The Vietnamese are proud of their defeat of the United States and it will be a long time before they will give up the bragging rights, if ever. The museum called “the American war museum” would better be named the "Look how we beat those dam Americans using only primitive methods war museum” but then it would probably not attract as many tourists.... well American tourists.... I almost felt sorry for an American couple on the tour.... almost .... but the other couple on the tour were German and they weren’t offering any sympathy either...
Basically the war was fought by gorilla tactics using hunting traps, the Viet Cong had no tanks and moved mostly by foot.. These foot and tiger traps were common.... covered in grass and leaves these traps were invisible to an advancing soldier. They seem barbaric, as they were designed to maim not kill. The victims could be captured and as it took 3 to 4 men to look after getting the injured man out of the jungle, each trap removed several men from the battle. How barbaric or justifiable it was seems to depend on which side you are on. When men were injured in these traps the US troops responded with helicopter gun ships, tanks and B52 bombers dropping everything including napalm to chemical weapons such as agent orange. What struck me here, like in old war zones in Europe, is that War is Hell...the costs of war are unbelievable, long lasting, and despite the valor of individuals, there is no honor.... there is no honor..... there is no honor... only shame..
i was going to say that they have tried hard to remove all the unexploded B52 bombs, and the land mines and foot traps from this area... but there is still much of the area that has not been cleared properly yet. I was then going to finish with a comment like... we had a close brush with one of the traps still left in this area... the tourist traps.... but the other ending seemed more in the spirit of the place...
ReplyDelete