DMZ - Down the tunnels with Charlie

The trip looked interesting – with various visits to sights that had played significant roles during the war years. However, I obviously hadn’t learnt my lessons about organised tours in Vietnam. After four hours of sitting on a cramped and uncomfortable bus, we realised that we really should have taken a motorbike. Many o the sights were not, as we’d imagined, a short walk from the road. Instead the bus would pull over for 5 minutes at the side of the road, while punters reeled off a few shots of eg. A bombed out church or a hill of strategic importance. We would all then climb back onto the bus for the next stretch of terminally boring highway. There were two stops that I had really taken the trip for – the tunnels at Vinh Moc and the museum at Khe Sanh firebase. I wouldn’t have missed these for the world so it seems churlish to complain about the means of getting there…but a bruised backside and stiff back still say otherwise!
The tunnels at Vinh Moc are a testament to the stoicism and determination of the Vietnamese people. Dug into the cliffs on the east coast, just north of the DMZ, this subterranean labyrinth was home to village community for four years during the height of the American bombardment of the area. The VC found it useful to have a base here to keep supply lines open to a nearby island and no doubt their encouragement persuaded the villagers to persevere. The tunnels are dark and cramped and yet families survived in living spaces the size of your average understairs cupboard. Amazingly, 17 babies were born underground in the maternity room! How were the Americans ever going to win a war against a people that wanted to stay this much? Although the tunnels were bombed repeatedly (the noise underground must have been terrifying for the civilian women and children who endured it for so long), only one of the infamous ‘digger’ bombs ever penetrated the tunnel system – and that didn’t explode. Both the villagers and the VC emerged physically intact, after the Americans withdrew…the psychological scars from their years in the dank, terrifying darkness of the tunnels must still be with the survivors today.
Khe Sanh was an object lesson in the horror, brutality and, ultimately, the futility of war. For many months, American forces had defended the base (on a strategic summit near the supply lines, feeding the VC from Laos) heroically under a constant barrage of heavy artillery. American and South Vietnames forces sustained some of their worst losses here, under the impression that the North Vietnamese Army would be compelled to secure the position, before pushing further south. In the end, these lives were given in vain as the NVA were using Khe Sanh as a diversionary tactic prior to the final, decisive Tet offensive. NVA troops bypassed Khe Sanh altogether as they streamed unopposed into the major coastal city of Danang to effectively end American involvement in the war. The high price paid by Americans to defend the base was a major contributory factor in the withdrawal of public and political support for involvement in Vietnam. Some of the pictures and remnants of military hardware at the museum left us in little doubt that, whatever the outcome, war produces only losers in the end.
After a marathon journey back to Hué, we felt it only right and proper to treat ourselves to another slap-up meal at Xuan Trang. We moved on from there to the DMZ bar – shooting pool with fellow travellers and generally consuming excessive quantities of beer. I can only claim Aussie influence in the decision to move on to a club called ‘Brown Eyes’ (!) when DMZ finally kicked us out at 4am…what on earth I was thinking with a 7.00am bus to Hoi-An, I’ll never know!