John Dwyer visits some historical wartime sites in Vietnam’s De-Militarized Zone.

Vietnam – even the mention of the word evokes images of war. Films such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Full Metal Jacket gave us images that continue to be associated with the country long after the war itself has finished.

On my way to visit Vietnam last year, I wondered what scars the war had left behind even all these years later. Would I see the wreckage of tanks and helicopters? Would the people still be bitter towards westerners?

I arrived in the town of Hue by bus from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Most of the war’s battles took place near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a buffer between North and South Vietnam. Being so close to the DMZ, Hue was almost completely destroyed during the war. It’s ironic that the battles that destroyed that beautiful city are now the attractions that are driving its tourist industry. Tours to the DMZ are available from Hue and I promptly booked myself onto one.

The following day I woke at 6am to meet the tour bus outside my hotel. Despite being in a tropical country, the morning was cool and a mist hung over the city. There were about 18 other DMZ tourists that day comprising backpackers, package tourists and even a few American war veterans.

As the bus rattled out of Hue and past the rice paddies that lined the road, I watched the people planting their crop in the knee-deep water. Our guide pointed to the large ponds that dotted the passing fields. “Those ponds are not natural,” he pointed out. “They were made by 500 pound bombs from B-52 bombers and were never filled in. Some people even farm fish in them.”

Over an hour later, we reached the town of Dong Ha, about 50km north of Hue. It used to be a major supply town for US forces during the war. The town looked desolate and dreary with many ragged amputees hobbling the streets on crutches. It seemed that this town hadn’t quite recovered from the war in the way Hue had.

We stopped to visit the ruined shell of a Catholic church. Our guide told us that North Vietnamese forces had fought to the death here after being surrounded by US troops during the Tet offensive in 1968. Every bullet hole and every bomb crater told the story of a grim battle.

We again boarded the bus and rumbled down Highway 9, which runs from Dong Ha across the country to the Laos border. “American planes dropped over 70,000 tons of defoliant on Vietnam, and that is why to this date you see few trees in this area,” our guide explains. Despite the lack of trees, the area looked lush with vegetation. Nature and time had healed a lot.

Our guide also informed us that there are currently two US de-mining teams working in the area. Live mines and shells known as unexploded ordinance (UXO) have killed over 4,000 people since the end of the war in 1975. There are also many US funded re-forestation projects going on after the devastation wrought by the defoliation chemical, Agent Orange.

Our first stop along the road was at the US Rockpile Firebase. A helicopter base sat on the top of this small hill during the war. From there, US forces commanded a wide view of the area. A string of these firebases were formed along the DMZ and were known as the McNamara Line, after the then Secretary of Defense. One of those stationed on this base was Col Oliver North. An American veteran onboard the tour, Tom Mullins, told me it had been his second time back to Vietnam.

I asked him how the Vietnamese people had treated him. “The war is ancient history in their minds, they’re getting on with their lives,” said Mullins. “There’s hardly anyone there who remembers the war. Even our guide was born two years after we came home.”

According to Mullins, there was no residual feeling of ill will ever expressed toward him. “I was in Hanoi and Saigon, and I never felt any animosity towards me.”

Further west along the road, we were taken across an old bridge that had been singled out by the US Air force for special treatment during the war. “This used to be part of the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail,” our guide said, with obvious pride. “It was used to supply the revolutionary forces in the south in their fight for liberation.” Thousands of men and tons of supplies came down this route from North Vietnam and kept the fighters in the south supplied as the war raged.

The bus spluttered up a winding hill road that was shrouded in mist and fog toward the next stop – the remains of Khe Sahn combat base. The Vietnamese had besieged this base for 77 days in 1968 until the Americans decided to abandon it, taking everything they could with them and destroying what they couldn’t. There’s not much left of it today, but you could still see the traces of the airfield that was used to supply the encircled Americans.

We returned to Dong Ha for lunch and afterwards, headed east to visit the famous Vinh Moc tunnels. Here, an entire Vietnamese village lived in an underground tunnel network to escape annihilation from American bombs. It’s an amazing achievement; with over 30km of tunnels and three different levels, the people lived this underground existence for over four years. The tunnels ranged from 1.3 to 1.6 metres high and had 3 levels with about 10 exits, some onto the beach and a number throughout the village.

Our guide informed us that 300 people lived down here and 17 children were born inside the tunnels during the war. He also informed us that one square metre of ground in this area was subjected to almost 10 tons of American bombs from 1966 to 1972. The only other tunnels like this in Vietnam are to be found in Chu-Chi, outside Saigon.

On the way back to Hue, we made our final stop at a vast Vietnamese military cemetery. With row upon row of countless yellow headstones, it reminded me of a Vietnamese version of Arlington Cemetery. The media has focused so much on America’s experience of the war that it’s easy to forget that Vietnam lost approximately 3 million people and wiped out an entire generation of young men.

Despite Vietnam’s bloody past, the future looks bright. Tourism is booming while new infrastructure and industry are developing at an amazing pace. Vietnam is keen to leave the past behind and build a better future for its people. It’s incredible to think that a poor nation like Vietnam managed to withstand the military might of the United States. If they put the same energy and drive into their development as they did in the war, Vietnam is sure to enjoy a bright future.

The best time to visit Vietnam would be in the spring or autumn as the summer is very humid and affected by heavy rains.

John Dwyer is a freelance travel writer and is currently working on a book about his trip from Beijing to Delhi. Visit www.bearaman.com for more travelogues and photos.