During Season 22 of the Amazing Race (this is a very timely post, I know), contestants competed a part of the race in Hanoi, Vietnam. Viewers watched them racing around the Vietnam Military History Museum. The episode received a lot of backlash, mostly because it was considered insensitive to Vietnam Veterans.
Frank and I watched that episode. Then we watched the following episode where producers apologized to those veterans. Our reaction was: “wait, what?”
So, why the hate for a 40 minute segment of a show?
The History
At the time the Vietnam War was being fought, the United States was entrenched in the Cold War, a war between the two “superpowers:” the Soviet Union and the US. The US strongly believed in the “domino theory,” which stated that should one country fall to Communism, the rest of the countries around it will fall and that can be a detriment to democracy.
Young men were drafted. Soldiers died on unknown territory. There were heinous acts of violence on soldiers and civilians. And all of this was because of the call of duty.
The war was deplorable. But the way veterans are treated post-war is much more deplorable. You can’t exactly turn back time, so post-war soldiers have to take out their frustrations some other way. Like on a show that supposedly demonstrates a:
Disrespect Towards Veterans
“To use that site as a “prop” for a stupid reality show is extremely disrespectful to their memory, and a slap in the face to all veterans”
The Vietnam Military History museum was the “prop” in question during the Amazing Race. The museum—by Western standards—is garish. There’s a large monument in the shape of a plane crashing down to the earth. It’s made out of scraps of American military vehicles. We just don’t have museums (none that I know of anyway) that have the “losers’” military gear so haughtily on display.
Scrap war material in the form of a downed plane.But, then there’s this rebuttal:
“wake up to both sides of history. You may favour one side, but it doesn’t mean the other should not be seen.”
And while that may feel like a slap in the face, it’s true. It’s impossible to turn a blind eye to history.
Up until college, Americans’ history and government classes are unabashedly one-sided. I learned early on that Communism was “bad.” Not just because people “disappear,” but because people in a Communist economy are lazy! Everyone makes the same money and people are all at the same level. So why try when there’s no incentive? Talk about absolutely incorrect information.
Then there was my Advanced Placement History book whose opening lines read something to the effect of: “never has there been a time in history where a country was created to be perfect … and succeeded” (I guess countries like France and England just don’t seem to exist). As you can see, Americans are taught that anything not American is a “slap in the face.”
There’s a lot of Pride
Americans are pretty proud. So, imagine sitting in a downed helicopter staring eye-level at this:
Staring into a bullet hole. War planesI think it’s safe to say that climbing into this helicopter (yes, the museum is interactive! You can climb into almost all the vehicles!) was the defining moment of “oh, right, this happened.” That was the moment I realized people died. But, I didn’t feel uncomfortable, which seems to be a major sentiment for people:
“It made me uncomfortable, as a proud American, that Vietnam cherishes this hunk of metal as a special moment in their history,”
I don’t know the person who posted that comment on the interwebz. But, I can assume she’s never actually visited the museum–or Vietnam–for that matter. If she had, she wouldn’t have posted that comment with such vehement distaste about a country. She would have known that Vietnam is a very beautiful country with a rich history spanning centuries before the war. She would have also known there is more than one “hunk of metal.” And, she would have known that these hunks of metals aren’t cherished. They’re simply on display for purposes of history and learning. It’s also there to entrench Communism as the way of life. After all, it’s very easy to topple a regime. Toppling regimes was the reason why the Vietnam war was fought.
I wouldn’t say Vietnam liked that “hunk of metal” any more than Americans did. If anything, I’d say it’s there as a reminder of this:
“It was a war. History is written by the victors, and the North won the war.”
So, does the communist government of Vietnam have a reason to be proud?
Yes. They won the war. That can’t be taken away. We can’t renegotiate the ending of the war for the sake of feeling better. It’s already happened. The war is over and to the victor goes the spoils.
That isn’t to say I’m making light of it. I have Vietnamese friends whose parents had to bury their values to keep them out of communist hands. I’ve had friends whose family literally boarded a boat with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
But, if there’s one thing my super one-sided history classes taught me, it’s that those who forget are doomed to repeat. And that’s part of the reason why travel is even necessary: so that history is never forgotten.
This post wasn’t written for those with a need for travel. Travelers want to see a country for its good and hopefully its bad. This post was written for those who don’t want to travel for whatever reason.
Frankly, I would rather see a show that runs around Hanoi’s war museum than to see nothing at all. I can imagine that show caused a lot of Americans to finally pick up a history book and read. Or at the very least, google “Vietnam.”
I would rather see large handfuls of Americans traipsing around defunct military vehicles than to refuse to step into the place. It keeps the memories alive. It makes it real. It makes us know what our place is and how we can adapt and change. This is history and we’re living it every day.
Now it’s your turn to chime in. What do you think? Ever been surprised by what you saw on your travels?
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