Posted on 06/27/2005 12:49:54 PM PDT by Calpernia
Hello friends, I have returned (intact) from Saigon and Vung Tau (formerly Cap St. Jaques), found both places beyond recognition. The famous Tu Do street is no more, it's now called Dong Khoi. Couldn't find my old MACV/SOG headquarters either in Pasteur street (at least that name hasn't been changed). The good old Caravelle Hotel is still there, but nobody will recognize that either, as it has been totally remodeled, including the rooftop restaurant/bar. I went there at night and, spooky enough, somehow flashed back or expected to see tracers in red and green on the other side of the river and maybe a gunship or two.
All the "white mice" are gone too, now the cong ahn (cops) are dressed in green shirts and brown pants. Red flags with yellow stars everywhere. Stayed in the Saigon Star Hotel on Nguyen Thi Minh Kai street (if it would have been called the Ho Chi Minh City Hotel, I would've stayed in the Chancery Hotel, just a few doors down, which is a Best Western Hotel). Don't presume that you can take a lady to your room, that's strictly forbidden, but if you rent a room for her, you can do what you want, so it's not about morals, but about money.
The War Remnants Museum was in the street behind the Hotel and I visited that. Saw john kerry hanging there (unfortunately his pic. not himself) with my own eyes, and just a bit in front of the pic was a glass display case with some looser of the 173 ABN Brigade (the Herd), a sergeant no less, his shirt, medals, CIB, jump wings etc. and a leather patch imprinted in gold "I'm sorry, I was wrong" on it. There was a Guest book too, with all sorts of remarks of regret and apologies in it. Sickening..... Yes, I wrote a piece in it too, but quite a different tone than the lot. I didn't feel I was sorry at all, only for the 58.000 plus that lost their lives for nothing...
My Vietnamese was quite rusty too, no wonder after more than 30 years, but I could make myself understood and after a few days it improved. My statement of : "Toi la mot cuu chien binh Viet Nam" (I am a Viet Nam veteran) was generally not well received and often met with open hostility. Was everybody a VC? One cab driver even stopped his cab and told me to get out.... OK, up yours Charly.
I commiserated with an old guy cleaning up at a market (very dirty job), who had been an RVIN thieu ta (Major),who spend time in a "re-education camp" from 1975 to 1981, in spite of loosing part of his thigh and face. He was a proud bugger, wouldn't accept any money, but gratefully accepted a sumptuous meal and some bottles of ba ba ba bier (333, no more ba mui ba).
Anyway, 3 days Saigon, 4 in Vung Tau and I had 'Nam up to the eyeballs. I had intended to go to some places in the Central Highlands where, back when, my A.O. was. Intended to visit the place I got hit, near Ban Me Thuot, in 1971, that ended my career with the C.C.C. (Central Command and Control) specifically and the Army in general, but I was really fed up with the place, so I went back to Thailand.
Maybe a good thing, as I still haven't learned to keep my mouth shut. And that was that folks...
Alfred W.A. von Hohenzollern
ping
Don't visit Vietnam. Don't buy Vietnamese. Let them rot.
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