This post is a serious one, a reflection on war. As an American and a student who was born at the end of the Vietnam War (known as the American War in Vietnam) I did not experience the war or it's after effects first hand. Everything I knew about the war before this trip had come from other sources..such as books and television and of course it all came from American sources. I was fairly uninformed. My impressions of the war were that it was a war against the spread of communism in a country that was filled with very skilled ground fighters in a jungle environment. I knew that the war was unpopular (even in America) towards its end, as journalist were allowed in to document it. I knew that it was a war that contained many atrocities and soldiers dealt with harsh daily conditions, both of which led to PTSD and other long term mental and emotional issues for soldiers. Before I arrived in Vietnam, I knew a little about Agent Orange and other chemical warfare agents such as napalm. I was aware that my country used them. Like many Americans, I had seen the cover of the 1972 Time Magazine that showed a very distressing photo of a group of Vietnamese children fleeing after a napalm bomb was dropped on them. As a non violent person at heart I knew that I probably would have been a protester during the Vietnam war era. I don't agree with chemical warfare, or torture, or a great many tactics used during war. However, I was also a bit apathetic about the whole affair in a typical American fashion.
Now that I have spent two weeks in this country that was on the other side of that conflict, I am definitely no longer apathetic. I have learned so much more about the war, how it fits into Vietnam's history, and I have learned more about my own country. Learning about your own country from outside of it and from another culture's viewpoint is very eye opening and can be hard to take in. As someone who truly cares about other people, of course my heart goes out to the generations of people in this country who are still suffering from chemical warfare effects thirty years later. As someone who respects religion and spiritual beliefs, it also broke my heart to see all the ruined temples, pagodas and cities in this country.
From Vietnam Vets working in Vietnam, and from tour guides I have learned that the US military dropped more ordinances on this small country during the Vietnam war than all of World War II. I also learned that the US Government has only recently acknowledged that its use of agent orange could have caused the ongoing birth defects (I visited children like this) here in Vietnam and started providing some support for its people. I learned that the US military considered no innocents during the war, and as such, attacks on women and children were normal occurrences, often leading to entire families to be exterminated. There are pictures in my flickr account documenting this. In my tours, I saw that Vietnam had war support from the rest of the world. This really surprised me. Of course some of the support was from other communist countries, but not all of it was. I learned that the war lasted 20-30 years depending on which country you ask. The Vietnamese basically feel that Americans fooled South Vietnam into an alliance and that the US replaced the French colonizers. When the US left Vietnam, the country reunified.
My experiences here have affected my opinions of the war, communism, and socialism. After my visits to the colonial prison where the French colonist held and tortured Vietnamese, I also visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and the complex where he lived. The Vietnamese were very mistreated by colonial rule and HCM was a leader that came to power by promising equality of life for all Vietnamese. He lived very modestly, even when palaces were built in his honor. He did a great number of things to advance the poor of Vietnam and to instill good ethics and morality in them as a collective culture. HCM is highly respected in this country from North to South. He doesn't really seem like a bad guy to me-kind of a robin hood figure. He did his best to get the people away from colonization and it just so happened that he found support from Russia and the communists to do so. I have been to lectures that discussed communism and socialism in Vietnam and although it isn't highly regarded by many in the US, it works here in Vietnam, a small (and historically poor) country with a large population. As of late, they know their faults and successes and are working on development quite successfully.
My trip has taught me that good things are happening in more recent years. Since 1995, the US and Vietnam have signed treaties and have improved relations. Vietnam also built trade relations with many other countries after the post-wartime embargo ended here. American Vietnam Vets are working here to defuse and dispose of unexploded ordinances. There are volunteer groups that work with Agent Orange patients. There are groups like our host, the Vietnam USA friendship society, that work on building relationships and sharing knowledge with other cultures. People of this country don't seem to hold ill will against Americans. I am sure part of this is because we bring a lot of currency into their country through tourism. Many Vietnamese encourage me to visit their museums, etc. I get the feeling it is so I can understand the war from a different viewpoint. It makes them very happy to see American students here.
I didn't mean to write a book but I had to put this down somewhere. I can't stress how important and life changing it is to travel outside of your own borders and learn first hand about the rest of the world we live in. I hope my journals have been interesting. I know that I have been writing them in a hurry each night as I travel the country so they are not always exciting. Since this is a study trip, I learn more than I relax although I sneak some of that in now and then too. :)
Just a few more sleeps until I am back in America. I miss you all and can't wait to see everyone!
