People visit museums for several reasons. One of the most common reasons is so that they could take a peek at something far removed from what they are familiar with, and be transported back in time, albeit through relics, photographs or works of art. However, I doubt that a visit inside the War Remnants Museum would make you want to go back in time, to this particular wartime.
(Read the first part of my visit to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam over here.)
Before I start with this post, let me just post this one, and also my way of disclaimer, that I don’t intend to make any judgments on anyone with this post. I don’t intent to put anyone down; I just want to present what I’ve seen during my visit to the War Remnants Museum.
I think it says a lot for a people or a nation to keep a place like this running, and what it is – at least from what I see – is a distillation of one of the darkest times in their history that, in other circumstances, they’d have preferred to buried away and be forgotten.
I think they are fully cognizant of how the wars have shaped their country and its people, and how it is shaping them still, at present. For some, it might be an indication that they have not moved on from the war.
But there are some things you do not “move on” from quite so easily. Not when the impacts are still reverberating to this day. I daresay that it takes a lot of character to keep reminding oneself of the mistakes of the past, and not be half-assed about those reminders, so that what took place before will not happen again.
To be honest, I was surprised at how the War Remnants Museum did not pull any punches. If I were to describe the play of emotions that swamped over me while moving from one point to another inside the museum, it would be “shock, SHOCK, anger, FURY, heartbreaking sadness, helplessness” and…. yeah, there was a bit of hope and pride in there as well.
Walk with me?
There were 8 exhibition areas inside the main building of the War Remnants Museum and, aside from relics and replicas, majority of the contents are photographs accompanies with narratives presented in two languages – Vietnamese and English.
The first floor was sedate enough. One side was the HISTORICAL TRUTHS section, which had panels upon panels of information and facts about the War. Aside from that, there were three other comprehensive photo collection exhibitions on the first level: the “REQUIEM: The Photo Collection of the U.S. Aggressive War Crime in Vietnam”, “VIETNAM – WAR AND PEACE: The Collection of Documentary Photos by Japanese Photographer Ishikawa Bunyo”; and “AGENT ORANGE IN THE WAR: The Collection of Documentary Photos By Japanese Photographer Goro Nakamura”.
Oh, and there was a section for those who’d like to purchase souvenirs. These movie posters caught my eye. Breakfast at Tiffany’s? I did not expect that.
Aggression War Crimes
We went up to the second level, because they seemed to be the main “attractions” of the Museum. Our first stop was the room on “Aggression War Crimes”.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that whoever designed the flow of displays in this room had a flair for drama. But you don’t really need drama when talking about the realities that happened back then.
So I think it was quite telling how one of the first panels you’d come across when you enter the room is an excerpt from the US Declaration of Independence.
It’s like a setup for a storm of low-key sarcasm later on.
The displays started out sedate enough, with remnants of weapons and ammo used by the soldiers in the past. Like these 155mm shells. The lower pic showed 90mm and 76mm shells.
Big or small, these can cause pretty much the same amount of damage.
The way this exhibition was presented laid proof of how what took place during the Vietnam War were crimes, or criminal acts, more than just your usual wartime “events”. What would have been referred to as “casualties” of the war were actually “victims”.
There were actual photographs of soldiers going to villages and rounding up the villagers for interrogation. One photograph that struck me first was that of a little girl imploring a GI, “Don’t kill my father” after they dragged him out of their home.
And this pic, showing how even women and babies were targets of U.S. American Division mopping up operations. The pic next to it, which I am not posting, showed how an interrogation went using water torture by members of the 1st Air Cavalry. A rag is placed over the man’s face and water is poured on it, making breathing impossible.
One side of the room was devoted to the various arms and guns used by the GIs. I noticed many of the male visitors naturally being pulled towards that section.
“If it’s dead, it’s Viet Cong.”
I was thinking that whoever wrote the captions and descriptions on the photos were either involved in the war (directly or indirectly), or they are poets or novelists. No sugarcoating there, they seemed to tell it like it is.
They say a picture paints a thousand words, and those photographs already spoke volumes. The captions just sharpened the blade. And aimed right where it mattered.
It is during wartime that the metric system and other existing units of measurement can be easily replaced, it seems.
These photos showed the results of the US policy “burn all, destroy all, kill all”, particularly in Binh Duong Province in September 1970.
That guy on the photo may look familiar to some: it’s U.S. Senator Bob Kerry who, in 1969, was a lieutenant who led a group of Seal Rangers to a village in the Ben Tre province.
(I’m directly quoting what was written on the panel)
“…they cut 66-year old Bui Van Vat and 62-year old Luu Thi Canh’s necks and pulled their three grandchildren out from their hiding place in a drain and killed two, disemboweled one. Then, these rangers moved to dug-outs of other families, shot dead 15 civilians (including three pregnant women), disemboweled a girl. The only survivor was a 12-year old girl named Bui Thi Luom who suffered a foot injury.”
That happened from 8pm to 9pm on February 25, 1969. US Senator Kerry confessed it only on April 2001.
See the sewer in the pic above? That is the sewer where the three grandchildren (aged 10, 8, and 6) of Bui Van Vat hid in, and were found by the US soldiers. The only surviving daughter of Bui Van Vat donated the sewer to the War Remnants Museum on February 4, 2009, during the 40th anniversary of the massacre.
There were even lists of the names of the victims of the massacre, and seeing how young many of them were…. such a tragedy. And for their young lives to end that way. I couldn’t help but think that the ones who had it easiest were the three babies still in their mothers’ wombs, although it is also a tragedy in itself that they weren’t even really given the chance to go out in the world and release their first cry.
This is a fragmentation of the wreckage of a B-52 plane, a strategic bomber used by the US during the Vietnam War. They deployed 371 of these bombers, with each place carrying 20 to 30 tons of bombs.
This specific fragments came from a B52 shot down in Hanoi in December 26, 1972.
The lower pic above is a piece of a laser bomb, which is basically a bomb that reaches its target by the guidance of a laser. It contains 430 kilos of explosive, and since it has a high level of accuracy, they were used to destroy bridges and factories.
This one is a fragment of another B-52 plane that was shot down the next day, on December 27, 1972.
This was an iconic image, one of the many iconic images, published in the Time Magazine.
On the night of June 8, 1972, an aerial napalm attack was carried out over various places in Trang Bang that were suspected to be Viet Cong hiding places. The sad fact is that the village is mostly composed of families with young children, not Viet Cong.
This photo showed South Vietnamese soldiers following after terrified children running down the road after the attack. The naked girl in the middle was 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc, who was later known as the “Napalm Girl”.
The napalm bombs decimated houses and farms, and killed many civilians along with it. Kim Phuc survived and continues to live to tell the tale, but she still has the burns and scars as proof of that terrible time during her childhood.
By the way, this photograph by reporter Nick Ut received various awards, including the Pulitzer, in 1972. It was only in 2013 that he presented it to the War Remnants Museum.
One part of me was impressed at the ingenuity of the human mind to come up with tools and weapons that can kill, but the other side was disappointed at why there has to be a need or a reason to create these things.
First photo are nail bombs; beside it is a butterfly bomb. The cup-like ones are BLU/3/B bombs, used for attacking motor vehicles and trains. The MK20 MOD2 is an antitank bomb designed for tactical attacks on tanks, armored vehicles, parked aircrafts, fuel storage depots, and more. It’s the same for the BLU 24 A/A (striated orange bomb).
The fact the some of them looked like toys made me somehow even sadder. Toys for the big boys?
The Aggression War Crimes resulted in the deaths of 3 million Vietnamese, 2 million of which were civilians. 2 million people were injured, and 300,000 went missing. I wonder what the numbers are on the US side. I’m sure it’s not that much better.
Agent Orange Aftermath
Prior to this, I’ve only heard snippets about “Agent Orange”. This visit gave me more clarity what it is.
One thing I realized in stark detail while viewing this exhibition: war never really ends. There is always the aftermath. This one was especially sadder and even more tragic.
During the war, US used conventional bombs and armaments. But that’s not all. They also used chemical weapons, purposely to prevent the Liberation Army of South Vietnam from marching on forward. The chemical bombs effectively wiped out the natural resources that sustain the liberation forces. And wiped out the people as well.
For a period of 10 years, from 1961 to 1971, toxic rains poured down continuously, pretty much defoliating mountains and wiping out entire ecosystems.
The pic below shows a side by side comparison of the aerial view of Duong Minh Chau area in the Tay Ninh province, before and after it fell victim to herbicide spraying by US forces. They usually used low-flying C.123 transport planes in laying down swathes of Agent Orange over the land.
Data from the US Department of Defense revealed that from 1961 to 1971, 72 million liters of toxic chemicals were sprayed.
One of these toxic chemicals was Agent Orange, which made up 44 million liters. This clipping below explains what Agent Orange is, and how it got the name.
Aside from Agent Orange, there were other chemicals and defoliants used, such as Agents Pink, Green, Purple, White and Blue. Agents White and Blue did not contain any dioxin, by the way.
Aside from Agent Orange, there was also Agent Orange II, or the Super Orange. These two made up 61% of the total amount sprayed.
By the way, what is dioxin? Without getting into specifics, it is enough to know that even scientists agree that dioxin is the most harmful and toxic chemical EVER discovered by mankind TO DATE. A little as 85g of the thing can decimate an entire city with a population of 8 million.
Walls of photographs of the effects of Agent Orange to the Vietnamese people shook me. At one point, I was finding it difficult to swallow while I was reading the captions and narratives accompanying the images. It felt like there was something blocking my throat.
This smiling girl is Nguyen Thi Men, 21 years old and has lived in a caged enclosure all her life. She has to be kept in a cage because she attempts to chew and swallow anything she can get her hands on.
This was an effect of Agent Orange. But she wasn’t alive during the war, right?
Well, her father was one of those who fought against the Americans in the Truong Son Mountains. He was contaminated by Agent Orange and, although he survived its effects, the effects manifested in his children.
Apparently, the effects of dioxin can be transmitted to many generations, since it pretty much damages DNA molecules and genes. An infected person will have his genes damaged, and then pass them on to his/her offspring.
This is one of the most famous Agent Orange victims. Only 13 years old, Nguyen Hoang Phuc became an accomplished flute player. However, he was born without eyes.
Yep. HIs parents were contaminated with Agent Orange during the war.
This glass display contains the service gas masks exclusively for US soldiers so they won’t inhale the toxic chemicals. Considering that tonnage of chemicals sprayed all over Vietnam during the time, I doubt these provided 100% protection, so I am guessing that not all US soldier came out unscathed.
And it’s not just the US soldiers, too, because there were accounts and issues of other countries’ forces that joined the war that suffered effects. They include war veterans from Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
Requiem Collection
The photo collection of the US Aggressive War in Vietnam brought together the photographs and accounts taken by the reporters and journalists who were also in the thick of the fighting. These war journalists went on to win awards and accolades for their coverage of the War, and they had stories to share.
The Requiem exhibition is a form of homage “on the part of those who made it back from Vietnam to the memory of those who did not”. This was set up thanks to the war correspondents who made it possible for the world to have a record of a war that, for many across the globe, was something that took place in a distant land.
I was surprised to learn that this exhibition is a gift from the People of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to the people of Vietnam. Clearly, they do not have qualms about having to go through pain in order to achieve healing, even if the road is definitely not going to be an easy one.
We see them on television as unkempt and disheveled men and women trying to speak while the sound of blasts and fighting rages on around them. Read this account, and you’d probably have greater respect for them.
Historic Truths
We come to the last exhibition that we visited, HISTORIC TRUTHS.
This exhibition is filled with pretty much similar items from the others. Taking pride of place are many of the US weapons used in the Vietnam War.
They look so badass, like they’d give you major cool points when you tote them around. But when I think of the possible number of people – kids, women – that died or were injured due to these weapons, I feel like shrinking.
If you want to check out every nook and cranny of the War Remnants Museum, and read everything, you’d have to devote an entire day for that. What we did was mostly scanning and skimming, but they still hit us real hard.
Sorrow of the War
Truth is relative, depending on the direction you’re seeing things, or your perspective. The truth about the war, according to the Vietnamese, is bound to vary with the version of the US.
It’s going to be a neverending debate, IN ANY WAR.
So let’s just settle for one truth, shall we?
In any war, no one wins. Everyone loses.
Leave a Reply