On War...

Because of the fraught and often violent history of some of these nations, there are casualties. In Vietnam, seeing a severely physically/mentally disabled person is no uncommon sight. The legacy of the U.S.-Vietnamese war is most pertinent in the effects on the local people having been exposed to the widespread use of chemical defoliants like napalm and Agent Orange. You often think of these repercussions as being limited to those who were directly exposed, but I learned through talking to young Vietnamese that those effects are still being felt today; children are still being born with physical abnormalities and mental defects. In the War Remnants museum in Saigon, I saw a series of images of the effects – a cavalcade of deformities: children born missing limbs, without eyes, internal organs in disarray. Others born without skin, or with it melting like wax, huge cysts and growths underneath. If ever you needed proof of the senseless horror of war, this was it. 

     

My motorbike guide from Hue to Hoi An told me how he was unsure whether to have children, given the fact that his father was exposed to Agent Orange during the war. Luckily both of his children were born healthy. He told me that in a country with a population of 90 million, an estimated 1 million have been affected, either directly or through inherited genetic abnormalities. When passing the huge silos where these horrific weapons were produced near Da Nang, the whole area is still contaminated and is expected to cost around $50 million to clean up (a U.S. company is footing a lot of the bill and running the operation, however the company that developed Agent Orange denies any responsibility for its effects).  The dioxins present in the compound were known to be some of the most lethal chemicals ever produced by man. The U.S. sprayed around 20 million gallons of defoliant over Vietnam, eastern Laos and Cambodia with the goal of destroying crops and ground cover for troops. Even now 40-50 years later, many of these areas are still barren and lifeless and the Vietnamese face a huge crisis - both environmental and humanitarian - to repair their country and rehabilitate huge numbers of affected people. I visited a factory solely staffed by victims of Agent Orange, who were able to make a living producing some pretty fine artwork to sell in the tourist industry. A sign that things can change, perhaps.

And in a country full of astounding historical and cultural monuments, many were partially or completely destroyed: the once grand Imperial City of Hue reduced to a shadow of its former glory, the 1000 year old temples at My Son, once one of the finest examples of Cham era architecture and sculpture, were reduced from over 70 structures to just 19; only a couple recognisable as such. All destroyed by U.S. bombing campaigns. There were more bombs dropped on eastern Cambodia than all the bombs dropped by both sides during World War 2. Solely in an attempt to disrupt the fabled Ho Chi Minh trail.

One legacy of decades of war in Cambodia is the widespread use of landmines. An estimated 20% of rural villages contain unexploded ordnance (UXO) of some kind (landmines/cluster bombs etc). The country has one of the highest rates of amputees in the world. This problem is especially prevalent in the west and North West of the country where the Khmer Rouge fled following the fall of Phnom Penh and entrance of the Vietnamese army in the East.  Even in the tourist hotspot of Angkor, visitors are advised not to stray from the paths for fear of UXO. Studies have estimated another 10-20 years are needed to clear the country of UXO if current levels of effort are continued.

The Khmer Rouge killed up to 3 million people and their power continued into the 1990s. One of the most noticeable effects of this genocide is in the Buddhist monastic community. Most of the monks of that era were executed or worked to death in the rice fields. The result of this is the young age of the majority of the monks in Cambodia. Indeed the average age of a person in Cambodia is 23, largely because many of the parents were killed or fled the country during the previous decades.

But despite the painful legacy of recent years, there seems to be a palatable sense of optimism in these countries – Vietnam is experiencing a huge boom in construction where jobs are relatively more available than in the past and the average household is earning more than the last generation. In Cambodia, where the horrors of war are still fresh, you can see that things are looking up: a huge increase in tourism in recent years has brought much needed foreign interest and investment, especially from the Chinese and Japanese, who seem to be investing huge amounts of money in the Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia region. However given the endemic prevalence of corruption in these countries this should be viewed with a sense of cautious optimism.