18th - Ho Chi Minh City tour is the main activity today. We have booked a full day tour but will see how we go. Our tour guide, Daisy, and driver Mr. T arrive promptly at 9:00 and Daisy lays out the plan for the day. The standard plan as we find out includes visits to 2 of the cities major markets including Beh That which we have haunted for days. \
Daisy tells us to fully understand Vietnam one needs to know the history so first stop is the American War Museum. The Vietnamese call the war we know as the Vietnam War as the American War as they have lived with conflict for a long time.
To say the museum was conflicting would be a vast understatement. Graphic photos of the atrocities inflicted on the people brought home to some just the truth. Massacres and weapons of mass destruction, 1960's style, were there for all to see. 3 floors of photos, 1000's of them, adorn every wall. No escape here for those involved. The underlying politics were also there to see. JFK who opposed going to war was assassinated the same month as the Vietnamese General who also opposed going to war. They were replaced by "hawks" who readily entered the fray including "all the way with LBJ - President Lyndon Johnson, JFK's vice-president.
Daisy, who can easily be describes as an activist, was educated in Vietnam, USA and  Manilla. She comes from a strongly Communist family but she is vey much a nationalist who agrees with the unification but wants the promised free elections which are now 40 years over due.
She also outlined the French involvement in Vietnam which began in the 1800's when France was invited in by the then King. French influence in Vietnam is everywhere in the infrastructure and architecture. Magnificent buildings are all throughout Ho Chi Minh City, Still Saigon to most.  We visited the Saigon Post Office during the day and the grandeur of this structure needs to be seen. Saigon became the centre of Asia during this period.
When in 1940 Germany conquered France they, Germany, assumed control over all French territories around the world - see Casablanca. Because Vietnam was so far from Germany they asked their ally, Japan, to take over and they did. Japan were very cruel to the people and their culture. At the end of WW2 Vietnam self ruled until the early 1950's when France took over again with the aid of the USA. USA wanted to diminish the growing influence of USSR. The next 10 years were horrific for the Vietnamese people with France, a.k.a. USA, tortured, punished and killed 800,000 locals who were seen against French rule - ether nationalists or communists. The pressure from the north for unification started the American War in 1964 with the USA supported by France, England, Australia, New Zealand and others taking on North Vietnam backed by the USSR and an emerging China. The rest as they say is history. In 1974 USA and its allies signed a peace accord with N the north and its allies, guaranteeing free elections and freedom. America packed up and were never heard from again. The communists took over the unified Vietnam and have not been challenged. The country has never recovered, economically or socially.
We finished our tour a little early having see the Chinese Temple where President Obama met with officials in the first Presidential visit here since the war.
Last night we visited Diamond Plaza which is one of a handful of very high end shopping centres that have popped up in the last few years to service the well-to-do who driver their Rolls, Range Rovers and Mercs in amongst the hoards of bikes. Interesting mix.