Arrived in Hue today after a 2-hour drive through country side and low mountains from Hoi An. It is almost exactly 55 years ago - at this precise time of year - that Hue witnessed some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting in the 1968 'Tet' Offensive. The walls of the Citadel are still full of bullet holes (pictures below).
Stanley Kubrick made the film “Full Metal Jacket” about this battle. It is a bad movie, in my humble opinion, but it is interesting to see in real life what one has until now only seen on the big screen.
The Vietnam War is ever present in my emotions during this visit to Vietnam, exactly as World War II is always present when I am in Berlin. In Vietnam, I struggle to make sense of how the United States could inflict such enormous suffering on the Vietnamese people - 2 million civilians died and over 1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.
But I guess when one considers the selfishness of American culture and how inhumane many Americans are towards other Americans and also taking into account the shocking ignorance of the rest of the world (and hence lack of empathy) then perhaps it is not too surprising how the US displayed such barbarity here.
While I would be deeply ashamed to be an American here, the Vietnamese are obviously more forgiving than me. The Vietnamese are some of the loveliest people I have ever encountered. And it is an amazing country to travel in. They must have an almost unfathomable capacity to forgive and move on. Perhaps Vietnam just wants peace after so many decades of war and suffering. And happily Vietnam is making the most of it; this place is going places and it warms my heart.
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