DMZ and Out

The other day we crossed over into Laos following the southern edge of what was formerly the DMZ (demilitarized zone) separating North and South Vietnam along the 17th parallel. The last day before we left Vietnam we rented a scooter and drove a hundred and sixty kilometers visiting the sites of some past battles. One of these was the small mountain plateau where the US marines established the Khe Sanh combat base. Pieces of military hardware sit scattered around rusting in the clouds. It would be tough to overstate the sense of grim empathy one feels for the men who fought there. It was surreal to ride around the empty, green countryside with my girlfriend on a rickety old Chinese scooter in an area where, thirty-five years prior, any American - practically any human, combatant or not - would have been shot at or mortared on sight.



How angry do you have to be to shoot this at other people?

More than 10,000 people died fighting around Khe Sanh and the US set records for supplying the base by air and bombing the surrounding area to protect it.

Partial and unexploded bombs from some of the 40,000 TONS dropped around Khe Sanh

Relic Chinook


Apart from the few Vietnamese attendants at the entry, it was just us - quiet, misty and gray. Very haunting.