War and Cu Chi Tunneles and Museun

When we were in Ho Chi Min City we visited the Cu Chi tunnels and a museum; these two historical sites made me cry. I can imagine what the Vietcong went through. I didn't have the courage to go inside a tunnel because I am claustrophobic to the dark and besides the entrance was too small for me anyways. Maybe that was an excuse for me not to go in. I am amazed how well organized the guerillas were. The tunnels had three floors. The top floor contained guns, the second one was to protect the ill people, and third one was to protect from the bombing and to dig a well to have fresh water since the water from the Saigon river was poisoned with Agent Orange. It is interesting that the American army base was so close to these tunnels, but the Americans didn't know. The tunnels were well covered with grass and other trees. Guerilla women would go before dawn to get rubber from the rubber trees so they could make excellent rubber sandals to be able to walk in the mud and jungle. They also made sandals from used tires.

The war museum is in the heart of Ho CHi Min City. The museum documents the atrocities and crimes that the Americans and their allies caused to the civilian population. I was so moved and cried in silence when I saw the skulls of tortured people with nails still on the head, and some others had nails on their teeth of people who were tortured in the prisons. What a brutal and inhuman treatment of human beings. When I was looking and reading the documentation about the war here in Vietnam, it reminded me 0f the civil war in El Salvador.I remember all my classmates from the university who disappeared and the dead and torture corpses that appeared on the streets of my town. A flashback of these horrific crimes came to my mind, I know what it is to go through a civil war. I am upset that I was studying in a private high school and our teachers never mentioned anything about the war in Vietnam. I do empatize with the people of Vietnam, I can imagine what they went through.