Good Morning Vietnam!!!!!!

 Hi Followers, Just Ash posting from now on as Jackie has gone home to finish school before the next part of life takes flight. I am still in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam about to head back to Cambodia for 4 days with my friend Joe before we head north up Vietnam.

Just a warning this is a large post and has some graphic images from the Vietnam war museum. I hope you will read briefly through it all as i think it provides a perspective we dont usually get exposed to in the west. Im not trying to push a point, just reflection on what is.

more of the power lines we are baffled by, how is this in anyway okay?

So after i picked Joe up from the airport we headed out for an afternoon tour of the Cu Chi tunnels.

The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chidistrict of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.

The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, and helped achieve ultimate military success.

Here is an example of what the tunnels look like from side on

Our tour guide explaining the trap door system, when covered with leaves you cannot tell its there

Here is a trap door, if you step on it you die.

this is how you die, lovely.

another entry to the tunnels, they are everywhere

A depiction of Vietcong during the war

A Vietnam forest tank

The tunnels go as deep as 30 meters, with that depth there is not much air down there, solution to use bamboo as snorkels, but what happens when the USA comes with sniffer dogs, put hot chilies near the entrance to the hole. We really got the impression of how resourceful the Vietcong actually were, prepared to live through years of absolute poverty in order to liberate the country

My mate Joe

Above is a few examples of the traps used, the one directly above is maybe the most intense, when the US solders were hungry or thirsty the Vietnamese village women would invite them into a residence for rest, next thing you know spikes through your face.

Vietcong would collect american shells and use the steel to make their own weapons

The tunnels were literally everywhere, they span over 250km

Then this happened (google wont let me upload additional photos so they will come in the next post) but Joe got to shoot an AK47, i opted for peace.

The crater of a B52 bomber

Vietcong digging more holes

Ho Chi himself, you get the feeling that the people appreciate what this guy did for their country even though it is communist, he is on all the money and there is statues and murals of him everywhere. Even the young tour guide said of what a good man he was. Propaganda? im not so sure?

From the Vietnamese perspective it was very much an American aggressor war, the people didn't want the US to be there, the signs say it all.

The next day we headed out on a city tour, first stop the war remanence museum.

This was the cool part! look at these machines 

They were huge, gives you a real appreciation of how terrifying the war must have been for those on the ground

"This dog bites"

Next up we went inside to check out the museum, its all photos with a few exhibitions. Below is a depiction of a tunnel network built by the Vietnamese.

Going in you have an impression that the information is very propoganderish, it portrays the USA as the aggressors and the Vietcong as the good people. You will see what i mean by the signs.

Here is a picture of Vietcong sounding the alarm to children that B52 bombers were on the way

A lot of pictures were explaining to visitors how life was going on like normal in Vietcong occupied territory, that the USA was upsetting things in the south, it follows below.

Here is a Picture of an Ohio war protester next to one of 4 US students who were shot during protests. (if you click on any of the photos they get reeal big so you can see the txt below them)

A really epic statement, one we should all live by

The photos and text will explain themselves from here

This is pretty intense, my opinion on the war started to change from here

What a horrible situation

In war, shit happens.

An opinion of a group of US solders

Wow.

Part of a B52 bomber

Mr Lemay didnt account for how dire the Vietcong were to liberate the land, or how clever they were. Still im sure he inflicted a lot of damage.

Below is some depiction of the use of Napalm, a chemical warfare tactic that should never be seen by the human race again. The images are graphic but i wanted to post them so you all could have a perspective of what damage it really does without coming all the way to Vietnam. I dont blame the USA for deciding to use it, i just hope that we can all learn from thier decision.

These are the children of victims, they were not even capable of speech when the war was happening yet they are subject to its consequences for life.

The above picture and passage are what i found hardest to comprehend.

The Vietnamese were really trying to prove a point, they even had preserved mutated babies on display.

Above children of US Marines affected by agent orange

Come to the victims of agent orange, the poorest of the poor, the most suffering of those who suffer

Below are a few pictures of US soldiers, they don't look they had much fun

I think this guys eyes say it all

A reminder that Agent orange/napalm did not only affect the Vietnamese

Ho Chi and his deceleration of independence

Battalions that fought

Australia was there

So were the Kiwis

Puts the numbers into perspective

Kennedy reflecting on the war

The Communist tank that stopped it all, after 17 years and 2 months. The thing that got me was after the war stopped a year later the north and south joined and things have been good since. Ive been asking a few Vietnamese if they are angry at the US. No is the answer, they see what the US did as being so wrong and they are very saddened about the war, they don't understand why the US wanted to block the communist north from taking power, however since then the USA has invested greatly in the country and supported it economically and made peoples lives better, lets all hope that continues to be the case.

I think this says it all

Some of the prisons the Vietcong were kept in

No this is not a Joke.

So there it is, a bit of a reflection on the Vietnam war after many years, im smiling infront of this tank but i still remind myself that its sole purpose is to inflict significant harm and death on other people. I hope that globalisation, economics and the capabilities of the internet stop something like this from happening again.