Catching Some Z's @ the DMZ

My second day in Hue - it was my chance to take a tour of the many battlefields and other sites in the vicinity. Being so close to the border between North and South Vietnam, Hue is a good jumping off point for this sort of thing.

Again – just like Saigon, these tours are insanely good value... full day with all entrance fees and the like, for about $6.

Our first stop was the Rockpile – an American observation post built to watch over Highway 9 as well as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Like so many of the sites, you had to use your imagination, since there isn't actually a lot left to see... just hills overgrown with trees.



We also checked out a secret place where the North Vietnamese would send their soldiers across Hwy 9, as they marched south in secret to join the fighting. Now a bridge, 40 years ago they even managed to drive trucks across a rocky ford – always moving supplies and troops further south.



Throughout the tour, our guide did a great job of making the sites come alive. He was 14 and living in South Vietnam by 1968, and he told so many incredibly moving stories with passion and pride, that it really helped you understand the trauma and scale of the conflict.

Examples:

At one point, a helicopter gunship flew directly at him in a rice paddy. Afraid to move for fear of being thought a VC, he had to sit still as a rotor blades passed within just a few feet of him.

In 1954, North and South Vietnam were created. All of the Viet Minh troops who fought the French, went North with the understanding in two years, a referendum would be held, and the country unified. This meant their wives and children stayed behind... for what would turn out to be 21 years.

It was also not uncommon to have brothers fight on different sides, with one joining the Viet Cong, and the other being drafted into the Southern army, yet if they returned to their village, they would often act as though nothing had changed...

Our next step brought us to Khe Sanh, a huge battle for a remote Marine outpost. Interesting story – General Westmoreland saw that the North Vietnamese were moving in lots of troops and artillery. His first thought was that they were trying to replicate the success they had with the French in besieging Dien Bien Phu. If he had it in him, I bet he would have done a great soul sister headshake, complete with waving finger... “uh-uh, you did NOT just surround my base...” Heck, from what I read, the Marine generals were adamant in saying they didn't even want the base.



So, a long siege later, with hundreds of airplanes flying close air support, it worked. But for nothing, as it was all a diversion to distract attention from the preparations from Tet. The final irony was that two years later, the post was voluntarily abandoned for being impossible to defend.



There wasn't a lot to see, but again, everything has miraculously grown back – in the 60's this was literally a moonscape from all of the bombing and artillery... we were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the NVA (and the sink only escaped a short but spectacular end due to its rather inferior aerodynamic traits)...

There was a touching guest signature book, where almost every guest wrote something about the need to remember the past, but move on to a more peaceful future. Everyone but one US vet... let's just say he had some issues. He ended up writing a full 3 page rant, that basically blamed the “Euro-hippies” and the Vietnamese themselves for not making this place one where American soldiers could recover from their experiences. Um, news flash buddy – first, the North won, so they can pretty much do what the heck they want. Second, a whole heap of other veterans had nothing but positive things to say in the book – about the memorial and Vietnam in general. And third... ah, heck. Let's move on.

The last stop was the most stunning visually. Vinh Moc was a village on the DMZ in the North, and occupied a pretty strategic position for troops and supplies covertly heading south. You know what they say – in real estate or war, it's all about location, location, location. In Vinh Moc's case, its importance meant that it was shelled pretty frequently – for SIX years.



Other folks would have packed it up – but you have to hand it to them, they dug in... deep. Vinh Moc's tunnels were a secret all of the way up to the 80's, but now we know that the village was relocated underground. And we're not talking some tiny crawl spaces – nope, these was a sprawling complex of four levels extending 25 meters below.



With secret entrances, meeting rooms, and even the facilities to deliver 17 children during this time, it was pretty amazing display of the tenacity and courage the Vietnamese displayed. The war wasn't pretty, with atrocities and destruction on both sides – but 40 years on, you really can't over estimate the pride the Vietnamese feel in having won, against the Japanese, French, and the Americans.