Monday, November 1, 2010

The references to the American War (what the Vietnamese call the Vietnam War) are interlaced throughout our guides’ presentations. We visited a Hanoi Professor who gave us a lecture on the history of Vietnam and its people dating back 3000 years. He made a compelling argument for the peaceful nature of the Vietnamese people. How hundreds of years of oppression by out side invaders led to the uprising for their freedom after WW II. War with the French first and the Americans second led to their Independence Day April 30, 1975. According to their historians one of the main reasons that Communism took hold is the colonial occupiers (the French) would not leave the Vietnamese to govern themselves and the Americans would not support or help them. Ho Chi Minh is considered the “George Washington” of Vietnam and is revered by the Vietnamese people.  We have visited a number of sites including the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum at Ba Dinh Square where he declared their Declaration of Independence in 1945. Thirty years later and 5,000,000 dead Vietnamese they finally received their independence

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Ba Dinh Square, Site of Declararation of Independence of Vietnam, 1945

Ho Chi Minh's house behind the Presedents Palace