As an American traveling to Vietnam, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Before I left, the only context through which I knew Vietnam was through the dark lens of the Vietnam War.  I learned about it in school and it’s frequently mentioned in the news but I did not know much about the country outside of the American perspective of the war, nor did I know how I would be received as an American traveling in Vietnam. 

Bao Lam, 20, a student at the Royal Melborn Institute of Technology (RMI) in Ho Chi Minh City says that this uncertainty is not unusual.  “A lot of Americans come here and ask, ‘Do Vietnamese people hate us?’  Our generation… we don’t hate American people, we are not living based on the past,” he said. 

Thu Nguyen, 21, also a student at RMI, says, “It’s a funny thing, every American talks about the war but it’s been 33 years… we try to move on from that darkness.”

Lam says that this is not only felt by his generation, but also by his parent’s generation, saying that they “care more about how American people can help Vietnamese people develop our country, not how they treated us in the past.”

Both Lam and Nguyen say that they know little about the war and why it happened.  They say that it is taught in school (through government approved texts) but that outside of that, there is little reflection or discussion.  They emphasized that the point was to live in the present and move on from what happened back then. 

But this is a country that is still clearing old mine fields.  The scars are still visible and the positive attitude toward the United States that Lam and Nguyen describe is not necessarily felt after a visit to the War Remnants Museum, which displays gruesome pictures of American soldiers holding Vietnamese heads and all the American weaponry that was used during the war. 

With John McCain as the republican nominee for president, there has certainly been a lot of discussion in election coverage about the Vietnam War.  On the other hand, Obama has brought the message of change and that seems to be what rings true with the Vietnamese youth, not stories of an old war hero. 

“With the election in America, I heard that one of the candidates is black and a lot of people are saying that there is something new going on in America.  That may be a good change.”

Lam went on to reiterate that his generation is focused on change as well and that in another 30 years, he expects to see a much different Vietnam, saying,  “We are on our way to develop the country so it’s going to be getting a lot better, it’s promising.  The government is slowing the [country’s development] down.  Maybe our country will get better as our generation takes over those government positions.   A lot of people are studying abroad so they can see how other countries achieve and bring that knowledge back.  The older generation doesn’t travel so it’s harder for them to understand how the country could be different.”