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This is a speculative outsider's view but a few things likely contribute to the pro-American statistic. My musings are based off of living in Vietnam for the la

This is a speculative outsider's view but a few things likely contribute to the pro-American statistic. My musings are based off of living in Vietnam for the last two years with my wife's family. 1. Half of the country was on the side of the Americans in the American War. The people that were on the losing side had a bad time after the end of the war. The Vietnamese refugees who went to the US had a much better time. Almost everyone in South Vietnam has a friend or relative who moved to the US. 2. An unusually large percentage of the population is young. They were born after the war and have been consuming American movies and pop stars since they were kids. 3. The Vietnamese don't seem to hold grudges for very long. For whatever reason, they seem to be a lot less traumatized by the war than the US was. This is despite the fact that they lost millions of people in the war. 4. China is currently the only real existential threat to Vietnam. It has been periodically invading Vietnam for thousands of years. The only ally powerful enough to curb a belligerent China is the US. The other thing I would say is that I think the current economic growth is more a consequence of changes in economic policy in the 80s than anything that Bill Clinton did - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Moi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Moi I do agree however with you that the current US policy towards Cuba is silly.

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tsotha 11y ago
>The Vietnamese don't seem to hold grudges for very long. For whatever reason, they seem to be a lot less traumatized by the war than the US was. This is despite the fact that they lost millions of people in the war. Did people in the US hold a grudge against Japan forty years later? By then all the people who were actually making decisions are long dead. In any event Vietnam was involved in a dozen wars during the 20th century. We were just one of a long line of enemies. Also, it's easier to be gracious in victory.
- qrendel 11y ago
  >Did people in the US hold a grudge against Japan forty years later? Well, actually, some of the ones left alive still do. At least among the few remaining veterans. It's not just the people old enough to have been making decisions, but people who joined to fight in their teens and were on the Pacific front of that war. Sad, but I've seen it first hand. Admittedly that's less and less true all the time as there are fewer and fewer of that generation left each year.
  - tsotha 11y ago
    I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find the same in Vietnam. But it's not a culture-wide attitude.

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tsotha 11y ago

>The Vietnamese don't seem to hold grudges for very long. For whatever reason, they seem to be a lot less traumatized by the war than the US was. This is despite the fact that they lost millions of people in the war. Did people in the US hold a grudge against Japan forty years later? By then all the people who were actually making decisions are long dead. In any event Vietnam was involved in a dozen wars during the 20th century. We were just one of a long line of enemies. Also, it's easier to be gracious in victory.

qrendel 11y ago
>Did people in the US hold a grudge against Japan forty years later? Well, actually, some of the ones left alive still do. At least among the few remaining veterans. It's not just the people old enough to have been making decisions, but people who joined to fight in their teens and were on the Pacific front of that war. Sad, but I've seen it first hand. Admittedly that's less and less true all the time as there are fewer and fewer of that generation left each year.
- tsotha 11y ago
  I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find the same in Vietnam. But it's not a culture-wide attitude.