One night in a bar in Hanoi, I was having drinks one night in a bar with some Australians. I told them my name was Fifi and that I was visiting from the Big Apple to find inspiration for my career as a singer/songwriter. Sometimes I get tired of explaining the concept of Caribbean med school.
The aussies asked what it was like to be an American in Vietnam. Two of them work here and mentioned they are treated differently until they clarify that they are not from the US. I don't have a good answer. It is a war many regret--in his memoirs, McNamara admits that America's involvement in Vietnam "was wrong, terribly wrong."
"We were in it too, you know," one aussie told me. "Yeah but you weren't dropping B-52s and experimenting with chemical warfare," I replied.
My father enlisted in the Vietnam War and I am exceedingly proud of him. I don't know as I'll ever do anything that brave in my lifetime. He was fortunate to be placed as a spy in Ethiopia, because he spoke excellent French. It might be this fortune that makes it possible for me and my brothers to be here today.
I have read Karl Marx and The Lenin Anthology--well, at least excerpts when writing papers in undergrad. Socialist theory is a beautiful thing on paper. I visited the Ho Chi Minh museum and was struck by his quotes. I took pictures of his words because I want to remember their gracefulness. In the mid-20th Century, America was a country motivated by fear of the Soviet Union and China threatening our seat as the world's hegemon. Eisenhower's "domino" theory of the southeast nations succumbing to communism and threatening even Australia. McNamara also wrote, " We totally underestimated the nationalist aspect of Ho Chi Minh's movement. We saw him first as a Communist and only second as a Vietnamese nationalist."
One of my greatest flaws: I am not very patriotic. The US government has made so many poor decisions in the past 50 years and has faced several other embarrassments--Nixon, Clinton's over-dramatized scandal, tapes of our soldiers torturing captives in Iraq. How do I trust our leaders? I always stand up for my country when I am abroad, I'll note. Admit your mistakes, apologize, move on.
The War museum is in Ho Chi Minh City. They call is "The American War" here. I'm told that in it lie fetuses mangled and killed by Agent Orange. They show videos of the protesting monk who set himself on fire. The televised images shocked the whole world and kicked the war protests into overdrive.
I went to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC with my family when I was 12. It remains a powerful black image in my mind today. So many lost lives. My father found his friend's name on the wall.
In the Nagel household in California, we Tivo the Jim Lehrer News Hour each evening. At the end of each hour, they show the names and pictures of the soldiers who died serving their country in Iraq. They are 19 and 21 yo kids. Every night, my father holds a moment of silence in their honor.
The aussies asked what it was like to be an American in Vietnam. Two of them work here and mentioned they are treated differently until they clarify that they are not from the US. I don't have a good answer. It is a war many regret--in his memoirs, McNamara admits that America's involvement in Vietnam "was wrong, terribly wrong."
"We were in it too, you know," one aussie told me. "Yeah but you weren't dropping B-52s and experimenting with chemical warfare," I replied.
My father enlisted in the Vietnam War and I am exceedingly proud of him. I don't know as I'll ever do anything that brave in my lifetime. He was fortunate to be placed as a spy in Ethiopia, because he spoke excellent French. It might be this fortune that makes it possible for me and my brothers to be here today.
I have read Karl Marx and The Lenin Anthology--well, at least excerpts when writing papers in undergrad. Socialist theory is a beautiful thing on paper. I visited the Ho Chi Minh museum and was struck by his quotes. I took pictures of his words because I want to remember their gracefulness. In the mid-20th Century, America was a country motivated by fear of the Soviet Union and China threatening our seat as the world's hegemon. Eisenhower's "domino" theory of the southeast nations succumbing to communism and threatening even Australia. McNamara also wrote, " We totally underestimated the nationalist aspect of Ho Chi Minh's movement. We saw him first as a Communist and only second as a Vietnamese nationalist."
One of my greatest flaws: I am not very patriotic. The US government has made so many poor decisions in the past 50 years and has faced several other embarrassments--Nixon, Clinton's over-dramatized scandal, tapes of our soldiers torturing captives in Iraq. How do I trust our leaders? I always stand up for my country when I am abroad, I'll note. Admit your mistakes, apologize, move on.
The War museum is in Ho Chi Minh City. They call is "The American War" here. I'm told that in it lie fetuses mangled and killed by Agent Orange. They show videos of the protesting monk who set himself on fire. The televised images shocked the whole world and kicked the war protests into overdrive.
I went to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC with my family when I was 12. It remains a powerful black image in my mind today. So many lost lives. My father found his friend's name on the wall.
In the Nagel household in California, we Tivo the Jim Lehrer News Hour each evening. At the end of each hour, they show the names and pictures of the soldiers who died serving their country in Iraq. They are 19 and 21 yo kids. Every night, my father holds a moment of silence in their honor.
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