Way back in the rear of our already small local newspaper, I read an AP story today about how the Vietnamese people are quite satisfied with the way things are going in their country. This is thirty–five years after the end of the Vietnam War, in which I was a participant.
Since the war ended, I've often reflected back on how we got into the conflict in the first place, what happened along the way, and the dismal situation we left as we pulled out. At that time, I was attending a military school at Maxwell Air Force Base, and although I was one of only a few Army students in the course (all of us being war vets) the remainder of my class were largely Air Force officers, most of whom had been involved personally in the war. For example, my seminar leader was an Air Force major who had been a POW for six years. I remember many discussions with some of my classmates about the war, and especially what the eventual outcome would be after we left for good. I don't believe any of us could have predicted what has actually transpired.
Long after the war ended, I began to wonder if the Vietnamese people might in fact be better off in some sort of governmental system different from what we were trying to instill there, and it looks like I was correct. The free market system that has evolved there over the past ten years or so has apparently lifted millions out of poverty, and the country is well on its way to becoming a major economic force in the region—compared to what it once was. I'm just sayin.
