Our Final Visit to the War Remnant Museum

The War Remnant Museum
I sit drawing on the outside patio of the War Remnant Museum while Dennis is finishing looking at the exhibits on the middle floor. Drawing forces my eyes to focus on the lines, shapes, sometimes the shadows.The War Remnant Museum forces you to look back and the pictures from the past are not attractive, they are horrific. Whatever you did, wherever you were during the the US involvement in Vietnam, it's impossible to free yourself from the sins of those years. If you escaped the worst of it, you feel guilty. If you participated in it, you feel guilty. If you protested, you feel guilty because it wasn't enough and the end didn't come quickly enough.

Is this the lesson then? You have to stand up, you have to be counted, you have to persist? Perhaps it is but it brings little comfort to you or to those around you or to those living 10,000 miles away. How do we escape the past? What present deeds can assuage it?

To view the exhibits, we began on the top floor and worked our way down to the ground level. the top floor contained a photography exhibit given to the Vietnamese by the state of Kentucky. It features photographs taken by photographers on all sides of the war. Some went on to become award winning photo journalists, some disappeared on the trail into Cambodia, some were killed in action. They represented all sides of the conflict and many were from nations that were not involved in the war.

Three photographs struck a chord with both of us. The photograph of the child left behind by his family with the Vietnamese marines marching past in the background. How did this happen? What happened to this little one?

The photograph of the family seen between the pant legs of a soldier. What kind of terror were they experiencing?

The photograph of the 11th Cavalry disembarking at Vung Tau. This was Dennis' regiment. This is where they disembarked. What were these young men thinking? What were they expecting? What happened to them?

The USA is experiencing difficult times right now. The hope we see is that the Vietnamese people forgive. I doubt that they forget but they forgive. President Obama made a great impression on them in November, 2017 when he visited Vietnam and they accepted him with trust. As long as our government continues in the direction he set, they will welcome us.

Dennis' thoughts~
The pictures of the children were the most difficult to see. A little boy, about one year old, left behind to sit in the dirt while Vietnamese soldiers walked past him. The photographer wrote that he was "abandoned" but what parent could/would abandon their child? I believe they were killed. This little one was one of so many whose lives were cut short or altered irreparably by a war they had no control over. The same can be said for millions of civilians and soldiers on both sides of this war. Must it always be the foot soldier or innocent bystander who pays the price while those in power remain unscathed and prosper? We must hold them accountable, if not us, who?

I've found after talking with many Vietnamese, that they've moved past the war. I have not spoken to anyone who shows any animosity toward former U. S. Soldiers. They did what they were told to do and so did we. Horrible things were done on both sides. I'm moving on too. Hanoi, Hue, Danang, Hoi An await...