Vinh Moc Tunnels
I freak in the 2.5 km of tunnels at Vinh Moc just a few kilometers north of Dang Ha and beg to be led out of the nearest exit. This maze of underground passageways in the cliffs off the China Sea was home to thousands of families over a 7 year period from 1966 when the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, the Viet Cong and the Americans all began bombarding the DMZ with artillery….a small 4 foot by 6 foot “room” honed into the rock off the sides of the tunnels would house an entire family. Seventeen babies were born in these tunnels. Larger “rooms” served as kitchens and hospitals. Hundreds of families lived in other tunnels in other places but none as large as Vinh Moc.
Internet Cafe
It is dark by now and Mr. Binh drops me off at an internet cafe for a few minutes before taking me to my hotel, the Phuong Mai Guesthouse on a quiet sidestreet. Mr. Binh�s friend, a robust grey haired South Vietnamese who used to work for the US Marines, owned the internet cafe and talked just like the US Marines as I remembered them when we lived on 29 Palms Marine Corps Base in southern California in 1969-71. His down to earth raucus sense of humor had me laughing until my stomach hurt. He spent 6 years in a communist re-education camp for South Vietnamese military after the fall of Hanoi in 1975. I asked him what happens in a re-education camp and he answered by showing me a pencil and saying that if they show you a pencil and tell you it is a pen then you tell them yes, it is a pen. And that is how the guy, who was basically a US Marine, got out after six years of re-education. Many had to stay up to ten years and many were killed.
Tags: Viet Nam
Zoe