20 year old me was really missing out. The leg room was amazing.
In between Hue and Da Nang is the Hai Van Pass, a storied overpass through mountains that separate the cities. Ecologically, the mountains are very important. They're known for blocking the "Chinese wind," and separating two of the major climate zones in the country. Which makes sense. North of the mountains (towards China), the weather was rainy and overcast. Nothing like the tropical sun we were used to in Hoi An/Da Nang. In fact, we all commented that this was the first time any of us has been cold on this trip (besides our first train ride).
After taking in so much history in Hue, I couldn't help but be a little contemplative on the way back. Especially since the car ride was relatively quiet (nobody wanted to be the person who woke the babies).
The scenery was stunning. Roadside towns dropped in between miles of green jungle and rolling hills. But every now and then, I'd notice a barren stretch of land. Was it being cleared for development? Recovering from a fire? Or something a bit more distressing? One of the most infamous and controversial legacies of the War was the widespread deployment of airborne toxins. Airplanes were used to blanket the sky with chemicals that were designed to kill all plant matter. Agent Orange was the most famous, but there were several others used. The intention was to smoke out the insurgency by killing off their food sources and destroying their shelter. We all know how the war ended, so the strategy didn't work. But it did leave thousands of American and Vietnamese people with major health problems and caused decades of toxic soil that is only now finally starting to recover. It's heartbreaking to see people on the street with the characteristic leg and arm deformities that are characteristic of babies born to mothers that were exposed to the chemicals.
But everything has context. That era was filled with threats of nuclear war and collapse of civil society, so any judgement of the War needs to be looked at through that lens. It was a scary time that I have the luxury of reading about, not living through. So there's no place for my editorializing here. I'll leave that to the people who knew the circumstances best. Robert McNamera, the Secretary of Defense at the time and the chief architect of the war opened his 1995 memoir with "We were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why." The New York Times book section included this key passage in its review.
So why speak out now? The main reason, he says, is that he has "grown sick at heart witnessing the cynicism and even contempt" with which so many Americans view their institutions and leaders. He knows how much Vietnam contributed to that disaffection; he would never deny the war's terrible damage. But he hopes to prove that the mistakes were "mostly honest," even if traceable to a ghastly ignorance of the Vietnamese people, culture and terrain, and the historical forces of that time.And a 1997 book by the widely respected military leader and current National Security Advisor, H R McMaster, was even more critical.
So the people who know what they are talking about said that this was a disaster. The war ended the lives of thousands of US soldiers and well over a million Vietnamese people, and left a deep scar on our national psyche. Reminders are evident every day in our own country, and even more so here. But just like the forests are finally regrowing, the country is rebuilding. One major example of that rebuilding is the modern marvel of Hai Van Tunnel. Yep, you guessed it. Hai Van Tunnel runs under Hai Van Pass. Since the weather that day was cloudy and stormy (see the last 6 paragraphs for proof), there wasn't much point driving across a scenic overpass. So we took the three year old, four mile long tunnel that runs through the mountain range.
The tunnel was actually kind of cool in its own way. And as predicted, the mountains had blocked most of the wind. Like my mood, the weather was noticeably sunnier on the other side. There was a bit more to the drive, but I think I'm going to break that out into another post. I think I need to walk outside, listen to children laughing, and bask in the rays of this beautiful tropical sun. Even fifty years later, seeing ground zero of the War took quite a toll on me, and I can't imagine the devastation to people from both countries who actually lived through it.
We'll end on some bipartisan good news. A program started by President GW Bush and expanded by President Obama is working to clean up Agent Orange sites in the US and abroad, including many in Viet Nam. We make mistakes, but we admit them and work to make them right. There's nothing more American.
