From the questions we got prior to our travel through Vietnam, the country seems to be a mystery to most Americans. The number one question I got was whether we’d be also going to North Vietnam. The answer is that Vietnam is one unified country, and it has been since the “American War” ended in the ‘70s. (I was only vaguely aware of this until I started researching the trip.) So yes, we traveled the whole country, from Hanoi in the north to Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City in the ‘70s) in the south.
We’ve been pretty curious about the government and economy. Technically it’s a socialist republic, but it seems to be more like a free market with fairly tight reins by the government, especially when it comes to banks and infrastructure. In fact, we were told not to take pictures of things like bridges and power plants because we would probably have our camera taken away. But in reality there’s a ton of foreign investment, and the people make jokes about supposedly needing to worship his highness Ho Chi Minh.
The economy seems to be growing like crazy here. Check out Wikipedia for an overview (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Vietnam). In a nutshell, from the mid-70s to the mid 80s, they operated as a puppet of the Soviet Union, trading within the Comecon alliance and having a centrally planned economy. Once that alliance fell apart, they turned to foreign investment and a cautious free market strategy. Under the Clinton Administration, trade relations were normalized (which is probably why Hillary had a suit made in Hanoi). And since 2000, they’ve seen over 7% annual growth! It’s one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Indeed there is a ton of construction going on, from high rise buildings in Saigon to freeways and bridges all over the country. In reality, the infrastructure updates are sorely needed if they’re going to have any efficiencies at all over time. My prediction is that as people become more wealthy, they’re all going to want cars instead of mopeds, and it’s going to create a complete traffic nightmare, making transportation of goods a huge quagmire.
Another question we’ve gotten (even from tourists here from Europe) is whether we get hostile comments related to the war. We haven’t gotten one single comment. And we’ve been on several tours that have specifically focused on the war. Granted, those tours have been pretty one-sided, talking about how innocent people were killed for just wanting to have a unified Vietnam. They set the war up as being about bringing down the “puppet government” in the South that was supported by the U.S.
I have to say, I didn’t know squat about the war before the trip. (I must have been sleeping during history class.) I had no idea that the U.S. had been financing an unsuccessful attempt by the French to continue their rule in the ‘50s to secure access to natural resources and trade in the region, which ultimately led to occupation and then to conflict.
We saw three war-related tourist attractions. The first was the “Hanoi Hilton” prison, which was generally not much of anything. Just a few rooms of examples of prison conditions, with the last couple rooms showing pictures of happy American pilots gardening and writing home. The second was the War Remnants Museum in Saigon, which was a grizzly depiction of all the maimed bodies and deformities caused by herbicides. Ick. It definitely portrayed the Vietnamese as fighting to get rid of the “puppet government” and simply protecting their families – while the Americans killed innocent peasants, farmers, women and children. Ironically, the third site we visited – the Cu Chi tunnels – explained that women, children and farmers were all guerillas, cleverly coming up with booby traps and weapons from scraps of American bombs to kill as many Americans as possible. Fascinating place that was really well put together.
The tour guides seemed to explain all this with a grain of salt. Clearly everyone has moved on.
Finally, it’s been interesting to simply observe Vietnamese culture. People are very friendly. We did note that they’re always trying to make a buck off you, but once we agreed on a price for something, they gladly accepted that price and gave us excellent service. They are always aiming to please. Our biggest observation is how people manage to live with very little, yet seem to be quite happy. I think I mentioned “front porch” culture before, and that’s exactly how the common folk operate. They’re always out in front of their market stalls or gathered on the street at their little plastic tables in their little plastic chairs having a cup of tea and cooking up noodle soup. And their motorbikes are right beside them. It certainly made us feel wasteful to even live in the modest house that we have now. (But we were sure happy to have A/C and a nice bed to sleep in throughout the trip!)
Another funny thing is that the women want to stay as pale as possible, so even in 85+ degree weather, they’re riding around their mopeds with long sleeves (or prom-like shiny above-the-elbow gloves), colorful medical-like face masks and long pants. Women generally wear hats anytime they’re outside. Men, on the other hand, don’t seem to care at all. We saw tons of guys just running around in shorts without shirts, especially in the Mekong Delta.
Speaking of culture, I did a paper for an International Management class in college based on Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. I thought his system was simple and fascinating, and I’ve been thinking a lot about cultural comparisons in context of his system. Basically he has five dimensions, and he ranks countries on a low-to-high scale of 1 to 100. Here are the dimensions and how the U.S. ranks (see complete description and commentary at http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_united_states.shtml):
Power Distance – 40
Individualism – 91
Masculinity – 62
Uncertainty Avoidance – 46
Long-term Outlook – 29
In comparison, here’s what it is predicted to be for Vietnam (no formal survey has been conducted there yet):
Power Distance – 70
Individualism – 20
Masculinity – 40
Uncertainty Avoidance – 30
Long-term Outlook – 80
Here’s a link to a synopsis of scores for a lot of other countries:
http://www.urbanministry.org/wiki/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions
Farmer and I have spent some time talking about the differences between Mexico (where Farmer has visited quite a bit) and Vietnam, and how it is to be a tourist in each place. The masculinity and uncertainty avoidance scores are far higher for Mexico (69 and 82, respectively), and I think this explains why my Vietnam seems like a safer place to travel.
Long story short, we enjoyed our time in Vietnam. It was a great learning experience, from figuring out how to cross streets where motorbike traffic never stops, to learning about the U.S.’s own political history. You should go!
gallopingnelly
