Vietnam is yet upcoming
Today we awoke to the gentle Southern California sunshine, breaking through our blinds amid the rustling of the "ancient" avocado tree outside. We then realized that in a mere seven days we'd be awake on the other side of the world, under a sky, and in a reality that we've never known.
Responses, and I'm sure, thoughts whirled about as we shared the news that we'd finally decided on a honeymoon location.
"So, when are you leaving for Hawaii?" and "Did you decide to go to Paris" changed to "What in the world made you want to go there?" after I announced that heading to Vietnam was our plan.
The world has changed dramatically since the final U.S. troops left behind a path of dissolution, and misunderstanding that was brought back to the states, when they fled Saigon. However, lost with the lives of the estimated 3.1 million Vietnamese (most of whom, civilians) and the 58,202 U.S. soldiers, was a systematic understanding of who these people were/are, living so far way.
This misunderstanding has continued up to today to where when announced that my wife and I will be going to Vietnam, instant remembrances and/or decayed memories dictate understandings that are, simply, misunderstandings. Vietnam has changed, so have the people who have learned to forgive and forget, in many cases. You'll hear me talk much about politics on this website, not in supportive or strictly condemning way, but in a way that appreciates the good decisions and critiques and/or prods at those that may be questionable. In saying that, when the Clinton administration re-estabished diplomatic ties with Vietnam in 1994, Americans were again free to travel without embargo concerns. What many people discovered early on was a country that had forgiven and forgotten a war that wasn't unlike so many other wars they'd had to contend with for more than 10 centuries. The people were kind, curious, and excited for the opportunity to meet "Americans". This, according to some of those mid-90s travelers, flipped expectations upside down to observations of a people more appreciative of reconciliation and peace, than of dread and begrudging attitude(s).
So, Rebecca and I are heading to Vietnam, leaving Los Angeles in the wee (PST) morning hours. My hope is to give first-hand antidotes to support that which I've read, and to give voice to the reality that reconciliation is much more human (and attractive) than misunderstanded fear and repulse.
+nms
