also very knowledgeable. She explained that after WW2, the French decided that they still wanted to retain control over Vietnam (it was a French colony prior to WW2), but the Vietnamese people felt differently.
An old US Army helicopter
In 1954, the French agreed to leave having had over 30,000 troops killed and loads more injured. However, the agreement meant the country was split at the 17th parallel (either side of the Ben Hai River) with elections due within two years. This didn't happen as the US arrived as the French left and the country was at war again up until the US agreed to leave in 1973.The first stop on the tour was a bridge over the Ben Hai River, which had a 'peace and unification' monument on the north side. During the war, both sides tried to out-do each other by painting the bridge their colours and erecting bigger and bigger flags that would then be shot at by the other side! The propaganda from the north was that the war was about unifying the country by liberating the south from the capitalists, hence the term unification being used to describe the monument.
The DMZ was supposed to be a safe haven between both sides, but during the war, it was heavily bombed and we were shown present day evidence of the bomb craters. We were also shown a burnt-out on US tank that nobody has been bothered to move in the last 30-odd years.
Next stop was a visit to the Vinh Moc Tunnels
Another old US Army helicopter
. During the war, there were numerous routes used by the north Vietnamese to transport soldiers and supplies towards the south; some were overland and others were underground. In total there were 100's of kms of tunnels, some of which were used by people to live in. This was the case here and for around five years, people called these tunnels home, with little family areas (2.5m long, 1m wide and 1.5m high!), wash areas, meeting rooms etc dotted about. It was very hot walking through these tunnels and we were only in there for about 10 mins. I've no idea how people survived down there for up to five years, whilst being bombs were falling 24/7 above them!Afterwards we then stopped to take pictures from the top of a hill looking over a valley of bare earth and tree plantations. This was to give us an idea of the damage to the environment that American use of Agent Orange and Napalm had caused. The Agent Orange was used to get rid of the leaves from trees, then Napalm was used to get rid of what was left. This had an effect to turn the previous jungles that had an abundance of wildlife, including Tigers, into a baron wasteland. Some of the old jungle has been replaced by tree plantations, but it's not the same.
In the afternoon we visited what used to be the biggest of the US's army bases in the area, which is now a museum that has a few US helicopters and tanks outside. Inside the museum they have pictures taken from the frontline, with more propaganda attached to the photos. On the way back to Hue we stopped at a new bridge, which was good to take a picture in front of, but I'm not sure what it had to do with the war.
Overall it was a good, if a long day out. It was also a case of visiting historical places and gaining a Vietnamese perspective on the war, rather that visiting places because there was something to look at.
