Lookatvietnam – Over 30 war veterans from HCM City’s Binh Thanh District experienced the feeling of being “back home” last Sunday, as they revisited former resistance base in a trip organised by local firm Viettours.

Homecoming kings: Ben Duoc Memorial Complex is a popular destination for tourists in such “homecoming” tours.

All members of the tour were elders who fought in the war for national liberation.

After a two-hour drive from HCM City to Tay Ninh Province, the veteran sightseers did not stop to enjoy the natural beauty of such sites as Ba Den (Black Lady) Mountains and the Vam Co River.

“We travelled one hour further along National Road 22 to reach the Viet Nam-Cambodia border,” says war veteran Nguyen Van Trung.

It is here that well-known historic sites such as Resistance Base R (the former southern Central Headquarters of the Liberation Force) and the An Thoi and Tua Hai underground passages are located.

Tunnel raiders: Tourists enjoy the mysterious Cu Chi Tunnels.

The base lies on a 72ha area in Tan Lap Commune, 64km from Tay Ninh. Since 1962, during the war, military operations and policies aiming at national reunification were organised from the base.

The beauty of the landscape and quietness of the forest within the base is breathtaking. Visitors often catch sight of monkeys, brown squirrels and birds.

Along twisting roads are small thatch-roof huts which provided shelter, as well as office space, to well-known senior officials of the Liberation Force such as Nguyen Van Linh, Nguyen Chi Thanh, Pham Hung, Vo Van Kiet and others.

Each hut has underground shelters linked by a communication trench network. The base has a system of underground tunnels totalling 1,500m in length.

Quiet Americans: Cu Chi is also a favourite place for American tourists.

“Here is the site of a well that we dug for over 20m but failed to obtain water,” one veteran said. “This pond of lotus flowers was a large bomb crater,” he added.

For each war veteran, this is both a place of great natural beauty and a reminder of the pain and sorrows of war, as well as the heroic deeds of thousands of soldiers who fought in it.

Tran Thi Gung could not hold her tears back as she sat in a hut, the roof of which was covered by trung quan leaves, a kind unique to forests in the resistance base.

“Trung quan leaves are not damaged by fire and were used to cover all huts in the base,” Gung said.

Gung was a bodyguard for Nguyen Thi Dinh, the only woman commander of the liberation army in the American War.

Leaving Tay Ninh, the group visited the Ben Duoc Memorial Complex which honours soldiers, who died in action at the Sai Gon-Gia Dinh front during the wars for national liberation and re-unification.

The complex, located next to the underground Cu Chi Tunnels, carries the names of more than 40,000 martyrs inscribed in 620 marble plaques on the memorial walls.

Leaving Ben Duoc after an hour’s visit, Ret. Major Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Danh, former deputy commander of the 4th Military Corps, said he hoped more “Back to former battlefield” tours would be organised in the future, so that war veterans around the country could take part in them.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News