Tortuous Histories in Vietnam & Cambodia

A visit to Cambodia of 14 million people is a down-size after the hustle and bustle of Vietnam. While I could have spent longer in Ho Chi Minh City, a modern commercial city by any standards, heavily influenced by the French and American presence during war and imperialist years gone by, it was a welcomed relief to arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’’s capitol, with its seemingly gentler atmosphere. Our speed boat took us from Chau Doc on the Saigon River of Vietnam into the Cambodian side, docking temporarily as we went through a pleasantly serene riverine customs and immigration, arriving at the docks of Phnom Penh some 3 hours later. That was a first for me – a river border crossing, mosquitos and all!

These last few days were very moving – witnessing remnants from the tortures of war. On the Vietnamese side, a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels revealed Viet Cong ingenuity in defeating US Army forces (by 1975) directed in alliance with the southern Vietnam government.  About 70 kms northwest of Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) in Ben Duoc, locals had built the first tunnel in 1944 to protect villagers from French Army invasions.  After some 100 years of struggle, these tunnels became some 200 kms long, commemorating the struggle history of the Cu Chi people against French and American forces. Luxurious agricultural fields were bombed out by American B-52s causing the resistance to flee and literally go underground between 1960-1975. Visiting these tunnels bordering the Saigon River on the west convinced any visitor of the superb superiority and strategically intelligent capacity the Communist Viet Cong had in fighting ‘’high tech’’ forces of their day – with only night traps, knives, and stolen weapons.....  Bombers couldn’t ‘’see’’ these tunnels; nor could the day forces of the very vulnerable and exposed American troops.  When the US withdrew its forces from Vietnam (by President Nixon in 1975), Cambodia’s Killing Fields started.  A visit to the HCHC "War Remnants Museum" displays awesome photographs and pictorial histories of this unfortunate period of contemporary history.

The enigmatic and historically contradictory nature of Cambodia''s Pol Pot regime came next, with a visit to ‘’Killing Fields” northeast of Phnom Penh. These killings of some 2 million innocents in the country, between 19076-79, is still hard to believe, given the objectives of the Khmer Communists, led by Pol Pot and his cronies, to ‘’liberate’’ Cambodia once and for all from outside (and inside) óppressive’ influences. These burial grounds still contain uninterred bodies. “”Brother No 1”” as PP was called, somehow defied the International Criminal Court’’s procedures, and remains a mystery to historians who look for motive. One can look upon genocides of the past - of Hitler’’s or Rwanda’s – hatred for certain ethnic peoples, but the Cambodian experience defies all logic.  Was Pol Pot perhaps mentally deranged during his 1976-79 genocide instructions, even having his colleagues killed? And if so, why would his supporters engage in such mass genocide of women and children??

Emotionally, I was left drained from these two torture periods in SE Asian history. I welcomed a return to the ancient worlds of Angkor Wat outside of Siem Reap with its multitude of temples.