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| นิตยสาร สารคดี: ฉบับที่ ๒๑๙ เดือนพฤษภาคม ๒๕๔๖ | ISSN 0857-1538 | |||
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| Story & Photo: Vanchai Tan | |||
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A trip through Vietnam traces the story of the Vietnamese as resolute fighters in response to centuries of invasions. The story begins at the beautiful "World Heritage" Halong Bay in Northern Vietnam. In 1200s, the great Mongol warrior Kublai Khan, after conquering China, wanted to bring Vietnam to submission in his attempt to annex Indochina. He tried by sending hundreds of thousands of troops three times but failed all three times. Greatly outnumbered, the Vietnamese used a cunning ploy to lure the Mongol fleet into a water beneath which steel-tipped stakes had been planted, and sunk the enemy's boats. Remains of such stakes were discovered in one of the islets in Halong. |
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It was not until 1802 that both northern and southern Vietnam was united. A Nguyen lord proclaimed himself Emperor and established Hue as the capital of Nguyen Dynasty. Many elaborate palaces, tombs and temples found in Hue mark a height of Vietnam's civilization. Though previously considered sacred and forbidden to commoners, the few palaces and tombs that survived the US intense bombing are now open to tourists to visit and even climb all over. That these sites are loosely guarded reflects the casualness with which the present-day Vietnamese regard their royal past. | ||
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This stands in stark contrast to the tomb of Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. Since his death in 1969, Uncle Ho's superbly preserved body is kept in a glass coffin under tight security and paid respect to by a thousand visitors daily. The Vietnamese revere him as the founding father of the country who liberated Vietnam from French colonial rule. After Ho led a long struggle to expel the French, the Vietnamese expected peace, but instead got 500,000 American troops. Out of the US government's concern about Vietnam's left-leaning ideology, more bombs rained on the land and people of Vietnam than were dropped during the entire World War II. |
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The area most intensely bombed as well as gassed and defoliated was the previously serene fruit orchard and farmland, called Cu Chi. Using merely farming hoes and spades, Cu Chi villagers dug a sophisticated network of underground tunnels from which the communist Viet Cong could mount guerilla attacks on US troops and disappear without a trace. As a German tourist put it, "I have always wondered how one of the poorest countries managed to defeat the American superpower. When I went inside the narrow tunnels, I found the answer." Along the sides of a country road, lush green rice paddies and second generation forests are seen springing back to life after much of the country's vegetation was defoliated by "Agent Orange." Despite a legacy of uninvited attacks on their soil and people, the Vietnamese have endured. |