Past and Future

There is a self-critical tone in Ky-Ahn D. Phan's and Dinh thi Phuc's remarks that struck me. Of course the Vietnamese people have power to shape their own future. I sincerely hope trade will help them prosper as have been certain other Asian countries - despite the recent banking problems. I wish to say, however, I have never thought of the Vietnamese as initiating the tragic wars with France or the US. But perhaps that is no longer a helpful attitude, or the simplistic view of someone looking from outside? When I read Frances Fitzgerald's _Fire in the Lake_, I was inspired by the beauty and humane qualities of Vietnamese villagers' way of life before the wars. I also thought that resistance to foreign control seemed justified. However, when I read Le Ly Hayslip's _When Heaven and Earth Change Places_ describing her experience of the war as a young girl, my understanding shifted. I came to realize that resistance also involved brutality and coercion, to force people to continue at such a cost. The war led to a loss of innocence on all sides, but it saddens me to sense self-blame. Without excusing anyone's ruthlessness, perhaps it is still helpful to recognize that similar problems have occurred in all colonial contexts. It's very hard for the people of any culture to put together new structures of authority that work and are accepted as legitimate, after the original social system and cultural traditions have been shaken to the core by outside forces. Such encounters seem to spark a crisis of self-confidence as well as an internal competition for power. When the Vietnamese today show a willingness to open to Americans with no apparent bitterness or defensiveness, I am awestruck by such generosity and grace. May the Vietnamese soon prosper along with their Asian neighbors.