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Published: February 26th 2012
Tom and More Friends
Two competing fortune tellers -- both in their 80s. They were happy to know we remembered them from our last visit -- and with the tip.We’ve spent the past few days in Hue, a beautiful city in central Vietnam that’s famous both for being the home of an ancient imperial city that puts Beijing’s Forbidden City to shame and for being the center of some fierce battles during the Vietnam/American war.
The battle of Hue in 1968 was part of the Tet Offensive, when the North Vietnamese forces attacked many cities and bases south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which lay at the 17
th parallel and divided the nation in two. (I had to do some Wikipedia research to write this blog.) Hue was important because Vietnam’s Highway 1 passes over the Perfume River inside Hue. The river was an important supply line for Allied forces and Hue “should have been” well defended and ready for attack. It wasn’t, and during the Tet Offensive, North Vietnamese troops occupied most of the city. It took at least a month for the Marines to drive them out, with house-to-house fighting that destroyed most of the city and killed over 5000 civilians. Both sides lost thousands of troops, and though the Allies claimed the military victory, the political advantage went to the North. For the pilots, there’s
Enterprising fishermen
Note the materials: remains of US aircraft. a rebuilt A-37 in the middle of the citypark.
We took a motorbike tour (yes, again) from Hue to the shore, and we noticed in the rural areas where people fish that they had made very ingenious use of “scrap” – pieces of aircraft wreckage and fuel tanks. Every home seems to have one or two of the boats.
We also visited Khe Sanh, a USMC outpost and airstrip built in 1962. The defense of Khe Sanh began in January 1968 and became one of the largest sieges of the war, with the Marines being told to defend the base at all costs. They fought bravely, losing about 1000 men and killing almost 10 times that number of Vietnamese soldiers – and then were told to destroy and abandon the base in July of the same year. The base was reactivated in 1971 and again abandoned in 1972. The small museum has many photos of the battle, as well as clothing and even a military ID from an American private soldier who may not know that his Social Security Number is on display there. The airstrip is still very visible, and there are old aircraft (C-130, a
Tomb City
An amazing collection of Christian and Buddhist tombs built by wealthy families to honor their ancestors Huey, a Chinook, and pieces of what looked to Tom like the tail section of an A-37). Coffee is now grown around the airfield – you can buy a pound of Khe Sanh coffee.
Although we did not climb it, we drove past the Rockpile, a steep karst mountain that was an Army and Marine observation post and artillery base from 1966 to 1968. We also crossed the Ben Hai River, whose Highway 1 crossing, the Hien Luong Bridge, was another fierce battleground, and visited a military cemetery for North Vietnamese soldiers who died there. The harshness of the battle was shown by the number of graves for unknown soldiers and the tombs for mixed, partial remains.
Finally, we visited the Vinh Moc tunnel complex, located right along the beaches on the old border between north and south Vietnam. The village of Vinh Moc basically went underground up to 30 meters (that’s 90 feet!) to protect the population from carpet bombing designed to drive the villagers from the area. (They were suspected of supplying food and arms to an island garrison that was hindering US bombers on their way to Hanoi.) The tunnels were begun in 1966 and
The Citadel
The Vietnamese emperor's home -- huge and beautiful, much nicer than Beijing's Forbidden City. used until early 1972, growing to include wells, kitchens, homes for each family, even a maternity ward. Up to 17 children were born in the tunnels. About 60 families lived in the tunnels and no villagers lost their lives. You can see in the tunnel area and all along the coast the huge craters from the bombs.
Of course, all of these places were shown to us and described from the point of view of the victorious North Vietnamese forces. I still want to find an “unbiased” history of this war; all suggestions are welcome. Tom, of course, spent time in DaNang and many of our friends are our age and have served in the war. It is VERY interesting to hear from both sides of this conflict.
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