Tormenting Memories of Vietnam War
– N K Tripathi
Though as a tourist my visit to Vietnam was enjoyable, yet a visit to War Remnant Museum in Ho Chi Minh City ( Saigon) left behind an emotion wrenching impression of Vietnam war.
When I was able to hold newspaper in my hands in school, I saw Vietnam in headlines. However, it is now that I realise the horrors of that war. 10 lakhs Vietnamese combatants were killed and 20 lakhs civilians lost their lives. Terribly disabled were countless. However, statistics don’t reveal human misery.
After World War II, Indochina war continued. The 1954 Geneva Accords, concluded on July 21, 1954, formally ended the First Indochina War and established a cease-fire in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The agreements divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel ( latitude), with French forces regrouping south of the line and Viet Minh forces north of it. Election was to be held for unification, which never happened. French retreated, but USA refused to accept Geneva Accords. The Vietnam War (1955-1975) was a Cold War proxy conflict pitting communist North Vietnam and its allies Soviet Union and China against South Vietnam and the United States. The war became a major proxy war of the Cold War.
US involvement escalated significantly in the 1960s, with the deployment of troops and the initiation of bombing campaigns in North Vietnam. This museum shows the devastation brought by the American bombings. Some of the images shown here are very upsetting like widespread destruction from US napalm bombs and the horrific toxic effects of Agent Orange, which brought cruel deformities on faces and bodies of Vietnamese citizens. Images of the infamous My Lai massacre are unbearable. Many visitors of the museum may feel giddy. I have not posted such pictures.
American casualties,though very little in comparison, spurred American people to demand withdrawal. An agreement signed in 1973 by the US, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong led to the withdrawal of US troops and eventual unification of Vietnam in 1975.
Wars in the newspapers or on the channels are very different from the battlegrounds. I feel it now.
