Khe Sanh

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highway 9

We now drive with the bus on the famous Highway 9 and it is a very good, wide paved road (en route to Laos) and I see the signs of the various sights (bridges, American base camps and stretches of the Ho Chi Minh Trail) bypass but know that there is actually nothing left of it, unfortunately. Of course Rock Pile is visible which is already more green than 12 years ago when I also drove along with my then booked DMZ tour from Hue.

After an hour's drive I see on the right-hand side at a crossing a large stone monument; we stop and people make it clear that I have to get out, walk north here, up the slope. The road looks as if Highway 9 should have looked about 40 years ago - a lot of greenery hanging over the road, here and there a scooter and some simple houses and huts. The road slopes a little and the sun shines bright.

It should be another 2.5 kilometers from here, but of course I hear from people that it is much more. Motorcyclists ask a high price but I am willing, because I am so early, to walk the distance. After about 3 kilometers of puffing (I am soaking wet with sweat) I see on the right side of the road a big blue sign with the museum on it - finally a landmark. It is a narrow asphalt path which runs through a large coffee bush plantation and then a fence with the museum behind it.

McNamara line:

The McNamara line was an operational strategic line used by the United States during the Vietnam War years between 1966 to 1968 to prevent North Vietnamese troops from infiltrating in South Vietnam and Laos. The line was installed just south of the border with South Vietnam, the DMZ (demilitarized zone) from the South China Sea to the border with Laos.

It became a line with American labor camps, especially in the east, while in the west more minefields, electronic fields (heat fields and noise barriers) and reconnaissance aircraft were used. The cornerstone of the line, at 20 kilometers from the border with Laos, was "Khe Sanh" occupied by American marines.

The line was named after the then US defense minister and, in addition to the bombing of strategic targets in North Vietnam, he would bring the communists to the conference table quickly. It soon became clear that the bombing did not lead to the desired result and the NVA (the North Vietnamese army) would deploy a massive attack on "Khe Sanh" in 1968 to besiege it and then destroy it (like the Vietminh had done years before at Dien Bien Phu with the French.

Red mud

I put my big bag behind the glass counter and look at the house where people apparently live and sleep because I see a number of rooms with simple beds. One of the men arrives immediately with a wooden box full of relics of the war - a pin of the Vietcong, a coin from that time and an American label. I just pay the entrance fee of 20.000 NVD.

When I am walking up the area, the first building to be noticed is the large yellow triangular on large concrete piles, which the museum must be. It is a shame that everything has to be so grotesque when people come over here they want to visit the base and not that modern building. Looking around me, I see in the distance the mountains of which five were occupied by the Americans and bunkers were built to protect the base for enemy attacks.

The terrain in between was probably all occupied by soldiers too and part of the base. Now it is mostly green with some pieces of "red-brown" mud which was so characteristic of Vietnam. On the left side I see some artillery racks (replicas) made of sandbags in a moon shape and empty bomb- and artillery shelves. So for me the triangle with behind it a burnt-out tank, an armored car and another tank. To the right in the distance is a large plane and some barracks. I decide first to go to the furthest point because there is always the chance that it will rain and/or a tourist bus full of people will show up. Now I am completely alone here which makes it even more special.

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The C130 and the runway

When I am standing on the large rusted aluminum plates under the large C130 transport plane, I fall silence for a while. This is the extreme corner of the base (which is now part of museum) and in the distance I see the swaying grass plumes, the mountains, the red-white communication house at the end of the runway and some replica barracks.

The runway is now completely overgrown and I only see some concrete bins on the sides and some red-brownish earth. I walk around a bit myself before the man with his wooden box comes to try again to sell his stuff. He almost climbs the plane via the landing gear in which I will never succeed with my size and length. The man points at the 2 km long runway, at the house and tells about the fact that it was full of aluminum plates; where we now stand up he says he was put down in 1971 and here was a helicopter landing place.

As he walks back I take a look at the replica trenches and bunkers. Clearly, the now fossilized sandbags, the peepholes, the iron plates on the sides and in the trenches the iron sleeves that were laid over it to create a kind of tunnel effect. The two wooden barracks are empty. I walk past the tanks, the Sinouk helicopter, the ordinary helicopter and the armored car and see a woman in her vegetable garden which must have been the middle of the camp during the war-years.

Khe Sanh besieged:

In the first instance, the American military top concluded in the summer of 1967 (during the Vietnam War) that it concerned small offensive North Vietnamese border conflicts. During that autumn and winter it became clear that large quantities of NVA (North Vietnamese) were moving to the region. In January 1968 the encroachment of the furthest American base of the McNamara line began, which would took in total more than 5 months. The marines on the base and its perimeter would come under constant North Vietnamese fire every day despite the massive firepower that the Americans produced in the form of thousands of bombing flights and artillery fire.

In March 1968 a combined American - South Vietnamese breakthrough operation was organized that eventually broke through the North Vietnamese iron ring. Very brief attention was paid to victory as the Americans were wary of a second "Dien Bien Phu" and a new encirclement in the near future. The base was cleared and on 9 July the flag of the North Vietnamese flew on the former base. The area was immediately occupied by the Communists who were going to use it for the forwarding of supplies to the south via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It would be the first American camp to be evacuated in view of the pressure of the North Vietnamese.

Most historians assume that the battle and encroachment of the Americans in Khe Sanh has been a gigantic diversion for the two weeks later starting TET offensive of the Vietcong in the south. The military leader of the Americans would maintain that it was the other way around and that the "TET" offensive was a distraction for the destruction of the Americans in Khe Sanh.

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khe sanh coffee

On the other side of the museum there are some demolished artillery pieces and empty tubes of all sizes. I take a look at the three artillery positions that are almost overgrown - will these also be replicas? There is only one small entry in the almost full moon-circle and a part can be used (I assume) to store ammunition.

I walk into the museum along a bunker and a whole bunch of craters in the small grassfield next to it. Maps of the entire region with all American camps, photos of the Ho Chi Minh trail, the encirclement of Khe Sahn in 1968, the attack in 1971 of the South Vietnamese in Laos and the counterattack of the Communists. Showcases full of weapons, life attributes and counterfeit washing dolls.

Back at the guardhouse I take my bottle of water when I am offered a real Khe Sanh coffee; the man shows a suit and points to the coffee bushes behind us. He guarantees me it’s the real deal. While it starts to rain and I am still early enough, I order a cup. Behind my plastic table I see two elderly gentlemen arrive on bicycles; it turns out to be a Frenchman and an American. The latter is a Vietnam veteran; he was in the air force and was stationed in Danang from half '67 to half '68.

It was not a fun time he says and is positively surprised that I can name so many places in Vietnam where I've been and have to do with the war. After a chat, I decide to pick up and I get a free lift on the back of a motorbike back to the place the bus should stop.

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tips & advice (2014)

From the city Dong Ha - at or near the bus station along the busy road there are plenty of buses going to Lao Bao (Lao border) which also goes through Huong Ho (Khe Sanh city). The road is good and the journey takes about an hour. Costs are 40,000 VND but the inspectors try to get more money from you.

TIP: take a piece of paper that says Khe Sanh vien bao tongs which means museum of Khe Sanh. With this you get out a bit earlier (than the official busstop) and you are already on the right crossing leading to the museum.

If you want to return to the train station on the way back, ask them to drop you nearby (within walking distance) at the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 1. It is then another 500 meters to the south and on the right (in a short street) you see the train station. You now have to clamber over the rails because the front of the station is on the other side.

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