'We need to tell people' about Vietnam

As long as he lives, Hogan Bryan will remember the moment he landed in Saigon, Vietnam.

It was 1966 and he was a carefree, young Army lieutenant whose poor vision had killed his dream of flying a Huey. He was headed for the 339th Transportation Company but didn’t know what he’d really be doing.

See a photo gallery of Hogan Bryan »

Check out a gallery of iconic Vietnam War images, including a famous execution photo »

“You get off that plane, and I’ll never forget the heat, the immense heat,” recalls Bryan, who is 67 now and enjoying retirement on Okaloosa Island with his wife, Linda. “It was buildings and trucks and tents and airplanes. It was phenomenal.”

continued on nwfdailynews.com>>

Underground maze “spiderwebs” beneath Cu Chi

Soldiers and residents of HCM City's Cu Chi district created an astonishing 250km tunnel system during the Vietnam War. The site is now a famous historical monument

LookAtVietnam - Soldiers and residents of HCM City's Cu Chi district created an astonishing 250km tunnel system during the Vietnam War, some parts of which are up to 10 meters deep and three stories. The site is now a famous historical monument

The first sections were built back in 1948 in Tan Phu Trung and Phuoc Vinh An communes to hide documents, weapons and guerilla fighters. By 1965, the basic system connected five communes in Cu Chi and by 1968, the tunnel had expanded to its full 250 kilometers.

During the peak years of the Vietnam War, residents and guerillas lived in these tunnels. They recall that the tunnels were very wet and stuffy in some sections, due to the lack of sunlight and air. Whenever people felt faint, they were brought to tunnel openings for fresh air. During the rainy season, insects and snakes shared the tunnel with the human inhabitants.

One sector of the tunnel system has three stories. The level for soldiers was 3 meters down, the second story, 6 meters under the surface, was a home for war invalids, the elderly and children. The third plunged 8-10 meters deep and was occupied by healthy people.

Visitors can see how the system zigzags underground, with many branches spread from the main tunnel and some running all the way to the Saigon River. Many air holes also dot the tunnel walls, disguised during the war years as termite nests. The tunnels are still very narrow, with openings only wide enough for small people.

US troops tried multiple times to destroy the tunnel network. In 1966, they launched the unsuccessful "Cai Bay" campaign, pumping water into the tunnels. Later, in 1967, the US Army used a special taskforce to attack the tunnel system. They used 600 small soldiers, wearing gas-masks and special rifles, to go down into the tunnels. Popularly called "tunnel rats," these forces only destroyed some small sections.

The US then brought in special vehicles to bulldoze the tunnels.. To drive out the guerrillas, toxic gas was pumped into the tunnel networks. The US even tried seeding the area with tall grasses, which grew to 2-3 meters high in just a month. They then set fire to the grass during the dry season to create difficulties for the underground guerillas by "smoking" them out. None of these methods succeeded and the tunnel network served as a vital resource during the remaining war years.

Today the Cu Chi tunnels are a national historic site, hosting around 1000 visitors a day.

Female guerillas of the past.

The map of the Cu Chi tunnel network, with branches to the Saigon River.

People created the tunnels manually.

A door.

Inside the tunnel.

An air hole.

A gun emplacement.

A hospital inside the tunnel.

A meeting room.

A blind ditch.

Trenches are connected to the tunnel.

Visitors at Cu Chi on April 30.

Documentary pictures of the Cu Chi tunnel:

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A Return to Vietnam and Reflections on a Divisive War

By: Larisa Epatko

This week marks 35 years since the end of the conflict in Vietnam. Throughout the week, we've talked to authors, a photographer who covered the war, and Vietnamese-Americans who recently returned to their country of birth.

Andrew Lam, an editor at New America Media, left Vietnam with his family in 1975 when he was 11 years old. He talks to Hari Sreenivasan from his home -- now in San Francisco -- about a recent return visit and his observations about the growing gap between the rich and the poor:

Lam was one of the people featured in Fred de Sam Lazaro's report about blossoming business opportunities in Vietnam and the return of many Vietnamese-Americans to their homeland:

Also this week, Jeffrey Brown talked to Tim O'Brien, author of "The Things They Carried," which was reissued for the 35th anniversary of the end of the war. The book uses fictional stories about an American platoon to inform readers about the war.

"The word war itself has a kind of glazing abstraction to it that conjures up bombs and bullets and so on, whereas my goal is to try to, so much as I can, capture the heart and the stomach and the back of the throat of readers," O'Brien said.

Retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. James Zumwalt tells the story from a different perspective -- that of the Vietnamese -- in his book, "Bare Feet, Iron Will: Stories From the Other Side of Vietnam's Battlefields." He speaks with Ray Suarez about his journey of emotions from bitterness toward the foe to a special kind of healing on Friday's NewsHour.

You can watch a preview excerpt of their conversation here:

And on the Rundown, we talked to photographer David Hume Kennerly about his Pulitzer Prize-winning images of the conflict. He later became a White House photographer and witness to President Ford's meetings on withdrawing U.S. forces from Vietnam. Find that conversation here.

This is a PBS presentation

Vietnam War Correspondents Gather for Saigon Reunion

Photo: AP

British photojournalist Tim Page in Hanoi, 10 May 2010

Many foreign journalists who covered the Vietnam War are gathering in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, this week to observe the anniversary of the city's capture by communist North Vietnam's soldiers in 1975.  The correspondents talked about the fall of Saigon 35 years ago.

Tim Page fell in love with Vietnam so deeply that he has returned to the southeast Asian nation nearly 60 times since the end of the long war in April 1975.

Page, formerly a photojournalist for Time magazine, comes back to teach the post-war generation of Vietnamese photographers.  He shares with them his experiences in Vietnam during the war, which he says had a great impact on his life.  more>>

Exhibition on 1975 victory opens in HCMC

An exhibition opened in Lam Son Park, Ho Chi Minh City on April 21 as part of its preparations for the 35th anniversary of the south’s liberation and national reunification.

On display at the exhibition are 140 photos and documentaries reflecting two main themes: “The Great Spring Victory 1975: The Strength of National Unity in the Ho Chi Minh Era” and “Building prosperity in HCMC.”

The show seeks to remind city dwellers of the indomitable soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the resounding victory of the Ho Chi Minh era and the socio-economic progress in the city in the 35 year since the war.
The exhibition will continue until May 15./.

(Source: VNA)

The War Remnants Museum in HCMC

A mural of a dove welcomes the visitor to the War Remnants Museum


The Vietnamese don't dwell on the American War nor do they hold any grudges as one might expect after all the suffering and years of bombardment, and the fact that today, one can still see on the streets of Saigon war veterans that are maimed, or the lucky who can wear prosthetic limbs. 

Agent orange (dioxin) is not through yet with the catastrophic deformities, cancers and other calamities it wrought on its victims. I wish we were as frank about the legacies of war as I found this to be. Most telling is the plaque on the wall entitled "Historical Truths". It begs for recognition. The Museum has assembled a permanent collection of U.S. war materiel in a plein air fashion; among the stars are 3000 lb. bombs, an A37B Attack aircraft, land shaking bombs, guns, artillery, and a framed stone representing the image of Buddha, which was given to Viet Nam by Hiroshima in the name of peace. It stands guard as a silent protester on the outside war arsenal display.

It is worth noting that former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara lamented in a book he penned in 1995 titled "In Restrospect - The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" :

Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why

The Vietnam War, as it is known in the States, did not serve as a lesson to our leadership. Maya Lin's memorial does not begin to tell the story to our citizens of what really happened in Vietnam. It pays hommage to those who gave their lives in yet what seemed to be another desperate attempt to stop the spread of communism. However, the war killed 3 million Vietnamese and wounded another 4 million. We lost 58,000 Americans. For what?

One cannot know the whole story without hearing the other side. I urge every traveler and tourist that makes Vietnam a destination to see the War Remants Museum. I found that I learned more about the war during my visit here than at any other time. And of course, throughout the country, there are constant reminders of the destruction, especially in Hue, the former Imperial capital, where single walls are left standing, reminding us that they once formed a complete building.

 There are solidarity posters in the museum from all those countries that condemned the war, including France, who sent the above from its own communist party. Ironically, the French occupied Vietnam for almost a century.

When you enter the Museum, you will receive a pamphlet written in English and Chinese. The photographs are not very clear, mostly black and white, and perfectly capable of conveying horror. Next to each photo are data and facts. No opinions, no judgements. One of the most poignant displays is from an American soldier, Sgt. William Brown. He donated his medals, uniform and tag to the people of Vietnam for this museum, with a plaque bearing the words: "To the People of a United Vietnam, I was wrong, I am sorry".

the reflection from the glass did not help with the quality of the photos

The open air section is first as you enter the site. One is immediately faced with a barrage of weapons, bombs of various weights and sizes, shown below:

A37B Attack Craft

Left: the 'seismic' bomb weighed 15,000 lbs. and can destroy everything on the ground within a radius of 100 meters, and violently shakes up and down within a diameter of 3.2 kms. 

The description of the seismic bomb is found in the pamphlet and has much more detailed information on the blue plaque next to it at the Museum. 

A few feet further, you will see a CBU-555B (below) described as a sophisticated bomb produced by the U.S. When exploding, the bomb can destroy oxygen in a radius of 500 meters. It was used at Xuan Loc, Dong Nai province on April 9, 1975.

Did we ever get the low down on exactly what was utilized, how much of it, where, etc..? Here are some sobering facts:

6.5 million men were sent into combat
22,000 US plants and factories supplied the war machine
7,850,000 tons of bombs (all kinds) were dropped over Vietnam, including 75,000,000 liters of defoliants (incuding dioxin) that were sprayed over crop lands, farmlands, forests and villages in the Southern part of the country.
According to the figures made public by the US government, US$352 billion was the cost of the Vietnam war.
In the North, 2923 schools were either destroyed or heavily damaged; 1850 hospitals, 484 churches, and 465 temples and pagodas.
Then there was napalm. Look it up.

Fascinating is the collection of photos taken by international photographers as a reminder of the pivotal role they played in archiving the war at a time when real-time news was not at our disposal. Particular homage is paid Bun’yo Ishikawa of the Japan Press. His Nikon camera, camouflage outfit and an anti-war poster are under glass.

Some of the photos are familiar, having appeared in our own national publications, or having won prestigious awards. They are nonetheless horrific. I learned that world opposition to this war was far greater than imagined: posters in French (they warned us to stay away), German, Danish, Japanese, and many in English from the US asking for an end to the hostilities.

Several buildings comprise the exhibit, but they are numbered, and you can follow the sequence, if order is something you need. You will find facsimiles of the tiger cages (building # 3), which were built by the French in 1939 and later used by the US to house "non-combatants". If you are not familiar with these structures, please visit this link . And as expected, the entire exhibit is told from the perspective of the Vietnamese; I would not imagine any country in the world that was being invaded to do it differently. Some things strike more than others: the quasi-methodical manner by which the American War arsenal is described – factual, historically accurate, to the point. One simply cannot ignore some of the "writings on the wall" literally. At the end of one exhibit, I photographed the following:

"We would like to thank the communist parties and working class of the countries of the World, national liberation movements, nationalistic countries, peace-loving countries, international democratic organizations, and progressive human beings for their wholehearted support, and strong encouragement to our people’s patriotic resistance against the US for national salvation".

Stone carving received from Hiroshima

The Continental Hotel is still the jewel of Saigon

Sure, there are hotels that are more 'posh' and modern, but if I wanted to have those, the US can drown me in them...actually, now that I think of it, so can Abu Dhabi. However, no matter if you stay at a five star, or a two-star, you need at least a weekend at the Continental. There is an atmosphere in the place that makes you want to talk to the walls, as they'd probably have so much to say.

 The Venezia Restaurant has replaced the old "Cafe de la Musique" in this dated picture

The Continental Hotel earned its place in history, as its former terrace café served diplomats and journalists during the American War. If you saw the movie “The Quiet American,” then you might remember that the Continental Hotel was the locale for part of the story. If you didn't see the movie, go ahead and rent the DVD. It's a great and romantic love narrative and you'll get acquainted with Saigon.

 The hotel tells you its age: since 1880

As you walk in, you can almost feel the history envelop you and beckon you to stay. It didn’t take much convincing actually, as we had established a silent dialogue between us that said we’ve got to experience this.


The hotel itself is situated in the heart of District One in Saigon, where anything worth its weight is located. In fact, most of the hotels I mentioned are within walking distance of each other. The Caravelle sits right across the street, only separated by the majestic Opera House. One of the entrances is on posh Dong Khoi Street, facing an amazing bookstore called Fahasa, which deserves its post. I had gone in there, and was thrilled by the selection of French books, something I had not seen since the Librarie de France shut down in Rockefeller Center.

 inside courtyard where you can dine al fresco

On one of the other corners, construction is going up fast and furious, and we learn a new mall is coming. Shame, since Dong Khoi has a string of fantastic boutiques of silk and mother of pearl crafts, lacquered items that are positively bewitching, embroideries, art and more.


We were shown a room prior to our booking during our first phase of the trip in Saigon , and we were awestruck. The room we finally did get was no less regal. We did not have decent photos of the room, which was humongous, so to get a feel for the interiors, I am giving you a link to the hotel's website. When you begin the see the layout of the rooms, and all the wood carving, you'll understand what I'm trying to convey. It looks exactly as the photos. We had one huge king size bed instead of the twin beds that appear; other than that, everything is identical.

 We were able to share the balcony with large potted palms in the evening, as the air was less humid. As we arrived in the room, the living area, which is larger than my own living room at home, was so very welcoming with an assortment of those gorgeous fruits, from the Mekong Delta undoubtedly. The hot-water container was there, with the magical white coffee that became our addiction. The ceilings were so high and adorned with exquisite woodwork that continued from the entrance hall and turned into wall-length closets with plush, white robes and straw slippers for the bath. A king-size bed anchored the room, separated by a built-in wooden room divider with some lovely, typical Vietnamese sculptures.

Behind that were carved benches and sofa for “entertaining,” and one could conceivably have a party here for six or more people quite comfortably. I later realized this is very typical of luxury rooms, as we had a similar arrangement in a deluxe room in Hanoi, at the Hong Ngoc Hotel. Room rates range from $100 to $170, exclusive of VAT and a 5% service charge. A fabulous breakfast is included in the room rate.

 how's that for a welcome?

 Facilities include a banquet, conference room, bar, and fitness center. On the ground floor, you will find the executive business center and a concierge (they call it public relations). The hotel has its own website , and I encourage you to check it out. The folks at the reception area are very polite and accommodating. There are historical pictures on the walls of the hotel from as far back as the 1880s.




The morning breakfast spread is an eye opener...exotic fruits rule one long buffet style table; pho is de rigueur and then there will be cheese, yoghurts, tea and coffee...just lovely.

Vietnam: Honoring a man and the trail named after him

crossposted on examiner.com

by Aimee Kligman

A woman holds a fan with the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum's painting on, while she and others wait in line to get in the mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, on the occasion of Ho Chi Minh's 119th anniversary of his birthday, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. Ho Chi Minh was born May 19, 1890 and died in 1969. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)

He is fondly referred to in Vietnam as 'Uncle Ho'. He is, without a doubt, a national hero, and his photo appears on billboards, in offices and travel agencies. Though he wished to be cremated, his embalmed body lies in a mausoleum in Hanoi modeled after Lenin's Tomb in Moscow.
Former President Ho Chi Minh's real name is Nguyen Tat Thanh (1890-1969), and was the main catalyst against French colonial rule. By the time the American War broke out in Vietnam, Uncle Ho was in poor health and incapable of enacting policy; however, despite his largely ceremonial role in that war, he is considered the 'soul' of the revolution, and a hero of the Vietnamese fight for independence. When the North finally regained the South from US forces, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.

This week, on May 19th, Vietnam celebrated the birthday of their hero as well as the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Ho Chi Minh trail, a vital supply route which ran from the North to supply the Viet Cong. The Trail represents a subject of immense pride for the Vietnamese people and constitutes a milestone in the history of the country.

Vietnambridge, one of the most comprehensive Vietnamese English websites ran the story, and underscored the importance of the event by the number of dignitaries in attendance. Vietnam's President of the National Assembly, Nguyen Phu Trong, honored the man, the trail and those who died during the monumental task of building this vital artery that enabled the North to win the war. Casualties are estimated at 20,000, many of whom were women.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a network of over 13,000 miles of roads and paths of which about 3,000 miles were used for deceiving the enemy. During the war years, 1.5 million tons of goods, 45 million tons of arms, 5.5 million cubic meters of fuel (a 900 mile pipeline had also been built) and 2 million soldiers passed through this trail, - some sections of which went through Cambodia and Laos.

In trying to sever this vital link, the United States sprayed 5 million tons of bombs and chemical agents over the trail.

click here for original article and links

Lunch at the Pho Binh Café

There are way too many things to see in Saigon, and heaven knows if I'll ever get to see them all. This particular pho shop was in my guidebook, and the two or three sentences that followed the name had me completely smitten.  This was just a place we had to see. Chuck as usual, was all atwitter about what kind of place is this, and who goes there, and what not. 

We took a cab there, since I had no clue where it was, and since it wasn't within District One, I didn't want to waste time getting there. And so this is what we saw when we arrived at destination. 

Motorbikes are always parked either on the sidewalk, or inside the shops. Actually, at the Indochine Hotel, they had 3 of them parked in the reception area. It was not very crowded inside, but the entire area around the restaurant was bustling. Chuck was definitely antsy, but I got a bit closer to check the noodle stand outside the premises. After our second trip to Vietnam, it was a foregone conclusion that you cannot have a bad bowl of pho, no matter where you eat it. 

Now doesn't that look yummy? If you don't know it, pho noodles are rice based, therefore much lighter than wheat based noodles and very easily digested. Vietnamese have pho any time of the day, including breakfast. We did go inside, and I wanted to insure that we had found the right place.

The man who owned this pho shop played host to both American soldiers and Viet Cong during the American War, and his son has amassed quite a collection of pictures and citations in the name of his father. As we were the only Westerners in the shop, a tall man came toward us and for lack of understanding each other, I showed him the guide book, and he immediately understood what I meant. He showed us to a table, and returned with many albums. 

There was obviously tremendous pride in what Ngo Toai had done during the war, and his pho shop rose to prominence, but he absolutely refused to give his tables and chairs and any of his war memorabilia to the War Museum. The restaurant floors beg for a good scrubbing, but it is with reverence that one enters the premises.

these tables and chairs are witnesses to the men who fought

during the war and came here for a bowl of pho

Here we are below, completely captivated with reading and looking and pictures, while enjoying the best bowl of pho ever, and I squeezed as much lime as I could find into it. 

If you look at the picture on the right, above are two framed certificates. I was able to capture on camera a close up of the larger one, and the other one has a photo of Ngo Toai with American soldiers eating in his soup kitchen. Many wrote him letters after they went back home. The newspaper clippings are stained and in some disrepair, but they are a greater source of pride as they are written in English.

  There are certificates on the wall bearing the red communist star; medals are photographed but now shown.  When the war ended, Ngo Toai returned to his beloved noodle shop and continued to serve his magical brew. It seems the menu has not changed much since that day. Heartwarming are the photos of U.S. veterans who returned to this shop, and have their arms around the old man. 

 

how priceless is this? 

The Reuters article above provocatively begins this way: “ In the early years of the Viet Nam war, Ngo Toai lived a double life: seller of noodles to U.S. personnel and surreptitious revolutionary”. And of course, you read on. Apparently, a few days following the Tet offensive, a South Vietnamese tried to kill Ngo Toai, but somehow he escaped death only to find life imprisonment and torture instead.

 

the circled area of the page talks about the liberation of Toai

As you can read, Toai was captured and tortured; our guide to the Mekong Delta would later inform us that many people were sent for "re-education". I leave it to your imagination to figure this out.

The shop served as a front for the undercover command post from which the plan for the Tet offensive was devised. After the war, foreign tourists would pay up to $13/night to put their heads on a pillow in the very area that served as a gathering place for the Viet Cong. I regret that we didn't decide to do likewise, but we had quite an itinerary on this first trip, which had been set back somewhat due to an unexpected food poisoning episode.

All things aside, this café does serve a wicked pho. They also have "bia", which is the Vietnamese word for "beer" , which actually came from the French word "bière". 

the view from inside the restaurant

you can see the parked motorbikes inside