Revisiting Vietnam

[WateringHole]

Just before hurricane Katrina, I was reading a story in a Baton Rouge newspaper about a local group of Vietnam Vets who was planning to revisit Vietnam. I was wondering if anyone who post here ever revisited Vietnam ?

If any of you ever did, I was curious how the Vietnamese people treated former American military personells ? If all the Vietnamese people are united under communist rule ? Do the Vietnamese people live a decent lifestyle ? etc

[Robert Ryan]

I can't rememeber who it was, but he posted pictures of his visit. I have no desire to go back to Vietnam to see what it is like now, Too many Ghosts back there.

[Raggedy Ann]

I think I remember seeing that "exlrrp" and "Frisco" both made trips to Vietnam. I checked and it was last November for Frisco. Not sure about Exlrrp though.

Raggedy Ann

[Raggedy Ann]

Check Frisco's post "Psyco Vet Recons the Delta" last November and go to page 3, Exlrrp wrote something there about the trip.

Raggedy

Pics. in the gallery under Members->Return to Vietnam 2005

[Raggedy Ann]

Help!!! Can someone please tell me how to attach a picture to a post. I made a new thread, browsed for a picture, found one but can't figure out how to attach it. Am I too dumb for words or what? (Don't answer that!) What size does the picture need to be? I am very computer literate just not Patriot Files literate. Thanks.

Raggedy

[Seascamp]

I?ve made two business trips to the Moi Hung oil patch and platforms south by south east of Saigon and am currently working on the new design Dung Quat petroleum refinery project and then have some steam turbine work going with KH Sugar and am due to go visit both, but am not all that excited about going out again. Aarrgg, following in the wake of the Red Star is very challenging and makes for an ?attitude? and need for decompression time after a while.

Would like to go there on personal time and take the train from Saigon to Hanoi, make some stops, etc., someday, maybe, but not today.

Scamp

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by WateringHole Just before hurricane Katrina, I was reading a story in a Baton Rouge newspaper about a local group of Vietnam Vets who was planning to revisit Vietnam. I was wondering if anyone who post here ever revisited Vietnam ?

If any of you ever did, I was curious how the Vietnamese people treated former American military personells ? If all the Vietnamese people are united under communist rule ? Do the Vietnamese people live a decent lifestyle ? etc

OK, I'll bite: been there, done that, got the tshirt
Tom (friscokid) and I went back in 2003, goiong to Saigon, Cu Chi, Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Kontum, Qui Nhon, Nha Trang and other plaxces. You can see pictures of this in the photo gallery: return to Vietnam 2003. Tim went back a year ago--I'm going back myself soon.


I found the trip to be well worth it, reccommend it for any other Vietnam veteran that wants to see how the country is now. A real eyeopener, things are completely different now. A completely different country than what most remember. I think thats what they don't wantr to see. The Vietnamese people won when America left, at least if you think improving their lifestyles is important. Yeah there were some bad years--compare to our own "Reconstruction" period.
Most people I met were very friendlly. Everybody was at least civil. They teach English in the schools--shows you who they want their kids talking to, and they all want to try it out.
I remember walking by schools and little kids waving, hello, hello. This didn't happen the first time, the first time they would have been begging or pimping their sisters. Soccer mommies, Vietnam style on their scooters, Hard hats going to work, business executives dressed up.
They look like we do, now, you'll see a lot more in jogging suits and levis than black PJs. Black PJs is now what bib overalls are to us--only for rubes, stylewise. When you see that theylook like we do, you understand that they feel like we do. We dehumanized these peopple, made them into "gooks" in our culture because they were easier to kill and bomb that way. That was just one of out mistakes.
The biggest lie we put out was that the Vietnamese didn't have any respect for life. That was bull, they just didn't have any respect for OUR lives. Thats definitely one of the things you see when you go back--how stupid our assumptions were about them
All thats gone now, all the sleaze. the Vietnamese people have moved beyond the American War, there's no trace of it left, other than all the Agent Orange left.
All of them I saw were living decently, certainly compared to the last time I was there. No whores, no pimps, no beggars. Allthe cops we saw were unarmed, except for a few around the airports. there was no restrictions on where we could go, who we could talk to.
Every hut or house had electricity and/or TV antennas. There's internent cafes everywhere, faxes, cell phones. The stores were full of goods and everybody looked busy and prosperous. This looks like a nation of free enterprisers---everyone sems to be selling something to someone else. They have a useful and effective national health program--they have a higher literacy rate than we do.
I really needed to return to Vietnam for many reasons--unfinished business is one. I needed to see the Vietnamese doing well and liiving like people you'd see right here in America.
Tom went last year again. I'm going again possibly next year, to see all the parts I haven't seen yet
As you can see by this picture, the trip to Vietnam is getting popular, even for those who avoided Vietnam service. Ho Chi Minh beaming down on GW Bush--guess the war is over now

[Robert Ryan]

Likewise we didn't seem to have any respect for their lives back then either. Glad to hear the Vietnamese have gotten past what happened more then 30 years ago. There are days when that 30 some years ago seem to happening right now, and days when it where it belongs 30 some odd years ago. My firs tour started in Sep 67, by the time my third tour was over it wa Dec 72. So 30 puls years ago took from me things that I cherised and I took thigns from other people they cherised.

[urbsdad6]

Robert Ryan

Well said.

Doc Urb