Viet Nam - Blog II

This is a continuation of my discussion on Viet Nam. I just returned from a trip there. Today, I’m going to list the first of several observations about Viet Nam coming from my trip.

Observation One: The Vietnamese government and people have put war behind them, and we need to as well.

I was a teenager during the war in Viet Nam. To eliminate the uncertainty of the draft, I joined the National Guard and went through basic training and advanced artillery training side by side those regular Army soldiers, most of who anticipated the skills we were learning would be used in Viet Nam. Many people I knew fought there. I lived through the political, social and cultural turmoil that accompanied the war during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The war in Viet Nam was a big part of all our lives.

The first time I flew into Viet Nam, I had a hard time not linking everything I looked at to my war time perceptions of what the country was like. I did not feel animosity, but my curiosity of what things were like then was not easy to suppress. My perceptions came from news reports and pictures of places and situations 40 years ago, but they are stored in that part of the brain teenagers put things that shape them.

In October of 2005 when I was there, I asked several Vietnamese people about how they felt toward Americans. After several questions, one of them said to me: “We have put the war behind us.”

I saw evidence that there are still remnants of the war in Vietnamese society, but they seem to be biases which faintly endure between North and South Viet Nam. However, those seem to have been worn down over time as well. In fact, everything I have experienced in Viet Nam leads me to conclude Americans are well liked generally. And, speaking as one American, I really like Vietnamese people.

I had two experiences on this trip worth relating along these lines. The first happened before we left. I had a conversation with Ashleigh, a young woman HHS colleague of mine, assigned to do advance work on the Hanoi portion of our trip. She related the reaction of joy her Father had to learn of her assignment. He had fought in Viet Nam. She said, he told her how it thrilled him that things had changed in a generation so his daughter was able to return in peace to a place he had fought in war.

Secretary Leavitt and Ashleigh

The second experience took place at a remarkable dinner we had in Hanoi put on by my new friend and colleague, the Minister of Health from Viet Nam. His name is Nguyen Quoc Trieu. Minister Trieu was a soldier, fighting for the North. He was wounded during intense fighting. Also at the dinner was a doctor who works with our U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is assigned in Viet Nam. Over dinner they concluded they had fought during the same period in roughly the same region. They toasted, hugged and celebrated their friendship of our nations.

Comments

I agree we should put the war behind us. I can see America and Germany or America and Japan or America and Russia getting along better than America and Viet Nam.

Why? South Viet Nam peoples lost their country, their flag, their history. In 1999 there was an incident in California just for displaying the flag (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_South_Vietnam)

Still, we are on the same planet and as Lincoln said "A house divided against itself can not stand" The health issues that face the US also faces Viet Nam and vice versa.

I hope people get to talk with those displaced from Viet Nam when the US gave up and pulled out to learn of what can happen.

Kobie
"If you are not fighting for you country, make it a country worth fighting for." - Kobie

Posted by: Kobie | April 29, 2008 at 11:30 AM

Off topic.

If the Medicare system is heading towards disaster as Mr. Leavitt points out in his speech, why has nothing been done?

President Bush has been in Washington for 8 years and CMS, Congress and the Medicare Trustees have done nothing to improve Medicare's fiscal condition. Handing it off to the next Administration, and the next generation, is irresponsible. Who is responsible?

My children will be paying for the excess benefits my parents are devouring at record numbers...with little to show for the expenditures.

I just want to know how this can happen?

Posted by: Anthony German | April 30, 2008 at 10:47 AM

I always enjoy reading your blogs since they are very informative to the reader. Like you, I remember the Viet Nam war so vividly and all the turmoil in this country during that period. Over the last 40 years I have ask the same question.......why were we there ?.....we lost 50,000 of our men for what ?

I wonder if 40 years from now will we ask the same questions about Iraq?

Posted by: Vectorpedia (Rick) | May 26, 2008 at 08:19 AM