2015 - Back to Vietnam

In 2015, Carmel and I purchased a 10 day package tour of Vietnam and Cambodia.

Prior to departure, I used an app to refresh and upgrade my basic Vietnamese.

I arrived in Hanoi with a degree of prejudice towards the "North Vietnamese".

I deemed the officials as surly and non-responsive to my attempts at conversation – albeit there is a significant difference between North and South dialects (see Saigon 1967-68).  

Perhaps they were fed up with the typical el Cheapo western tourist - particularly the yobbo Australian.

Hanoi seemed orderly and more "French Colonial" than what I imagined.
On the whole, the population seemed oblivious to Australia's involvement 1962-72.  From North to South, the locals consistently referred to the war as The American War.

A two day trip to Hua Long Bay overnighting on a Sampan and tour of the local caves was interesting.

Huạ Long Bay offered vistas of lovely emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rainforests (not too sure as to the ecological impact of such tourism).

The evening before departure to Da Nang and transfer to Hoi An, I toured the Hotel Hanoi Hilton (Gatehouse Museum) where the North Vietnamese “hosted” American POWs war (mainly pilots shot down over the north). Most of the prison was demolished, but a part has been kept and transformed into a museum, as one of top Hanoi attractions.

A few kilometres to the south was the village of My Lai (wherein there was the hamlet of My Song).
In March 1968, American troops committed a massacre there. Between 347 and 504 unarmed people were killed by U.S. Army soldiers. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.
I was in Vietnam in this horrible period - being fed the US's "body count" propaganda.
Decades later the singer Melanie Safka came out with a dark hit:
"Look What They Done to my Song".

By converting my song in the lyrics below to My Song, one begins to understand how, in war, combatants are so indocrinated they make morally bad decisions that haunt forever.

Look what they've done to my song, ma

Look at what they've done to my song, ma

It was the only thing I could do half right

And it's turning out all wrong, ma, look

What they've done to my song

Look what they've done to my song, ma

Look what they've done to my song, ma

It was the only thing I could do half right

And it's turning out all wrong, ma

Look what they've done to my song

Look what they've done to my brain, ma

Look at what they've done to my brain

Well, they picked it like a chicken bone

And I think that I'm half insane, ma

Look what they've done to my song

Oh, I wish that I could find a good book to live in

Oh, I wish that I could find a good book

Well, if I could find a real good book

I'd never have to come out and look at

What they've done to my song

Ils ont changé ma chanson, ma

Ils ont changé ma chanson, ma

C'est la seule chose que je peux faire

Et ce n'est pas bon, ma

Ils ont changé ma chanson

But maybe, it'll all be all right, ma

Maybe, it'll all be okay

Well, if the people are buying tears

Then I'm gonna be rich girl some day, ma

Look what they've done to my song

Look what they've done to my song, ma-ma-ma

Look, look what they've done to my song

You know, they tied it up in a plastic bag

And then turned it upside down, oh ma-ma

Look at what they've done

Want to look at what they've done, oh ma-ma

Look what they've done to my song

The decade long "cover up" by the US military cover up was equally shocking.

We were also taken inland to an area that was the source of a religious sect – the name for which I have since forgotten.

Along the way were shown the mounds of earth twisted and contorted due to the effects of B52 bombing.

In 1967-68. I heard the bombs and felt the earth tremble.  But I never did see the devastation to the landscape - unnatural depressions in the terrrain.

 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Still a shithouse - traffic, noise, gridlock - stinking hot.

Carmel and I excused ourselves from the tour whereupon I showed Carmel, where I worked and lived and pointed out landmarks.

We were located in District One the nerve centre of the South Vietnamese goverment - National Assemby (next door); Presidential Palace; Ministries of Defence -Police-Communications stc;.  Hence we were so exposed to collateral damage caused by Viet Cong attacks aimed at disrupting and even hostile take over.

I became quite animated. I took her to the rooftop of the Hotel Caravelle thinking that I could point out everything geographically – where the 107mm mortars landed; the path of the 122mm rocket barrages; the Hit ‘n Run attacks of the Viet Cong; the skirmishes in and around key strategic locations during the 1968 Tet Offensive including which buildings were damaged by helicopter gunships.

But alas –the site was now built-out.

The top floor was converted to an al fresco restaurant with a designated section commemorating the foreign journalists’ involvement in reporting the War.
At that time, the hotel was the HQ for many syndicated news agencies - even the Australian Broadcasting Commission ABC.

The hotel manager somehow picked up on my excitement.

He made the usual hospitality enquiry.

Unlike Carmel who seemed to be bored shitless, the manager (an Australian) was keenly interested as I repeated myself – I was also able to name many of the media who appeared in photos on the display wall - and some who were killed.

He said he had never met anyone who was here during the height of the war and who had such firsthand experiences of those times.  He kept on asking me question after question.

I suppose we could have dined out then and there for free.

Distorting History at the Cu Chi Tunnels

The tour package included a bus trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

This location was an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi District about 30 km outside Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). 

The area witnessed several military campaigns during the Vietnam War and was the Viet Cong's base of operations for the later part of the Tết Offensive in 1968.

The tour group was all Australian. During the outward bus journey, our guide just happened to sit next to me. We spoke in Vietnamese and English whereupon, I told him I was in Saigon 1967-8.

He reflected that his father, at the time, was aged five.

The tunnels are a popular tourist attraction. Visitors are invited to crawl around in the safer parts of the tunnel system. Some tunnels have been made larger to accommodate tourists. Low-power lights have been installed to make travelling through them easier.  Another site displayed the different yet primative types of booby traps that were used to main and kill the "Americans".

The group was fed “bullshit” stories that embellished military achievements.

The above-ground attractions include caged monkeys, vendors selling souvenirs, and a shooting range where visitors can fire a number of assault rifles, such as the M16 rifle or AK-47, as well as a light machine gun such as the M60.

At the end of the tour of the complex, there was a regathering of our group in an open conference hall which had a large wall map of the region on display. The main purpose was to present us 16 mm black/white videos - more propaganda.

I was getting agitated.

There was a break in this presentation.  I tried to get out of my seat in the third or fourth row only to have my trouser belt snatched by Carmel and abruptly pulled back down.

I evaded her next grab and scurried towards my new-chum-guide now located at the lectern.

I asked him if I could address the group.

"No problem", as he handed over the pointer stick.

I tapped on the wall map indicating the at this location, in May 1968, an Australian force of about 3,000 solders ( some 60% of our total commitment) was operating in this exact area and would the group like to hear about Operation Coral-Balmoral? 

“Yes Please!”

The wall map was a magnificent aid. In about10 minutes, I explained the geo political and strategic significance of the intervention as well as the cost in terms of dead and wounded.

I was not glorifying the month long engagement - I was simply providing some much needed "Balance".

Cambodia

We traveled by bus to Phnom Penh.  The distance 226 km by road took all day – the longest part being the pandemonium at the border where officials were intent on making things difficult for people who were obvious tourists.

Cambodia 2015 compared to my recollection of Cambodia 1967 was incomparable.

The people seemed meeker and more friendly. But tourism is still in its infancy and the population still seems traumatised by the Killing Fields genocide. 
We were taken to one location where indeed there was a pall in the air. Collectively more than a million people were murdered and barbaically buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975-1979.

It was with a sense of depression that Carmel and I decided not to continue with the tour that ended by a visit to Angkor Wat.  (I had been there in 1967 and Carmel was out of sorts.)

So we reorganised our tickets and went home.

It did not occur to us to advise the tour company representative.

When we got home we were greeted with a frantic phone call from its Head Office.

It seemed that Cambodia was still considered kidnapping territory and we were reported as “missing”.  

"Opps! Sorry folks!".