Our son recently told me that he and his wife are planning a trip to Vietnam next year. He wanted to know my thoughts on this. It took me by surprise. I had spent 18 months in Vietnam. He knows my feelings for the Vietnamese people and he knows my feelings about Communism. I don't remember any of the exact words of my response but I remember what I tried to convey to him.
As I wrote in an earlier post, Vietnam did not win its war for independence in this Second Indochina War as it likes to proclaim. It lost its war against the communists. It wasn't a victory....it was a defeat. 58,000 Americans lost their lives fighting communism in Southeast Asia. Even more young ARVN soldiers lost their lives defending their country. Tens of thousands of 'Boat People' lost their lives fleeing the advancing communists and many Vietnamese who could not get out, of those who were not executed, were sent to reeducation camps.
He asked me if I would ever want to go back there. I've thought about this in the past. I have absolutely no desire to see what was then North Vietnam but I would like to walk through the cities and towns of what will always be to me South Vietnam.....and Saigon. I'd want to look into the faces of the older Vietnamese and envision them as they would have been in 1970. I'd want to search out brothers and sisters in Christ. I'd want to smell the aroma of nouc mam and hear the chatter of the tonal language. I'd want to see if there was a familiar face.
It's raining in Central Vietnam right now. I know this for I have the weather set on my iPhone. It's the Monsoon season. So I guess that I would go back but I would wake up every morning and think about those brave young Americans who died over there and those who suffer to this day with their wounds, and families that lost their loved one. I'd think about Communism and the terrors and murders that it thrives upon. I now think about that every day anyway! And I would pray throughout the day that Christ would be known in the cities and the hamlets and the mountains.
So I recommended to our son that if he does visit Vietnam that he would keep these things in mind, that he would not forget the sorrow inflicted upon its people and the guiding force that caused that sorrow, a force that is alive and well today in our own nation. Upon further reflection I found that I would like he and our daughter-in-law to have the opportunity to see Vietnam, not as tourists...but as Americans and as Christians.
As I wrote in an earlier post, Vietnam did not win its war for independence in this Second Indochina War as it likes to proclaim. It lost its war against the communists. It wasn't a victory....it was a defeat. 58,000 Americans lost their lives fighting communism in Southeast Asia. Even more young ARVN soldiers lost their lives defending their country. Tens of thousands of 'Boat People' lost their lives fleeing the advancing communists and many Vietnamese who could not get out, of those who were not executed, were sent to reeducation camps.
He asked me if I would ever want to go back there. I've thought about this in the past. I have absolutely no desire to see what was then North Vietnam but I would like to walk through the cities and towns of what will always be to me South Vietnam.....and Saigon. I'd want to look into the faces of the older Vietnamese and envision them as they would have been in 1970. I'd want to search out brothers and sisters in Christ. I'd want to smell the aroma of nouc mam and hear the chatter of the tonal language. I'd want to see if there was a familiar face.
It's raining in Central Vietnam right now. I know this for I have the weather set on my iPhone. It's the Monsoon season. So I guess that I would go back but I would wake up every morning and think about those brave young Americans who died over there and those who suffer to this day with their wounds, and families that lost their loved one. I'd think about Communism and the terrors and murders that it thrives upon. I now think about that every day anyway! And I would pray throughout the day that Christ would be known in the cities and the hamlets and the mountains.
So I recommended to our son that if he does visit Vietnam that he would keep these things in mind, that he would not forget the sorrow inflicted upon its people and the guiding force that caused that sorrow, a force that is alive and well today in our own nation. Upon further reflection I found that I would like he and our daughter-in-law to have the opportunity to see Vietnam, not as tourists...but as Americans and as Christians.
