Despite our smiling tourist faces this was a sobering day visiting the Co Chi tunnels. They were originally built during French domination for each family to protect their food and supplies. But during the American war(as they call it) the families and villages connected their tunnels to create 250 km of hiding places and escape routes, 3 levels deep. We crawled thru just 20 meters of it to get the experience. Then for a fee you could even fire a war gun. We ate the only food the VC had to eat in the long trail, it was just a starchy stalk.
I can't really even summarize my thoughts on this except to say I learned alot from the perspective of all sides of the conflict- the innocent villagers who had to become fighters, the underdog country who knows they can't win fighting face to face so they became experts at trickery, our Hanoi born lovable guide whose uncle marched the Ho chi Minh trail, the young US draftees who had no idea what they were getting into. War is terrible.
But today we stood side by side VN people touring the war museum along with other visitors from all over the world looking back on history from 50 years ago. I am thankful to have this day.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I can't really even summarize my thoughts on this except to say I learned alot from the perspective of all sides of the conflict- the innocent villagers who had to become fighters, the underdog country who knows they can't win fighting face to face so they became experts at trickery, our Hanoi born lovable guide whose uncle marched the Ho chi Minh trail, the young US draftees who had no idea what they were getting into. War is terrible.
But today we stood side by side VN people touring the war museum along with other visitors from all over the world looking back on history from 50 years ago. I am thankful to have this day.
Happy Thanksgiving.
posted from Bloggeroid
No comments:
Post a Comment