Vietnam has a very long and complicated history. It is so difficult to explain that in US high schools it is pretty much avoided. This was the case with me and many of my friends as well. Vietnam is in the history books, but my teachers skipped over those chapters. I just read them myself and watched a bunch of TV. Growing up in the 80's and 90's the media was heavily influenced by the Vietnam War. Many movies and shows were based on accounts of the war.
I have always been enthralled with airplanes. The engineering and mechanics involved in flight are truly impressive. But as a child, the historical part of flight just kind of bored me. I had many encounters with the Vietnam War because of my fascination with the jets involved. While watching the TV, I just wanted to see planes flying and explosions. Many times the footage was over the skies of Vietnam.
Since I lived close to military bases, I knew people that served in the war. Some friends' fathers even had photos around of them. Looking at photos was never a problem, but I never got too many stories out of them. Now, visiting a country first hand, things are starting to make sense and come together.
We went to the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam.... We happen to be Americans.
With the history I recently brushed up on, I thought this museum would totally bash the USA. It pretty much depicted the facts and statistics in a professional manner. I read some reviews of people that viewed it otherwise. Outside there are large US military tanks, planes, missiles, and other weapons. But, there are also canons from wars past and soviet Mig Fighters. Many battles are represented in the museum and the conflict with France and then he USA seem to take up a large part. Why wouldn't it? They were the last 2 wars, and there is a LOT of information and artifacts from them. Technology has changed from battles fought with iron swords and spears, to wars fought with aluminum and newer materials. These will be preserved for a long time.
The were two large displays of key battles. One with the French in the 40's, and the other with the Seige of Saigon from the USA. They were very descriptive and well done. Sitting there with local Vietnamese in the room was meaningful. I tried to put myself in their shoes. As a Vietnamese person you better feel proud. You fought off the Chinese, French, Japanese, English, and the United States. You have one unified country. There is more than a little patriotism here. This country has the best story of the underdog winning. Outnumbered, out financed, and obviously misjudged.
I don't like to throw in political opinion, but here I go.
The more I read about the history about the war, the more I am in disbelief. The world was in turmoil. Nukes were around, the threat of communism, WW2 was still in everyone's minds. The Cold War was cranking about and media was running rampant. Politically, after the fact, this debacle of a war seems outrageous. It seems that there was never a good decision made. Everyone wants to blame someone. I respect every soldier that did their job on both sides and hate the politics. The signing of a few papers let this whole thing happen. Can't we as humans ever get past this? Originally, it might have seemed like the right thing to do, but at what expense? One can only hope that the best decision was made at the time.
Vietnam won the war as a whole. That is obvious. They are united and chose a form of government that the US and some other governments would rather them not have chosen, to put it kindly. Before coming to Vietnam, I was a bit apprehensive about how we would be recieved as Americans. From my brief time here thus far though, I have seen an amazing place. This is in the eyes of the people. Everywhere I see it. Whether or not you agree with someones government, you cannot deny that there are good, kind people everywhere. The 1990's have given the USA a chance to make amends, and it has worked. People hear that we are American and they want to talk and sell us things, and as a traveller, I think they genuinely want us to love their country. Everyone keeps asking us, "Do you like Vietnam so far?" That is their end goal. "We love this place, and we want to share it with you."
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