Then and Now – Reflections on Reunification Day
50 years ago today, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon. Americans fled the city in helicopters. This was the end of the Vietnam War—or the American War, as they call it here. 50 years later, I'm an American living in Da Nang. Yesterday, I was sitting at a table with 10 Vietnamese uncles, drinking beer and singing karaoke all day. Man, history is crazy.
So, how do Vietnamese people feel about Americans today? I've been living here for 6 years. I call Vietnam my home, but could I ever really fit in here?
April 30th is one of the biggest holidays in Vietnam. They call it Reunification Day—the day that northern and southern Vietnam became one again after the end of the war. There are festivals and celebrations all over the country. Everyone's partying. There's a massive parade happening in Ho Chi Minh City. They've been preparing for it for weeks.
I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit hungover trying to make this video today. Yesterday, my neighbors threw a party. I was drinking with the uncles all day, and we talked about the holiday a little bit. To be honest, it's the only time of the year when it really comes up. One thing that stood out is one of the uncles told me, "50 years ago, we would have been enemies, but today you're my neighbor. You're my brother. We can share meals together."
The point is, everyone in my neighborhood treats me like family. I don't feel like an outsider at all. Anywhere I've ever been in Vietnam, I've never felt unwelcome or uncomfortable as an American.
To understand Vietnam's attitude, you've got to zoom out a bit. There were a thousand years of fighting off Chinese and Mongolian invasions, 100 years of brutal French colonization, and then 10 years fighting against the Americans. I don't want to minimize what happened here during that time. It was hell for both countries—we all know that. But for the Vietnamese, it was the final chapter in a long history of fighting against foreign invaders. In 1975, they were finally free and independent for good.
The Vietnamese are resilient people. They choose to look forward to the future rather than dwell on the past. The Vietnamese know that governments start wars, not people. They know that most Americans didn't want to be here fighting—they were doing what the government told them. So, they don't hold it against us.
Nowadays, the country is in a great spot. It's rapidly developing. The economy is growing. They welcome anyone from around the world. They just want to show off their awesome country. If you ask most Vietnamese people what they think about America, the war is not the first thing that comes to mind. They'll tell you about music and movies, culture—that kind of thing.
Vietnam has a very young population. So if you're under 55 or 60 years old, you don't remember anything about the war. The sad thing is that from the American perspective, if you ask people what they think about Vietnam, the war is the first thing that comes to mind. All people know is that it's a place that we should have never been, that we destroyed. A lot of people still think it's probably a third-world developing country, a bunch of poor people that live in the jungle.
And that's really what this channel is about. I like to share my experience as an American living in Vietnam. Try to show off how awesome this place is to the world. It's some of the nicest people you can imagine. It's the tightest community of people I've ever been around.
So, if you want to learn more about Vietnam, subscribe to the channel. I've got plenty to share.
What Vietnamese Really Think About Americans
It's funny, I talked about it with my Vietnamese girlfriend today. It's honestly not a topic that has really ever come up—how she feels about America. What did she learn about America growing up? So, she had some interesting things to say.
How do they teach you about the Vietnam War? Like, what did you learn growing up and how did it make you feel about America?
When I was in school, I hated history. But when I grew up a little bit and I learned it from outside of the book, it was just way more interesting. Talking to my grandpa was just way more interesting, because in school the teacher teaches in a very boring way. And they also taught us a softer version of the war.
I've talked to a lot of Vietnamese people about this, and they say they don't really talk about the fighting that happened—all the bombings and killing. They mostly talk about the resilience of the people, how strong they were to be able to survive the war and then everything that came after. Vietnam is very positive, always looking forward to the future.
Vietnamese—even the language—it's never negative. So, you would never say like "this drink is bad."
You would say "this drink is not very delicious."
Right.
But it's just one point about how Vietnamese are very positive.
Well, of course, we did learn about the war and Americans and French people and Japanese people came to our country and tried to cut it apart and stuff like that—and killed people. But we don't have the hatred.
Hatred.
Yeah, hatred, like toward you guys too much. And my teacher taught us, like you said, a softer version of the war. So we only focused on, like, we were so strong. We did learn that you guys killed people, like, you know, like we killed each other. But I didn't have any bad thoughts about Americans or America in general when I was a kid.
Conversations with a War Veteran
So, you said you talked to your grandpa about it. This is very interesting. I met her grandpa on Tet Holiday a couple of years ago. It was his 100th birthday. When he first met me, he told me that he had fought in the war—against the French and against the Americans. He told me that he had to kill people in war, but he didn't like it. He had to protect his country. And what else did he talk about?
I asked him, like, what was it like? And he said, well, I had to train a lot. I had to train to get ready. And I said, ready for what? Ready to kill people. And that's the worst part. And I said, like, do you have to kill right away? And he said no, we always have the part—the step. First we will talk, like, "Hey, you have to gun down." And if they keep trying to kill us, then he would be like, "If you kill us, then we will fight back."
And that's the second step. I guess the third step—you have to fight. And he said that we would try to shoot at the legs or something—don't kill them—and then try to get all the guns and try to turn them, you know, like try to talk to them and try to change their mindset.
And I was like, "Wow, that's—that's great." Like, you didn't kill them.
So, he gave me a big hug when he saw me. He asked about the city that I grew up in. He asked what my parents do for work and if I have brothers and sisters. He wanted to know all about my family. And he still asks about me sometimes, right? You guys talk?
Yeah. "How is Lan’s American boyfriend doing?"
Yeah, he asks about you a lot. Because, like, you can talk with him in Vietnamese a little bit. So he's, like, so impressed by that. And he feels grateful. He told me that, "Oh, at least he puts effort into getting to know the language and everything—and the culture and stuff." That’s great about you.
Vietnam hasn't forgotten about the war. They're reminded about it on this day every year. So, if you're worried about how you'll be treated as an American if you show up to Vietnam, you shouldn't. They're going to welcome you the same way they welcome me.
So, don't be scared to check out Vietnam. It's one of the greatest places on earth.
For now, thanks for watching the video. I'll catch you in the next one. Peace.
Source: Travis Travels Vietnam. (2025, May 5). How does VIETNAM feel about AMERICANS now? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiBhh0S9yQ8