I am a Vietnam vet and I agree with the following words written by Mike Walker (Col. USMC, retired) in response to a note from a friend. I was always impressed with the Vietnamese people, their intelligence and sense of family. I've always thought that it would only be a matter of time that they would move to an open society.
Harry,
Thanks for the heads up on the Vietnam-HD show on the History Channel. Cannot imagine a presentation that balanced being made in the 1970's or 1980's.
In an ironic sense, the golf course is a good thing that came from the war. On balance, I think we did leave a mark on Vietnam that has proven to be more positive then negative.
The war, as any war, was horrific. After you get past that then the question for the current Government of Vietnam was to make sense of why we fought against them.
When I got mobilized in 1990 found myself in Thailand for about a month with the Thai Royal Marines who were defending their border from the Vietnam-backed State of Cambodia (SOC). One of the things brought back to the G-2 was the SOC counterinsurgency structure developed by the Vietnamese to defeat the Khmer Rouge et al. It was an exact duplicate of the US structure used in the RVN, right down to Military Regions and a shoestring CORDS program. Obviously the NVA thought we were doing something right back then.
I think they looked to how we worked with Japan and Germany after WWII and how we stood by South Korea after the war there and then the Vietnamese looked to see how the Soviets and the Peoples Republic of China treated them after the war.
I think they finally concluded that we were wrong in their eyes but for honorable and respectable reasons. I think they realize that the United States is far better and stronger ally than any one else they could hope to find. Today, our military relationship with Vietnam is strong and growing. As the golf course shows, American values and American concepts of economic freedoms are something to emulate in Vietnam.
Perhaps in the end, the idea of what the United States was fighting for then in Vietnam proved to be more powerful than what happened geopolitically.
How the worm turns.
Semper Fi,
Mike
