Our Guide

It was quite interesting, to say the least, to hear the opinions of the war directly from a South Vietnamese Army man.

In the early 1970s he was pulled out of university and sent to officer school, then proceeded to fight for only two years with the South (the last two years of the war). When the North won the war he was taken prisoner for two and a half years and forced to clear mines and unexploded bombs in the countryside. He said many prisoners died from explosions or by lack of medical attention during their imprisonment. During that time, he developed a stomach condition which still ails him to this day.

He said to this day North Vietnamese soilders from the war are taken care of by the government (pensions, medical, etc.), but the soilders from the South are ignored.

Some time after the war, the US granted citizenship to officers from the South if they had spent at least three years in prison after the war. Since he only spend two and a half, he was not one of them.

He was a really nice man who is still pretty bummed about losing the war. A war he does not call the American War, but a "civil war" between the North and the South.