THE DEE EM ZEE. PART 2

 26th Dec 2022

More armoured vehicles left behind, they left almost everything behind, at Khe Sanh

Left: Just to remind you of where we were going, or had been.

After Khe Sahn we retraced our steps and passed the Dakrong Bridge (right). This is a splendid suspension bridge over the river Dakrong and was paid for by Cuba (allies of the North Vietnamese), and opened in person by Fidel Castro on a visit to Vietnam in 1973. .

Then on to the Hien Luong bridge over the river Ben Hai (left). The centre of this bridge marked the border between North and South Vietnam. 

Right: Each side (north/south) of the bridge was painted a different colour. They kept changing colours. The Americans bombed it and destroyed it in 1967 and 1970. They enjoyed their 'bombing' escapades. I'm not sure what purpose it served. The NVA didn't need bridges to cross the river.

As in Korea, both the North and South deployed loudspeaker systems at the border here to shout rude things at each other over the river. Left: The speakers on the southern side.

Right: Those on the Northern side, which were much bigger and louder. A war of words ensued!

Onwards to the northern side of the DMZ to, what was, the village of Vinh Moc. This village was suspected by the US of harbouring VC and VNA troops. In true tradition they bombed the place flat with no adverse effect on the NVA/VC. Not a single house was left standing. The surviving villagers proceeded to build a tunnel system and to live underground.

The tunnels were on three levels, at 9m, 15m and 30m depth. They contained living accomodation, store rooms, ventilation shafts, a conference room, fresh water wells, an armoury and even a hospital where several ladies gave birth (one of the old guides was born underground there!).

It was similar in construction to the Cu Chi tunnels south-west of Saigon but did not serve a military purpose, just somewhere to live and be protected from the American bombs. There were many deep bomb craters at ground level!  There was an exit out of the lowest 3rd level to the sea which was used to resupply the complex. Right: One of the living spaces. It was quite an extraordinary feat of local engineering.

We could descend to the 2nd and 3rd levels, the top level had more or less collapsed. It was damp and very warm and humid down there, with rather slippery steps and floors.

Left: Our guide, Ngoc, showing us the way, often having to use his modile phone light, through the dimly lit passageways and down very slippery steps. It became a maze of passageways and would be easy to get disorientated and lost! In their day the villages only had candles and oil lamps.

The Americans continued to bomb the area still suspecting the place to harbour NVA and VC troops. Their bombs went bang, made big holes, but did not penetrate the tunnels. They really were quite hopeless!

Right: My travelling companion at one of the exit/entry points. Maybe he will read this. If so "Greetings Maheer!" Good to meet you.

I finish this tour here. It was a long drive back to Hue.

My next installment will describe some appalling goings-on by the American troops. Not for the squeamish! You have been warned.

THE DEE EM ZEE. PART 1

26th - 27th Dec 2022

I took a trip up to the old 'DMZ', about 50 miles north of Hue. It was the demilitarised zone established roughly along the 17º N 'Parallel' after the Geneva Conventions in 1954 following the humiliating French debacle at Dien Bien Phu and their subsequent withdrawal. It divided North and South Vietnam as two seperate states; Communist North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh and with his very able military strategist General Vo Nguyen Giap and South Vietnam under a rather corrupt and incompetent Government headed by President Ngo Dinh Diem (assassinated during a coup in 1963 and replaced by another rather useless American 'puppet').

The Americans, with a paranoid fear of the  spreading communism in the Far East (the Domino Theory), supported the South. In 1964, using the Gulf of Tonkin incident, when a US warship was 'supposedly' attacked by a North Vietnamese torpedo boat, as an excuse, they (Nixon and Kissinger etc.) got the Senate to agree to send US troops into South Vietnam to support the South's army; The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). The North had a big army, The Peoples' Army of Vietnam, but lets just call it for simplicity the North Vietnam Army (NVA) who had seen off the French. They also had, throughout Vietnam, a determined guerrilla force, the Viet Cong (VC). They were well supported politically, financially and logistically by China and Russia. The North were determined to re-unite the whole country, and the Americans were determined to stop them.

So that brief potted history leads us to the start of the Vietnam War in 1964. I choose to call it 'The Great American Fuck-up'. Many books and films have described what followed. The real fighting started in 1967.

My 'tour' was led by a splendid and amusing guide, Ngoc, (who spoke excellent English and is the first Vietnamese I have met to use the word 'hunky-dory). Together with our driver and a fellow tourist, a charming Austrian/Egyptian gentleman, off we set in a comfortable Toyota, initially to the town of Quang Tri about 50 miles north of Hue.

Left: A sketch map of our itinerary covering about 40 x 40 miles.

We passed the Catholic church at Long Hung which is derelict but still shows the scars of battle with many bullet holes. Then on to the town of Quang Tri which was the site of much fighting, and casualties after being taken and retaken by successive US/ARVN and NVA battles. There is a memorial park there to commemorate the dead (right).

It has many statues in it commemorating various aspects of the war. This one (left) refers to the Paris Peace (ha ha) Agreement signed in 1973.

There is a small museum which displays various artefacts from the war. Such as (right) this NVA outfit.

The DMZ buffer zone was 5 miles wide north/south, similar to that between North and South Korea, and a road, route 9, was the main supply route used by the US forces to resupply their many 'fire-bases' and HQs along the southern side of the zone. We passed an extraordinary high and precipitous 'hill' called 'Rockpile'. This was again taken and retaken in various US/NVA battles. This war seemed all about taking command of hills. Often fruitlessly!

Onwards to Khe Sanh at the south-west end of the DMZ. It was a very large US Army base, 5 x 3km in size, on a hill (of course) near the Laos border. As well as a main HQ set-up it held 6,000 US Marines, artillery, many helicopters and had a runway to allow C130 'Hercules' cargo aircraft to land there. Left: A reconstructed dug out.

Right: An old dilapidated C130 'Hercules' still sits there.

Left: As well as an old Huey helicopter....so many were deployed in this war and were the 'workhorses' for deploying troops, and subsequently rescuing them!

Right: This one didn't quite make it.

Left: Plus a trusty Chinook helicopter.

Right: There are still the remains of the trench system which surrounded the base. As with the French at Dien Bien Phu, the VNA/VC took hills surrounding the area and regularly bombarded the base with artillery. The inhabitants spent most of their time sheltering underground.

The museum here displays much weaponry deployed by both the Americans and the VNA/VC. Left: I'm not sure, forgotten, what this particular 'fowling piece' is. I expect my reliable and well-informed research team at OMPITA will be able to identify it. (They have. Copy to follow.) Below!

Right: A VC or VNA soldier with his trusty bicycle, probably on the Ho Chi Minh trail. This trail, or in fact many hidden trails, were used by the VNA to resupply themselves and the VC in the south. They passed close to the base here and also went into Laos. The Americans spent much time and a colossal, inordinate, amount of bombs (HE, napalm and the dreadful defoliant dioxin....Agent Orange, but that is another story in itself) to disrupt this 'trail'. Their efforts were futile. The North Vietnamese simply bypassed areas which had been defoliated or attacked. The US forces spent much of their time in this war chasing their tail

Left: I don't know what these 'bullets' are, but someone has carelessly left them lying around.

The NVA and VC launched all-out attacks throughout the whole country, the Tet offensive, in January 1968. The US army and ARVN largely regained control, but with many casualties on both sides (see my Hue blog...Hue was devastated). The base at Khe Sahn was remorselessly bombarded from hills surrounding it, previously US fire-bases which the VNA had overrun. The Yanks were on the back foot. All of this was reminiscient of Dien Bien Phu! The order was then given by Gen Westmoreland who commanded the US forces, to abandon Khe Sahn. Right: Marines running to a plane to get out.

The next year another nonsense occurred at a hill, Hill 937, a high ridge on the Dong Ap Bia mountain near the Laos border which the NVA occupied and gave good observation over the area. After much intense B52 bombing and a ten day battle the US military took the hill. The place was scattered with human remains and thus became known, by the Press, as 'Hamburger Hill'. Many casualties on both sides. After another ten days the US Commanding General, by now Gen Abrams, then gave the order to evacuate this position because it served no real purpose! What were they thinking!

Left: The thoughts of the US Air Force Chief of Staff in 1965. What a disillusioned prick.

Right: An interesting photo of a US plane having been shot down by a 'friendly' US artillery shell. No survivors, obviously.

The more one reads and learns about the US involvement in Vietnam (and many excellent books have been published) the more one becomes worried about the sanity of the politicians and military strategists who planned all this. If you have a large country of 80 million people (at the time) of whom about 90% hated you, and were zealously, with high morale, defending their independence, and you send in thousands of mostly conscripted, often demoralised (fragging? remember that?) troops with no empathy or understanding of the locals, to beat the shit out of them, what can you expect? Defeat, of course. The French discovered this. The Americans obviously learnt nothing from the French experience. Pathetic really! I suspect the same will happen to the Russians in Ukraine, as it did to the Russians and the US/UK involvement in Afghanistan.  

OK, I'm getting a bt carried away and only half-way through my tour. Much more to follow, but I have an important engagement with the charming Cuban ladies at the Caravelle, so must dash. 

HUẾ

 24th - 25th Dec 2022

The fortified entrance to the Citadel in Hue

Hue (pronounced Hweh, not Hooway as in the Geordie 'Howay the Lads') was for a time the Imperial Capital of Vietnam. The  Citadel was the extensive walled and moated compound housing the Vietnamese Emperors and Court from 1802 until 1945 when, after the occupying Japanese in WW2 had surrendered and amid much political chaos, the Viet Minh (Communist) Government prevailed. The Emperor, Bao Dai, abdicated and went to live in exile in France. Vietnam, along with the rest of Indo-China (Laos and Cambodia), was a French colony (apart from during the Jap occupation during WW2) from 1887 to 1954. After they (French) left, with their tails between their legs, the country was divided, following a treaty, The Geneva Accords, along the 17ºN latitude into two independent states, North and South Vietnam. The American saga followed.

I took a train from Nha Trang to Hue leaving at 12.18am on the 24th. It was a 13 hour journey and I had only booked a 'soft' seat. These old Viet trains travel at a max speed of 50mph, wobbly, somewhat noisily and almost begrudgingly, with many stops. OK, mistake, I should have booked a sleeper berth. The seats were quite comfortable and I had a row of two to myself. The Vietnamese can curl up and sleep soundly on anything, anywhere (including the cross-bar on a bicycle), but my creaking joints did not allow this. So, combined with a couple of voluble Vietnamese chaps laughing incessantly sitting behind me and unable to stretch out, I didn't get much kip.

After dawn, north beyond Da Nang, we passed high up along some spectacular cliffs overlooking the sea. On the flat ground thereafter were large areas of rice paddies (a bit like photo on left, but bigger) with many locals out working on them at first light. It looked very laborious, boring and hard work. Of course I failed to get any decent photos.

Right: Rather incongruously, there were some very elaborate Buddhist cemeteries located, seemingly at random, amongst these paddies, far away from any villages. My photo does not show some of the more impressively elaborate and vastly expensive  'shrines'. I later got an answer to this.

I have in fact done this rail journey before, from Saigon all the way to Hanoi and onwards, stopping off at Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue en-route, but I think it was before my 'blogging' days and have lost any photos from then. I expect my monitor and research team at  'OMPITA' will advise, as always.

We arrived in Hue at 1.30pm. Interestingly,  my ticket (bought the day before I left) was not inspected at any point from beginning to end. Left: The frontage of Hue station.

I then walked on to a comfortable little hotel/guest house called, quaintly, 'Hue Lovely Homestay' and had a good sleep followed by some eggs and bacon at a local café. It was another, by chance, amazingly good value and delightful place to stay. On the way there I walked past, on the southern main riverside road (Le Loi), a splendid and ostentatious hotel called 'La Residence' which was the former residence of the French Governor of Hue. I stayed there back in 1997, or was it 2011 (my memory is failing me)? I must have been much wealthier in those days!

The next day, it was Christmas Day apparently, I decided to have a wander around the Citadel. As said, I have done this before but have no photo evidence so will bore you with some now.

Right: This is a model of the walled and moated compound. I'm not sure if it is of the original or present day. I suspect a mixture. The problem is that the American forces (supporting the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the 'ARVN') bombed and shelled the place (as is their wont) during the Tet offensive by the North Vietnamese Peoples' Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) and their guerrilla fighters, the Viet Cong (VC), in 1968. There was fierce fighting in the Citadel and throughout Hue which started at the end of January 1968 and went on until September that year. Many of the original elaborate Imperial buildings were destroyed, as was much of Hue. So what we have now is a few original buildings, some reconstructed and much empty space.

Left: The last Emperor, Bao Dai (born Nguyen Vinn Thuy in 1913) with his wife, Princess Monique. He died in Paris in 1997 aged 83.

Right: The Emperor's official residence.

Left: Looking back over empty space towards the main entrance which originally was a series of 'halls'. Maybe these fell victim to US bombs.

Right: The original 'Royal Treasury' at the eastern side. It is in a very derelict state.

Left: Inside the large and elaborate Mieu Temple. A 'shoes off' venue where photography is prohibited.

Right: I think this was the Queen's private quarters.

Left: Inside the Royal Theatre. They still put on performances here.

Right: An elaborate archway.

Left: I'm not sure what this is. It had a stone sculpture of a lion or griffin inside. Perhaps it was the Royal Telephone Box.

Right: The 'Kien-Trung' Royal Palace at the far northern end. Presently undergoing restoration and hidden behind screens and scaffolding.

Left: Another Imperial building, I think called the Thai Hoa Hall at the southern end. 

I suppose the whole compound measures about 750m x 700m. 

There were many other buildings of various size and function, but that is enough!

Left: The nine 'dynastic' urns lined up on the forecourt of the temple. Each one represents a dynasty. They are one of the most valuable works of art in Hue, and indeed Vietnam (I read) and have UNESCO world heritage recognition.

Right: This sign was positioned near the entrance. I don't suppose it was there in 1968. A bit late now!

Left: A couple of well dressed locals who were happy to have their photo taken.

Right: A group posing outside the eastern gate. There were four gates, including the main one where you bought entry tickets (and audio guide if you wanted). The other three gates appeared to be open to the outside streets and unmanned. I can't think what there was to stop people coming in through these without paying.

There is a museum outside the compound which displays a few interesting items  taken from the Palace, such as this (left); the Imperial Throne.

Right: A 'palanquin' which, carried by eight bearers, was used to transport the Emperor around the compound. He probably had a gym somewhere to do some exercise.

Left: The Royal Bed ('scratcher'). It looked a bit on the 'firm' side, but as explained earlier the Vietnamese can sleep happily on anything.

Right: A pair of shoes, with wooden soles, as worn by one of the Queens. She must have had very small feet and they looked most uncomfortable.

Left: A ladies' Grand Royal Audience Gown. There were several of these elaborate garments on display.

That will do from the Citadel. 

Wandering around town I passed a clothes shop selling these Father Christmas outfits (right). They do take Christmas quite seriously and like to dress accordingly.

The 500m wide Huong River, more popularly known as the Perfume River, runs through the centre of the city and divides it north/south. The river  flows from an area which grew fragrant flowers and shrubs and the nice smell drifted down with it, hence the 'Perfume' soubriqué. It is crossed by four bridges. The oldest and most famous is the easternmost Truong Tien bridge (left), which carries pedestrians and vehicles. It is lit up with a changing display of coloured lights at night

On my previous visit to Hue I went on a day river cruise which stopped off at several elaborate pagodas and the tombs of deceased Emperors. It was interesting and amusing but I didn't want to do it again. Once you've seem one pagoda and/or tomb you've seen them all (but I've lost the photos of these so was slightly tempted). Right: One of the many variously sized and shaped tourist cruise boats.

Instead of doing more 'touristing' in Hue I decided to go on a visit to the wartime 'Dee Em Zee' (De-Militarised Zone) astride the 17ºN Lat, about 50 miles north of Hue.  The report to follow...eventually.