February 16, 2015
This morning we disembarked and boarded buses for the two-hour drive to Saigon/ Ho Chi Minh City. It is the largest city in Vietnam with a population of about 12 million people and 7 million scooters. It is noticeably different from Hanoi. The energy is higher, the boulevards are wider, it is much cleaner, and it has numerous, modern-architected, high-rise buildings. It is filled with young people and families – lots of little kids. The influence of France and the USA over the last 150 years, is obvious….it looks and feels more like what we’re used to at home. Well almost, if you exclude the crazy traffic created by millions of scooters. It’s obviously risky for a family of 4 or 5, including children and infants, to ride on a single scooter, but it’s their way life. Roselie and Barbara were offered a ride back from their spa treatment to our hotel….but they declined. They opted for a taxi.
Family transportation – Vietnam style
Big city power distribution
While helmets are required for adults, children never wear them. It escapes rational thinking, when compared to the rigor we apply on child and infant safety car seats in the USA.
Writing about being irrational [our own, that is], we couldn’t avoid crossing high traffic streets. As we learned in Hanoi, when you need to cross one of these streets, you step into the flow, with confidence, making sure you don’t look at the on-coming traffic, and trusting that everyone will move around you. We’re thrilled each time we execute a successful crossing. So we high-five each other for being so brave…..and of course surviving. Barbara has become the point-person to lead the crossing charge.
We are in Vietnam at an exciting time of year: it is Tet or Lunar New Year. Today is Tet Eve. Most businesses and stores closed this afternoon to give everyone time to join their family gathering – usually at the grandparent’s home. Traffic is horrendous throughout the nation as every one heads to the family home. Tonight, there are typical New Year’s Eve parties everywhere, including a fireworks display and dragon parade at midnight. [One might assume that we would attend in this fantastic party! We didn’t! We were catching ZZZZZZZs.] The celebration continues for 3 days. Tomorrow, New Years Day, welcomes the Year of the Goat. On this day the immediate family gets together and celebrates Tet. The following day is designated as the time to celebrate with relatives. The third day, marks the time to celebrate with friends.
On our way to the hotel, we made short stops to see the Presidential Palace, the old Post Office, and the Thien Hau Temple.
Government Palace
Saigon Post Office
Temple Altar
Conference room where last premier of South Vietnam resigned
Inside Saigon Post Office
After lunch, we turn to see the hard stuff at the Remnant War Museum. If you want to take the temperature of our relationship with Vietnam, just check the name of this museum. When it opened in 1975 it was name the Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes, focusing on war crimes by the French and US. Then in 1990, the name was changed to Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression. Then in 1995, it was changed again, to its current name: War Remnants Museum. Wonder what it will be called next? As you approach the building, you walk through a display of American weapons: airplanes, tanks, cannons, helicopters, flame throwers, bulldozers, etc. The four floors of the museum are organized to focus on certain aspects of the war. Our guides suggested that we only spend one hour in the museum. A visitor can experience and absorb only so much. Most of it is focused on the South Vietnamese and American actions, with a noticeable absence of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong role. As you enter, look at photos, artifacts, and read stories, there is a quietness, an air of sadness and horror. After a couple stops, it makes you want to close your eyes or look away especially as you move through the Agent Orange section. The impact on those directly exposed, and even more on their children and grandchildren, is haunting.
War Remnants Museum
Vietnam War Tanks
Vietnam War aircraft
Army Gun Helicopter
I can’t really do an effective job summarizing what I saw. I took very few pictures. I felt as if it would be disrespectful. It felt like hallowed ground. Why was this pain and suffering necessary? As Robert McNamara said in his memoirs In Retrospect: The tragedy and lessons of Vietnam: “Yet we were wrong, terrible wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why”. I believe we should go further and explain it to our veterans and survivors who are living with the consequences each and every day.
Using the carpet-bombing tactic, we dropped twice as many tons of bombs in this war, than we did in WW II and Korean War, combined. Both sides committed atrocities not seen before. Trying to sort out the truth and facts is hard. If you want an example, read Senator Bob Kerry’s disclosure of his Thanh Phong action. Then compare it to what the Vietnamese say happened. What really happened? How can we avoid setting up conditions that result in such devastation?
Americans and South Vietnamese airlifted out of Saigon as Viet Cong takes city
Evacuation building today
I suppose that symbolically, we ended our journey through the Vietnam/American war era by viewing the building where the last Americans boarded a helicopter to escape the impending Viet Cong take over. I’m sure many of you remember the photograph.
Cast of The Mist
As an antidote to all this ugliness, the timing could not have been better to attend a performance of The Mist at the Saigon Opera House. The Mist is a picture of Vietnamese farming life expressed through modern dance and music. Participation by the audience, using bamboo paddles to create a cadence, was lifting. The company had just returned from an USA tour that included San Francisco.
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