After a quick bite, I headed to the war remnants museum which is
brutal. Room by room you get a step by step history lesson in pictures
and statistics of the Vietnam war beginning with the French efforts
and ending with the US portion. Its obviously fascinating to see the
way the war is depicted here and the way our efforts are
characterized. The first thing you see in the whole place is a quote
from Secretary of Defense MacNamara saying how the war was a mistake,
to give you some perspective, before going through a timeline of the
wars and the death tolls of US soldiers by group. That's followed by
essentially a memorial/tribute to the photographers of the war
praising their efforts to capture the images so that the events are
remembered. Most, if not all, of the photographers featured were
killed while covering the war, which is kind of chilling. In the
square that the museum sits on, there are a bunch of old US tanks,
planes & helicopters on display, alongside stats on their destructive
capabilities.
Then things get gnarly. There is a huge room dedicated to displaying
the effects of war crimes inflicted, such as the use of agent orange.
The pictures turn your stomach, but not so much as the dead fetuses
stored in preservative jars on display. I wish I was joking. Its so
disturbing. You finally work through some replicated torture chambers
with equally revolting imagery and end up in a room displaying posters
of support for the Vietnamese efforts from around the globe.
Aside from the images and history you pick up, I'm most struck by the
way many of the Vietnamese visitors to the museum aren't somber in the
least and if anything view this place as a great display of their
conquering our aggression. Its like a celebration of sorts for them.
Also, after visiting china and having some perspective on their
communist ideas and how twisted they are, it seems odd to see pictures
celebrating the union of Ho Chi Minh and Mao since my impressions of
Mao from my China time were so overwhelmingly negative and I can't
imagine someone being celebrated for aligning with such a figure.
Anyhow, this was the first of a succession of pretty depressing
experiences I expect to find over the next couple days.
I will say that the city of Saigon is incredibly more civilized that
Hanoi and is actually sort of nice, aside from even more motobikes
everywhere lined up at stoplights in scenes that look identical to the
start of the marathon. Hope to have some pics up later on. I will also
say the thing I miss most about home is not being bothered by people
when you walk around. Since I left Japan, all these communist places
(HK was different) are teeming with people hitting you from every
angle trying to sell you something, ride you somewhere, whatever. I
can't stand it. There is no concept of people knowing what they're
after on their own so people just figure they'll put things in front
of you and hope you take them up on it. The markets are prime example
of this since its just a sea of things in no particular order
whatsoever. So I'll appreciate that aspect of America in a couple
weeks most, I think.
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