I was in Vietnam over 50 years ago. In fact, it was 50 years to the month that I came home in Feb. 1972. I've been exploring sites on the internet, looking at places that I knew when I was there. There is one site in particular that has hundreds of "then and now" pictures. It's amazing to me the amount of growth that has taken place in 50 years. My time there was 19 months. I wasn't a soldier walking a jungle path in the A Shau Valley, or cocking cannons on some hilltop firebase. Nearly all of my time was spent in and around Saigon. Which was a built up place with lots of landmarks to identify with.
This got me to thinking about cemeteries where the war dead are laid to rest. In France and Belgium, there are many cemeteries containing German war dead from both World Wars. They are respected and well tended after all these years. There are British cemeteries in Egypt and Libya, still in good condition. There was a vandalism episode in one British cemetery in Libya within the past ten years, attributed to a random act of religious hatred.
Not all such places command respect. In fact, some invite institutional disrespect. As in Russia, where a million and a half Germans died. Plus one million missing. The German war dead there tended to be concentrated together in areas. In marked graves. Which in most cases the Russians didn't lose any time plowing under, so as to eliminate any vestige of German presence. It was only in the late 1980's and early 1990's that Russia started cooperating with German war graves establishment and recognition. Of course there may some element of who is victor and who is vanquished in these scenarios. But I have to point out that once the Soviets got kicked out of east Germany in 1991, the unified Germans didn't dig up Soviet war dead from Treptow and Pankow.
Before the US involvement in Vietnam, the French were there and many of their soldiers were killed in the conflict. There was a French military cemetery in Tan Son Nhut, near the main airbase in Saigon. After the communists took over, the French gravestones were removed. The remains were disinterred and returned to France. Today the area is a park. But supposedly, the reason for disinterment was to reclaim valuable land within city locations.
Which brings me to the status of the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army) national cemetery just outside Saigon to the northeast. Whatever you think of the ARVN, this involves soldiers who were killed on the job. This cemetery was the South Vietnamese equivalent of our Arlington National Cemetery, complete with tomb of an unknown soldier. I was there in late 1971. Picture of the entrance to the "dignified area":
You can see an honor guard standing up at the top where the tomb was.
I was shocked and even saddened to see "today" pictures of this. Completely neglected, and worse, ransacked and vandalized. The communist government didn't care to preserve or acknowledge remembrance of their enemy, no matter that in this case they were fellow countrymen.
The cemetery grounds themselves have been horribly desecrated. Large sections of the graves area have been given over to industrial redevelopment. You can only guess if any remains were removed before grading, paving and building. If you care to look, you can see it on Google Earth at 10 - 53 - 21.6 N x 106 - 48 - 35.13 E. This area used to be a circle; you can see where redevelopment has carved into it. You can find a few on-the-ground pictures of this place as it looks today but I don't want to put them up here and possibly violate a copyright.
This got me to thinking about cemeteries where the war dead are laid to rest. In France and Belgium, there are many cemeteries containing German war dead from both World Wars. They are respected and well tended after all these years. There are British cemeteries in Egypt and Libya, still in good condition. There was a vandalism episode in one British cemetery in Libya within the past ten years, attributed to a random act of religious hatred.
Not all such places command respect. In fact, some invite institutional disrespect. As in Russia, where a million and a half Germans died. Plus one million missing. The German war dead there tended to be concentrated together in areas. In marked graves. Which in most cases the Russians didn't lose any time plowing under, so as to eliminate any vestige of German presence. It was only in the late 1980's and early 1990's that Russia started cooperating with German war graves establishment and recognition. Of course there may some element of who is victor and who is vanquished in these scenarios. But I have to point out that once the Soviets got kicked out of east Germany in 1991, the unified Germans didn't dig up Soviet war dead from Treptow and Pankow.
Before the US involvement in Vietnam, the French were there and many of their soldiers were killed in the conflict. There was a French military cemetery in Tan Son Nhut, near the main airbase in Saigon. After the communists took over, the French gravestones were removed. The remains were disinterred and returned to France. Today the area is a park. But supposedly, the reason for disinterment was to reclaim valuable land within city locations.
Which brings me to the status of the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army) national cemetery just outside Saigon to the northeast. Whatever you think of the ARVN, this involves soldiers who were killed on the job. This cemetery was the South Vietnamese equivalent of our Arlington National Cemetery, complete with tomb of an unknown soldier. I was there in late 1971. Picture of the entrance to the "dignified area":
You can see an honor guard standing up at the top where the tomb was.
I was shocked and even saddened to see "today" pictures of this. Completely neglected, and worse, ransacked and vandalized. The communist government didn't care to preserve or acknowledge remembrance of their enemy, no matter that in this case they were fellow countrymen.
The cemetery grounds themselves have been horribly desecrated. Large sections of the graves area have been given over to industrial redevelopment. You can only guess if any remains were removed before grading, paving and building. If you care to look, you can see it on Google Earth at 10 - 53 - 21.6 N x 106 - 48 - 35.13 E. This area used to be a circle; you can see where redevelopment has carved into it. You can find a few on-the-ground pictures of this place as it looks today but I don't want to put them up here and possibly violate a copyright.
