Cu Chi Tunnels and War Remnants Museum

We started early with a two hour bus ride to the nearby Cu Chi Tunnels - a half day trip we organized the night before. Used extensively during combat with French and American forces, the tunnels were comprised of three networked levels ranging from 3, 6, and 9 meters below the surface. We signed up for the tour at our hotel, but joined a bus full of people who started from one of the travel agencies in the city. I think today was the first time we were part of a massive tour group being shuffled from place to place and hopefully our last. The first stop was at woodworking shop setup by the government to enable people disabled by Agent Orange to work. Most of crafts produced were lacquered wood carvings and paintings, but they also had various other items for sale. The artwork was beautiful, but it felt odd to be herded past the people while they were working and a bit like they were being exploited for their obvious deformities.From the wood working shop we were bused another half an hour to Cu Chi. Upon arrival we were shown a ten minute 'documentary' video about Viet Cong forces fighting in the area. Purely propaganda, the black and white video was primarily a series of staged clips portraying various heroes from the war. Kind of reminded me of old news reels. After the video we took a short walk through the forest (replanted in 1985 after being completely decimated by defoliants during the war) and shown various models of bamboo traps used against US soldiers. Similar to walking through the Toul Sleng prison, it was unsettling to see real life agents of torture - make no mistake that the traps were intended to painfully injure the victim rather than kill. Adding to the uneasy environment, machine gun fire could be heard from the nearby shooting range where tourists were given the opportunity to shoot a variety of automatic weapons. I will admit that I was tempted to fire a few rounds from an AK-47, but it didn't really seem appropriate. Check out my awesome cleavage.Actual tunnels used during the war were too small for most western body frames, so they built larger tunnels for tourists to crawl through. I have slightly claustrophobic tendencies, but usually only feel it when I can't move my arms. While I had some freedom of movement, the darkness in the tunnel really bothered me and I could only finish 30 of the 90 meter tunnel. Sound was also very disorienting - there were several times that Nicole said something that sounded like it was behind me or even above me when she was really several meters in front of me (really strange when it was too dark to see her). She helped me stay calm when it was pitch black and we made it through the tunnel in about ten minutes. After the tunnel we stopped by the shooting range, watched a woman demonstrate making rice paper, and lunched on tapioca root(very bland).The bus dropped us off near the War Remnants Museum(formerly the Museum of American War Crimes) back in Saigon and we braced ourselves for more propaganda. While it was one sided - nearly all of the pictures and events described were of American activities - the presentation didn't stray from factual description of the events. We spent most of the time in a special exhibit of pictures taken by international photographers that died during the war. Some of the most famous pictures of the war were included in the museum along with griping journal entries and articles. The whole experience was overwhelming and we both left feeling emotionally drained.

While there are significant differences in the scale of the Vietnam and Iraq wars, it is scary and frustrating that the more I learn about Vietnam the more similarities I see in the handling of the wars. Especially disheartening is a read through Robert McNamara's eleven lessons learned from his 1996(!) book In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam:

1. We misjudged then — and we have since — the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries … and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
2. We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
4. Our judgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
5. We failed then — and have since — to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine…
6. We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
7. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement … before we initiated the action.
8. After the action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course … we did not fully explain what was happening and why we were doing what we did.
9. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgment of what is in another people's or country's best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.
10. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action … should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
11. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions … At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.
    

Which one of those lessons did we actually learn?