The Demilitarized Zone

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We visited the DMZ on our way to Hue from Hanoi. The DMZ is the site of the border between North and South Vietnam during the war, so it was a good place to visit given the interest in the war. We visited a lot of sites on our day in the area, which began with a trip to the American Firebase. Now I thought this would be still identifiable as a base with huge old fences and the like but in fact the only remnant is a bunker which has views over the whole landscape. This in itself is a tranquil feeling, as it was the place of so many deaths of enemy and US soldiers; the landscape was so vast and peaceful. Bomb craters, sandbags, old bits of clothing and old grenades strewn about were the only identifiers of the war.

Our next trip was to a place where we could see an old American army tank that hadn't been moved on the orders of the government. It was incongruously sat next to the main highway, but still, it was a reflective place. I wondered how many people this machine had killed, or how many buildings it had destroyed in it's ultimately futile enterprise. I got in and took the obligatory picture.

Our next trip was to the site of the official border between N and S over the Ben Hai river. There's a lot of history here, and it's told in the museum next to the site. Old guns and artillery are available for viewing here, and there's lot of photographs of people corssing the border. This bridge was open for 55 days at the beginning of the war so that those who supported the Southern govt could move down and those who supported the Communists up north could move up there. Afterwards, anyone caught trying to cross would be killed. There is a marker on the bridge showing the exact demarcation line between north and south. Today, this seems silly literally jumping between north and south, but back in those days this boundary was the very essence of the war. On the northern side sits a huge Communist flag which welcomed those who joined the Communist effort, and alongside the bank of the river sits a huge famous megaphone which sounded out propoganda to those crossing or attempting to cross the border.

Our next trip was to the site of the National Cemetery. This was a sobering experience, largely because the beautifully constructed cemetery is dedicated to those who fought on behalf of the north, with those dead from the south buried in their individual hometowns; a sure mark of being on the winning side. Our guide told us that there were 10,000 people buried here, although this was only a fraction of the numbers of those killed.

After this, we visited the Vinh Moc tunnels, and this was easily the most impressive sight on the trip. It was a place of refuge for those in the North avoiding the bombings by the US planes and ships. The entrance to the tunnels is not easy to find, and you have to go along so many holes in the ground (a result of the many bombs dropped here because the Yanks knew there were tunnels here but didn't know exactly were they were). The tunnels themselves were frankly boiling hot and claustropobic, but get this: whole families lived here and there was a makeshift "room" for hospitals and the like, with the toilet being a hole in the floor. This room catered for thousands of people; imagine the stench. In a room, up to 9 people shared a space no bigger than a double bed.

Afterwards, we exited the tunnels onto the sea, which was a remarkable setting. On your way you struggle through some dense bush - look back behind and you can see why the Yanks didn't know where the exit/entry points were. The beach was a tranquil place, and you could visualise the activity all those years ago - warships patrolling the sea, bombing this place into kingdom come with no avail.

This was easily the most educative part of our trip and I'm glad I saw some of the places that are etched into the conciousness of those in the West. My take on the whole thing is that the northerners who emerged victorious were so because of the kind of ingenuity they displayed in building the tunnels and such like, and now all that remains are various museums that display a proud feel by the Communists by overcoming the 'immortal enemy'.

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