Our bus journey from Kampot to Ho Chi Minh City had us arriving well after dark, and the next day we were flying to the city of Dalat. in the central highlands. ( A 1 hour flight versus another long day's bus trip for not much more money) So our first view of the city was the following morning, and we awoke to find a very modern, clean, cosmopolitan city.
With just a few hours available we walked the short distance from our hotel to the War Remnants Museum.
It was very interesting to view the Vietnam War, or as it is referred to here, the American War, from another perspective. It was also very difficult to walk past the exhibit room photographs, cataloging the devastation caused by the heavy bombing campaigns and the use of the chemical defoliants agent orange and napalm. Atrocities including the My Lai Massacre were very much front and center.
The graphic images and US newspaper headlines displayed, brought back a flood of memories. I turned 18 in 1974, one year after the draft ended and the Paris Peace Accords were signed, but this war was the ever present backdrop of my youth. I remember well the events chronicled here and was deeply moved. I will reflect on today's experience for a long time.
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