Memories of American war crimes

This afternoon I went to see the War Remnants Museum, one of Ho Chi Minh City's most popular museums. It once had the cruder, and in my opinion, much better name of the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes. Of course, the name has wisely been changed, but the propagandist intentions of the museum are barely concealed.

Unfortunately I only had time to see a small portion of this great museum. I took an unnecessarily long route and ended up with only an hour to see the museum before closing. Jessica had given me some warning about what to expect at closing time in museums in the city, so I wasn't surprised when a drill rang out at 5pm. An attendant came round the galleries to usher the slow people out, and the lights were switched off and doors locked the moment everybody was out. Visitors trudged down the stairs as though it were a fire-drill and gathered in the grounds in front of the museum. Like most other people, I took this chance to look around the American tanks, helicopters and air-crafts that were parked in front of the museum, but we were soon asked to get out. Abrupt but efficient. I liked their style.

In the time I had I saw the first floor and half of the second floor, and will be coming back to see the rest of it soon as it was so interesting. The ground floor was dedicated to global expressions of support for Vietnam and in protest of the US invasion. These included solidarity posters from French, German, Swiss, Japanese, and other communist, socialist or democratic parties worldwide. I was impressed to see photographs of mass protests and strikes against the US invasion, from every continent of the globe. A section of the ground floor was devoted to US protest of the war. This suggested to me that the museum had come round to a slightly more open perspective and not just unconditional anti-Americanism. My guide book, which is a 2001 edition, had mentioned that there were no images of the Kent University protests in Ohio, at which four students were shot dead by the National Guard on 4th May 1970 for protesting US presence in Vietnam. In fact the museum now displays the John Filo's famous image from that day. Other exhibits of this section were details of three self-immolations that occurred in November 1965 by American citizens protesting US entry into Vietnam- Norman Morrison outside the US defence department, Roger Laporte outside the UN Headquarters in New York, and Sili Jonekowski, in Indiana state. I had never heard of self-immolations of American citizens during the war years, and was very shocked and moved to hear that these people had sacrificed their lives as a statement of protest whilst being so far away from the scene of conflict. Other examples given were Captain Michael Heck, the first US army pilot to refuse to go to combat during the war, on 26th December 1972, and Hugh Thompson and Lawrence Colburn, two US army helicopter pilots who had saved at least ten Vietnamese citizens during the My Lai masacre on the 16th March 1968. The massacre at My Lai in South Vietnam was one of the defining moments of the war, as between 300 and 500 unarmed civilians were murdered across three hamlets suspected to be Viet Cong territory. Most were women, children and the elderly. Only one person, Second Lieutenant William Calley was convicted for his role in the massacre. He was given a life sentence for the murder of 22 people, but served only three-and-a-half years under house arrest...

A peasant being tortured

On the second floor I looked around a room demonstrating American 'war aggressions'. The room was introduced with an excerpt from the American Declaration of Independence, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable Rights; that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness'. There followed several walls of photographs showing crimes of war committed by American GIs against Vietnamese civilians and prisoners-of-war- torturing peasants, burning down villages, dragging prisoners to death behind tanks, and two grainy black-and-white photographs that supposedly show a prisoner being thrown out of an American helicopter.

Ex-Senator Bob Kerry

Further photographs show the burning and blinding caused by napalm and phosphorous bombs, including on children and babies, and casualties of mines or B52 raids. There were details and images of a particularly gruesome attack on Thanh Phong village in the Ben Tre province, on the 25th of February 1969. Led by Lieutenant Bob Kerry, US Seal Rangers cut the necks of an elderly couple, before stabbing two of their grandchildren and disembowelling a third. Fifteen civilians were shot, there was only one survivor in the village. Kerry went on to be a US Senator, and only confessed to his crimes internationally in 2001.

Of course, the museum was one-sided and only focused on US war crimes, with no mention of those of the Viet Cong. In fact, while researching Viet Cong war crimes I found out that there had been a massacre of seventeen people in Chau Doc, the town I stayed in for a night during my trip through the Mekong Delta last week. It was part of a campaign by communist insurgents targeting South Vietnamese officials, and the seventeen had been tied up in a bar and killed by machine-gun fire.

I was cautious of this one-sidedness but for me, the museum was a haunting testament to the horrific barbarities that soldiers are capable in a war environment. The images of protests around the world made me despair at why such a bloody war was fought in a country out of America's radar, for no gain and only huge, devastating destruction. I am disgusted by the popular ideas that led to and maintained the war; the crazed anti-communism of McArthy that became mainstream ideology, fervent nationalism in the run-up to elections, and the need to stretch America's power and influence worldwide. All the while, American citizens were struggling with the economic collapse brought on by insane military expenditure, and African Americans were still struggling for equality while being drafted to war. Meanwhile, Vietnam was a tiny country far away repairing itself from centuries of colonialism, only to be invaded and occupied once again.

Read part two of my review of the War Remnants Museum