Living Inside a Bull's Eye

SHORTLY before noon last Wednesday, 20 U.S. Phantoms streaked east across Hanoi toward the battered Long-bien bridge and the antiaircraft positions along the Red River. Despite the unexpected presence of the jets overhead, only a few residents hurried toward the black, tubular individual bomb shelters that line the city's downtown streets. After all, never in the history of the Indochina war had densely populated downtown Hanoi been bombed. Last week Hanoi's luck ran out. By the time the air-raid sirens began to wail their warnings, the French diplomatic mission had been bombed into ruins, five employees were dead, and the chief French diplomat in North Viet Nam, Pierre Susini, was critically injured.

Paris was outraged by the attack. President Nixon sent a personal message of apology to France's Georges Pompidou, and at a Washington press conference Defense Secretary Melvin Laird explained that the jets--which were not carrying the new superaccurate, laser-guided "smart" bombs--had really been aiming at railroad yards three miles away. Disingenuously, Laird tried to suggest that the damage might have been caused by North Vietnamese antiaircraft missiles.

Hanoi's reaction to the bombing raid was relatively muted. The reason is that since April 6, when Nixon officially reinstated mass bombing of the North, aerial attacks on civilian targets have become all too common. American jets in search of visible targets have destroyed countless hospitals, churches and even cathedrals, as well as residential suburbs. Considering the sheer size of the bombing campaign--more than 33,000 sorties were flown over North Viet Nam during the first five months of the offensive--it is almost impossible for U.S. pilots to avoid damaging some civilian structures. The North Vietnamese insist that the destruction of dikes and village churches has been deliberate. No accurate count of civilian casualties is possible, largely because urban populations have been dispersed into the countryside.

Of the major North Vietnamese cities, only Hanoi has escaped extensive bomb damage. Although military targets around the city's perimeter are pounded daily, visitors report that an almost Continental charm survives in the city's center. The purr of Czech motorbikes and the chatter of lovers drinking Bulgarian wine beside Lake Hoan Kien lend color to the clean but dour city. All factories and warehouses have been relocated deep inside dense forests to the west and south of the city.

Western journalists and diplomats who have recently visited North Viet Nam all report that the country is a land of contrasts. While in some tiny rural communities life proceeds with undisturbed serenity, in cities like Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa and Vinh, where destruction is almost total, traditional patterns of living have been completely disrupted. Foreign observers agree, however, that the U.S. raids have not crushed the morale of the North Vietnamese or weakened their determination to carry on at all costs. Says Jean Sainteny, a former diplomat who established the French mission in Hanoi in 1954 and has returned to the city several times since: "The bombing has no influence whatsoever on the people. As when the monsoon rains come, they respect the storm, but they are not frightened."

Among recent visitors to the North is French Photographer Marc Riboud, who took the accompanying color pictures. Some of his observations during a three-week tour of the country:

> Hanoi: "It is a city of noises where human conversations are dwarfed by the sounds of war. Hanoi residents seldom see the war; they listen to it from home or street-corner shelters. A piercing wail means the jets are coming, the scream of an engine means they are passing overhead on their way to targets in the city's industrial suburbs."

> Attitudes toward the bombing: "The first Vietnamese words visitors to Hanoi usually learn are may bay (airplane). Just before an attack, children will run along the streets, pointing to the sky and yelling 'May bay!' Shelters are in homes, restaurants, offices and along streets and highways. Seconds before the bombs fall, people will duck into the shelters, and before the dust settles they will be out again, carrying on their business."

> Character of the North Vietnamese: "Malraux once said that the people who have influenced history have a quality that can be seen on their faces. The North Vietnamese possess a serenity rarely seen in Asia. They always seem to be fighting an invader or a natural calamity. The Mongols, the Chinese and the floods were all defeated. More earth was moved in constructing the Red River dikes than in building the Great Wall of China. General Giap once proudly said that the Vietnamese were the only people to stop the Mongols. 'We will be the only ones to stop the Americans in the 20th century,' he added."

> Survival in the countryside: "For some reason, Americans don't bomb ferries. Every bridge I saw in North Viet Nam was destroyed, but the ferries were safe. Once the planes came when I was on a ferry in Nam Dinh. 'Don't jump,' said my guide, 'or you will die from the concussion like a fish in a river where grenades are tossed.'"

> Religion: "There are more than 800,000 Roman Catholics in North Viet Nam, and they still worship freely. Some old customs prevail: Men and women sit on opposite sides of the nave of Hanoi's cathedral, their bicycles clogging the aisles leading to the altar."

> Industry: "The Nam Dinh textile mill has been bombed for the past five years, but its machines continue to produce clothes for the country. Fifty miles from the gutted factory foundation stands a thatched farmhouse under a grove of trees. Outside there are water buffalo and other animals. Inside there are rows of Chinese looms powered by a small generator. Both the clothes and the farm products are moved at night to the city."

> On the war in the South: "During my stay I met a North Vietnamese journalist just returned from Quang Tri. 'We lost fewer soldiers than you think,' he said. 'In North Korea, the Chinese could send wave upon wave of soldiers into a battle, but we must be economical. We dig deep. The bombs don't hurt us as much as you think.' "

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