The following travelogue was written in May 1995 by Jeff "Paco" Huch, then-volunteer director of the VFVP-USA Committee, while touring Vietnam with eight other delegates from Santa Cruz, California, including Mayor Katherine Beiers and Councilmember Scott Kennedy. These essays were printed in the Santa Cruz Sentinel as a series of five dispatches from the delegation's journey. Ironically, Jeff Huch passed away in Vietnam on March 27, 1996, on the eve of an international meeting for the project.
The Santa Cruz delegation was met at the airport by Mister Chu Do, who is the head of the construction management committee for the Vietnam Friendship Village Project. We exchanged greetings over the customary cup of tea in the VIP reception area of the airport as our luggage was loaded into vans, then began the 40 km ride through lush green countryside and over the Red River into bustling Hanoi.
The streets of Hanoi are filled with bicycles and motor scooters and the few cars on the road are constantly honking horns in an effort to (narrowly) avoid running them down. Our hotel, the Government Guesthouse, is located in the heart of Hanoi, one block from the Hoan Kiem, or Lake of the Restored Sword. The lake is named after a legend very similar in content to the King Arthur story in which a king is presented a sword from heaven to repel an invading army. This task completed, the king goes for a boat ride on the lake, where a giant golden tortoise appears, snatches the sword and disappears into the lake, restoring the sword to its place in heaven.
The morning following our arrival, the delegation met with our hosts, including General Tran Van Quang and Mr. Trinh, at the offices of the Vietnam War Veterans Association. Although the general had recently suffered a broken leg in a fall, and Mr. Trinh had "escaped" from the hospital where he is being treated for a lung infection, both were in good spirits and greeted the mayor and the rest of the delegation with all the warmth and graciousness that they had exhibited during their visit to Santa Cruz in May of 1994.
After the meeting we were taken to the site of the Friendship Village to see the completed house and the construction of the foundations of the second two houses. After touring the first house--a remarkable three-story structure complete with balconies and baths in each bedroom--Mayor Katherine Beiers and Scott Kennedy planted a Banyon tree to commemorate our visit. This tree will eventually grow tall enough to shade the main entry gate of the Friendship Village.
Later in the afternoon, we took a sight-seeing tour of Hanoi, after which we were treated to an audience with Dr. Hoang Van Nghien, chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee (or mayor) of the city. Dr. Nghien explained that the People's Committee is elected every three years and the committee members then select the mayor, much the way it is done in Santa Cruz.
The delegation returned to the Guesthouse to get ready for a large banquet given in our honor by the Vietnam Veterans Association. We will take this opportunity to present our hosts with the "Friendship Basket" of goods and made-in-Santa Cruz craft items collected by Ms. LB Johnson and other delegation members from the business owners of Santa Cruz.
Last night, the delegation from Santa Cruz was treated to a banquet of traditional Vietnamese delicacies by the Central Committee of the Vietnam War Veterans Association of Hanoi. General Tran Van Quang was unable to attend due to injuries suffered in a recent fall, but he was represented by Lieutenant General Le Thanh. Once again Mr. Trinh had "escaped" from his hospital bed to greet us. Also in attendance was Mr. Huynh of the Peace Committee, and Mr. Chu Do, head of construction management for the Vietnam Friendship Village, both of whom were part of the Vietnamese Delegation to Santa Cruz in 1994. Representing the Hanoi People Committee (city council) was Bang Viet, who is also a famous poet. His poems are considered classics of Vietnamese literature and reprinted in the textbooks of the country's schools.
Lt. General Le Thanh raised a toast to the Mayor of Santa Cruz and the members of the delegation, praising the spirit of cooperation which had brought us all together. Speaking of misunderstanding between peoples, he said, "One can hear of something many times without knowing it fully, but it takes only one time of seeing with one's own eyes."
After the meal, LB Johnson presented the "Vietnam Friendship Basket" to our hosts. "We light this candle in the spirit of peace," read Ms. Johnson from an anonymous poem, "for we are the peacemakers." The basket, overflowing with goods and crafts made in Santa Cruz and donated by business owners of our city, was received with deep appreciation by the members of the Vietnam Veterans Association.
Today the delegation visited the mausoleum of President Ho Chi Minh, who is embalmed and preserved in an air-conditioned glass sarcophagus--contrary to his wish to be cremated, separated into thirds and scattered across North, South and Central Vietnam. Viewing the body in repose, surrounded by the most serious and intense guards that the Peoples Army has to offer, it is hard to comprehend that this is the same man who caused the armies and governments of several countries so much consternation, and now in memory embodies a nearly century-long struggle for independence in Vietnam. The mausoleum is built on the same grounds as "Uncle Ho's house on stilts," a simple wooden structure that Ho Chi Minh ordered to be built after refusing to live in the mansion of the defeated French Governor in 1954. "I couldn't live there with the smell of the colonialists," he is quoted as explaining.
After the tour, we were granted an audience with Mr. Le May of the Foreign Ministry, who spoke of the politics of Vietnam with much eloquence but little substance, in the manner of a true diplomat. Next came a tour of the Army Museum, where I was interviewed by the Peoples Army Newspaper about the Friendship Village Project.
In the evening we were escorted by Mr. Chu Do, who will travel throughout the country with us as our guide at the request of General Quang, to a performance of water puppetry, an art form unique to Vietnam. Water puppetry was originated in the rural rice paddies as a diversion by the farmer workers. The puppets are manipulated with underwater levers by the puppeteers, who are hidden behind a bamboo screen. A series of vignettes are performed which tell the history of the country, employing smoke which rises from under the water, fireworks, and the amazingly life-like puppets--a truly delightful experience. Perhaps on their next visit to America, we can persuade these artists to visit Santa Cruz.
The long day over, we are encouraged to rest, because at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow we will fly via Vietnam Airlines to the old imperial capitol of Hue in Central Vietnam.
Arriving in Hue, the old imperial capitol and former home of the Nguyen Dynasty--which began in 1803 with the Emporer Gai Long and ended with the exile to France of Bao Dai (who is still living) in the 1940s--we were warmly received at the airport by the executive members of the Vietnam Veterans Association (VVA) of Hue Province and escorted to our hotel, the Lotus, located in the old section of the city. After checking in to the lovely four-month-old hotel, we visited the citadel and grounds of the Forbidden Purple City, which was nearly completely destroyed during the Tet Offensive of 1968. The remains of the structures there have been recently renovated thanks to a UNESCO Project.
Returning to the hotel, we were treated to lunch by the members of the VVA and welcomed to Hue by Mr. Ha Van Lau, former Ambassador of Vietnam in the United Nations and in France. The Veterans presented the members of the delegation gifts of local brandy, "Ming Mang Thang," and for Mayor Beiers, a beautiful color photography book of Hue. In the afternoon, the delegation visited two of the eight imperial tombs in the area: First, the serene, park-like tomb of the Poet-Emporer Tu Duc, who had the misfortune to have been ruler during the annexation of Vietnam by the French in the 1800s; then the spectacular tomb of Kai Dinh, the father of Bao Dai. The tombs seem ancient, but Kai Dinh's, which is decorated from floor to ceiling with murals of broken China, was completed in 1931.
That evening, the members of the Santa Cruz delegation received official invitations to meet with the members of the People's Committee of Hue Province, followed by a banquet at their headquarters. The chairman of the committee was detained by another appointment, and while we awaited his arrival, LB Johnson and myself took the opportunity to delivery a gift of medical supplies that we had received from Sandy Brown, a Santa Cruz nurse, to Mrs. Phan Thi Hanh, regional coordinator of the Vietnam Family Planning Association, which services the women of 11 provinces in Central Vietnam. As she received the much needed medicines, Mrs. Hanh was nearly in tears. "I don't know what words I can say to thank you," she exclaimed. We told her that the look of joy on her face was more than enough thanks and that we were proud to be of assistance in her important work.
Following the meeting and the delicious banquet, the long day in Hue was crowned by a mesmerizing performance of traditional Vietnamese music by a troup of local musicians, including a drumming exhibition by a former member of the Emporer's Royal Court. Hypnotized by the haunting and sublime music, the delegates returned to the hotel to rest before the trip by minibus to Danang the next day.
Early the next morning, I visited my friend Nguyen Van Minh, with whom I had traveled 40 km up the Perfume River during my visit to Hue in 1993. I gave Minh, a student of English at the local school, a thesaurus, t-shirts, ink pens and stickers that I had brought from Santa Cruz. We were glad to see each other, if only for a brief visit, and promised to correspond in the future.
I arrived back at the hotel in time to load my enormous crate (more about its contents later) into the back of one of the VVA's jeeps, which had been hired to bring it over the Haivan Pass, known as "the pass of the clouds," the highest mountain pass in Vietnam, which separates the country geographically far below the 38th parallel. The three-hour journey would bring us to Danang, Vietnam's major shipping port of entry for goods to Laos, which is landlocked only 40 km or so across the central highlands, and a city of great significance during the war with the U.S. and the earlier war with the French in the 1950s.
That afternoon we checked into the Non Nouc (China) Beach Seaside Resort, just outside Danang near Marble Mountain. To commemorate our visit, Mayor Beiers was presented a beautiful marble carving of a local temple. The delegation then visited the small village at the base of Marble Mountain, where they were amazed by the beautiful sculptures and the craftsmanship of the local artisans. During the war the area was home to a large American helicopter base, and, unknown to U.S. forces, a large Viet Cong hospital was located in the caves of the mountain.
That afternoon we met the People's Committee of the province where we were reminded by the Committee Chairman, Mr. Nguyen Dinh An, that the day marked the one-year anniversary of the Day of Reconciliation ceremonies attended by General Quang in Santa Cruz and Scott Kennedy's mayoral proclamation declaring May 13 "Friendship with Vietnam Day." Mr. An spoke of the fact that Mr. Kennedy had preceded the government and the president of the United States in his efforts to normalize relations between our two countries.
It was at this point that the significance of our trip began to sink in. Everyone in the delegation was playing an important part, from Katherine Beiers, who as a woman in a position of authority is unusual to the government here, to Larry Goodman's two daughters, Ashley and Mya, who were taking a day off from our thrilling schedule of meetings to enjoy the beach at Non Nouc and befriend the children of Marble Mountain, passing out tapes they had recorded of American pop music. When she learned that they didn't have a cassette player to listen to the tapes, Ashley gave the children her Walkman as a gift.
This Vietnam, the Vietnam of today, filled with friendly children and businessmen whose wish is to have their country included with Japan, Thailand, China and the rest of the nations of the world, is what awaits the traveler and investor in 1995--not a war that ended 20 years ago.
Between the meeting at the People's Committee and the evening's banquet at a downtown Danang hotel, we visited the Cham Museum of Danang. The Cham are a matriarchal society indigenous to Vietnam with strong Hindu influence. The Dynasty was founded by Uroja, "Mother of the Country," and flourished from the 7th to the 10th century, when the battles with the Vietnamese began. They were incorporated into what is now Vietnam around the 14th century, at about the same time the Khmer Empire in Cambodia crumbled. The beautiful Cham sculptures are arranged in an open air museum, but the statues seem unharmed by any exposure to the elements.
At the Dinner that evening, Brian Burns met a young man his same age, also a university student of Southeast Asian-United States affairs, whose father was also killed in action during the war. This is another symbol of the new Vietnam--two young men whose fathers had been combatants now looking forward to negotiating with each other.
As we left the hotel, LB Johnson and I were summoned by General Thu, who escorted us back to his offices where we were able to deliver the contents of the enormous crate which we carried halfway around the world--a parometer, a diagnostic device I had received from Dr. Bill Lennon of San Jose--to the director of the Danang Eye Clinic. As we pried open the crate and removed the parometer, the look on the doctor's face told us it was worth the trip. "A parometer is something every eye doctor needs," explained the doctor, who told us that he had previously had only the picture of one in a book.
The next morning we visited the ancient port city of Hoi An on a walking tour with the colonel who is the head of the area's VVA offices. As the rest of the delegation rested, the colonel drove Brian out to the countryside to spend a short time by himself visiting the site where his father died. The location could only be symbolic at best, but Brian made the best of it, and has plans to return with the exact information in the future. "I can always come back," Brian explained, "and even if I don't, my dad is with me all the time. I mean, I am him."
Following Brian's return, the delegation requested a visit to the nearby orphanage/hospital which treats the children affected by the Dioxin-based defoliant Agent Orange, which had been used heavily in that area, the affects of which are making birth defects horribly common. This heartbreaking tour was tempered by the deep love that seemed to emanate from the eyes of the children we met there. "It's sobering to realize that it was us, the United States, who is ultimately responsible," remarked Mayor Beiers, who seemed to speak for the entire group.
After a brief siesta at the beach hotel, the delegation boarded one of Vietnam Airlines' last remaining Russian-built Tupolov turbo prop planes for a flight to our final destination: Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.
As the delegation landed in Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Naht Airport, the busiest airstrip on the earth during the time that it was the main staging area for U.S. operations in South Vietnam, we couldn't help but look for reminders of that period. As we have been during our travels here, most of the structures and equipment abandoned during the 1975 evacuation have been recycled. Except for row after row of empty fortified hangars, there is little to remind the casual observer of the airbase's past. The "Vietnamization" here is complete.
After being greeted by the local representatives of the Vietnam Veterans Association (VVA), including General Tran Van Tra, second in command to General Quang, our host in Vietnam, the delegation was escorted to the State Guest House, which would be our home in Ho Chi Minh City. The Guest House, comprised of seven villas and located on the grounds of the former estate of a Chinese businessman, is for invited guests only, unlike its counterpart in Hanoi. The rooms are as spectacular as any I have stayed anywhere in the world, with gigantic beds and baths, ornate carved wooden furniture in the sitting rooms, and examples of the latest in modern technological conveniences, such as the combination fan, lamp, cassette player, radio and clock on the writing desk.
Although it was late, the delegates took the opportunity to hire cyclos (bicycle taxis) for a ride to the downtown area, still commonly referred to as Saigon, for a drink at the Rex Hotel's rooftop bar and restaurant. This bar was once the site of the "five o'clock follies," when, during the war, the military's spokesmen would give the assembled reporters the Army's official version of the day's events for the publication in the United States.
"It's so interesting to be here," noted Mayor Beiers. "I've read so many romantic stories and heard so much about Saigon, but I never expected to have the opportunity to visit here."
The rest of the delegation returned to the Guest House for the night, leaving Brian Burns and I to take a walking tour of Dong Khai Street, once known as Rue Catinat during the French time, and Tu Do (freedom) Street to the Americans during the war.
Arriving back at the Guest House after a long ride through the darkened streets of after-midnight Saigon, our drivers were baffled that we could rate such lodgings. "How? How?" they asked repeatedly. We replied with smiles and shrugs of our shoulders, and left them to ponder the situation.
The following morning, the delegation made the 40 km trek through the Mekong Delta to the famous Cu Chi Tunnel complex. The incredible tunnels, built during the French conflict and refined during the American involvement, is a catacomb system that stretches over 250 km. During our visit, my black pants and t-shirt, along with my ease of movement through the tunnels, earned me the nickname "VC American" and the friendship of the former military commander of the area and VVA representative, Mr. Tai, who is a veteran of the harrowing battle of Khe Sanh in 1968. At a luncheon on the Saigon River we toasted each other's health with many, many glasses of local "snake wine."
In the afternoon, the members of the delegation received official invitations to an audience with Truong Jang Sang, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City at the Reunification Palace, but first we met with General Tra at the VVA offices. Here we were introduced to a remarkable woman, Mrs. Ho Ti Bi, who is well known throughout the country as Mrs. Bi, a heroine of the revolution. The 80-year-old Mrs. Bi, who dedicated her life to her country's struggle for independence after her husband was beheaded by the French, was very interested in Mayor Beiers and asked her what she was doing to further the cause of women, noting that this cause was also worth one's life-long dedication. Mrs. Bi responded to an inquiry by Scott Kennedy to speak of her life and history with a smile, saying that none of us had the time to hear the answer to such a question.
Before our meeting with Mr. Sang, I took time out for an interview with Mr. Ho Nguyen Thao of the Tuoi Tre News about the Friendship Village. Then Mr. Thao accompanied us to the Reunification Palace for a discussion with the elegant and refined Mr. Sang. Leaving the meeting, we were taken to an amusement park in the city, currently under construction, for a final banquet in our honor.
The exhausted delegation said our goodbyes in advance to Mr. Chu Do, who, along with Minh, had proven themselves the finest hosts, guides, and travel companions in all Vietnam.
On the morning of the 16th the rest of the delegates boarded their last Vietnam Airlines flight to Hong Kong and the United States, while LB Johnson and I returned to Hanoi to finish our video project (Forget Me Not) and have some unexpected adventures of our own.
Vietnam. The name alone can evoke deep emotion, bring back unwelcome memories, and rekindle old arguments from years ago as if they had just begun. Here in the United States, the prevailing imagery among non-veterans that accompanies the mention of Vietnam is still based on recollections of news footage of the war there--films that show a lush green jungle being firebombed and countless helicopters unloading young American GIs, to be shot down in their prime by a sinister, unseen enemy. The reality today, however, is much different.
The visitor to Vietnam in 1995 will find few reminders of the war. Most of what was left by the U.S. military in 1975 has been either scrapped or recycled in the twenty years since the "spring offensive" by the North Vietnamese army that ended the war there. Travelers to today's Vietnam will encounter a country under construction after three decades of war and another decade of isolation from the rest of the world (except for the Soviet Union). Vietnam's new "open door policy" has allowed thousands of Vietnamese entrepreneurs to go into business, stocking their shelves with imported goods along with local products. In this new era of capitalism, no one, it seems, is more welcome than Americans.
In May 1995 , as U.S. Director of the Vietnam Friendship Village Project, I was fortunate enough to be included in a nine-member delegation from Santa Cruz, led by Santa Cruz Mayor Katherine Beiers and City Councilmember Scott Kennedy, that visited Vietnam at the invitation of Senior Lt. General Tran Van Quang. General Quang is the president of the Vietnam Veterans Association (VVA), which hosted the delegation's week-long tour throughout Vietnam. The delegates also included Brain Burns, whose father was killed in action near Danang two months prior to Brian's birth, travel agent Joseph Mutti, Vietnam Veteran Larry Goodman and his daughters Ashley and Mya, and videographer LB Johnson. Our mission was to promote goodwill between our two countries, discuss normalization of relations, and support the Friendship Village Project, an effort to build a small village which will be home for 250 orphans elderly and handicapped people on the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam. The project, initiated by veterans from five countries, is being coordinated by the VVA.
During our journey, we met and spoke with many different people, from the Chairmen of the People's Commitees of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and veterans such as General Quang and General Tran Van Tra (who led the asssault on Saigon in 1975), to children like the young boy on the beach who told us that he loved Elvis Presley music. All the people we talked with said much the same thing: "America and Vietnam should be friends." "It is time to put the past behind us and look towards the future." "We invite all American veterans to return, in the spirit of peace, and acquire new memories of our country, and we hope that the Vietnamese who now live in America will wish to return to their homeland, if only for a visit."
"Two-thirds of the population of Vietnam is under 20 years old, so they have no lingering resentments toward Americans because of the war," said Scott Kennedy." I think it is important that we work toward normalization of relations, and that veterans from both countries are leading the way."
The Delegation arrived in Hanoi, then traveled by plane to Hue, the old imperial capitol and former home of the Nguyen Emporers. We drove down Vietnam's Highway 1 over the Hai Van Pass to Danang and Non Nouc (China) beach. We visited the ancient port city of Hoi An, then flew to Ho Chi Minh City, making a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnel complex in the Mekong Delta. Our hosts at the VVA couldn't have been more generous or hospitable, and it seemed the only thing we lacked was time to see more of their fantastic and beautiful country.
"It was truly an honor for me to travel in Vietnam with a delegation so welcomed as ours," said LB Johnson. "Santa Cruz can be proud of Mayor Beiers and Councilman Kennedy and their bridge-building."
When the week-long, whirlwind tour was over, most of the delegates departed from Tan Son Naht Airport for the United States. This left LB Johnson and myself to return to Hanoi to complete the taping of the documentary, "Forget Me Not," that Ms. Johnson is producing to promote the friendship Village and give Americans a look at the Vietnam of the 1990s.
"The impressions of Vietnam from this trip will stay with me forever," said Ms. Johnson. "The open, loving way the poeple care for each other is heart melting. The Vietnamese people have much to share with Americans. The youth, many of whom speak English or another second language, eagerly engage in conversation at any opportunity, and people old enough to remember the war will shake your hand, saying, 'Let's move on.'"
Our week in Hanoi began with an interview with General Quang, who told us of his dream to see North and South Vietnam reunited, not only geographically and politically, but in the hearts of its people, both Vietnamese nationals and those living abroad. When we asked the general for suggestions on interviews for our documentary, he told us to go out on the street and talk to the people. So, taking his advice, we checked into a small hotel in the city center, and set out to meet the citizenry of Hanoi.
The first people we met were the "Postcard Kids," who can be found around the Hoan Kiem Lake and at many of the tourist sites in Hanoi. Most of these children are part of a program called "Xa Me" (far from mother) which is run by a Mr. Vu Tien. The kids, boys and girls aged 8-15, sleep at Vu Tien's house, and are provided three meals a day. To raise money they sell postcards, maps and Vietnamese phrasebooks to Western tourists. Part of the proceeds are used to send the children to English school.
We were also befriended by another group of kids, led by Kien, who at nineteen is now too old to participate in Xa Me. Kien had come to Hanoi by himself at age eight after his father died and his mother (who he believes is still alive, but is unsure) became unable to provide for his family. When Kien was younger, he lived at Vu Tien's. "I look to Vu Tien like a father," he said. For the past few years, Kien and his friends Hain, Ahn, and several other kids, have been staying at the house of "Boss Tommy," where they pay 2000 dong (or 20¢ U.S.) per night to sleep on the floor. We interviewed Kien there and he told us, "I want to learn English, so I can study to be a doctor. Then I can help the people of Vietnam."
Another nineteen-year-old we met was Ms. An Phuong, who works as a writer for Vietnam Investment Review. Ms. Phuong describes herself as "Post War Generation": "I was born in 1975, so I don't want to think of the war, although people keep wanting to talk to me about it," she explained. Asked about the role of women in Vietnam's changing society, Ms. Phuong replied, "Women in Vietnam feel that they are in a better position now, and those women, like me, don't consider ourselves inferior to men. We do consider that there is equality between women and men, and we strive for that equality. So we feel happy with life, and happy with our lives."
This type of determination and optimism make the future of Vietnam something to look forward to indeed.