Quang, our Expedition Leader lives in Hanoi.  His father was Viet Cong in the war (later studied to become a “Western Doctor”) who spent much of his war time as a soldier helping keep the Ho Chi Minh trail open.  The trail was an elaborate system of mountain and jungle paths used by North Vietnam to infiltrate troops and supplies to South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the war.  A real thorn in the American and South Vietnamese’s sides.  It played a huge roll in the final victory of North vs South.

In 1993 John McCain, a guest of the Hanoi Hilton as a POW  from 1967 to 1973 helped open the path for US citizens to travel to Vietnam for the first time since our abrupt departure in 1975.  Slowly, men and women who spent time there as soldiers and nurses returned to visit. Perhaps to face old ghosts or demons?  To put the past to rest?  To validate their experience back then?

When Quang first started working for National Geographic they would send him to the airport to pick up tour guests.  One evening he was to pick up two men and take them to their hotel in Hanoi.  He met them as scheduled and they said they were “Canadians” and could he possibly stop by the Vietnam War Memorial before being taken to their hotel?  Happy to accommodate, he took them there and waited while they spent quite awhile in deep thought at the memorial and eventually both of them openly sobbing.  Of course he felt a bit awkward and tried to comfort them.  They told him that they weren’t really Canadians but former American pilots who had been instructed to bomb Hanoi on Christmas Eve in 1972; historically  a time of cease fire in the pre-ceding years of the war.  They reluctantly did as they were ordered but it had haunted them with guilt and post traumatic stress ever since.

Quang was overcome by their sincerity and remorse and without telephoning his father, the former VC, he took them home to meet him.  He wasn’t sure how his father would react but had an idea that he would be gracious and forgiving.  He was.  All three former enemies hugged and cried and forgave each other.  His Mamasan made dinner for them all and to this day they return every two years to visit Quang’s Dad.

Whew.  What a story.  Quang told it so much better with genuine warmth and feeling.  I think this story will be what I remember most about our time in Vietnam.

Cu Chi Tunnels

A two hour bus ride through the country side took  us to the famous tunnels; a 155 mile network of underground passageways used by the Viet Cong connecting schools, residents, hospitals and creating an intricate subterranean city that played an instrumental role in the eventual victory of the North.  We met with a VC officer who was a “tunnel rat” during the war.  He showed us a diagram of the multi level tunnels.

Yes, he lost his arm in the war.  Through his interpreter he told us that he holds no ill will towards Americans;  that mistakes were made on both sides.  I wonder if that’s what he truly feels?

You were allowed to enter a tunnel (made larger for the American vistors !) but I was a bit protective of my still broken arm so Dave went down for a look.

Then they showed us various booby traps used to maim or kill the enemy.

While all this was going on you were very aware that you were in the same exact spot where men had died.  To make the experience even more disturbing there was a rifle range on-site with constant machine gun noise pounding your senses.  It all got to be a bit too real and truly, I think most of us were happy to leave there.

After lunch at a restaurant along the Saigon River we went back to the hotel and soaked in the pool for awhile.  Dinner was at a rooftop restaurant with the sparkling lights of Saigon shining all around us.  Extreme sensory lows and highs for one day.

The unforgivable thing to me is that President Johnson and his war lords knew early on and even admitted (as heard on White House tapes) that this war was one that could not be won.   So they tried to bomb it into submission anyway; but they could not kill the will of the North Vietnamese to unify the country.  For a thousand years others had tried to control Vietnam and had failed.  Sure, we were full of ourselves after WW2 (and rightly so) and thought we were righteous and invincible.  Turns out we were not.  The Paris Peace talks were quietly delayed until after the election by the Nixon campaign (because he was running heavily on a platform of ending the war and didn’t want it to end before he took office !). He ended up escalating the war!  How many boys died to feed his desire to be President?  And we all know how that ended!

But the whole trip was not about our questionable involvement in the war.  We were all glad that the heavy war part of the trip was early on the tour schedule and agreed it was  one of reasons we chose this particular tour and we had spent a correct amount of time on that part of the journey.  We didn’t travel that far to be bummed out for 21 days! National Geographic is expert at putting these tours together and this was well thought out by them because there is such difficult subject matter in this destination.

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy–Pete Seeger

It was back in 1942,
I was a member of a good platoon,
We were on maneuvers in Louisiana,
One night by the light of the moon,
The Captain told us to ford a river,
That’s how it all begun,
We were–knee deep in the Big Muddy,
But the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said “Sir are you sure,
This is the best way back to the base” ?
“Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
‘Bout a mile above this place.
It’ll be a little soggy but just keep slogging,
We’ll soon be on dry ground”,
We were waist deep in the Big Muddy,
And the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said “sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim”.
“Sergeant, don’t be a Nervous Nellie”,
The Captain said to him.
“All we need is a little determination,
Men, follow me, I’ll lead on”.
We were neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to move on.

Well, I’m not going to point any moral,
I’ll leave that for yourself,
Maybe you’re still walking, you’re still talking,
You’d like to keep your health,
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on,
We’re waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.