The history of Vietnam has gradually unfolded before us over our time here in Saigon. On our free Sunday, while some of us stayed at Holly's Cafe for coffee and great wifi, five of us embarked on an adventure of our own to the Independence Palace (aka. Dinh Độc Lập or Reunification Palace), one of the most historic landmarks of the city. Designed by Beaux-Arts-trained Ngô Viết Thụ, the enormous mansion housed the South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm during the Vietnam War. As we moved from room to room, it became increasingly clear that this palace serves as a kind of trophy to the Communist Party of Vietnam. Signs would laud the bombing of the palace as victorious triumph instead of what some South Vietnamese might have considered an act of terror. In American schools, it can feel like we are taught that Communism is essentially evil. Afterall, Cold War politics never truly died out. But actually living in a socialist nation for a week has revealed a more complex reality. The nationalist (note, not communist) revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh was well-educated in Marxist theory and saw its ability to lift Vietnam from the reign of French colonialism. He was the first to explain how French capitalism was oppressing the Vietnamese people. From that perspective, communism served as part of a merely practical solution to the contemporary issues of social injustice (racism, classism, etc.) and economic instability. Add to that the perceived inability of the Saigon Regime to serve its people. I'm not saying this to take sides one way or the other, but this maelstrom of factors and shifts in rhetoric really explain why Vietnam ultimately became a Communist nation (I try to refrain from using the "domino effect" terminology of "falling" or "succumbing" to Communism). This was marked by the historically dubbed Fall (or Liberation) of Saigon on April 30, 1975 as North Vietnamese tanks literally broke through the palace walls and planted their flag on the roof.
The next day, the whole DE gang visited the War Remnants Museum. This shed yet another interesting perspective on the Vietnam War that we would never get in the US. While US textbooks might explain that we withdrew from the war in an ever-increasing struggle, the Museum definitively proclaims that we lost. The museum is not boastful but carefully reflective of what's actually lost during war. I say carefully because great care is taken to showcase American aggression and North Vietnamese loss in a coherent, well-designed light. In many parts of the exhibition, I felt ashamed that I had chosen to wear my Duke tee because I almost didn't want to associate myself with the country that committed so many atrocities. In fact, the museum was once named the American War Crime Museum but recently changed to War Remnants Museum to ruffle fewer feathers and encourage more international tourism. I found it really intriguing to view the Humanity exhibit because it showcased pictures of American POW's having a great time eating and playing basketball in prison camps because the North Vietnamese took care of them with "whole heart and goodwill". To juxtapose with this exhibit, a recreation of a war prison with horrific torture rooms, devices, and practices the American side would use on Vietnamese prisoners is located just outside the museum. There is no begrudgery, as the museum emphasizes recovery and strengthening of US-Vietnam relations postwar, but there is still an uneasiness in the balance of opinion. There is little to no coverage of American loss, except perhaps to show how much money and resources we wasted on this hopeless fight, but there is also no obligation since this is a government-operated museum.
These are the messages that seemed to be emphasized
Regardless of the politics of the exhibits, if there was one thing I took away from this experience, it was the reality that war has no winners. I felt my stomach churning as we saw image after image of babies and grown adults with defects from Agent Orange, strewn bodies from American-led village massacres, and absolute devastation of both natural and manmade landscapes from American bombs and chemical warfare. As we walked through the Agent Orange exhibit, Alexa mentioned that one of the victims was our age. That really hit me. This war that "ended" over 40 years ago still causes the suffering of people, my age, with many of the same hopes and dreams today. After visiting this museum, there is no doubt that Americans have done some terrible things in other countries. (If you don't wanna google it yourself, Agent Orange was part of a US operation to expose Viet Cong soldiers hidden in forested areas by the use of the chemical defoliant...Unbeknownst to American soldiers at the time, Agent Orange is also EXTREMELY toxic to humans, and it killed and severely harmed civilians and soldiers on both sides all throughout the country. Its effects are still felt today because of inherited birth defects.)
But there was one part of the museum that really struck me and reminded me why I was here. It was a map of Vietnam that depicted with black dots the hardest-hit regions from bombings and other violence. Quang Tri, the province right at the demilitarized zone splitting Vietnam into North and South, and also the province we will be serving for the next 6.5 weeks, was completely blackened. Much has changed in the last 40 years, of course, but it was sobering to realize that the region we will be living in was once the center of so much suffering and torment from both sides during the war. Understanding this context of the war in Vietnam will be incredibly valuable to our service throughout the summer.
The next day, the whole DE gang visited the War Remnants Museum. This shed yet another interesting perspective on the Vietnam War that we would never get in the US. While US textbooks might explain that we withdrew from the war in an ever-increasing struggle, the Museum definitively proclaims that we lost. The museum is not boastful but carefully reflective of what's actually lost during war. I say carefully because great care is taken to showcase American aggression and North Vietnamese loss in a coherent, well-designed light. In many parts of the exhibition, I felt ashamed that I had chosen to wear my Duke tee because I almost didn't want to associate myself with the country that committed so many atrocities. In fact, the museum was once named the American War Crime Museum but recently changed to War Remnants Museum to ruffle fewer feathers and encourage more international tourism. I found it really intriguing to view the Humanity exhibit because it showcased pictures of American POW's having a great time eating and playing basketball in prison camps because the North Vietnamese took care of them with "whole heart and goodwill". To juxtapose with this exhibit, a recreation of a war prison with horrific torture rooms, devices, and practices the American side would use on Vietnamese prisoners is located just outside the museum. There is no begrudgery, as the museum emphasizes recovery and strengthening of US-Vietnam relations postwar, but there is still an uneasiness in the balance of opinion. There is little to no coverage of American loss, except perhaps to show how much money and resources we wasted on this hopeless fight, but there is also no obligation since this is a government-operated museum.
These are the messages that seemed to be emphasized
- The whole world was against the U.S. before and during the war. A whole floor of the building showed pictures and artifacts of different countries and populations, including U.S. citizens themselves, opposing the war through various methods of protest (self-immolation among the more infamous)
- It was a U.S. "aggressive" war, to use the wording in almost every informational sign
- The everyday Vietnamese citizens were incredibly strong and gathered together to support their own liberation (I cannot recall mention of South Vietnamese boat people like my mom fleeing before, during, or after their "liberation")
- We've all risen above this bloody mess and cooperated to advance toward a future of peace
Regardless of the politics of the exhibits, if there was one thing I took away from this experience, it was the reality that war has no winners. I felt my stomach churning as we saw image after image of babies and grown adults with defects from Agent Orange, strewn bodies from American-led village massacres, and absolute devastation of both natural and manmade landscapes from American bombs and chemical warfare. As we walked through the Agent Orange exhibit, Alexa mentioned that one of the victims was our age. That really hit me. This war that "ended" over 40 years ago still causes the suffering of people, my age, with many of the same hopes and dreams today. After visiting this museum, there is no doubt that Americans have done some terrible things in other countries. (If you don't wanna google it yourself, Agent Orange was part of a US operation to expose Viet Cong soldiers hidden in forested areas by the use of the chemical defoliant...Unbeknownst to American soldiers at the time, Agent Orange is also EXTREMELY toxic to humans, and it killed and severely harmed civilians and soldiers on both sides all throughout the country. Its effects are still felt today because of inherited birth defects.)
But there was one part of the museum that really struck me and reminded me why I was here. It was a map of Vietnam that depicted with black dots the hardest-hit regions from bombings and other violence. Quang Tri, the province right at the demilitarized zone splitting Vietnam into North and South, and also the province we will be serving for the next 6.5 weeks, was completely blackened. Much has changed in the last 40 years, of course, but it was sobering to realize that the region we will be living in was once the center of so much suffering and torment from both sides during the war. Understanding this context of the war in Vietnam will be incredibly valuable to our service throughout the summer.