Oliver Stone made a movie of the same name back in 1993. It was about Vietnam and their civil war, as well as with/against the Americans. And about that war, the Americans got it wrong in so many ways, including miscasting the protagonist, Ho Chi Minh as a communist crusader. Uncle Ho was first a nationalist, and secondly, if not conveniently a socialist/communist, and he became so primarily to get any support for his fight for the homeland (both from the local population as well as from nearby political masters).
It's now nearly 40 years since the US had to abandon their fight with the South Vietnamese, and Vietnam is still attempting to get back on the world stage. Today, many know Vietnam from the main gateway of the hustling-bustling Ho Chi Minh City or the vantage point of the capital, Hanoi. The real natural beauty of Vietnam, however, is somewhere in the middle, literally. I was flying into Danang and immediately got a visceral sense of what Oliver Stone meant....
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