Home from Vietnam

Here's economy section of a jumbo jet.


American Embassy in Saigon. Very new. The old 30-story embassy from which pictures of helicopters on the roof were extracting the last Americans and their friends was torn down soon after Vietnam's reunification.

United flight from Hong Kong to Chicago takes 13 hours! You're lucky to have an aisle seat, but they get assigned rather quickly. United's movies leave a lot to be desired and the screen is difficult to see. Many other airlines now have individual viewing screens and more comfortable seats. This was told to me by a lady from Vietnam who was a boat child in 1978 who now practices medicine in Manhattan. I'm not complaining, though. I made it home safe and sound.

Tennis court in back of Tan Son Nhat Hotel.

Front of Tan Son Nhat Hotel where I spent my last night @ 33 USD. It had a very good restaurant, too.

Final thoughts: Vietnam was much better off after we left. Our presence there produced a misanthropic symbiotic relationship. They turned our boys into dopeheads. GI's could buy a pack of 20 cigarettes from which all the tobacco was taken out and replaced with high grade marijuana for one dollar! We turned many of their women into the oldest profession because of poverty and the corrupting influence of American servicemen with a lot of money. When I left the mountain to process home I had to stay at an Army post in Nha Trang. In the evening at the gate of said post, dozens of ladies sought to be picked to be allowed in for the evening. I was very surprised at the spectacle. This blatant debauchery was never reported, but must have gone on at all the large army posts towards the end of the war. We did not do this country any favors.

When the war wound down, all the corruption, guilt, and misguided efforts resulted in low morale in all the branches of the service. I felt unwelcomed when returning, but that did not bother me. I have never worn my service on my sleeve or made it a point to mention I was in Vietnam. I really have no time for anyone who thinks they deserve any special treatment for having served there. All I did was read a lot of books trying to get a handle on how we ever got involved and I took a class on the history of VN at the University of Iowa. My trip was to see how the country was doing after our ruinous expedition. It's doing just fine. Now, with a rejuvenation of perceptions about service in the military, whether warranted or not, when people say, "Thank you for your service," I just say thank you. What I'd like to say is that if I were brave, I would have burned my draft card or gone to Canada or joined with others to end that unfortunate military adventure. Karlie.

Investments

Lots of construction of high rises in Vietnam.

Coastal cities are developing a tourist trade.

Meandering rivers around Saigon.

Gas station for cars and tens of millions of motorbikes.

Every byway has little shops of food, drink, and motorbike repair - examples of individual entrepreneurship.

Elementary school in Qui Nhon.

Vietnam Air. Transportation and tourist trade is booming.

Rice growing is the main agrarian activity.


Vietnam has a good deal of foreign investors involved in internal development. I guess that’s why it’s called a developing country. When flying back from Qui Nhon to Saigon on Vietnam Airways for only $50, about the same distance from Cedar Rapids to Chicago, I saw what looked like a state-of-the-art dam holding back a huge reservoir north of Saigon. Water is a commodity of which they have plenty. (See picture of meandering rivers around Saigon).

The largest foreign investments come from Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea with 20 billion, 18 billion, 17 billion, and 16.5 billion USD, respectively, as of January 25, 2009. USA companies have invested about 8 billion USD in the last 40 years. These are just 5 of the list of 84 nations that have poured money into development ventures in Vietnam. China has had 628 projects undertaken to the tune of about 2 billion USD.

Here are some deals that have been signed with foreign construction companies: The Bac Lieu Town People’s Committee has contracted with a company to build a new residential town with a population of 16,000 people along Highway 1A @ $17.64 million. The Danang Department of Transport has inked a deal with a construction company to build a new bridge on the Han River @ $67.64 million. The Binh Duong People’s Committee is having a new 28 kilometer (18 mile) road built to connect them to Ho Chi Minh City for $41.17 million. There are also hundreds of thousands of private entrepreneurs all over Vietnam. (See general scenes throughout VN)

You would never know that Vietnam is a communist country. All these deals could have been realized without having to make a down payment of 50,000 lives. It seems outrageous, doesn’t it? Why, oh why did we have to create a war in Vietnam? George Orwell's main message in 1984 was that in an oligarchy, which some say we have, that is a wealthy few at the top controlling events, wields power just for power's sake. We started a war in Vietnam because we had the military might to do so. Does this sound like George Bush and Iraq? Let's stop trying to throw our weight around in the world to feed a military-industrial complex. We must create jobs that do not support the cult of militarism.

Comment

To Troutbirder: I'll try this again after losing a previously penned response that disappeared somewhere between Vietnam and Google headquarters, wherever that may be. You mentioned that a relative had said that we could have won in Vietnam if we had just bombed more. Wars cannot be won by bombing, alone. We dropped more ordnance on Vietnam than we dropped on Japan and Germany combined during WWII. What did that accomplish? Not much, as we were still losing. There are vast forests in VN, easily hiding NVA forces. Bombing's effects are limited. There were regular army units of hardened North Vietnamese divisions having the run of the place all over the south, as well as popular front forces (Viet Cong) who could hit us at will. The ARVN (the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam), our allies, wouldn't fight with any effectiveness. They knew the so-called democratic government of South Vietnam was corrupt and didn't represent the the vast majority of the Vietnamese. I asked Mrs. Lam, the teacher across the hall from me who lived in Vietnam, if they ever thought the North would win. She said all the Vietnamese knew the North would win eventually, they just didn't know how soon. President Thieu of South Viet Nam had periodic elections to give the appearance of a democratically elected government, but they were bogus. I read where the U.S. ambassador suggested to Thieu that his elections would look more believable if he would just win by 65% or even 70%. But Thieu would have none of it - he always won by 99%. That war was unwinnable because it was started under false pretenses, we weren't backing the will of the people, and you can't make the people like us by killing them. We did some terrible things to this country. They just wanted peace and a unified country as any patriotic Vietnamese would. Your question alluded to betrayal. By whom, the press? They were just reporting the truth. Betrayal is oft used to explain losses, like Hitler often played that card saying Germany only lost WWI because they were betrayed by a panoply of conspiracies, none of which had any validity. Many Americans are humiliated by the picture of helicopters on the American Embassy roof in the ignominious withdrawal from Vietnam. We should be more humiliated by the choice made by our leaders to try and push Vietnam around under an ill-conceived, militaristic, colonial, can-do policy by the best and the brightest presidential advisors ever to grace the sacred halls of the White House.

40 Years Ago in Viet Nam

Here are some old pictures of when I was on Vung Chua Mountain. 1)John Doty of Olwein took this picture of two other guys and me when patroling around the mountain. 2) We had a poured concrete 81mm mortar base so we could really sight it in, permanently. It's right next to our tent, which is surrounded by 81mm mortar boxes filled with dirt and nailed together. Boxes originally came with 3 rounds that cost you $75 a piece back in 1969, part of the military-industrial complex. We probably fired off 500 to 800 rounds per month. Live rounds were stored in a sandbagged bunker near by. 3) Vietnamese person fishing near the Leprosarium. I couldn't find this spot again since there was so much new development. 4) Practicing sighting mortar. See aiming stakes in background used for starting point for determining deflection, that is direction.

French Catholic Leprosarium, Quy Nhon, Vietnam

Finally found Leprosarium. The facilities have improved. It was only reached by a dirt road before. Now there is a new four-lane black top that goes near it from which a narrow blacktop leads to the insulated life provided by a Catholic order of French nuns. Road to the beach is flanked by trees whose lower trunks are covered with a white substance to keep crawling insects from climbing them. These are seen all over Vietnam. The beautiful beach that has been improved with a breakfront. Very quiet and peaceful. I am walking between rows of busts of famous people in medical science, starting with Hippocrates and includes Louis Pasteur and the Curies. One of the pictures shows residences of persons with leprosy.

Comments

To Sigi: Doggone it, I forgot about your comment re Giap. He lived to the age of 96 when he died in 2008. There are two accounts to his birth date, either 1911 or 1912, but most scholars feel that the 1912 date is correct because he told French school officials that he was born in 1911 in order to enter one of the schools earlier than allowed in his education. He has a legitimate Ph.D in history. I'm sorry I don't know which university, but I understand that many who sit for the examination of several days do not make it. It's in the book and of course you may borrow it. It covers only his youth as his later career, as you pointed out, has many accomplishments and would be a pretty large tome. Best regards, Karl.

Answers to Comments

To Troutbirder: Thanks for your kind words and excellent question. I had a long answer and it was lost somewhere in the ethernet. Maybe it will come back.

Dawn: Good to hear from you. Very funny comment about someone who was late for choir. Tell Ian to hang in there. He had to serve to experience this country's cult of militarism, but things are changing.

Sigi: I've tried answering many times. Connection at this hotel is hit and miss. Your comment about all the motorcycle and motorscooter drivers having helmets is an astute observation. It happens that there is a big to-do about that very subject. Some drivers use helmets that are not safe nor up to standards so police are complaining about how they should go about monitoring sub-par helmets.

Thanks for comments. This is my last afternoon in Qui Nhon.

Book Store in Quy Nhon, Vietnam

Finished small paperback I brought along. I highly recommend making room for several books on a trip to Vietnam, because it is hard to find any written in English. One needs reading materials when waiting for planes, trains, and rainy days in one's room. In Saigon it's the dry season, but in Qui Nhon it's the rainy season. I found a big book store in Saigon near the Caravelle Hotel that had some English books. There are also some pirated popular novels sold on the streets in Saigon that cater to the Ausie travelers, but in Qui Nhon there are none of those. Qui Nhon is about 100,000 people, but not the hectic pace of cosmopolitan Saigon. Anyway, asked the front desk of my hotel about a book store and they supplied me with an address. Went there and did not find but one! book in English. The one they had was about General Giap which I bought. They had biographies of Clinton and Obama in Vietnamese. Obama is very popular. See picture. More about English speaking people, later.

p.s. to Sigi: Thanks for the comments. You are probably right-on about the dismantling of Long Bien Army Base. I'm not sure how to answer comments on the blog, but this is one way.

Visit to Vung Chua Mountain, Quy Nhon, Vietnam

Writing quickly, lest connection ends. The only remnants of our stay are some slight indication of road and some rusty old C ration cans - looks like pork slices in juice and cheese spread. Looking down on one scene is where my tent used to be right next to our 81 mm mortar pit. Flat area is where a barracks used to be. Slope used to have a mess hall. See bunker on perimeter shrouded in mist still in monsoon season. It is spooky enough by day, but at night, let me tell you, ultra spooky. Bye for now. Karlie.

More About France's Involvement in Vietnam

Qui Nhon is the beginning of Hwy 19 that leads west to An Khe, visible from Vung Chua Mountain, and on westward to Pleiku. It was along this highway that the French Groupe Mobile I tried to make a break for Pleiku to consolidate their forces in 1954 after it was evident that the French stand at Dien Bien Phu was doomed after a 10 month encirclement by the Vietminh, a coalition of Vietnamese nationals led by Ho Chi Minh. General Giap was the architect of the victory at Dien Bien Phu, which led the French to sue for peace and end their occupation of Viet Nam.



The Groupe Mobile I had about 1000 men and they had to go through the Mang Yang Pass to get to Pleiku. The Viet Minh were waiting for them and it was a slaughter as masses of Vietminh came charging out of the steep valley slopes. Less than half of the French made it to Pleiku. Bernard Fall in "Street Without Joy," one of his many books I read when I got back from Viet Nam, says there were so many French dead that the Vietminh had to bury them standing up. It makes me weep at the cost of war on both sides, for do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.



Why in the world did the French want to restore their colony after WWII? First of all, they were humiliated when Germany went through France like merde through a fois gras. Which reminds me, QUESTION: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? ANSWER: Nobody knows. It's never been done. So they wanted to restore their self-appointed place as a world power, misguided as it was. Secondly, they practiced the worst kind of racism in their colony because they thought they had a right to dominate the Vietnamese since they considered them less than human. In fact, when the French colonial forces surrendered to the Japanese in the early days of WWII, they turned around and collaborated with them in keeping a brutal control of the Vietnamese, saying, in effect, we know how to handle these people better than you. It was this sort of collaboration with an enemy that served as a model for Pierre Boulle to pen “Bridge Over the River Kwai.”

Pictures of Quy Nhon, Vietnam

Vietnam by Train

Having trouble connecting to web. Have posted pictures, but wifi connection ended before they were published. Here we go again - quickly. Train from Saigon was on a sleeper berth at about 350 miles for 35 USD. Was rocked to sleep by train. It was very restful. Will send this without pictures. Will add pictures on the next post. They are berth, scene from train window, Saigon-Quynohn Hotel @ 40 USD per night, scene from front of hotel, cloud enshrouded mountain where I will go tomorrow.

"Paris of the Orient"

Once known as the "Paris of the Orient," these scenes in the heart of Saigon show the Hotel Continental and the Rex Hotel, famous during French colonial days. They were built on the sweat and toil of the Vietnamese as a result of a very exploitive French rule from 1885 to 1955, during which the French exacted taxes on the people of Vietnam that never allowed a middle class to develop. Also see the Opera House and City Hall behind one of the ubiquitous depictions of Ho Chi Minh

I will be taking a train today to Qui Nhon in the Central Highlands to stay several days and try to get to the top of Vung Chua Mountain, where I was given an extended stay courtesy of the U.S. Army. Preventive inoculations were included

French Embassy

Directly across a narrow street from my hotel, the Sophia Hotel, is the French Embassy, pictured here. Just to the right, out of the picture, is the entrance to a small, open-air French restaurant on the embassy grounds. It features excellent French cuisine at reasonable prices. Last night I had an onion soup to die for!

Note the gaggle of strung wires running across the picture, the likes of which you see all over Saigon. When they figure out how to go underground with communication lines it will improve the presentation of some of their very fine buldings.

There are some very impressive high rise apartments that have been built in the last ten years. Rates for these start at 1500 USD per month. Surrounding these modern edifices you will find urban blight of seamy open air commercial enterprises on which every bit of space is covered by a sign of some sort.

So, Saigon is a study of contrasts in which foreign investors have developed huge hotels, car dealerships, high-tech industries and other high profile international business names while the Vietnamese are slowly but surely beginning to share the wealth by working at the hotels, driving taxis, and other concomitant employment, such as security guards for all of this development.

Revisiting Long Bien Army Base

This writer landed at Bien Hoa Air Base in 1969. A few miles away lay Long Bien Army Base, the largest military post in the world at that time. The plane load of GI's was transported to the 90th Replacement Battalion at Long Bien for processing and assignments to units all over Vietnam. I was assigned to the 198th M.P. Company, an infantry unit whose mission was to provide protection at remote 1st Signal Brigade communication sites covering the length and breadth of South Viet Nam. My assignment was on Vung Chua Mountain, which lies between Qui Nhon and An Khe. The headquarters of my company was in Long Bien, which I only saw a few times for administrative reasons, such as going on R & R, processing in and out of country, etc. Whenever I spent a few days there, I was amazed at the size and amenities afforded those who were stationed there. There were movie theatres, swimming pools, USO clubs, two-story barracks as far as the eye could see, and every large headquarters company had their own bar. It seemed so permanent at the time. Naturally, I was interested to see what it looked like now. I hired a taxi driver (he was the driver for the Cu Chi sortie, too, so we got to know each other a little bit) for the morning and we went looking for it in the vicinity of the town of Long Bien, 25 miles away from downtown Saigon. There is nothing left of it! It is overgrown with trees and brush. We found the remnants of a blacktop road and a few bunkers on what was the perimeter. I was astonished. I guess wooden baracks don't last long in this climate. It was totally just swallowed up. I was standing around taking pictures and a gentleman at a nearby modest home home asked the driver what we were doing. After the driver explained he invited us in for some tea and another guy joined us. They spoke no English so the taxi driver sort of interpreted. It turns out they were former VC and we exchanged some limited war stories. They were so nice and we shook hands and laughed. They harbored no grudge against me and vice-versa. I gather that it was just a natural rite of passage for them to fight for their country and when it was over, it was no big deal, they went on with life, penurious as it is, but they seemed very happy. Pictures of this entry are: 1) the taxi driver and the two former soldiers. 2) me shaking hands with them. 3) old blacktop road. 4) bunkers on old perimeter.

Saigon Scenes

The War Remnants Museum has hundreds of photographs depicting the horrors of war that we inflicted on Vietnam. The image of the USA is appalling to the hundreds of thousands of people that visit it every year. Had we learned something from that sad chapter in our history it could be cathartic to our national psyche. However, 7 years ago every member of the House and Senate voted to give Bush the power to invade Iraq, another tragic involvement that was unjustified. Following are pictures of other parts of the museum that display sophisticated weaponry, symbolizing the folley of our efforts, and a GI in front of burning huts. See other Saigon scenes, including the Unification Palace, formerly known as the Presidential Palace, and the post office, a remnant of the French who also tried to hustle Vietnam.