Agriculture

To the west of the city was a large area known as the 'Pineapple'. As one can see from the picture there were miles of canals. The area, along with the delta was reputed to be the breadbasket for South East Asia. Sadly much of the citrus groves, etc. were put out of commission due to the conflict - see the B52 bomb creators. The area contained many shrines, some of which were maintained in spite of the troubles in the area. Source: Finnegan

 The Delta, south of Saigon provided rice to feed the people of the country. In the picture on the right, if you look closely you can see the tan hats of the people harvesting the concentrated crop and replanting the plants farther apart for the final growth. Source: Finnegan

From the air one could see the Saigon River flowing for miles. Source: Finnegan

Infrastructure

Bridges played an important part in linking the country. Part of C.M.A.C.'s charter was to ensure these were appropriately fortified and guarded. In that respect there were many surprise bridge inspections. However, it seems that the only bridges that needed guarding were the ones that were old and needed replacing. The North Vietnamese were good at blowing these. As far as I can remember the bridge on the left is at Tan An. Bridge fortifications may be see in the image in the middle and on the right is what I remember as the old (blown up) and new Bin Dinh bridges. Source: Finnegan

Other pictures of the Binh Dinh Bridge area include:

Armed Riverine craft were often moored near the bridges for additional defence.

Binh Dinh Bridge from River

Binh Dinh ARVN HQ.

Binh Dinh ARVN Housing

The scene on the left was taken during one of the bridge inspections. One wouldn't know that there was a war on progress. Source: Finnegan

This is a picture of Binh Loi Bridge. Source: Barnard

Galloway Collection

The following is a  collection of pictures taken of the people of Vietnam by C.M.A.C. Reporter Chuck Galloway

Reminders of War

There were constant reminders of the war no matter where one travelled.

ARVN Soldiers Cemetery. Source: Finnegan

ARVN jet crash on the road to Bien Hoa. Source :Finnegan

Bullet ravaged building in Cholon. Source: Finnegan

A transformer station demolished by a terrorist bomb. The again, it could be the locals wanted a new one. Source: Finnegan

This was a Police station until 40 pounds of TNT removed it. The terrorists used situations like this to try and prevent people from joining the Chan Sat or Police Force - humiliatingly named 'White Mice' by the US Forces because of their white shirts and because there were so many of them. Source: Finnegan