What the fuck is a Vietnam? According to Swedish academic, Victor Alneng, Vietnam is a lot of things. She is yesterday’s news, a tourist destination, a unique culture, but most importantly, “Vietnam is a country, not a war.” (Alneng, 462)
After having been in Vietnam for 3 weeks studying abroad, I can agree that Vietnam is a country, not a war, yet war has largely shaped this country. While this has been present in many aspects of my time here, such as the many war museums, and constant berate of communist propaganda, little else was it more noticeable than during my trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, an area about 45km west of Ho Chi Minh City, my home base.
American forces bombed the Cu Chi region heavily during the Vietnamese War, and this particular group found a phenomenal way of fighting back. They dug a vast tunnel network using rudimentary tools in a region “with soil like steel” (Quote by Co Hoa before my tunnel visit) and were able to stay safe during the bombing raids though living in these tunnels.
The Americans, displeased with their inability to slaughter the people from the air, sent ground troops to eradicate the enemy. The people of Cu Chi were able to thrive once again, by not only creating unique fighting mounds, where they were able to shoot from underground, but also by creating a system of traps in their labyrinth of tunnels.
According to Alneng, many Americans viewed the Vietnam war as “not worth it” due to the high casualties on the American side (Alneng 481), and the gruesome way they died, yet in reality the American losses of 58,000 were minimal to the 3-4 million dead on the Vietnamese side.
Before I came to Vietnam, I knew of the disdain of the war by the flower generation, and the sorrow that this was arguably the first war the United States lost, but I also had the impression that many Vietnamese were also upset by the northern victory. After many experiences, but notably our trip to Cu Chi taught me that my old ideas were wrong. It was not a fight of Russia vs America, North vs South, Hanoi vs Saigon, Communism vs Capitalism. Instead it seems to have been Vietnam vs American Saigon. Cu Chi was a region in the deep south, very close to Saigon, yet even they were adamantly fighting the American forces. This local, or national, view of the American War (as it is called in Vietnam, as opposed to the Vietnam War), is very different than the global view that the world seems to be taught. It is said that “History is written by the winner” and while America may have lost this war, we are still the global super power and can write history.
I am very grateful for the experience of visiting Cu Chi to be able to experience the differing views from my American education to that of the Vietnamese. Our trip leader, Cari Coe, was also excited to be at Cu Chi.
Alneng, Victor. “What the Fuck Is a Vietnam?’Touristic Phantasms and the Popcolonization of (the) Vietnam (War).” Critique of anthropology 22.4 (2002): 461–489. Print.