Field trip day! Today started at around 6:50 in the morning when I was woken up by my roommate Olivia (I had missed my alarm). I rushed to get ready since the bus left at an early 7:45, but I made it down for breakfast at a good time so we made it work.
The bus ride to the Củ Chi tunnels was about two hours-ish, which is not too bad. The speaker on the bus was very helpful, though, telling us about the history of the tunnels and also about Vietnamese culture. He talked about naming customs and vocabulary and so many other things. He was also very funny. We also did karaoke on the way there to pass the time, which is always fun.
One of our stops was a place where handicapped individuals can work to make art. We got to see the process of each step: the outline by the artist, the eggshell and seashell carving and pasting, the layering of the paste, the uncovering of the art, and the polishing of the canvas. The finished pieces were so beautiful, it is such a shame we were not allowed photography in the showroom. Each piece is handcrafted and unique with bright paints and a pearly shine, so you know I had to buy one! It was truly one-of-a-kind art created by amazing, hardworking people, and I am so glad we stopped by to support them!
At the Củ Chi tunnels entrance, there were multiple war vehicles on display from the Vietnam war: helicopters, planes, tanks, etc. They were in pretty good shape and we got to sit in the seats and take pictures with them. Seeing them, I started reflecting on all the knowledge I had about the Vietnam war in preparation of what we would see next. It was a heavy conflict with lots of deaths on either side, and it was not too long in the past as we tend to think.
The documentary we watched caught my attention the most. Used as Vietnamese propaganda, the movie painted the American army and America in a horrible light, using words like “devils” to describe the soldiers. While I know this is propaganda to rally support for Vietnam against the USA, I also think it was quite justified. We did drop bombs all over the villages, we did use agent orange and deadly chemical warfare. Wars the US have been in have, more often than not, not been on US soil, so we never had to deal with bombings and being in a constant state of defense. It would be completely remiss if one said ‘because it was war’ that innocents had to be killed in the way that they were. It was only natural that guerrilla warfare became what it is and the Viet Cong became as resilient and cunning as they were.
In that same documentary, I also could not help but notice how many women were involved and filmed. It shocked me, not that a woman could strategize or kill enemy forces, but that they were given the chance to. The Viet Cong women in the documentary were preforming crucial tasks that enforced the aggressive geurilla warfare, something I did not think I would see so much. While American women were allowed to fight in war during the Vietnam conflict, they were treated as just another soldier with a gun. From what I saw, the Viet Cong women were highly-skilled workers with just as important roles as warriors in such a small army. This gave me a new perspective on the incredible planning, effort, and labor that went into the Viet Cong operations and more insight into how they were able to keep up and even outsmart the American forces.
We learned so much more about Viet Cong tactics such as concealing smells, using bamboo traps, and wearing shoes backwards to throw off anyone trying to catch their trail (This one in specific was insane to me! What genius!). While I wish I could write on and on about everything we learned, and try to describe the experience of crouching through the tunnels, I am quite close to tripling the standard world count for a blog post.
This was such an amazing experience that satisfied my interest in war history again and also made me realize a lot about how determined and unshaken people can be in trying times. Signing off!