Common misconceptions and clichés about life in Vietnam

Not really a misconception, but something that many people seem to be unaware of is the utmost importance of ancestor "worship" in Vietnamese culture.

This leads to the high population levels due to the need to continue your ancestor's lineage, the gender imbalance, due to the preference for male offspring, and the abundance of single moms in need of a foreign husband.

In combination with the high population (15th highest in the world) and the limited land area (66th worldwide), much of which is mountainous jungle, means that urban areas are very densely packed with people almost to the point of being unliveable.

Of course, most of Asia is like that now.

Anywayz, if any expats living in Vietnam consider the locals their "enemy", they're certainly going to find themselves surrounded by "hostile forces".

I'm too young for the war, and in my experience (mostly down south), the vast majority of VNese have been helpful and polite.

- @johnross23

I'm too young for the war, and in my experience (mostly down south), the vast majority of VNese have been helpful and polite.

- @johnross23

As a two-tour Aussie veteran of the war, I quickly learned how courageous, capable, and ingenious the Viet people are. The Vietnamese have my utmost respect.

I have had the honor of meeting and being welcomed by many of those we fought. I have attended memorial services for the most highly decorated NVA regiment, who spent a lot of time challenging the Aussies. And at no time have I had anything but a welcoming smile.

The people I meet in the restaurants, bars, and on the street seem to have an uncanny understanding that I am a veteran of the war, and they have always been accommodating, polite, and friendly.

If you don't like the Viet people, feel threatened by them, or consider them hostile, pack your gear and get out!

- @Safepeter

As I stated, I'm in agreement with you. My experience with the Vietnamese has been overall positive. 

Clarifying something...

Foreign military veterans who return to Vietnam even though they essentially hate Vietnam and her people are NOT necessarily themselves "bad people".

Just as PTSD causes the perpetuation of trauma related symptoms, so too does involvement in war perpetuate the necessary dehumanization of the "enemy", long after the conflict has ceased.

That's the moral injury of any war.

In any war, you can't get human beings to kill other human beings unless you convince your people that they are somehow superior while the enemy is inferior; you have more worth as a human while they are worthless.

That essential dehumanization of the enemy has been happening in every war in history.

Unless combatants are reprogrammed after war to appreciate and accept that their former enemies are equally human, then the dehumanizing of their former adversaries will continue, even if only on a subconscious level.

- @OceanBeach92107

Clarifying something...

Foreign military veterans who return to Vietnam even though they essentially hate Vietnam and her people are NOT necessarily themselves "bad people".

Just as PTSD causes the perpetuation of trauma related symptoms, so too does involvement in war perpetuate the necessary dehumanization of the "enemy", long after the conflict has ceased.

That's the moral injury of any war.

In any war, you can't get human beings to kill other human beings unless you convince your people that they are somehow superior while the enemy is inferior; you have more worth as a human while they are worthless.

That essential dehumanization of the enemy has been happening in every war in history.

Unless combatants are reprogrammed after war to appreciate and accept that their former enemies are equally human, then the dehumanizing of their former adversaries will continue, even if only on a subconscious level.

- @OceanBeach92107

Some things I just dont get

1...........why would anyone in their right mind want to live in a country where they hate the people & the country?.....strange, seems like living in a nightmare if you ask me.

2.........why would anyone want to live in a country where some of the citizens of that country are still paying a hard price for the crap they left behind them unless it was to help clean that mess up & make amends for their own & their countries conduct & say sorry.

- @goodolboy

I just needed to let go of the misconception that the Vietnamese people are my enemy.

- @OceanBeach92107

In America humor is essentially dead, except when aimed at working class whites. Good humor does need a target. In America, political correctness insists that only working class whites can be a target.