March 5
Hotel Caravelle
Saigon
Dearest Ann,
While Ron writes a story, I'll get off a short note. We're on the sixth floor of the Caravelle overlooking part of downtown Saigon and directly overlooking the National Assembly. (which has a patch in its roof from a rocket hit last spring). Despite the news of last week, Saigon seems more secure than I had believed possible. The war seems both near and far. U.N. troops and police are at most intersections, many of which have sandbagged posts. At night, there is a constant overhead rumble of artillery fire. From the roof of the hotel on Monday night at midnight we watched a helicopter gunship send a stream of tracer bullets into the terrain 5 or 10 mines away, and last night we could see artillery shells exploding on the horizon. The sky is lit with flares over suspected VC positions and helicopters are constantly circling at night.
But life goes on here in the city in an unwarlike way. The streets are jammed with shoppers--many of them well dressed-- and the stores are well stocked with merchandise--TV sets, imported clothing from France and Italy etc. The streets are jammed with cars and motorbikes all day-- but after midnight are empty because of a curfew. The daytime noise level from the traffic is horrendous.
The city is quite a lovely place- wide traditional streets and handsome French buildings. We've been eating lunches and dinners at a pleasant little French restaurant up the street--and eating breakfast in a lovely garden courtyard of a hotel across the street from the Caravelle.
A senior military adviser from the province around Saigon drove us out to a hamlet last night on the edge of the city. Members of the popular self defense forces were standing guard on every corner. Most of them were young- 16 or 17-- and armed with carbines (something new since TET, when VC overran the hamlet). Then we drove out to a strategic bridge over the Saigon River where some VC activity was suspected. Another key bridge closer to Saigon had been mortared the night before. I was impressed with the caliber of the UN troops we met- there were 35 on duty, on the approaches, on the bridge, under the bridge and on the shores.One of them dropped an explosive charge into the river for us. They are dropped periodically to discourage the VC swimmers from approaching the bridge. The blast rattled the bridge.
The road to the bridge was lighted- as were most of the homes along the way and I felt about as safe as driving through East Middlebury.
There have been no rockets here since I arrived, though there were some on Monday morning-- one of which hit a hospital a couple of blocks from here. We drove over to another part of town Monday where one had hit a crowded working class neighborhood -- and killed several people.
Today, there was a Buddhist funeral procession past our hotel with seven caskets. But it wasn't much of a demonstration if that's what it was. The boy scouts on Monday were cleaning up the ruins of the blast site while the neighbors just stood around. I took this to be an indication of the nature of Vietnamese society.
More when I get home.
Love to all,
Leonard
Hotel Caravelle
Saigon
Dearest Ann,
While Ron writes a story, I'll get off a short note. We're on the sixth floor of the Caravelle overlooking part of downtown Saigon and directly overlooking the National Assembly. (which has a patch in its roof from a rocket hit last spring). Despite the news of last week, Saigon seems more secure than I had believed possible. The war seems both near and far. U.N. troops and police are at most intersections, many of which have sandbagged posts. At night, there is a constant overhead rumble of artillery fire. From the roof of the hotel on Monday night at midnight we watched a helicopter gunship send a stream of tracer bullets into the terrain 5 or 10 mines away, and last night we could see artillery shells exploding on the horizon. The sky is lit with flares over suspected VC positions and helicopters are constantly circling at night.
But life goes on here in the city in an unwarlike way. The streets are jammed with shoppers--many of them well dressed-- and the stores are well stocked with merchandise--TV sets, imported clothing from France and Italy etc. The streets are jammed with cars and motorbikes all day-- but after midnight are empty because of a curfew. The daytime noise level from the traffic is horrendous.
The city is quite a lovely place- wide traditional streets and handsome French buildings. We've been eating lunches and dinners at a pleasant little French restaurant up the street--and eating breakfast in a lovely garden courtyard of a hotel across the street from the Caravelle.
A senior military adviser from the province around Saigon drove us out to a hamlet last night on the edge of the city. Members of the popular self defense forces were standing guard on every corner. Most of them were young- 16 or 17-- and armed with carbines (something new since TET, when VC overran the hamlet). Then we drove out to a strategic bridge over the Saigon River where some VC activity was suspected. Another key bridge closer to Saigon had been mortared the night before. I was impressed with the caliber of the UN troops we met- there were 35 on duty, on the approaches, on the bridge, under the bridge and on the shores.One of them dropped an explosive charge into the river for us. They are dropped periodically to discourage the VC swimmers from approaching the bridge. The blast rattled the bridge.
The road to the bridge was lighted- as were most of the homes along the way and I felt about as safe as driving through East Middlebury.
There have been no rockets here since I arrived, though there were some on Monday morning-- one of which hit a hospital a couple of blocks from here. We drove over to another part of town Monday where one had hit a crowded working class neighborhood -- and killed several people.
Today, there was a Buddhist funeral procession past our hotel with seven caskets. But it wasn't much of a demonstration if that's what it was. The boy scouts on Monday were cleaning up the ruins of the blast site while the neighbors just stood around. I took this to be an indication of the nature of Vietnamese society.
More when I get home.
Love to all,
Leonard
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