War - What is it good for?…

29/03/2011 by Russell.

…Absolutely nothing
To quote a line from a song.

It is still a topic of discussion, and remnants and relics abound, and are scattered far and wide.
The ordnance is still being cleared, unexploded bombs are still in the countryside.
The Vietnam war was my first experience of seeing war on tv in the sixties, everynight, news broadcast the war into our living rooms. My generation experienced a tv war, the first of its kind. Compared to the coverage to the Iraq war, we seemed to see the war at close quarters, camera crews in amongst the soldiers. It is all a blur to me thinking about those broadcast images, but as a child it made you realize war is horrible.
Was it worth it? I have commented previously about lost generations of young men, but here I am in the south part of Vietnam. I have lived amongst people, like Tam’s father who was a Military Policeman for the south viet army and fought against the Viet Cong (VC as they are referred to here). Sadly, Tam’s father lost a brother in the conflict, shot by an American. Another man, was a Captain in the South Viet Army, and once the conflict was over, he was imprisoned for 3 years in his own country.
That is not all, I was at a relative of tam’s family at new year and he showed me something which just made me collapse in tears, and brought home all those distant memories of the tv coverage, and of course more recently the thought of lost young men in Afghanistan, and the passing of my father. What he showed me stopped me dead in my tracks.
He kept two momento’s of his friends lost in the war. Nothing wrong in that, I guess. I felt he kept these items as a tribute to them and that he would never forget them, as no-one should ever be forgotten who sacrifices their life for a country. He kept two shards of bone, one the collar bone of one friend and the other part of the humerus for the other friend. Can you believe it, over 40 years ago, and this gentleman keeps a reminder of his lost friends. I was completely stunned. What a tribute I thought, how he must have loved those men, how he must cherish his memories of the two fallen men. And how badly were they mortally wounded for him to pick the pieces?
Then he and his wife showed my two letters from the US military, as references for future work (see pics, and these are getting very worn) modern history is here, I hope it never gets lost. There were two sides and casualties for lots of families, it should be recorded, but all you see are huge monuments for the lost VC soldiers.

Today, I went to photograph the remains of the American 2nd Division’s base near to me here at Chu Lai. The airport still remains in operation, which I guess was built by the Americans. The trenches or concrete bunkers are deep and very well re-inforced, suggesting the Americans knew they were here for a long stay. The beach just beyond this must have looked a bit like’ Apocolypse Now’ in its time.
For me to comment on the value of war, tragedy is too much, all I know and see is that it is still around the people of Vietnam.

But that is the result of War. No-one wins.

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