The Affect of the Vietnam War

We truly enjoyed the Vietnamese people...it was a very enlightening trip... true culture shock. You can't help but think about the Vietnam War (or, as they call it, the "American War") and its repercusions on their people. The War has a drastic impact on their people even today. First thing you notice is its a very "young" country...there aren't many "old" people there.... that's b/c most of them were wiped out by the war. Over 2 million Vietnamese died during the war- a large portion were civilians. Another thing we noticed was the disproportionate number of people with physical handicaps/ missing parts... because of unexploded mines and Agent Orange. Saw lots of people with missing legs/feet/eyes/arms, physical deformities, etc.... We even visited a disabled persons factory where some of them worked. We bought some beautiful handmade items they made (proceeds go to support them). There is still underlying animosity between the North and South. The Northern Vietnamese didn't talk about the War (they won). However, many of the South Vietnamese (allies to the Americans during the war) openly brought up the subject and wanted to discuss it with us. We had already decided not to talk about 3 subjects while in VN... war, politics and religon. However, many South Vietnamese wanted to talk about it with us and brought up the subject. They all would say they didn't like the North Vietnamese and thought they were rude and unfriendly and did not trust them. They still call Ho Chi Minh City ... Saigon. One Vietnamese-American we met in the airport was bringing his family back to visit relatives. He was in the war and worked with the Americans. When the war was over, they would not allow his children to get a good education. He really wanted his sons to get a college education and slowly brought his family to the US to achieve that.

The area where Kyle lived was very poor. That area is just below the DMZ line and hard hit by the war. They are still very poor b/c the war wrecked the countryside they live in. They have not had the money to rebuild it like we do. The average house in the country is 2-3 rooms. Most of them don't have doors or windows (just door frames and window frames) and sparse furniture... if at all. I said before the average income is $55/ week in the country... I misquoted... its $55 per month in the country and about $250 in the city. POOR!!! You can still see many rice field with 100's of markers where unexploded mines or metal fragments lie. They mark them with a stick and plastic bag. They go through each rice field with a metal detector and mark these spots.

In the big cities, most of the monuments and museums all pertain to the war. We did not go to these as we wanted to focus on positive things while in Vietnam. Plus, we had 2 children under 4 yrs old... and we all know how little kids love to go to Museums... NOT.