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Impressions & Comments on 2002
Trip Back to Vietnam
By Retired Army Major Richard Webster
The People's Army along the Cambodian Border April
2002
Photo taken by Richard Webster
Have just returned from a three-week tour of Vietnam with three other Vietnam
vets, and believe it or not, we found COSVN (Central Office South
Vietnam) headquarters, that mysterious camp in the jungle that avoided American
efforts to pinpoint its location for years. You ask, how could we do this?
Dave Gallo, former Lt with the lst Air Cav, tour leader for Peace
Patrols, Inc, requested permission to visit COSVN, newly
opened to the public, and surprise , we became one of the first Americans to be
allowed to view the camp northwest of Tay Ninh near the Cambodian border. It
required a special police permit, two extra guides to accompany us from Tay Ninh,
a stop at a military police compound near the town of Xa Mat on the border, and
a stop at a military road block, before we could proceed to the actual camp (l8
kilometers northwest of Xa Mat}
There is a little museum there filled with the communist take on the war, and
a military post a hundred meters down the road. We followed a little trail into
the jungle and we come to what was obviously a reconstructed camp of what COSVN
was probably like: there are 6 hooch’s, a meeting room for the
commanders, and a dining facility interconnected by tunnels and trenches. One
can’t help to be impressed by the simplicity of it all.
On the maps now that you can buy on the streets of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City),
COSVN is now located inside Vietnam, I suspect to continue the
communist line that there were no North Vietnamese troops in Cambodia, nor was COSVN
ever there also.
Our tour was run by the Ben Thanh tourist agency, that arranged for us to
meet a Viet Cong Colonel My, when we arrived and he mentioned that COSVN
moved back and fourth across the border at various times. He commanded a sapper
battalion in the fishhook area in l968, at the same time I was on patrol there
as a Lt. with the lst Infantry.
Next to the museum, is a little picnic area where soldiers of the people’s
army are drinking and they motion us over and are quite friendly. It was an
eerie experience, almost like going back in time, because these young soldiers
were carbon copies of the NVA we fought years ago in that area. We
have a glass of homemade honeybee wine with them, a mixture of rice wine,
honeybee nectar, and dead bees floating in the bottle. It wasn’t bad. We learn
that their duty is to clear mines. We tell them we are returning American
soldiers. No problem. Have another glass of wine.
We also visited communist B-2 headquarters (an operational area similar to
III corps) out in the fishhook area near Loc Ninh. To get to B2 headquarters,
the base camp of General Tran Van Lin who ran the war in the south after l972,
we turned west about 6 k’s from Loc Ninh and followed a brand new black top
road until we came very close to the Cambodian border again. To camouflage the
camp from the air, it was built within a Montegard village, with the hooch’s
constructed on stilts. Near the reconstructed camp, there is also a brand new
one- room museum, where the young son of a North Vietnamese Captain gave us the
history of the camp and the battles that were fought in the Loc Ninh area. He
said he didn’t know what his father did in the war. Isn’t that typical of
the children of Vietnam veterans?.
The Montegards, called the xteing, (check spelling) who lived there have been
moved out to a barren area that we pass on the way back to highway l3, and
believe it or not, there are several TV antennas protruding from their hooch’s.
I also take a picture from our moving van of a company of people’s army
soldiers on a training patrol on the way back, even though it is against the
law. I also snap a photo of the front gate of what the guide says is a
reeducation camp near the edge of Xuan Loc.
There is also a newly built museum in Loc Ninh filled with lots of pictures
of the war and the Ho Chi Minh trail. There is a picture of two captured Co Van
Mi’s (American Advisors) being led into the jungle after the battle of Loc
Ninh in l972. I took a picture of the photo in hopes that someone in
COUNTERPARTS could recognize them.. Lots of old US Army vehicles in the area. I
can’t figure how a USMC jeep got to Loc Ninh, which the director of the museum
now drives-that’s a long ways from I Corps.
An old American Army jeep in good running condition, now sells for 5000
dollars according to our guide.
The road now from Saigon to Bien Hoa to Di An is 4 lanes and lined with
factories on both sides of the road, all established by China, Taiwan, Singapore
and other Asian countries. The communists have gotten used to making money now
and they are getting rich on the backs of the people. (Just my opinion, but also
that of many of the “people in the streets” that I talked to) Average salary
in these factories is 20 to 30 dollars a month-information from ex-special
forces Vietnamese type returning for visit who I met in Da Nang.
A Chinese businessman informed me that there are now l400 garment shops in
Vietnam. I bought a Nike golf shirt for 2 dollars. The dollar goes a long way in
Vietnam; you can get a very nice meal in a Saigon restaurant for 3 dollars, and
that includes live entertainment with the five-course meal. One dollar now buys
l5,000 dong.
Also look out for the street venders: they are merciless around the big
tourist hotels in Saigon. We stay at the Rex Hotel, with two nights in Tay Ninh,
and three nights in Binh Dung province.
The Black Virgin Mountain (Nui Ba Den) is now a miniature Disney Land. You
can ride to the top on a tram lift, and slide down on a little vehicle on a
track ride. The top of the mountain is a pilgrimage site for the Buddhists in
the province as there are several temples there. We meet several former NVA
soldiers there in uniform proudly displaying their medals-we were there during
liberation week-and one lifted his leg and showed us a bullet wound. He said he
worked on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
The Cao Dai Holy See was an unforgettable stop outside Tay Ninh. Remember,
they had their own private army and they fought against the Viet Cong. When the
ushers found out that we were American Vietnam Veterans, they treated us with
the utmost respect, while ignoring the French tourists.
Near Tay Ninh, I talked to an ex-special forces Vietnamese type working in a
brick factory, who said he spent two years in the re education camps, after the
war. He mentioned belonging to A-32 special team. Talked to another former RF
soldier there, also.
As you all know, the Vietnamese soldiers who fought with us, all spent time
in the camps. The higher the rank, the longer time spent in the camps. Our guide’s
English instructor, spent l2 years in the camps because he was a captain. When
you see a man begging on the streets, and missing a limb, or blind, you can
assume that he fought with the south. In Hoi An, I bought a hand- held fan from
a former Regional Force soldier who was totally blind, and missing one leg and
was hobbling along the street with his crutch. How sad. Not only has he been
forgotten in his own country, but he will be ignored by history also.
Our former allies are afraid to talk when others are around, nor could they
get jobs for years after the war. On job applications, one had to account for
the background of three generations. Tough luck if your father fought for the
South.
In every village and district town, there is a people’s party headquarters
situated in a brand new expensive building with a fence around it. There are
loudspeakers everywhere, and early in the morning, you hear the propaganda being
played. However, the communists have loosened up, and barter and the grand
hustle have been reignited and the streets of Saigon are full of thousands of
little shops and roadside stands. The incredible entrepreneurial skills of the
South Vietnamese that we all knew, has sprung back to life. We know how
tenacious and industrious they can be.
Tour leader Dave scheduled me a special trip to the little village of Cam
Tan, located between Xuan Loc and Blackhorse, the former base camp of the llth
Armored Cavalry. There is one of the largest communist cemeteries in the country
located on the edge of Xuan Loc where the last great battle of the war was
fought. Five thousand dead NVA soldiers are buried there, and there is a huge
war memorial there praising Ho Chi Minh and the sacrifice of the NVA soldiers.
These Stalinesque type of statues are all over Vietnam , and they are almost
duplicates of what one would find in the Soviet Union.
At the main entrance to our old base camp of Long Bien, also sets a huge
memorial to the people’s army, and I buy a souvenir post card from a young
Vietnamese lady there, who has come from the North to find work. Little of our
old base can be seen from the highway, but way off in the distance some of the
old barracks are visible, and it would be my guess that a large number of the
people’s army soldiers reside there. I snap a quick photo of the barracks,
although the guide warns me that it is illegal to do so.
In my three weeks in Vietnam, I never saw any Vietnamese paying any attention
to these statues or visiting the cemeteries or the war museums, nor did I see
any visiting the COSVN and B-2 Headquarters. And
this was during liberation week. The people’s party in Da Nang hosted a
celebration party in the hotel that we stayed in and the music they played was
American rock music from the 60’s. The television station was saturated with
party dignitaries giving speeches during liberation week, but my take was that
the people ignored that also.
And back to cemeteries. You can’t visit ARVIN and our former
comrade’s cemeteries. Shortly after liberation, those South Vietnamese
families who wanted to preserve their remains, went to dig up their bones,
because all SVN cemeteries were bull dozed into oblivion. It’s true that the
winners write the history, that’s why it is important for COUNTERPARTS
to stay alive. (* This was from an article Richard wrote for those who had
served in South Vietnam as "Counterparts" )
I was MAT team 49 leader in Cam Tan in late 68, early 69, with the 4l3th
Regional Forces Company. I noticed the loud speaker situated on the old French
water tower there, reminiscent of George Orwell’s l984. It was there to tell
the villagers what to do and how to think. I learned the 413th was
overrun shortly after I left. If anyone out there has knowledge of the
particulars of this small battle or any knowledge of this area, please email me
at Covanmi@mchsi.com , as I am trying to
write about my experience there. Several Vietnamese Catholic nuns were killed in
the battle there, and as I located the small building of their former clinic, a
drunken man emerges and I discover through the guide/interpreter, he was former
Viet Cong. Yes, our old enemy was given the homes of those we served with.
If anyone is interested in reading a detailed account, see www.vietnamexp.com
and click on 2002 return visit, and read “The Angels of Cam Tan.”
I also visited another one of my old assignments, the Tan Tru district in
Long An Province in the delta, and discovered that a new communist party
headquarters is situation right on the spot where the old MACV
compound was located. What did the large sign say out front? There was a cartoon
picture of two smiling happy condoms happily extended with the caption, “Only
have two children” and “Help Prevent Aids.”
In Binh Duong province, we were invited into the house of a 72- year old Viet
Cong that Dave had met on a previous tour. He was a double agent serving with
the Arvin as a veterinary’s assistant. His son is now the district chief and
his daughter ran the restaurant for the workers of a Taiwan furniture factory.
He bragged about his getting rich and owning a large parcel of land that was
soon to be developed into factories in a new industrial zone. Most people can’t
own land in Vietnam but he does. He was friendly and invited us into his home
and served us cokes.
So much for the socialist worker’s paradise that the communists preached.
My take is that they have better things to do now, like making money and lots of
it, as the industrial zones around Saigon are booming. My only hope is that it
trickles down to help the little guy.
Saigon and the larger towns now have internet cafes where one can go in and
log onto the internet for several dollars an hour and that is how we kept in
contact in Vietnam. These cafes are filled with young Vietnamese kids, reading
American news and logging onto American web sites. The Vietnamese are copying
everything American, although we aren’t getting any royalties for it, but in
the end we may have won the hearts and minds’ battle after all.
I can’t put into words my feelings about my return to this little village
of Cam Tan and visiting with some of the villagers that remembered those long
ago times. It was one of the emotional highlights of my life. So I am
encouraging all Co Vans out there, to return to Vietnam before it is too late.
The Vietnamese like us and are very friendly, and the War is over. To tell you
the truth, most of the people we met there, are really not that much interested
in it.
My recommendation for you Co Vans out there, is to go back to Vietnam as a
group and have Dgallo1@mindspring.com ,
coordinate the tour because he will specialize the trip like no other sponsored
tour. He was assigned to MACV at Xuan Loc as an artillery coordinator in l968. I
also would be glad to assist in this if there is enough interest.
As to particulars, my cost for l3 days in Vietnam was 2350 dollars, to
include air fare to and from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh city, lodging, meals,
and all transportation in Vietnam. For an additional fee, I extended my tour by
7 days.
We also visited Lai Kai, Cu Chi tunnels, Phu Bai, Tan An, Trang Bang, and
Phuoc Khanh, My Tho and Binh Dung province were we stayed three days.
The Vietnamese people are friendly, they like Americans, and it was the best
damn trip ever for me. That was the conclusion of the other three Vietnam Vets
that went along also.
Don’t be misled by the name, Peace Patrols, Inc.. It’s not one of those
left- wing apologist groups. It’s just a name that Dave chose; their email is insfca@aol.com.
Copyright 2002 Richard Webster
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