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The "American War" attracts thousands of foreign tourists in Viet Nam. The ta-ta-ta of AK47's are still heard every day in Cu Chi. The shooters are no longer elusive guerillas, but tourists paying 20 USD to fire a handful of live rounds on the shooting range near the famous underground bases in the "Iron Triangle".
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TOURISM
GOES TO WAR
The legendary guerilla tunnels in Cu Chi have been turned into an open air museum. Tourists are here posing with plaster replicas of the guerillas, who fought the French and the American soldiers with terrible losses during three decades of war.
Decades of destruction and human suffering have been turned into a major tourist attraction. Millions of Vietnamese and almost 59.000 Americans were killed in the so called "American War".
In modern Vietnam there is hardly a visible trace of one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. But these days thousands of tourists find their way to the horror or war - at the "War Remnants Museum" in Ho Chi Minh City and in the legendary Cu Chi tunnels, which served as a giant underground base for thousands of guerillas that fought and died.
I first traveled the area 25 years ago with some of the surviving guerillas and crawled around in the tunnels with them to get an idea, what their life had been like - a very unpleasant experience as far down as 20 meters below the surface. One former guerilla, colonel Thanh, was the only survivor from the attack on the Saigon TV station during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
"We only came out at night. During the day we stayed in the tunnels, making homemade grenades from coca cola cans, stuffed with explosives from American bombs, resting and eating. Sometimes the Americans sent down soldiers to chase us in the tunnels. We killed them, often with bamboo spikes to make them scream and scare the others," colonel Thanh told me.
At that time I also meet some of the first American veterans, who were allowed back to try and deal with post-traumatic disorders. It was impossible not to feel sorry for these poor guys, who had been sent to war as youngsters - the average age of US combat troops was 19 years.
These days the guerillas have been replaced by professional guides in army uniforms, their visitors are suntanned tourists on a sight seeing straight into the battlefield. In January 2008 I trailed after some of the tourists that go to war.
A guide is demonstrating the primitive, but deadly bamboo booby traps, which are credited with 12% of American casualties in the Cu Chi district.
A young tourist is buying live ammunition for the AK47's - the legendary Soviet automatic, used by guerillas in countless wars around the globe.
At the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City a replica is on display of the infamous "Tiger Cages" of the Con Dao prison island, where the South Vietnamese government jailed thousands of political activists.
A special section is devoted to US Senator and former presidential candidate Bob Kerry and his victims. In 2001 Kerry admitted that his platoon committed a massacre in 1969 in the Thanh Phong village, killing 20 men, women and children, believed to be guerilla supporters. A 12 year old girl was the only survivor.
Snapshot of a 'murder in the name of war' - as BBC reported the infamous My Lai massacre in March 1968.
TOURISM GOES TO WAR
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