Comments

To Sigi: Doggone it, I forgot about your comment re Giap. He lived to the age of 96 when he died in 2008. There are two accounts to his birth date, either 1911 or 1912, but most scholars feel that the 1912 date is correct because he told French school officials that he was born in 1911 in order to enter one of the schools earlier than allowed in his education. He has a legitimate Ph.D in history. I'm sorry I don't know which university, but I understand that many who sit for the examination of several days do not make it. It's in the book and of course you may borrow it. It covers only his youth as his later career, as you pointed out, has many accomplishments and would be a pretty large tome. Best regards, Karl.

Answers to Comments

To Troutbirder: Thanks for your kind words and excellent question. I had a long answer and it was lost somewhere in the ethernet. Maybe it will come back.

Dawn: Good to hear from you. Very funny comment about someone who was late for choir. Tell Ian to hang in there. He had to serve to experience this country's cult of militarism, but things are changing.

Sigi: I've tried answering many times. Connection at this hotel is hit and miss. Your comment about all the motorcycle and motorscooter drivers having helmets is an astute observation. It happens that there is a big to-do about that very subject. Some drivers use helmets that are not safe nor up to standards so police are complaining about how they should go about monitoring sub-par helmets.

Thanks for comments. This is my last afternoon in Qui Nhon.

Book Store in Quy Nhon, Vietnam

Finished small paperback I brought along. I highly recommend making room for several books on a trip to Vietnam, because it is hard to find any written in English. One needs reading materials when waiting for planes, trains, and rainy days in one's room. In Saigon it's the dry season, but in Qui Nhon it's the rainy season. I found a big book store in Saigon near the Caravelle Hotel that had some English books. There are also some pirated popular novels sold on the streets in Saigon that cater to the Ausie travelers, but in Qui Nhon there are none of those. Qui Nhon is about 100,000 people, but not the hectic pace of cosmopolitan Saigon. Anyway, asked the front desk of my hotel about a book store and they supplied me with an address. Went there and did not find but one! book in English. The one they had was about General Giap which I bought. They had biographies of Clinton and Obama in Vietnamese. Obama is very popular. See picture. More about English speaking people, later.

p.s. to Sigi: Thanks for the comments. You are probably right-on about the dismantling of Long Bien Army Base. I'm not sure how to answer comments on the blog, but this is one way.

Visit to Vung Chua Mountain, Quy Nhon, Vietnam

Writing quickly, lest connection ends. The only remnants of our stay are some slight indication of road and some rusty old C ration cans - looks like pork slices in juice and cheese spread. Looking down on one scene is where my tent used to be right next to our 81 mm mortar pit. Flat area is where a barracks used to be. Slope used to have a mess hall. See bunker on perimeter shrouded in mist still in monsoon season. It is spooky enough by day, but at night, let me tell you, ultra spooky. Bye for now. Karlie.

More About France's Involvement in Vietnam

Qui Nhon is the beginning of Hwy 19 that leads west to An Khe, visible from Vung Chua Mountain, and on westward to Pleiku. It was along this highway that the French Groupe Mobile I tried to make a break for Pleiku to consolidate their forces in 1954 after it was evident that the French stand at Dien Bien Phu was doomed after a 10 month encirclement by the Vietminh, a coalition of Vietnamese nationals led by Ho Chi Minh. General Giap was the architect of the victory at Dien Bien Phu, which led the French to sue for peace and end their occupation of Viet Nam.



The Groupe Mobile I had about 1000 men and they had to go through the Mang Yang Pass to get to Pleiku. The Viet Minh were waiting for them and it was a slaughter as masses of Vietminh came charging out of the steep valley slopes. Less than half of the French made it to Pleiku. Bernard Fall in "Street Without Joy," one of his many books I read when I got back from Viet Nam, says there were so many French dead that the Vietminh had to bury them standing up. It makes me weep at the cost of war on both sides, for do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.



Why in the world did the French want to restore their colony after WWII? First of all, they were humiliated when Germany went through France like merde through a fois gras. Which reminds me, QUESTION: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? ANSWER: Nobody knows. It's never been done. So they wanted to restore their self-appointed place as a world power, misguided as it was. Secondly, they practiced the worst kind of racism in their colony because they thought they had a right to dominate the Vietnamese since they considered them less than human. In fact, when the French colonial forces surrendered to the Japanese in the early days of WWII, they turned around and collaborated with them in keeping a brutal control of the Vietnamese, saying, in effect, we know how to handle these people better than you. It was this sort of collaboration with an enemy that served as a model for Pierre Boulle to pen “Bridge Over the River Kwai.”

Pictures of Quy Nhon, Vietnam

Vietnam by Train

Having trouble connecting to web. Have posted pictures, but wifi connection ended before they were published. Here we go again - quickly. Train from Saigon was on a sleeper berth at about 350 miles for 35 USD. Was rocked to sleep by train. It was very restful. Will send this without pictures. Will add pictures on the next post. They are berth, scene from train window, Saigon-Quynohn Hotel @ 40 USD per night, scene from front of hotel, cloud enshrouded mountain where I will go tomorrow.