Imagine visiting Iraq some years from now and going to a site commemorating the defeat of the Americans in the second Iraqi war. The tour includes a demonstration of remote controlled bombs that blew up American Humvees, and if you are game you could actually aim a rocket propelled grenade launcher at a fake American tank. For those really adventurous types you could try on a suicide bomber’s jacket. Now imagine that you are with an American tour group and you seem to be the only one bothered.
If this all sounds impossible to imagine, visit the Cu Chi tunnels in the outskirts of Saigon. The tour was a perfect example of the difference between the personal and the historical. The Cu Chi tunnels were first dug to fight the French but then were expanded for the war against the Americans until they grew to 125 miles.
The tour begins with a black and white propaganda film that looked like it was shot in the nineteen fifties. It wasn’t just the poor production values that made the film look dated; it was it’s black and white morality. Viewing the film one would think the Vietnam War was still raging. One of the stars of the film was a cherubic looking schoolgirl who was lionized for killing seventeen Americans. The film continued with smiling peasants standing in rice paddies next to downed planes.
The next stop on the tour was the chance to crawl through the Cu Chi tunnels for those American tourists who were hardy enough. Of course these tourist tunnels have been widened so that the more ample Americans can fit. Our guide was a Vietnamese soldier and during our one hundred yard crawl we all got turned around and lost. Our group of nine was separated in the pitch black of the tunnels and emerged from three different exits. It took less than two minutes for us to lose our way.
The next attraction was a demonstration by Vietnamese soldiers of the “man” traps used to kill Americans. There was a re-creation of the multiple ways bamboo spears were cleverly hidden in a hole, sprung by a footstep. The guide smilingly showed us the variety of cleverly disguised and deadly traps; including the “door” trap and the “window” trap. And there we were, a group of ample and some very ample Americans looking on, oohing and aahing as our guide sprung the deadly traps. Did they not see what I saw, man traps to kill Americans? I tried to make eye contact with a fellow traveler to at least acknowledge privately how disconcerting this was, but there were no takers. The group dutifully moved on to the next exhibit.
The tour rounded out with mannequins of guerillas reenacting the activities of jungle fighting. The model soldiers posed in groups, cleaning their weapons looking alert, for the invading Americans to stumble into an ambush. The tourists took pictures and stood next to the dummies to show the folks back home where they’ve been. But that was just a lead in for the grand finale. The end of the tour was the chance to fire a real AK47, the kind that was used to kill Americans, for a dollar a bullet.
