When I was teaching it at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania quite a few years ago, we had a significant number of Vietnamese students coming in and attending. At one time our Vietnamese club had over 20 and these young people were very pro-American even though many of their parents and grandparents had been our enemies.
We did a program, a panel discussion for Vietnam veterans and for Vietnamese students. It was an evening talking about the war and the relations between Vietnam and the United States. It was extraordinarily illuminating.
What came through was a people that were very pro-American even though as I said, almost all their parents had been our enemies.
They all had positive experiences where their parents or grandparents had told them stories about American GIs. There was one young lady who said she had to come to America because an American had saved her great aunt’s life. She said, “My parents were VC.” But there was an incident where there was bombing going on, a rocket attack. Her great aunt was you know like a 5 or 6 years old child, out in the middle of an area exposed to the fire. An American G.I. ran out grabbed her and carried her to safety. Her family had told that story to this young lady all her life. So when she had the opportunity to come and study in America, she did.
Funny how things work out.