What I have to say about Vietnam is not new, or profound, I'm sure. But I'll say it nevertheless. I admit I haven't followed events in Vietnam closely in recent years, but obviously communism has been abandoned in favor of capitalism. You can see that within two minutes of landing here.
Thanks to our relative purchasing power, Ross and I can enjoy some luxuries in Asia. For a few dollars, we can arrange for a driver to pick us up at the airport to take us to our hotel in Hanoi. It was a nice car, too, though I forget what make and model. As I settled into the backseat, I immediately recognized the song playing -- an instrumental muzak version of The Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel. When that song was a hit, American soldiers were crawling though the jungle in Vietnam, and possibly the father of our driver belonged to the guerrilla forces they were trying to subdue. Now, in the blink of an eye, we Westerners and our tourist dollars are more than welcome. And our soundtrack is an anthem to youthful alienation, with a pretentious little slap on capitalism thrown in: "and the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made."
Thanks to our relative purchasing power, Ross and I can enjoy some luxuries in Asia. For a few dollars, we can arrange for a driver to pick us up at the airport to take us to our hotel in Hanoi. It was a nice car, too, though I forget what make and model. As I settled into the backseat, I immediately recognized the song playing -- an instrumental muzak version of The Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel. When that song was a hit, American soldiers were crawling though the jungle in Vietnam, and possibly the father of our driver belonged to the guerrilla forces they were trying to subdue. Now, in the blink of an eye, we Westerners and our tourist dollars are more than welcome. And our soundtrack is an anthem to youthful alienation, with a pretentious little slap on capitalism thrown in: "and the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made."
| Ross and I have spent a week in Hanoi and a week in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. We are both old enough to remember the Vietnam War -- and in my case, my parents were very active on the anti-war front. It's been amazing just to be in the country whose place names I heard so much during my childhood -- Hanoi, Dien Bien Phu, the Mekong Delta. And we are here during Tet, the Chinese New Year, the time when the Communist North launched the Tet Offensive. Right now, a lot of Facebook friends, and Hollywood celebrities, are tweeting and posting that they are feeling "terrified" of the Trump administration. Yeah, I get it -- extreme dismay, foreboding, chagrin, embarrassment, disbelief -- but "terror"? I've got some pictures that show what "terror" of an incoming government really looks like. History records that the Viet Cong won the Vietnam War. They systematically culled the bourgeoisie and sent over a million people to re-education camps. They tortured and stole everything people had. Life was particularly horrible for the ethnic Chinese of Vietnam.  This is what a re-education camp looks like. Many refugees were taken in by the United States (over the strenuous objections of many politicians, including Joe Biden.) | "I have been a communist all my life, but now I've seen the realities of Communism, and it is a failure — mismanagement, corruption, privilege, repression. My ideals are gone." -- Dương Quỳnh Hoa, a founding member of the Viet Cong  THIS is what being terrified looks like.  THIS is what being terrified looks like. An unknown number of Vietnamese people risked their lives rather than endure life under the Communists. An unknown number perished at sea. Others languished for years in refugee camps. They became known as the "boat people." We actually bought our first property in Kelowna from boat people. They were moving to Edmonton so their son could go to medical school. |
"In a May 1975 article in the New York Times, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) commented that "barmaids, prostitutes and criminals" should be screened out as "excludable categories." Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) "charged that the [Ford] Administration had not informed Congress adequately about the number of refugees" -- as if anyone actually knew during the chaotic evacuation. "I think the Vietnamese are better off in Vietnam," sniffed George McGovern [D- presidential candidate] in Newsweek."
It's probably most unwise of me to say anything about politics, since I have a newly-published book I want to sell, and the temper of the times is to boycott any purveyor of goods or services whose views you disagree with. My view is that we should all calm down, lay off the name-calling and thank our lucky stars that we haven't had to live through what the Chinese and the Vietnamese have lived through.
Tet decoration adorned with corporate logos. Who won the war? Sony? Even in winter, it's pretty warm in Ho Chi Minh city, and most of us tourists are dressed casually. There are a lot of dreadlocked, backpacking hippie young folks. Typical tourist attire is shorts or frayed cut offs, sandals, t-shirts or tank tops. We certainly look like we eschew conspicuous consumption and materialism. I saw so many hippies in the streets it really took me back to the anti-war days, when we'd gather at the Unitarian church and sing "Where have all the flowers gone." At the time I never would have imagined that I might visit Vietnam myself one day!
Ross and I went to the Ho Chi Minh City museum. It's housed in a beautiful French colonial building and it hosts a few relics from the war. There is a big painted mural showing the residents of Saigon welcoming their liberators (What? No photos?)
There are some incredibly pathetic-looking displays of the industrial manufactures of the collectivist era, prior to the reforms of the mid-eighties. This little display, seriously, is all that the museum can muster to show the glories of the years following liberation. For all the effort, and blood and toil and horror and misery.....
Ross and I went to the Ho Chi Minh City museum. It's housed in a beautiful French colonial building and it hosts a few relics from the war. There is a big painted mural showing the residents of Saigon welcoming their liberators (What? No photos?)
There are some incredibly pathetic-looking displays of the industrial manufactures of the collectivist era, prior to the reforms of the mid-eighties. This little display, seriously, is all that the museum can muster to show the glories of the years following liberation. For all the effort, and blood and toil and horror and misery.....
| It's some comfort that capitalism won in the end, and I hope democracy will follow. The communist experiment in Vietnam lasted only about ten years -- Saigon fell in 1975, and the government opened the economy up in 1986 -- and for that, so much blood and treasure was wasted, and the capital and effort of so many people was thrown away. Just because a small cadre of believers had the overwhelming urge to enforce Communism on their fellow Vietnamese. |  Behold the amazing products of the collective factories! |
Detail of French colonial building in Ho Chi Minh City "Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the [American] Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
-- Daniel Webster, US diplomat, lawyer, orator, & politician (1782 - 1852)
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