One war-torn country – two very different views

I’m sitting at a table in a London coffee place with admired friend Bankim. That strange land of Vietnam is the subject of our conversation. He has just returned from a holiday there.

We’re both dwelling on the same country, the same crescent-shape of a distant, and yet we are thinking of it from totally different points of view.

Bankim is just back from a visit as a very interested tourist. I was about to go there as a soldier a long time ago, back in the days when Tricky Dicky was determined to inflict very serious harm on the nation.

Bankim's attraction was curiosity.

National service

For me, the family migrated to New Zealand when I was a child. In late youth, national service claimed me. It was a time when enzed cow-towed to the US for protection. China represented the

great anxiety. The antipodes feared being taken by the ‘yellow peril’.

So two fellows, sipping coffee, sharing a conversation about a distant land, yet seeing it from entirely different perspectives.

Bankim tells me, ‘I was always curious to know what happened after the war, to know how much destruction America had done, and what the feelings and attitudes are of the people now.

‘Of course, I wanted to know, too, about their culture, food, history, religion and the like.’

He says, ‘The people are friendly, though they don’t know much English. The financial state of the country means that the education system is not good. The country, the people, rely on agriculture. To learn about the war, you had to speak to the older people, though their English is even less evident.’

Continues on my blogs for my very different 8,000 mile sailing story, Sailing to Purgatory, here >>>> at SailingToPurgatory,com