Week 21, continued: Laos (posted by Jane)

 

We have spent the past five days in none other than Laos! We arrived in Vientiane late at night on the 24th. The next day we visited the Paxtuai arch which was built to commemorate the struggle for Laotian independence.

Later that day we took the train to Luang Prabang, a charming mountain town. The next day we visited the morning market, the imperial palace, and walked along the river. We then spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool!

On the 27th we woke up early to beat the crowds to the Kuang Si which is a travertien waterfall. It was very busy but also stunning, we decided it looked like a fairy paradise.  

On our last full day in Luang Prabang we (minus Eliza and Dad) woke up at 5:00 am to give alms to the monks. We did get to go back to sleep afterwards thankfully.

  Later in the day once we were fully rested we walked up to a Buddhist temple with a great view!

We wrapped up our last night with Nana and Pops by playing cards!

Today we are heading to India where we will spend the next three weeks.

Research Project: The Main Turning Point (posted by Eliza)

The Vietnamese fought for their independence from 1945 to 1975, first against the French then, starting in 1959, against the Americans. I want to know at which point between 1945 and 1975 was the most important for the future of Vietnam. Some people say the main turning point was in the early days with Ho Chi Minh's independence speech. Many more say it was with the Tet Offensive in 1968, but I definitely think it was with the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was a big turning point in the Vietnam war because it was the event that led to the French pulling out. Throughout November 1953, French troops were steadily parachuting into the small village of Dien Bien Phu. Henry Navarre, a French General, decided to put a base in this valley because the French could now intercept the supply routes coming in through Laos. Henry Navarre did not think that the North Vietnamese could get artillery up on the mountains surrounding them. He was wrong. General Giap, the Viet Minh general who planned the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, had first thought to attack on January 25. His strategy being “Fight Fast, Win Fast” which is basically a rapid and focused attack on the French's stronger points. However, on Jan 24, General Giap changed everything about the plan. The Viet Minh would now attack on the evening of March 13, their strategy being “steady attack, steady advance”. Giap was glad he did, for now the French had practically no chance. By March, up to 4,000 French simply gave up and waited on the riverbank, and more than 16,000 French were either killed or captured. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu led to the Geneva Accords, in which the French told the public that they had finally given up on their former colony.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu also improved the Viet Minh's self-confidence. Beating the French made the Viet Minh feel as if they were invincible, and I do not blame them because, after all, they were one of the first colonized countries to dramatically win in a pitched battle. Later, when the North Vietnamese were fighting the Americans, the Communist forces used some of the same strategies as in Dien Bien Phu. For instance, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu created the idea of a supply route for heavy artillery and troops that goes through the jungle. In the American War, this was better known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The Tet Offensive was inspired by the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The North Vietnamese leader, Le Duan, wanted to attack a bunch of places at once. He dared to fight the Tet Offensive because of the idea of Dien Bien Phu, which was basically that they could defeat a western power in a pitched battle. The Tet Offensive started in January 1968. The first part of the Tet Offensive ended in February. It led to the pitched Battle of Hue. It was the bloodiest battle of the American War with people shooting around in the streets and everything being chaos. Many people think that the Tet Offensive was a success because it was all over the news in the United States. Actually, it was not a success for the North Vietnamese because they lost a lot of troops and they did not push the Americans out. Dien Bien Phu, on the other hand, pushed the French out, which is a big reason why the Tet Offensive is NOT the biggest turning point.

The big lesson that I take from the Battle of Dien Bien Phu comes from a Ho Chi Minh quote. He was talking to General Giap before the battle and he said, "Only fight if you know you're going to win." Metaphorically, you should not put yourself in a place where you have to fight a losing battle.

Research Project: Uncle Ho and His Importance (posted by Jane)

 Ho Chi Minh was one of the founding fathers of Vietnam and by far the most famous. He was born on 19th of May 1890 to a minor French official. As a young adult he worked on a boat that traveled to Boston, New York, London and France. He worked towards Vietnamese independence with the Russians, Chinese and even the USA throughout his career. I wanted to know if he was actually significant to Vietnam's independence struggle. Ultimately, I found that he often gets credited for policies he did not implement like the Land Reform or Tet offensive. He did not play a role in planning battles and offensives, but he did secure diplomatic ties with the USA, Russia, and China. I personally believe Ho Chi Minh made more of an impact after he died since he is the symbol of Vietnamese nationalism and is often used as a propaganda tool.

Ho Chi Minh was a great diplomat. An amazing example of this is how he was able to obtain aid from both Russia and the USA. He admired Lenin and even named a stream after him but was also able to impress OSS operatives who visited the Viet Minh jungle camp in 1945 with his knowledge on literature (Burns ep1). Another smart move he made is in Vietnam's independence declaration he used a quote from Thomas Jefferson in hopes of gaining US support (Hastings). The diplomatic ties Ho made with Russia and China would benefit North Vietnam greatly during the war with a total of $650 million in aid coming from the USSR in 1967.

However, by 1967 Ho Chi Minh became overshadowed by more radical opponents like Le Duan. Ho Chi Minh and Giap the general liked to take a slower approach to war, only fighting if you can win; we can see this at Dien Bien Phu. Le Duan and his radical counterparts wanted to attack sooner and faster, like during the Tet offensive. Giap and Ho were opposed to the Tet offensive and believed it was too risky. In fact Ho was ill by the time they were planning the Tet offensive (Bowden). While he and Giap were away Le Duan led the anti revisionist campaign which imprisoned political enemies many of which were more moderate like Giap and Ho. I think because Ho Chi Minh was more of a diplomat than a war strategist he got sidelined once Vietnam was officially at war with America. When we visited the politburo in Hanoi we noticed that Ho Chi Minh did not have a private room in the building but Le Duan did. This helped us understand that Ho really wasn’t around much for policy making in ‘67 onwards. 

Today Ho Chi Minh is the embodiment of nationalism. Nationalism is when your identity is shaped around where you are from. Ho understood this and made himself an embodiment of all people in Vietnam; he looked similar to a confusion scholar, he dressed like a peasant, but could also make conversation with the elite. The reason he is still so well known today is because the communist party kept him around even after he did not have power because he was a good propaganda tool and was considered the father of revolution (Bowden). In the Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam Duang Van Mai said that Ho Chi Minh was so revered because he gave up everything for his cause. Including family because he never had children of his own (Burns ep1). We can still see his impact today in Vietnam, there are posters of Ho Chi Minh everywhere. A school in Saigon had a whole mural of him with school children. We also saw his statue at the VC tunnels museum. It was set up like a shrine with flowers all around the base of the statue. The communist party is using Ho Chi Minh as the face of the country because he is the perfect communist. He lived in a two room house his whole life and was only photographed wearing farmer clothes. He is why many people joined the NVA.Our tour guide Viet said his grandfather joined the VC because Ho was so inspiring (Viet). So really it doesn't matter about what he did or did not do because he has had an effect on countless people whether in the way he intended or not.

Ho Chi Minh was important but did he do enough that he deserves this holy image in Vietnam? I think he was smart enough to cultivate an image of himself so that he is relatable to everyone. That is what set Ho Chi Minh apart from other political figures: he was relatable to the everyday person.

Works Cited

Bowden, Mark. Hue 1968. Atlantic Books, 6 June 2017.

Burns, Ken. “Watch the Vietnam War, a Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, PBS, Ken Burns.” The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick , PBS, 2017, www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/.

Freedman, Russell. Vietnam : A History of the War. New York, Ny, Scholastic, Inc, 2017.

Hastings, Max. Vietnam : An Epic History of a Tragic War. London, William Collins, 2019.

Viet. 24 Nov. 2025.

Research Project: Alliances (posted by Annie)

I feel like the main factor that helped the North Vietnamese win the French and American Wars is that they were allies with the Soviet Union and The People's Republic of China (PRC). The Soviets and the PRC gave them weapons. That led to the Ho Chi Minh Trail on which soldiers moved those weapons. The alliance led to the Tet Offensive and the Easter Offensive, for which they used Soviet and PRC weapons and advice. Finally, that led the Americans finally leaving Vietnam in 1975.

Ho Chi Minh was the main reason why the Viet Minh had an alliance with the Soviets and the People's Republic of China. In 1923, when he was thirty-three he went to Moscow. He made an alliance with them so they could help him defeat the French. In October 1949, Mao Zedong took control of China. This helped the Viet Minh transport those weapons because they share a border with China. In 1950, Ho met with Mao and Stalin in Moscow and deepened the alliance. The Soviets gave him Sa2 rockets to shoot down planes. The main gun used by the NVA was the Soviet-made AK-47. I saw many AK-47's in museums. They also provided advisors to help teach how to use the equipment. From 1965 to 1968 there were about 310,000 Chinese troops in Vietnam, to help build railways, and provide logistical support. I went to the place where you can see Ho Chi Minh's mummified body. Our tour guide in Saigon said Ho was a good diplomat. That is the most important thing that matters about Ho. This shows that he is an important figure because he made alliances with the Soviets and PRC.

The alliance led to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Ho Chi Minh Trail played a significant role in transporting the weapons that the Soviets and the Chinese gave. The Ho Chi Minh trail was a series of dangerous foot trails going from North Vietnam, through Laos and Cambodia, and finally into South Vietnam. In the South Vietnamese presidential palace, the president even had a map of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, because he needed to know where to bomb. President Nixon of the United States had "Operation Menu" as if he could open a menu, pick a place on the trail, and then bomb it. For school, I read a realistic fiction book about the Vietnamese perspective of the war by Nguyen Phan Que, called The Mountains Sing. It said the soldiers on the trail got food from the Chinese. This is a quote from the book: "Together with the Russians, the Chinese Communists supported our fight against the Americans, so we also got food from the Chinese." If it weren't for the PRC, the soldiers would have starved. I went to see tunnels in the Iron Triangle that funnel into the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The alliance gave the North Vietnamese the food, supplies, and artillery to use for the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive were series of attacks on hundreds of places in South Vietnam led by the North Vietnamese. They planned for there to be an uprising, but it never happened. Ultimately, it was militarily a failure, but politically a win. The U.S.'s top general, Westmoreland, got fired, there were many anti-war pictures published in the United States, and Walter Cronkite said the U.S.A. couldn't win. President Lyndon Baines Johnson did not seek re-election because of the Tet Offensive. He started pulling out soldiers and draftees, and he was discussing peace talks. This would not have happened if the Viet Minh did not have the guns and artillery provided by the Soviets. In the build up to the Tet Offensive, the PRC gave them 366,499 firearms, and 450000 tons of food. Also for the Tet Offensive, the Soviets gave them $400 million in weapons, 90% of the gasoline came from the Soviets, and 20,000 Soviet trucks were given. In museums, I saw soviet trucks and tanks that were used in the Tet Offensive and the Easter Offensive.

In conclusion, I feel like to win a war, you need to have good allies that are willing to give you artillery and advice. For example, the U.S. might not have gained their independence without French help. That is how the Vietnamese, in my opinion, won the war.

Week 21: Mekong Delta (Posted by Megan)

 After exploring Ho Chi Minh City for a week, it was time to get out of town and explore the Mekong Delta.  Our first stop was a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a remnant from the war between Vietnam and the US.  We watched a Vietnamese propaganda video from the 1960s, saw demonstrations of a variety of booby traps, and crawled through a small section of the tunnels.

The next day, we headed out to visit Ben Tre and Can Tho. In between our boat and bike rides, we learned about local small businesses making bricks, coconut candy, and woven sleeping mats.

Vietnam is a densely populated country, and we could feel it while we were exploring the delta - we were never far from a town.

A highlight of the floating market in Can Tho was when Annie got to help with a demonstration of rice noodle production.  We also almost lost one of Eliza's crocs when it fell off into the river - thanks to the quick retrieval work of our boat driver, she's still the proud owner of two complete sets of shoes.

After our exploring, we all enjoyed taking a few days off and relaxing on the Saigon River outside of Ho Chi Minh City.  (Our favorite coastal engineering expert will be thrilled to hear that the direction of the river actually changed with the tides - thanks to Annie's eagle eyes for spotting that the direction of the water switched during our visit.) Next stop, Laos!