DAY FOURTEEN

Well, what do say.....this could be probably the least arduous to read of my blogs as we basically did sweet b***** all today, but I'll provides basic history lesson for those who can be bothered listen to my drivel.
A brief period on the beach was followed by an extended wait in Nha Trang airport for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. I don't like things to be straightforward, that wouldn't provide a challenge!
Finally, after 6 hours we boarded the flight on a plane that I am sure was balsa wood stuck together by a UHU stick, flown by a blow up doll. It was shaking and twisting like Vincent Vega, and making plenty of noise also.
Fortunately, the plane landed intact....'winning', in the words of Alvin Macdonald's favourite celebrity, the one and only Mr Carlos Estevez ( Charlie Sheen ).
We stayed in a pretty decent hotel called the Gia Vien, which was about £20 quid a night, and it had a real shower... No seriously, I am not joking - there was a shower cubicle and a shower head..good times.
For those who aren't aware of the story behind why Saigon became to be known as Ho Chi Minh City, please read on. If you couldn't give a monkeys, then retire your eyes from this blog, and catch the next exciting episode tomorrow.
Vietnam became under French occupation in the 1850's after the emperor suppressed catholic missionaries entering Danang Harbour, which disgruntled the French so much that they used their superior military technology to take a stranglehold of the country. As a side section of this tale, Vietnam is heavily influenced by the French style and architectural flair -especially in Hoi An.
This continued until good ol Uncle Ho decided in the 1940's ' I'm not having this, not one bit'. He then mobilised his developing armed forces to fight the French colonials, defeating them in 1954..See you later Frenchies!
So... Funkmaster Ho, being very much influenced by communist ideology, upset his southern counterparts, namely their leader, Ngo Dinh Diem, who promoted Democracy. You can clearly see the problem brewing! Two massively contrasting political views in the same country is a recipient for disaster!
Diem proved to be an unstable leader, erratic and power crazy. The Us then supported a military coup to overthrow the Diem regime, as they were convened that Uncle Ho would attempt to unify the country through national elections, which they presumed Diem would lose. The U.S installed military leaders in place, who became a little excited and assassinated Diem and his brother, and not in a very nice way. The rule in Southern Vietnam became problematic, driving the country to war. Ho then sent his troops deeper and deeper south to infiltrate and conquer. The U.S President, Lyndon Johnson and his administration all soiled their pants and became thrusting troops ( including the Aussies, kiwis, Canadians, Dutch, Swiss etc) and armaments into Thailand, Saigon, Laos and Cambodia to combat the invading Viet Cong. What happened then most people know - costly on lives, limb, mentality and economics of the participating countries. In the middle of the conflict, Ho became Ho no more, popping his last coconut moonshine and headed for his eternity, but this didn't slow down the VC war machine. The mentality is that for every allied soldier killed, they would sacrifice ten of theirs. The figures surrounding injury, death and homeless throughout the period of the war are truly astonishing.
The scars of the conflict can still be seen today through the vets ( on both sides) , who still suffer a great deal ( post traumatic stress, injuries, disability and impairment from chemical weaponry). Through the U.S's use of chemical weaponry, such as Agent Orange, there are still children being born today that suffer from hideous mutations and disabilities, in Vietnam, and even from the Allied nations, where exposure created mutated genes in a number of the soldiers.
The end of the conflict for the Allied forces came a peace accord was signed in 1973, agreeing a cease fire and the release of Allied P.O.W's.
The North still wanted a full portion of Vietnam pie, so in 1975 their forces launched a huge ground assault on Saigon, resulting in VC tanks crashing through the gates of the Presidential stronghold, Independence Palace. The administration from the North then thought ' let's re-brand the south', so the palace is now known as ' Reunification Palace', and Saigon was renamed 'Ho Chi Minh City' after their favourite bloke. There are pictures everywhere of Ho, as well as massive plugs for communis8m, such as Russian insignias, poignant trophies, such as Huey choppers, jets etc seized or shot down in random places like the middle of roundabouts!
No-one, and I mean no-one can disrespect the Ho, as there seems to be a mixture of admiration and fear surrounding how the government runs affairs based on the Ho model .
This is my understanding from reading, accounts from both perspectives and visuals over the years, so be aware this is not the whole story - the full story is actually quite compelling, sad and full of manipulation, propaganda and promotion of the 'fear factor'.