Navy allows liberty in Vietnam

[skeeter]

I just came from the US Navy website, seeing that the USS Vandegrift(FFG-48) guided missle ship arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 19th for a scheduled liberty port for her crew. It states it is for "opportunity for sightseeing and cultural exchanges".. This visit marks the first U.S. Navy ship to visit Vietman in 30 years, since 1973...
I would rather take my liberty elsewhere, knowing there still could be some hostility there..
I can remember taking liberty in Japan in 1951, some 6 years after the surrender of Japan. A military person could have gotten killed, and did.

[frisco-kid]

I can GUARANTEE you that there is no hostility there. James [EXLRRP] and myself did a 10 day visit there this last Spring. Look in the GALLERY for pictures.

Those sailors are going to have a great time in Saigon [still called that by the locals]. It's a clean, bustling city with quality hotels, good restaurants, and shopping....all CHEAP. We stayed at one of the nicest, the Grand, for $60, top-notch breakfast buffet included. There are many clean, comfortable ones for less. You can enjoy a steak dinner with all the trimmings, with a couple of beers, at a nice restaraunt for about $6. Kath and I took about $1200 and came back with a couple of hundred. And we lived LARGE. Beach-front hotels, as nice as anything I've stayed at in Mexico or Hawaii, for $40 and, once again that included an all-you-can-eat breakfast! Rooftop dinners. An air conditioned minibus for just the 4 of us, including driver and interpreter, for 8 days.

Most of the population is 35yrs., or less. We killed off most of a generation of them. The war is ancient history to most of them. They are very curious about us, and like to interact. They like to try out their english on you. The only hard feelings that I felt was up in the Central Highlands by a couple of people our age. No, don't worry about these sailors. They're going to have a great time.

Kath and I are thinking about going back [James, too]. I don't know if it will be next year, though. We're going to Japan to visit our son and his family. Don't know if we can swing both.

[skeeter]

frisco-kid.
Thanks for your up-to-date information on the life style in Ho Chi Minh City.. I'm sure it has all the luxuries as in other large city in America. Of course it has those, as when we(our Government ) leave a country, it grows from our tax dollars.. But I still have that feeling there are some that hate americans, and would enjoy trying to do a destroy act..
I like your statement.. "we killed off most a generation of them". If that be the case, why did we (retreat)withdrawl in losing fashion? I thought we left there, as we could not win..
I flew 32 missions in Vietnam at the start of that war, and was back there in late 60's as CAG on a carrier, and in my opinion, I thought we could win there, but our Government did not want to fight the war as I would have wanted to.
Read my profile signature below

[frisco-kid]

Unfortunately, body count isn't the only measure of winning a war. If that were the case, we won, hands down. I always tell people "We were winning when I left."