Departure from Saigon.

Paddy Rice’s Irish pub, the water front, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Just nursing a few cups of coffee after sitting up until 3AM watching England’s finest rugby players in Leicester and Toulon try to redeem some dignity after the 6 Nations shocker in Dublin... and fail.

Prior to leaving Saigon it seemed appropriate to visit the locations where the final acts of the war were played out in April 1975.  I also went to the so called ‘War Remnants Museum’ which was a piece of Anti-American propaganda which would even impress the BBC.  As well as displaying captured American weapons and kit, as well as an Australian SLR rifle, they really go to town with My Lai.  However, they also show the 2 US Army pilots who intervened to halt the massacre, as if in some way they were anti-American traitors.  No effort is spared to show every angle of Agent Orange and Napalm (both used to clear the jungle) effects, both on the individuals at the time and the next generation.  While a quick glance at babies with 2 heads or whatever was enough for me to get the picture, plenty of Westerner tourists seemed determined to look at every single gruesome photograph, and I do wonder what particular effect they were hoping to achieve for themselves.  If the commies wanted me to feel any self-loathing or anti-Americanism, they would have had to have tried an awful lot harder.  

War Remnants Museum

Model of US soldier in 'Nam, with M-16 rifle.  His rank is E-6 Staff Sergent, which is equivalent to Corporal in UK.

On the way to look at the site of the US Embassy, we saw the British Consulate across the road from it.  While I am usually heartened by the sight of the Union Flag whenever I see it abroad, this particular one was so faded and threadbare, I got quite annoyed.  The fact it was flying next to the European Union flag (speaking of totalitarian, extreme, left-wing regimes) really annoyed me.  If anybody is reading this from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, get a f*cking grip.  David Cameron may feel ashamed of being British, but I certainly don’t.

 I hadn’t realised that the former US Embassy has now been re-occupied by the Americans as the Consulate, and it must be somewhat surreal for the people based there- particularly the Marine guards whose predecessors were the final players of America’s involvement in South Vietnam.

In October 1972 details of secret negotiations between US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, under President Nixon, and the North Vietnamese Govt were publicised by Hanoi.  Feeling that the Communists were trying to pressure him, ‘Tricky Dicky’ ordered ‘Operation Linebacker II’ (you’ve got to love the names the yanks come out with!) which was air strikes on Hanoi and which succeeded in persuading the North that they did actually really want peace after all.  On the 15^th of January 1973 President Nixon announced the end of US offensive operations against North Vietnam.  The Paris Peace Accords were signed later that month and this agreed a ceasefire.  It also arranged for the release of all POW’s (Prisoners Of War).   

Following this, the vast majority of American troops withdrew, handing over responsibility to the South Vietnamese.  The Americans who were doing the OMLT (‘omlette’, Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team- the NATO troops embedded on the ground with the Afghan Army units) type tasking remained, with American air support on call, as a reassurance for the reluctant South Vietnamese.  However, nearly 2 years later, in December 1974 the US Congress cut off all military aid to South Vietnam, including the air support.  Following on from this, the North Vietnamese swiftly attacked South Vietnam, and were surprised by just what a shambles the ARVN forces were as they retreated en masse towards Saigon, which was surrounded by the end of April. 

The Americans launched as orderly an evacuation as possible of both American staff and their South Vietnamese colleagues who were most at risk of reprisal from the communists.  The initial evacuations were by transport aircraft to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, but once Tan Son Nhut Airbase (now Ho Chi Minh City Airport) had been rendered inoperable by rocket and artillery fire, the evacuation was done by helicopter to warships off the coast.  110,000 Vietnamese civilians were evacuated as well as 978 US personnel.  Ambassador Martin left at 5AM on the morning of the 30^th of April and, after a pause when they genuinely thought they might be left behind to face the NVA on their own, the last 11 US Marines were heli-ed out of the Embassy at 8AM.  That day the NVA rolled through Saigon, more or less unopposed and drove through the gates of the parliament building- now the ‘Reunification Palace’.  Legend has it that the senior South Vietnamese official there said to the NVA tank commander “I have been waiting for you to arrive so I can surrender,” to which the NVA officer responded “You are not in a position to give away what you do not possess.”

View of Reunification Palace/ South Vietnamese parliament from tanks positioned where NVA tanks arrived at end of war.

The final toll of Vietnam was 58,000 Americans dead, 5,000 South Koreans, 1,000 Thais, 521 Aussies and 31 Kiwis.  On the North Vietnamese Army/ Viet Cong side, they lost over a million men.  In addition the South Vietnamese Army lost over 200,000 dead and the estimates of civilian casualties range between 2 and 4 million.  There are also 2,000 Americans who are still listed as Missing In Action (MIA), and who’s fate may never be known.

After 3 weeks in Vietnam the main legacy of the war that I perceived is that the country is an interesting paradox.  On the one hand you can read all the propaganda rubbish at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’, Khe Sahn, Cu Chi etc about terrified, pathetic Americans and if you know nothing (which most tourists seem to) you will get the impression that the Vietnamese have nothing but justified contempt for the Americans.  I did have to educate some people that while Agent Orange is not ideal, and should never be used, the Americans didn’t realise the side effects, and as they had a pressing need to clear the jungle and flush out ‘Charlie’, it’s use in the context of the circumstances could be understood.  Obviously, if they’d understood what would happen they wouldn’t have used it as they’re a decent, civilised country who were trying to do the right thing.  Today, aside from the obvious propoganda, the only effect of communism to the tourist is the half-hearted attempt to block internet access to Facebook, and sometimes the BBC (which is strange as that’s the most anti-Western institution on the planet!).

The other side of the paradox, however, is that the Vietnamese clearly respect America enormously.  Diplomatic relations were resumed with the US in the 90’s with President Clinton making a state visit.  Unfortunately Clinton’s own contribution to his country during the war was to hide at Oxford University, smoking cannabis to avoid his military service (how such a spineless, dishonourable scrote could end up as President of the United States never fails to amaze me).  It is a myth that America actually lost the Vietnam War militarily, South Vietnam was only invaded by the North once American involvement entirely stopped, and you can see through all the propaganda that the Vietnamese know this.  Ultimately, the reality is that if the Americans really wanted to defeat the North Vietnamese, they could have ‘nuked’ them as they did the Japanese.  As the Americans evacuated Saigon they flew over NVA positions, but the NVA were under strict orders to not engage as the last thing Hanoi wanted was the Americans coming back.

The most obvious manifestation of the appeal of America in modern Vietnam is the marketing/ branding visible, much the same as anywhere else in the world.  While McD’s and Starbucks are obviously still a bit much for the commies, the Pepsi, KFC and Subway logo’s are visible everywhere, along with all the clothing/ sunglasses/ cars/ electronic goods etc available in the West.  The adverts all show Vietnamese models/ actors looking as Western (i.e. American) as possible.  Amusingly I was told in Da Lat that physically I represent the Vietnamese ideal: tall, blonde, blue-eyed... and pale, with a big nose and a fat face!

In terms of how Vietnam is relevant to Afghanistan, who knows if there will be organised ‘Terry’s Tours’ bus trips around Sangin and Nad-e-Ali in 40 yrs, with opportunities to fire M-4’s and SA-80’s.  Somehow I doubt the Marines at Khe Sahn in ‘68 thought that dizzy blonde ‘college students’ would be flirting with British tourists on the same spot 40 years later!   The thing I found most remarkable is that the people of Vietnam do not act like one might expect people whose country was at war for decades, they’ve just got on with life, as humans generally always do, regardless of what particular type of government they’re living under.  Bearing this in mind, any strategy in Afghanistan (or anywhere else) has to be focussed on the civilian side of life, offering the civilian population what they want, and starving the insurgency of the popular support needed to sustain it.  The same people are still going to be living there long after NATO and the Taliban have been forgotten about. 

No Western army can ever compete with the fear factor that the VC/ Taliban can instil in the civilian population, because that’s not what we’re about.  For this reason Counter-Insurgency should be pursued more as a ‘General Election’ or marketing campaign than as a war, with civilians actually taking centre stage in presenting the local population with a better lifestyle than the alternative, with the military in the background.  I read a quote by a US Navy SEAL commando saying that he loved his job in Vietnam  and the SEALSs would have been happy if ‘Nam had lasted 100 yrs, but there’s no point killing bad guys day in, day out if you’re not actually achieving a strategic effect.   The term ‘Hearts and Minds’ has become a cliché, and we all laugh at the jokes such as “Two in the chest, one in the head”, or “Grab the balls, and the hearts and minds will follow”, but it is the key to winning a Counter Insurgency.  The reason why the campaigns in Malaya, Oman and, let’s not forget, Iraq were successful is that the population genuinely believed that what was being offered by Britain/ the allies was a better bet than what was being offered by the other side.  Either way, let’s hope that people will be going on holiday to Afghanistan much sooner than 40 yrs time.

Anyway, after the sights of Saigon, I got up the next day and got the 6 hour bus trip to Phnom Penh in Cambodia.  I had minimal knowledge of the Killing Fields, Pol Pot etc- beyond the fact it was brutal enough for the Vietnamese communists to turn up, save the day, and be portrayed as the good guys...