Thursday, October 2, 2008

Quang Tri and DMZ, 9/28-9/29

After leaving Hue, our next stop was the Quang Tri War Memorial. It commemorates the largest battle of the American conflict that was fought between North and South forces. It was part of what is called the Eastertide Campaign, undertaken during the spring and summer of 1972 after all American ground troops had been sent home. The aim of the North was to finish off the south by a three pronged offensive; one across the DMZ, one through Kontum designed to split South Vietnam in the central region, and one aimed at Saigon through An Loc. Initially the North Vietnamese forces had considerable success. They overran Quang Tri city and were threatening Hue to the south. President Thieu replaced the commander of the South Vietnamese forces in the area, and with the help of U.S. air support, they slowly fought their way back up to the DMZ. The Northern forces did maintian control of parts of An Loc and Quang Tri provinces near the border, which allowed them to make vast improvements in the Ho CHi Minh Trail before the final campaign of 1975.

The city of Quang Tri was heavily damaged, and the Citadel was just about obliterated.



















The Memorial is in what remains of the Citadel, and is dedicated to the more than 20,000 soldiers from both sides who were killed here, many of them not even 20 years old. It was raining when we arived, which is entirely appropriate for the site. The picture above shows the grounds that have been turned into a park, and at the left Viet works at lighting incense sticks for each of us.
We then put the incense in the urn, with appropriate personal thoughts.






The museum contained many pictures of what Quang Tre and the Citadel looked like before and after the battle.




The picture to the left shows North Vietnamese forces defending the Citadel, with the caption that injured soldiers refused to be evacuated and fought on. I'm not sure how much choice they had. It took over 90 days to retake Quang Tri, in some of the fiercest fighting of the whole conflict. All three of the attacks failed in the end, with the North taking 50% casualties, and losing 50% of its tanks and artillery. It took them three years to regain their strength before the final offensive in 1975.


Our next stop was the Truong Son National Cemetary, which is located in the Demilaterized Zone (DMZ). This cemetary contains the remains of about 10,000 people who died either building or transporting supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The sculpture to the right is a depiction of those workers.




A large monument marks the entry to the cemetary.








The remains are in above ground graves, with a headstone giving the name of the deceased, birth and death dates, and his or her home town.
The sections of the cemetary are organized by Provence.

A bit farther north we got to the actual demarcation line between North and South Vietnam during the American Conflict. The 17th parallel is the nominal line, but it actually follows the Ben Hai River which parallels and crisscrosses the 17th.

The monument shown was erected after reunification, and it depicts a mother and daughter staring across the divide, hoping to be reunited with family who are stuck on the other side. The Communist government is big on symbolic displays such as this.

Directly across from the monument is the old bridge that was used during the conflict. Then it was closed to all except official parties. A new vehicle bridge has been placed just upstream. We are walking towards the north.




The bank of loudspeakers is on the northern shore pointed to the south. It was used during the conflict to exhort the southerners to throw down their arms and join the "just" cause of the north. Even after reunification, loudspeakers were used in all the major cities and towns of the south to help "educate" the people about the Communist philosophy and goals. Even when I first came back, you would periodically hear broadcasts in the streets. I think they have pretty much given up on it, as I haven't heard any this time.

As with most sites like this there was a museum. The actual DMZ extended 20 km on either side of the river, as shown by the white strip on the map.






This statue of Uncle Ho was also in the museum, as was the bronze statue of female freedom fighters. Women played a significant role in the Viet Cong and NVA efforts, not only as fighters, but also as builders, maintainers, and transporters on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Most women in the South not aligned with the VC, stuck pretty much to traditional roles.

This must be the second tallest flagstaff in Vietnam (the one at the Citadel in Hue is the tallest), just north of the Ben Hai River.






A few kilometers farther north we arrived at the Vinh Moc tunnels.






Before leaving the museum, "Rambo" Zikopoulos tried out an anti-aircraft gun.
The North Vietnamese would bring supplies by sea to Vinh Moc, then transport them across just north of the DMZ to either infiltrate them through the DMZ, or take them farther west to link up with the Ho Chi Minh trail. Therefore, Vinh Moc was heavily bombed by U.S. Naval planes and guns, and also Air Force B-52s. The people of Vinh Moc responded by taking their whole town underground. They had hospitals, maternity wards (the signs called them "baby factories), kitchens, sleeping quarters, storage rooms, and every other essential service for town functioning. They didn't stay below all the time,but they slept there, and whenever there was a warning of a raid, they would hurry back in.

Since they were north of the demarcation line, they didn't have to worry about ground troops finding the entrances, so they didn't have to use carefully camouflaged spider holes. They did camouflage them against air observation.

In some places, especially near the entrances, the tunnels were shored up with wood. Farther in they were earth, as in Cu Chi, but much more spacious, as Josh and Cat demonstrate.







Josh is headed down to a lower level, while Cat is about to re-emerge at ground level.





After the tunnels we spent a couple of hours at the Vinh Moc beach. Everyone enjoyed the relaxation, but not as many went in the water, as the waves were very rough as a result of an offshore storm.











The beach "policeman," shown here by the platform we rented, warned us not to go too far out.

We spent the night in Dong Ha, then in the morning headed back to the DMZ. Here the group is shown on a segment of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Between 1972 when the last U.S. troops withdrew, and 1975 when they made their final push, the North Vietnamese made vast improvements in the Ho Chi Minh Trail, including paving large segments of it, and building bridges, so they could move tanks, trucks, troops, and supplies much more easily.

The young Montagnard boys tagged along with us as we walked across the bridge. Montagnard is a general name used by the French to refer to any of the ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. As you will see in later posts, there are many different tribes, whose traditional dress varies, but is generally very colorful. It was raining when we visited the bridge, and as you can see in some of these pictures, I had a water droplet on my lens.

This is the bridge we walked across to get to where the group shot was taken. It was designed by a Cuban engineer, with Russians assisting in the construction. It is a good example of just how far the North Viethamese had come prior to the final campaign of 1975.







Our last stop in the DMZ was the site of the Khe Sanh fire base. One of the displays here is a captured Chinook, so the students could see the actual size of the bird I flew.
Khe Sahn is the site of the famous 75 day seige that so obsessed President Johnson that he stated "I don't want no Din Bin Foo," referring to the French defeat in 1954, that he demanded a written guarantee from the Pentagon that we would not lose the base. For a while the base was cut off from all but air resupply, but it was never in danger of falling, primarily because of massive U.S. air power. The U.S. lost about 300 troops during the seige, while the NVA losses were estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000, mainly due to artillery shelling and over 100,000 tons of bombs that were dropped around the base.
All the suffering didn't have any lasting effects. The NVA forces disengaged and melted back into the jungle about the time that the First Air Cav cleared the road leading to Khe Sanh. Shortly afterwards the Marines abandonded Khe Sahn, destroying everything they could before they left.

The site of the runway at Khe Sahn is shown to the left. About the only thing the Marines didn't take with them was the perforated steel plank (PSP) covering the runway, as they didn't have room in their trucks for it. As you can see, none of it remains today. It didn't take the Vietnamese long to remove it for other building projects.
The seige of Khe Sahn occurred concurrently with the Tet Offensive of 1968. There is still controversy over which might have been a diversionary attack for the other, or whether there was any interaction.

Later in the afternoon we made our way to the Dong Ha railroad station to catch the overnight train to Hanoi. Here our able assistant driver Toan (left), and driver Quang say their goodbyes. They helped get our bags on the train, as it only stops in Dong Ha for five minutes or so.


The students had all of their luggage, so getting it on in a short period of time was no small feat.







The students partied into the night, but we had sleepers, so most got a decent amount of sleep before arriving in Hanoi at 5:45 am.

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