Vietnam: The Dragon Smiles - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 269

18. Vietnam: The Dragon Smiles
For most Americans, Vietnam is a war, not a country. For many others, Vietnam is the coun-
try that defeated the United States. It is also a puzzle. How did a society whose farmers still
walked behind water buffalo manage to defeat the best-equipped, most technologically ad-
vanced army in the world? And for most Vietnamese, the American war was only one war
in a long list of foreign invasions. [244]
Wise travelers to Vietnam are likely to know only of the American war. And if they
are American travelers, they may be apprehensive about their welcome (or lack of it) to Vi-
etnam. Not to worry. Travelers will be pleased by the warm welcome and kindness of the
people. Vietnam has a population of about eighty-nine million, about two-thirds of whom
were born after the American war. Small wonder, then, that more than half of Vietnam has
no memory of that war. Travelers will also be pleased by the number of Vietnamese who
speak English. (Only the older generation remembers its colonial French.)