Tearing Down Statues - Glasgow Next?

Is It Time To Remove These Glasgow Statues?

While American cities have recently been taking down Confederate statues, it has been greeted with both protests and with cheers. Some people have been looking a how public sculpture in Glasgow tells one version of our history, and questioning whether some of our statues showed be condemned to the scrap heap. This left me wondering who the men are (they are pretty much all men, except for the odd horse) that stand on the plinths of Glasgow, and do we still want them in our public spaces? Do they represent a manipulated version of history that omits the victims? Are these the people we should be proud of?

"Their effigies should no longer be allowed to thrust themselves upon public attention"

When I was growing up "General Lee" was just the car from Dukes of Hazard. Those "good ol' boys, never meaning no harm" drove about with their car decorated in the Confederate flag. For many this flag represents the ideas of slavery and of white supremacy which the southern states fought for in the American Civil War. General Robert E. Lee was a slave owner, and a commander of the defeated Confederate Army in the Civil War. He has been revered by some in the South ever since the defeat of their armies, an embodiment of their cause, and he has become a totemic figure for many white supremacists.

However the crux of the matter is that the war was fought by the southern states to defend their right to enslave black people, attitudes that continued long after the end of the American Civil War in 1865. It wasn't until 1964 that America repealed racist laws which allowed segregation in schools, public places, and jobs. Not until The Voting Rights Act of 1965 were black people given the right to vote in some American states. America clearly still remains a deeply divided country, with economic equality still a long way off. Now under the presidency of Donald Trump, newly emboldened racists are openly chanting Fascist slogans on the streets of America. For many the statues no longer represent historical figures, but represent an entrenched racism from the past that has never been expunged. Like many other cities, Charlottesville's city council voted to remove their Confederate statues, and in the backlash an anti-fascist protester was murdered.

Statue of General Lee in Charlottesville erected in 1924,
which recently triggered violence in the city with it's planned removal

Statues represent more than the individual portrayed. They can display the craftsmanship and skill of the artist that created the work. They can provide a rallying point, a lesson from the past or recall a painful collective memory. They can be designed to provide humour, pride or fear and a statue can sell an image or an idea to a local population, or to the wider world. But ideas are fluid things, and when your time has passed, there is literally no more iconoclastic an image than that of a statue of a once mighty leader being torn down. 

US Marines tear down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, 2003

1500 year old Buddha of Bamiyanin Afghanistan, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 

In a rather prophetic speech (1) given in 1913 at the unveiling of a statue to scientist and inventor Lord Kelvin in Glasgow, then Lord Rector of Glasgow University, Augustine Birrell MP, described statues as "often doubtful joys" and said 

"...some day orators might be employed to go about the country, not unveiling but veiling old statues, and delivering speeches not in appreciation but in depreciation of their subjects, and showing cause why their effigies should no longer be allowed to thrust themselves upon public attention."

Once he had got that rather unorthodox unveiling speech off his chest he asserted that "...no such unkind fate will ever befall the statue which it is my honour to unveil." before revealing the statue that still stands, or actually sits, in Kelvingrove Park to this day. 

One of over 1,000 Lenin statues removed in Ukraine 

A flaccid Confederate statue in North Carolina, 2017

In recent times statues around the world are being re-evaluated. Often this is in the context of looking at the history of empire from a more reflective perspective. In South Africa a statue of colonialist Cecil Rhodes was removed from the University of Cape Town in front of cheering crowds, and in Australia there are some calling for statues of Captain Cook to be removed, as the place was actually there before he "discovered" it.

In Edinburgh a new plaque is to be placed on the statue of Henry Dundas in St Andrew's Square, more accurately reflecting his role in delaying the abolition of slavery. However even though this is referencing actions he took in the 1790s it has caused complaints from his descendants, including "professional polo player and aristocrat", the current Viscount Melville.

Who do we remember in Glasgow's statues?

Off the top of my head I was not able to name any great tyrants among the statuary in Glasgow city centre, I more thought of them as a collection of anonymous merchants and non-specific colonialists. I walk past many of the statues in Glasgow without paying the slightest attention to who we have raised on a pedestal above the common man in this city. So I have tried to get a handle on who we have memorialised.

When a proposal to move the statues in George Square was made five years ago I spent a morning trying to look a bit more closely at who the statues were (for more information read here).

The people who got to choose which individuals were commemorated were, by and large, those who had influence in the 19th century administration. The statues show us the image that the city burghers were trying to portray of Glasgow's place in the Empire, respecting the imperialists of the day, and the scientists and artists that contributed to their worldview.

I have previously written about the links between Glasgow's wealth founded on slavery, and its industrial growth. It is not a history that the city tells very well yet, but steps are being taken to address this. Scottish artists are also looking at this history, such as Douglas Gordon's Black Burns installation in Edinburgh or with the "Empire Cafe" during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

So are the statues in Glasgow tributes to oppressors, thieves and slave traders?

 

Field Marshal Lord Clyde, with Sir Walter Scott in the background, George Square

• George Square

In George Square, at the heart of out city, there stands a real hotchpotch of unconnected individuals. 

The statues here were erected between 1819 and 1902. They represent two poets (Robert Burns and Thomas Campbell), novelist Sir Walter Scott in the centre, two scientists (James Watt and Thomas Graham), two monarchs (Victoria and Albert), three politicians (William Gladstone, Sir Robert Peel and James Oswald), two soldiers (Field Marshall Lord Clyde and Sir John Moore) and the Cenotaph war memorial (added in 1924). 

Robert Burns is now remembered for his liberal views, and his poetry espousing the common man. However, before his poetry brought him fame he was on the verge of travelling to Jamaica in 1786, to take up the post as bookkeeper on an estate there. At the time these estates were powered by slave labour, and in the end he did not travel. Burns's only recorded comment on slavery comes in the poem he wrote six years later, The Slave's Lament which shows a more critical view of slavery at a time when abolitionists were beginning to speaking out about it in the British Empire.

Thomas Campbell was a poet of some renown in the early 19th century, but is a rather forgotten figure now. Moving to Virginia in about 1737, his father made his fortune as a tobacco merchant, trading between the colonies, where slave labour was used, and Glasgow. With the American War of Independence he lost his business and returned to Glasgow, where his son was born in 1777.

In 1819 Sir John Moore's was the first statue placed in George Square, 10 years after the Glasgow born soldier died in the Peninsular War whilst securing a famous victory against Napoleon's army. He had also served in Ireland, Egypt, the American Wars and in India. In 1796 he helped retake St Lucia from rebel slaves. You may only known him as the name of an anonymous Wetherspoons pub in Argyle Street, but no plaque or information in Gerorge Square gives you any context to his military career. His fellow soldier in George Square is Colin Cambell, First Baron Clyde, whose list of  actions on behalf of the British Empire includes fighting in the war against the United States in 1812, suppressing a slave rebellion in Demerara, Guyana in 1823, fighting in the First Opium War against China in 1842, the Sikh Wars in India in 1848-9, in 1854 he commanded the Highland Brigade in the Crimean War and  he relieved the siege of Lucknow in the Indian Mutiny in 1857. It is estimated that up to 800,000 Indians died during the uprising, including many from subsequent famine.

Sir Robert Peel was the most prominent Tory politician of his day. The son of a wealthy industrialist and a hereditary baron he held posts in government as under-secretary for war and the colonies, secretary for Ireland, Home Secretary and twice Prime Minister. After initially opposing The Reform Act and laws allowing Catholics the right to vote, he later supported these legislations and led the repeal of The Corn Laws. His only real Glasgow connection is his election in 1836 as Rector of Glasgow University.

Liverpool born politician William Gladstone was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom four times and is depicted in George Square in his robes as rector of Glasgow University. His father, a corn merchant from Leith, moved to Liverpool and increased his wealth via the sugar trade. He was a slave owner who received a fortune at the time of emancipation. His father's money gave William Gladstone access to an education in Eton and Christ Church, and he spent 60 years as a member of parliament. Though Gladstone became known a the archetypal "liberal" politician in his later years, his first speech in parliament was in opposition to a slavery-abolition bill.

James Oswald is immortalised in George Square holding his hat by his side, which was at one time used as a common challenge among locals, trying to toss a stone into it. He was a Whig MP for Glasgow in the the 1832-1847. His statue was initially in Sandyford Place but friends and family campaigned for it to be given the same prominence as his parliamentary colleague, Robert Peel. He inherited a fortune from his great-uncle Richard Oswald of Auchincruive a prominent Glasgow slave owner with interests in the West Indes, Virginia and Madeira, but James Oswald himself was a signatory to a petition in 1836 calling for the abolition of the Apprenticeship Scheme. After 1847 he retired to the family estate.

• Cathedral Square

King William of Orange in Glasgow, a copy of a Roman statue

If you were asked what is the oldest sculptural landmark in Glasgow, would you have guessed that it is King Billy? King William III, Prince of Orange died in 1702 from pneumonia after being injured in a fall from his horse. Thirty-three years later he was memorialised atop a horse, in a statue in Glasgow commissioned by James Macrae, who had made his money as "Governor of the Presidency of Madras". On his return to Scotland, Macrae purchased an estate in Ayrshire, and renamed it Orangefield. From 1735 the statue stood prominently outside the Tontine building at the Trongate, initially with four canons allegedly from the Battle of the Boyne protecting its base. Here it stood for many years until the re-development in the area required its removal, and from 1926 it has stood rather more discreetly in the gardens at Cathedral Square. Renovations at this time added the curious articulation to the tail to let if blow in the wind.

Thomas Annan photograph from 1868 showing the statue of King William of Orange outside the Tontine Building

As a piece or art it isn't the greatest sculpture in town, modeled on the ancient statue of Marcus Aurelius that sits atop the Capitoline Hill in Rome, with King Billy dressed as the Emperor of Rome. This statue is a good example of a diplomatic compromise. Those who commissioned this work want to promote their hero and their perspective on the world, whereas there are many other people in the same city, who would have a diametrically opposite view of this person. The compromise here is a less prominent position where those who hold him high can gather on the 12th of July, whilst others can ignore him if they chose.

The other statues in and around Cathedral Square include a statue of he one-time minister of the nearby Barony Church, Reverend Dr Norman Macleod, the first statue erected in the square, in 1881.

James White of Overtoun, lawyer, businessman and chemical manufacturer whose Shawfield business, J&J White, employed 500 people and at one time produced 70% of the UK's chromate products. Today there is a significant legacy of soluble chromium waste in the area as a result.

James Arthur, clothing manufacturer and wholesaler who went into business with Hugh Fraser to create a business on Buchanan Street that later became Fraser's when they went their own way. His wife, Jane Glen, was related to the Coat's family of thread manufacturers and was a prominent supporter of women's suffrage. She became the first woman to stand for and be elected to a school board, in Paisley in 1873. After her husband's death she established the Arthur Bursary to promote the medical education of women. Their son, Matthew Arthur, 1st Baron Glenarthur, ran the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company, so was boss to my wife's grandfather who worked in the mines of Fife.

Statue of James Lumsden in Cathedral Square, Glasgow

James Lumsden, one time stationery manufacturer, chairman of the Clydesdale Bank and Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1843-1846. He is praised for his promotion of  "the public interests and benevolent enterprises of his native city" on the plinth of his statue. As honorary treasurer for the Royal Infirmary he was placed nearby after his death for the money he raised for Royal Infirmary over 19 years. He also as lord provost laid the foundation stone for the University of Glasgow's new Gilmorehill building. However, he is also known to have been investing illegally in blockade runner ships. These profitable enterprises ran ships through the Union blockade to supply the Confederate army with guns and ammunition, therefore prolonging the American Civil War (2).

David Livingstone statue, Cathedral Square, Glasgow

Last but not least, in Cathedral Square, stands David Livingston, I presume. He is a complex character who sums up much of the rights and wrongs of the Victorian era. He started work at the age of 10 in the local cotton mill at Blantyre where he worked for 16 years to support his family. He saved money to enter Anderson College and trained as a doctor, whilst also studying divinity, with the aim of becoming a medical missionary. His divinity lectures from Ralph Wardlaw, a prominent anti-slavery campaigner, had a strong influence upon his views. He became a missionary in Africa and his expeditions led to commercial and imperial expansion. He believed that "legitimate trade" in Africa would push out slavery in the continent and he tried to create Christian, commercial highways into Africa. He spent time reporting on the horrors of slavery on his returns from African expeditions. His travels later inspired colonial rule in Africa and white settlement in the African interior. His statue in front of Glasgow Cathedral was moved here from its original position in George Square in 1960 (see, they don't need to stay in the same place forever).

A more dramatic statue of David Livingstone, created by Ray Harryhaussen for the David Livingstone Centre, Blantyre

• Kelvingrove Park

Statue of Lord Kelvin, in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow

The other place in Glasgow where a collection of figurative sculptures is to be found is Kelvingrove Park. This includes one sculpture, that of Field Marshal Earl Roberts, for which a change.org petition has been started to call for its removal.

Sculpture of a Bengal Tigress, Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow

The first sculpture to be put in Kelvingrove Park was much less controversial though, a handsome sculpture of a Bengal tigress bringing a dead peacock to its cubs, unveiled in 1867. It was a gift to the city from an expatriate son of a Glasgow merchant, a John S. Kennedy. He ordered this cast of a sculpture produced from the original he had seen at the Paris Exhibition that year. Another copy of this tiger stands in Central Park Zoo in New York.

War Memorials in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow

Two dramatic war memorials can be found in the park. The Highland Light Infantry Memorial records the names of the locals who died in the South African wars of 1899-1902. The pith-helmeted soldier on scouting duty perches atop a rocky outcrop, looking as if he is ready to fall off, a veritable embodiment of British Empire soldiery. The other war memorial is equally dramatic, the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) War Memorial, unveiled in 1924 to the memory of those who lost their lies in the First World War, with a soldier dramatically going over the top, with his fallen colleague lying beside him. This memorial was unveiled by Earl Haig, a man whose name has now become synonymous with the futile carnage of the First World War.

Two scientists can be found just off Kelvin Way, the seated figures of Lord Kelvin, renowned phsyicist and inventor and of Joseph Lister, the pioneer of antiseptic surgery. Both these men had close Glasgow connections in their lifetimes and I have written about them elsewhere.

Statue of Thomas Carlyle in Kelvingrove Park

A 1916 addition the the sculptures in the park is that of Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish philosopher and social commentator, who was born in Ecclefechan. He wrote essays and histories on many topics. His controversial views on slavery, expressed in his essay "Occaisional Discourse on the Negro Question" tarnished his reputation and expressed racist attitudes that were obviously common in te circles he was keeping. His statue appears to be forcing its way out of a rough lump of granite and I don't think it is entirely successful as a sculpture. Unfortunately his nose has repeatedly fallen off (although when I went to have a look today, it has actually been repaired again), which gives his face an unfortunate similarity to Dr Zaius from the original Planet of the Apes film.

Dr Zaius

Given the most prominent position in Kelvingrove Park, is Field Marshal Earl Roberts. Riding his Arab charger "Volonel" he stands on top of an impressive plinth, looking out over Glasgow University and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery from his lofty position. As a work of sculpture it is designed to impress, and it does. The horse is skillfully portrayed and Earl Roberts stares steadfastly ahead of his tense beast. He was the type of 'hero soldier' that appealed to Rudyard Kipling, who wrote three poems in his honour. 

Field Marshal Earl Roberts statue looks out over Glasgow

Figures representing "War" and "Victory" are found front and back of the plinth, and the frieze around the sides shows Roberts leading infantry and cavalry divisions of Sikh, Gurkha and Highland regiments marching from Kabul to Kandahar. Below is a silent film of the Glasgow unveiling in 1916, shortly after his death. It is incorrectly labelled that his wife performed the unveiling, but it was actually performed by his daughter, Lady Roberts and the Earl of Derby.

The statue is a replica of the original which was erected in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1894, on a parade ground there. After independence the statue was removed, and now stands in an Artillary Centre in Nashik, in Maharashtra. Another copy of the statue was made in 1924 and stands on Horseguards' Parade in London. 

The original of the Earl Roberts statue, still in India (photo from TripAdvisor)

As you come and look around the plinth, the list of all his great achievements as commander of the British forces greets you. Eyebrows begin to be raised. Listed here are British Imperial campaigns to demonstrate his valour, but now looking at those place names it seems you can recognise too many of the world's ongoing, festering conflicts, ignited by British Imperial rule.

How to remember the past?

To tell the story of any of the Victorian worthies above is to tell the story of the British Empire. Even those not directly connected to for example, the slave trade, often earned their family wealth and position in society from the exploitation of others in the preceding generations. Whilst the Empire brought wealth and trade for some in Britain, it brought terror, oppression, exploitation and indentured servitude for many people, long after slavery had been nominally abolished. A quick search of "British Empire atrocities" brings up stories of Boer concentration camps, the Armritsar massacre, the crushing of the Iraqi revolution in the 1920s, the 10 million people displaced by the partitioning of India and exacerbation of the Irish famine to pick a few at random. None of these stories are remembered on our statues.

Looking at these Imperial statues today it is hard not to think of the sonnet by Percy Shelley, Ozymandias, where a crumbling statue tells you to gaze at the might of the ancient king. But as you look around, there is only hubris. Nothing remains of the mighty kingdom, and all the traveller can admire and be impressed by is the skill and craftsmanship of the sculptor who created the king's memorial.

Ozymandias 

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command. 
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

I am not convinced that we benefit from crushing these statues to dust. Many of them seem to have lost any relevance to the modern city, and they portray a world that no longer exists. However our current world grew from our collective past and unless we study how we got here, it will be hard to see where we should go next. I would prefer that the statues remain, but are used to tell the stories of the past properly. I can think of many more deserving people who should be in that place of prominence above Glasgow occupied by Earl Roberts. However I would still like this fine statue to be placed somewhere that it can be used to tell the story of the people oppressed by those men that former generations placed upon these lofty pedestals. If we know them, we can look out for them in the present. Raise new statues to the great men and women of our cities that we don't learn about in school - the Mary Barbours, John MacLeans, the Calton Weavers who died in Scotland's first industrial strike, Helen Crawfurd, Robert Owen, Thomas Muir. Have a change from the usual Old Firm footballing statues with  Emma Clarke, the first black woman to play football for Scotland in 1881 or Scotland's first boxing world champion, Benny Lynch. The last of the literary figures immortalised in George Square died in 1844, I am sure we could update that. Perhaps with poet Marion Bernstein, or living legend, Tom Leonard.

This would be a better story to tell.



(1) - Glasgow Weekly Herald, 11 Oct 1913
(2) - Sunday Herald, Sept 9, 2017
Many of the details included here were taken from the fantastic book "Public Sculptures of Glasgow" by Ray McKenzie 2002.

Vietnam - Perception and Reality

Vietnam 2017

I was recently lucky enough to enjoy a holiday to Vietnam with my family. It was a trip we had planned for a long time, with the aim of seeing as much of the country as possible. Like many people in the West, my perceptions of Vietnam and its people are largely coloured by ideas about the Vietnam War (or the American War as the Vietnamese often call it). Whilst it is obviously an enormous issue in Vietnam, when I was there I was struck by how much the Vietnamese have moved on from this, and are living in the present and looking to the future.

My Preconceptions of Vietnam

• War

As I was born in the early 1970s, my earliest images and impressions of Vietnam have been shaped by Hollywood. The Vietnam War has been an endless source of material for the cinema - Wikipedia lists 171 films about the Vietnam War. These vary from John Wayne's laughable 1968 pro-war film The Green Berets, to later, post-war American movies which largely focus on the suffering of American soldiers who fought there. The traumatised war veterans feature in Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Jacob's Ladder, Born on the Fourth of July, Rambo: First Blood, and still it continues, with Samuel L. Jackson's trigger-happy character in last year's film Kong: Skull Island.

The brutality of the conflict (again, largely its effects on the American combatants) is portrayed in films such as Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Apocalypse Now or Hamburger Hill and service in Vietnam can be a cinematic shorthand for someone's fighting spirit (eg X-Men Origins: Wolverine opening titles and Watchmen, where Dr Manhattan and The Comedian win the war for America).

Huế in Vietnam, or Beckton Gasworks in Full Metal Jacket?

These films show a leech-infested, jungle of a country, where largely non-speaking locals are either passive Southern Vietnamese, crazed and cruel Viet Cong, or are prostitutes. Sometimes a film tries to stand out from the crowd by taking a tangential approach to the conflict, such as "the best military comedy since M*A*S*H", Good Morning Vietnam, but again Americans are the focus. What is lacking throughout all of this is any significant cinematic attempt to deal with the question of why the American army was there in the first place. Vietnam (and it's people) are also largely absent as the Philippines (Apocalypse Now), Thailand (Good Morning Vietnam) or Beckton Gasworks and the Isle of Dogs (Full Metal Jacket) stand in for the country. This is a major complaint of the narrator in Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer prize winning novel The Sympathizer, where he berates a Hollywood director for having no Vietnamese characters with a speaking part in his war film, and for using any old Asian-looking person to act as his fellow countrymen.

The Vietnam War was won by the Vietnamese people, but at a high cost. The country was devastated. The use of napalm and chemical weapons, such as Monsanto's defoliant, Agent Orange, damaged huge swathes of the country, which could no longer be farmed and has led to generations of people born with birth defects and disabilities. The fighting and American carpet-bombing led to estimated Vietnamese fatalities during the conflict varying from 1 to 3 million people. War was not at an end in 1970s after the Americans left Vietnam, as incursions by the Khmer Rouge on Vietnam's western border led to 10 years of fighting in Cambodia, before the Vietnamese were again victorious. By 1986, with decreased support from the USSR, the Vietnamese economy was struggling. The "đổi mới" economic changes made that year by the government aimed to create a "socialist orientated market economy". 

Incongruous roadside posters as Vietnam aims at a "socialist orientated market economy".
One has "trolley dollies" advertising cheap flights, the other declares "The Party and People of Thua Thien Hue decided to successfully implement the Resolution of the XII National Party Congress and the Resolution of the XV Provincial Party Congress"

• Poverty

Vietnam is a developing country and still a very low wage economy, as you can probably tell by the number of day to day items we use which now say "Made in Vietnam" on them, particularly clothing and shoes. Our guide books warned us of areas where beggars and petty crime could be problematic. Together with my Hollywood images of a backwards, rural country and guide books and occasional news stories flagging up issues of drug use and prostitution I was expecting to land in a place far removed from my city life in Glasgow.

Hanoi Bike Shop, Glasgow

• Food

After the end of the Vietnam War, many refugees left the country, the "boat people" that I remember from watching the news in my childhood. Sizeable groups of them ended up living in Australia, Canada, America and France and it was in Canada that I first ate in a Vietnamese restaurant when some family in Toronto took me to one in their city. I cannot remember much about the food, except that it was nothing like anything we had in Glasgow at the time. Recently there have been two restaurants serving up Vietnamese food which have opened in my hometown, and I had taken my children to them a few times in recent months to try to give them a flavour of what to expect on holiday. Although I found the food great my daughter, who likes mild dishes, found much of the food in Hanoi Bike Shop off Byres Road too spicy and my sons, who like spicy foods, found Non Viet on Sauchiehall Street a bit heavy on the herbs. In both places I had ordered a catfish claypot dish (cá kho tộ) which sounded great to me, but found the fish bland and watery and the sauce overly caramelised and cloying. I was hoping we would find something for everyone's tastes once we got there. 

Truc Bach beer and an ice cream in a Viet Cong themed cafe, Hanoi.

• Literature

I like to read a bit from local authors before visiting a country, but really struggled in this respect when trying to do my homework for our Vietnamese trip. There are many books about the American experience in Vietnam, but I struggled to find much from a Vietnamese viewpoint. The Sympathizer, which I mentioned above, gave an interesting perspective, that of a Southern Vietnamese soldier working as a Viet Cong agent at the end of the war. There were also some short stories which I found after searching second hand bookstores online. Beyond that the best book that I read was Graham Greene's The Quiet American. This opened my eyes to a part of Vietnamese history that gets overshadowed by the American's involvement in the country; the French colonial wars. Graham Greene disowned the 1958 film version of his book, for changing the whole message of his book as a cautionary anti-war tale into an anti-communist "propaganda film for America" as he described it. The book, written in 1955, has louche foreign correspondents sitting about at the Continental Hotel in Saigon writing articles the French authorities are giving them about their failing war against the Viet Minh forces led by Ho Chi Minh. The CIA characters in the book are trying to intervene in American interests by arming South Vietnamese groups, which ultimately resulted in full scale American intervention in the country a few years after the book was written. The 2002 film version of the story, starring Michael Caine, is more faithful to the original book and much of it is actually filmed in Vietnam.

• History

Before the French controlled Vietnam, as part of French Indochina, Vietnam was an independent country for almost 1000 years. By 1884 the whole country was under French rule, and Saigon is home to many boulevards, civic buildings and theatres from that time which would not look out of place on a Parisian street. During Japanese occupation in World War 2 the American OSS (forerunner to the CIA) supported the rebel Viet Minh forces that launched guerrilla attacks against the Japanese. The Japanese exploited the same Vietnamese natural resources that the French had been taking, and as a consequence famine in 1945 led to the deaths of 2 million Vietnamese people. After the war Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh declared independence for his country in the northern city of Hanoi on V-J Day. Mere months after their own liberation from German rule, the French sent an expeditionary force to Vietnam to re-establish colonial rule and in September 1945 guerrilla warfare had begun against them, which led to full scale conflict until 1954 when the Geneva peace accords established a temporary partition between North and South Vietnam. In their efforts to keep communist rule out of South-East Asia the Americans had been increasingly funding the French war efforts and arming Southern Vietnamese forces. In the late 1950s increasing numbers of American personnel were sent to Vietnam to train and support the Southern Vietnam government.

In 1964 the Americans falsely reported that North Vietnamese ships had attacked their vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin, and used this as a pretext to launch American ground combat operations. American numbers peaked in 1969 when they had over 500,000 troops in Vietnam. At the start of 1975, by the time the Americans withdrew, the Southern Vietnamese army still had far more artillery, tanks, aircraft and troops than Ho Chi Minh's National Liberation Front. However by April of that year Saigon fell. Twenty four hours after a panicked helicopter evacuation from the roof of the American embassy in the city, tanks of the North Vietnamese Army burst through the gates of the presidential palace and raised the Viet Cong flag above the city.

What did we find?

Vietnam is a country we had been planning to visit for many years, so once we managed to get there we spent two weeks trying not to miss anything, and taking in as much as we could. We traveled as a group of seven, three generations of my family. I think that in every single respect Vietnam exceeded all of our expectations, the trip was a real eye-opener for everyone.

Souvenir from our visit to the re-named Independence Palace, Ho Chi Minh City

• War

On first arrival in Hanoi we were curious to see how the Vietnamese view their recent history. From the start it was obvious that their interests are far more concerned with building towards the future. For the Vietnamese, the American War was a continuation of an anti-colonial war going back many years. Our driver from Hanoi airport into the city centre pointed out Truc Bach Lake as we drove past it, telling us this was where John McCain was captured when his plane was shot down whilst on a bombing raid to destroy a power plant in Hanoi. McCain received multiple fractures as he ejected from his plane and was famously held prisoner in Hỏa Lò prison for two years (re-named the Hanoi Hilton by American POWs), before spending another three years in various prisons. Other drivers and people we spoke to were sometimes less willing, and often less interested, in talking about the war.

One of the cells at Hỏa Lò prison

We visited what remains of Hỏa Lò prison. John McCain's flying suit is on display here, but most of the exhibits focus on the brutal regime Vietnamese prisoners (who included Ho Chi Minh) were held under by the French, with people guillotined in public outside the gates of the prison into the 1930s. In Hanoi there sits the Imperial Citadel where the country's emperors resided until 1802. Amongst its its historical buildings a military bunker hides, which operated as a command centre from 1967 during the American War. Little is made of it in the local guides and site maps, and you won't find it unless you go seeking it out. Just south of the citadel is the Military History Museum, where a lot of the focus is on the conflict from the 1930s against the French. In the courtyard outside MiGs, tanks and helicopters jostle for space, with the most prominent feature being a pile of wreckage from American planes beside a striking image of a female Vietnamese soldier dragging wreckage from the water.

Military History Museum, Hanoi

Much of the fighting was at its most brutal in central Vietnam, around the "demilitarized zone", and particularly in Hue. The national capital from 1802 until 1945, the Imperial Citadel here was flattened in the fighting that followed the Tet Offensive in 1968. The palace here is being rebuilt from the rubble, but many of the walls and buildings are still riddled with bullet holes and shell damage. Again this is shown without any comment on the fighting, the focus is on the former life of the site as a palace, the lifestyle and buildings which the royal families led. 

War damage is clearly visible around the city of Hue

Hidden in the jungle near to the city of Hoi An lies My Son, a UNESCO world heritage site consisting of an area of Hindu temples built by the Champa people between the 4th and 14th century. Before the 1960s over 70 temples stood here, but when the area was extensively bombed by American B-52s in 1968 much of the site was destroyed. Tourists are warned not to venture off the site as many unexploded bombs still hide in the undergrowth. Bomb craters and shell damage are visible across this evocative and beautiful site, but as in other places in Vietnam next to no mention is made of the war at the site. If people are still harbouring anger about the damage inflicted on their country here and elsewhere, they are not shouting about it.

One of many bomb craters at My Son

Shrapnel damage on a monument in My Son

In Ho Chi Minh City in the south we visited The War Remnants Museum, where a comprehensive collection of photographs and personal testimony tells the story of the wars in Vietnam throughout the 20th century. Again much emphasis is placed on the French controlled period and a balanced and factual, rather than emotive tone is struck. The guide books had warned of grim detail presented here on the damage caused by Agent Orange, but I found it restrained if anything, and prominence was given to American servicemen who suffered health problems too after coming into contact with it. Millions of gallons of this were dropped over the Vietnamese countryside, to destroy crops and forest cover. Up to half a million Vietnamese children are believed to have been born with serious birth defects due to these chemicals, with many others killed, maimed or later developing cancers as a result of the chemicals. Whilst American veterans have been compensated for their health problems, American courts have repeatedly rejected Vietnamese claims for compensation. Large areas of central Vietnam are only now again being able to produce crops and there are active re-forestation programmes ongoing. On many excursions we went on, stops were made at craft workshops where disabled people were employed and fund-raising activities for the victims of Agent Orange were apparent.

War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City

In several of the museums space was given to highlight anti-war protests in the 1960s around the world, with photographs, banners and flags on display from demonstrations from Havana to London. For me visiting these places with my parents was very poignant as it was in the late 1960s that my parents met, working in the same department store in Glasgow during their school holidays. Aged 17, my dad spent a week tattie howking (harvesting potatoes), which he has told me was the most back-aching work he has ever done, in order to raise money for his bus fare to London to join one of the demonstrations there in October 1968 against the Vietnam War. It was the start of a lifetime of political activism for my parents. These protests around the world were being observed and appreciated in Vietnam. 

Display in Hanoi Military History Museum

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The "remnants of war" are scattered all over the country, and can be sought out if you are looking to explore this period in Vietnam's history. But Vietnam as a country has a very long history and this is only a part of the whole story that they are keen to tell. It is also a country with many young people (86% of the Vietnamese population is aged under 55, whilst in Britain it is 70%) and many of them are looking more towards their future. 

One of the most visited sites relating to the American War are the Cu Chi tunnels in the south. This extensive 250km range of underground tunnels was initially used during the French rule and extended under American bombardment, and became an important part of the Viet Cong resistance to the Americans. When we went, there was a continuous stream of tourists passing through the displays about all aspects of tunnel life scattered among the trees here. Crawling through the tunnels, many of which have now been widened to accommodate tourists' girth, it was difficult to imagine what life was really like for the villagers of this region under bombardment. With the continuous ratatata of machine guns on the firing range beside the site and the jostling of different tour groups, maybe the Vietnamese are right to limit the war voyeurism to a small number of sites and focus on the experiences of those that lived through it in their museums.

One of my children emerging from a tunnel at Cu Chi

• More History

What I was less aware of before travelling to Vietnam was the history of the country prior to the twentieth century. Paleolithic peoples lived here 500,000 years ago. For four thousand years people have cultivated rice in what is now Vietnam. In Hoi An we visited a wee museum that displays terracotta artefacts from the Sa Huynh people that lived in the area from 200BCE. More spectacular were the temples at My Son. Built by the Cham people who lived along the central coast from the 4th century. The temples are to Hindu gods which reflects the trading that was going on around the coast with peoples in India. The Japanese and Chinese traded with the peoples along the coast too and also left their imprint on the architecture. In the north of Vietnam, Chinese rule lasted for a thousand years, introducing Confucianism. In 938AD the Chinese rulers were ousted and Viet rule began. Imperial citadels along the Chinese lines were built first in the capital, Hanoi, and then later in Hue which became the capital in 1802.

My Son, Vietnam

The Confuscian Temple of Literature, Hanoi

In the Imperial Citadel, Hue

A Chinese Assembly Hall, Hoi An

Lanterns in Hoi An at night

Hoi An

The first Westerners to arrive in Vietnam were believed to be traders from ancient Rome. Marco Polo sailed up the coast here in the 13th century and the Portuguese set up a trading post in Hanoi in 1535, when the town was a bustling port filled with vessels from Japan and China. With the Westerners came Christian missionaries seeking converts, a situation that was later exploited by the French to establish a colonial foothold in the country. On the pretext of rescuing French priests the French sent an expeditionary force to bombard Da Nang in the 1840s and their increasing forces advanced southwards. Holding gradually more sway over subsequent emperors, the French fleet drew into the Perfume River near Hue and took possession of the whole country, making it (with Laos and Cambodia) part of Indochina after 1887. Exporting tobacco, tea, coffee, indigo and rubber from their colony and building theatres, hotels and municipal buildings in the French style, the colonial rulers first met serious rebellion in the 1930s.

Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam from exile in 1925. After trouble with the French authorities in 1911 he had left Vietnam, working in London kitchens, Brooklyn docks and settling in Paris where he met other anti-colonial dissidents and was a founding member of the French Communist Party in 1920. First against the French, then the Americans, Ho Chi Minh was the force that drove Vietnam to independence. 

"Nothing is more important than independence and freedom" was his famous mantra. 

French-built Opera House, Hanoi

Old telex machines in the bunker beneath the former Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh City

Statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of the former Hotel de Ville, now the People's Committee Building

Skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City, not unlike the cinematic "Avengers Tower"

A monk contemplates the skyscrapers sprouting up along the banks of the Saigon River

• People

I come from Scotland, a country of 6 million people, and live in its largest city, Glasgow, which has a population of about 600,000. Vietnam is a country which has an area 50% greater than that of the entire United Kingdom, a population of over 92 million people, and its two largest cities each are more populous than the whole of Scotland (Hanoi 8 million people and Ho Chi Minh City 9 million).

In these rapidly growing cities the infrastructure struggles to cope at times with congested streets awash with mopeds. In Hanoi there are 5 million mopeds and scooters and with increasing numbers of cars adding to the congestion in Ho Chi Minh City, new transport infrastructure is clearly needed, with a basic metro system being built at present. However the traffic has developed its own unique system that bizarrely seems to just about work. The drivers flow slowly around one another, and around any pedestrians, who must learn to just stride out through the flow to cross any road. Whilst we were there the drivers all accommodated one another, moved around each other and no raised voices or road rage were seen by us. A calm demeanour seems an essential attribute for Vietnamese commuters, but we found a friendly, composed and assured manner in every local that we spoke to.

Long queues to enter Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum in Hanoi

From our entertaining drive from the airport into Hanoi, to those crowded around us in the long queue to get into the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum people were chatty, helpful, courteous and interested in where we were from. School children approached us on occasion to talk and practice their impressively fluent English. We were mobbed once on a street by a laughing group of high school children who had been tasked with recording themselves talking to foreigners for a class project. A guide on one excursion we went on asked us about whether their would be another Scottish independence referendum and what we thought about David Cameron's decision to hold the Brexit vote, shamefully making us realise our completely parochial perspective on world events as we were unable to ask him much about domestic Vietnamese politics.

There has been huge economic growth in Vietnam in recent decades, but the impression we got was that the government has tried to make sure the benefits are felt across society. The World Bank reports that the percentage of people in Vietnam living below the poverty line in Vietnam has fallen from 60% of the population in 1993, to 13.5% in 2014 (NB the CIA World Factbook records UK levels of poverty at 15%). Some Vietnamese people we spoke to wanted faster change. One man was not happy that the government controlled the power companies, he felt, leading to excessive prices, and that there was a lack of modernisation in the rail network. We cautioned him that the private ownership of rail and utilities in our country was causing the same issues for us, and he found it hard to believe that in Britain there were people who could not afford their electricity.

Also of note life expectancy at birth for Vietnamese people has improved in recent years to 71.2 years for men and 80.6 years for women. In Glasgow at present it is about 71.6 years for men and 78 years for women. There is a danger in comparing life opportunities from two such contrasting economies as Britain and Vietnam, but as a developing country, Vietnam clearly seems to have overtaken many of its neighbours across a range of indices.

Mopeds - the universal transport solution in Vietnam

Small boy dodging the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City

Woman selling candles by the river in Hoi An

• Food 

Agriculture is still a major part of the Vietnamese economy. There are differences across the country with the southern lands able to provide more harvests each year than northern lands. Vietnam is one of the world's largest exporters of rice, coffee and cashew nuts. Eating out, in restaurants and on roadside "street food" stalls is a common activity for the Vietnamese and we found a great range of local restaurants in every city we visited. The food we ate was universally fresh and flavoursome, and we had a great choice of dishes wherever we went. The fresh fruit and vegetables and varied seafood were particularly good, and almost every dish was served with a pile of tasty, green herbs. Staff at restaurants were keen to help make sure that you knew your way around the dishes, telling you about the ingredients and instructing you on how to eat various dishes that needed a bit of construction at the table.

From the ubiquitous beef noodle soup (pho bo), to delicious mackerel, fresh spring rolls, crispy pancakes (banh xeo) and the tasty claypot catfish that I had failed to find in Glasgow (ca kho to) we never once had a disappointing meal there. I was even a big fan of the rice porridge, congee, although among our group I was on my own with that one. On the overnight train the guard brought a trolley around in the morning offering it to everyone, along with a cup of thick, strong coffee.

Usually we washed our food down with some of the numerous local lagers: Hanoi Beer, Bia Saigon Special, 333, Huda, Biere Larue, Viet Ha, Truc Bach and also beers from some local craft brewers such as Pasteur Street in Ho Chi Minh City offering fruit beers, IPA, chocolate stout and more. Many of these are actually now owned by some of the large multinational drinks companies (eg Larue has been brewed since 1909 but is now owned by Heineken and it is Carlsberg who make Huda and Hanoi Beer). On a Friday night we ate in a busy restaurant filled with noisy, smiling office workers getting ready to start the weekend. Along with piles of food in the centre of their tables, most of them had a bin beside their table to collect all the empty beer cans or bottles too. We did also try some of the local rice spirit, although initially only because we thought we were buying water when I picked up a 2 litre plastic bottle of it at a corner shop.

Cheers - or as they say in Vietnam, Mo! Hai!Ba! Do! (One, two three - drink!).

Dragonfruit on a market stall in Hue, Vietnam

Food stalls at the market in Hoi An

Market in Hoi An, Vietnam

Crispy fish, Vietnamese style

Street food in Ho Chi Minh City

Craft beer from Pasteur Street brewery, Ho Chi Minh City

• Beauty

As well as offering history, food and friendly people, Vietnam was also the most beautiful place to visit, with everything from bustling cities to tranquil lagoons. Like many visitors we took a trip on Halong Bay, which is full of picturesque limestone islands, best appreciated from the top of Titov Island, named after the Soviet Cosmonaut who visited it with Ho Chi Minh in 1962. Basically I have returned from my trip wanting to encourage as many people as possible to visit and enjoy the many things Vietnam has to offer. 

Lanterns in Hanoi

Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi

Paddy fields in northern Vietnam

Hang Sun Sot, one of the many caves in Halong Bay

View of some of the islands in Halong Bay, from the top of Titov Island

Beaches on the central coast with Danang in the distance

Handsome Hoi An

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City at night

Lagoon at Cau Hai, Vietnam

Vietnam 2017

World leaders, including Donald Trump, will be attending Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Vietnam later this year (ironic as Trump managed to avoid being sent to Danang when it was the main airbase for Americans during the Vietnam War). In Danang huge amounts of construction work are underway with vast hotels, resorts and even golf courses being thrown up along the coast as the area hopes to use this event to showcase its facilities for tourism. Other huge infrastructure works are underway in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where the city's first metro line is taking shape. There is still a lot of work to be done, and public transport needs a huge boost to prevent the cities grinding to a halt under the huge numbers of people and mopeds trying to negotiate their way every day through the streets. All of this buzz and industry made returning home to the United Kingdom feel a bit like we were coming back to some peripheral backwater. Our nation's parochial obsessions with the past and its perceived former glories have fueled our current Brexit situation. This all seems in stark contrast to Vietnam, a country which has battled through a succession of conflicts over the last century, yet their gaze is towards the future, not this past. 

A holiday doesn't let you see all the harsh realities of people's day to day problems, but all of my preconceived notions about what we would find in Vietnam were blown out of the water. We found a lively, friendly, safe, beautiful and fascinating country and if you do get the chance to visit I would encourage you to grasp it.

"Our mountains will always be, our rivers will always be, our people will always be. The American invaders defeated, we will rebuild our land ten times more beautiful."

Ho Chi Minh