This is not a war story. While I was in the Vietnam war, I want this to be more about Vietnam the country, contrasting what it was like for me in 1968 versus when I spent three weeks there in 1999.
The point of the second trip was to create what I think of as “color memories” to replace the “black and white” war memories I had held in the intervening 30 plus years. As all who have visited Vietnam will attest, it is a beautiful country as are its people and it deserves to be remembered for that beauty rather than the ugliness of more than 25 years of war against the French and later the Americans.
I also went back hoping to find what happened to a young girl who became my friend and probably saved my life one day in Quang Tri. An almost hopeless quest with more chance of finding the proverbial needle in a haystack but something I needed to attempt nonetheless.
Was I successful?
Yes and no just as with most things in life.
