By William B. Ketter

Personal Impressions - Part I

When Ho Chi Minh’s battalions swept into Saigon 33 years ago to establish a reunited Vietnam, the communist conquerors made one critical miscalculation: military victory would make life better for the war-weary nation.

Instead, economic conditions worsened, starvation spread across the entire country, and national sacrifice became the common denominator that defined a long and dark post-war period for the north and the south.

"We struggled through very lean years after the Americans left,” remembers Nguyen Ngoc, son of a decorated North Vietnamese army officer. “The government issued food rations. A bowl of rice had to last a week; shreds of meat a month’s time. You killed a chicken without a sound so you didn’t have to share it with your neighbors.”

Nguyen Ngoc, 34, businessman and son of a decorated North Vietnamese army officer, represents the new generation of Vietnamese. They welcome Americans and are more interested in the country's new capitalism than the politics of communism. (Photo by Gary Powell)

Certainly not the socialist dream “Uncle Ho” talked about before dying of a heart attack in 1969 and which his followers strived to fulfill with tight government control over business and commerce upon winning the war in his stead.

Free-market wheeling and dealing, prevalent in South Vietnam during the French and American presence, bid a hasty retreat, crushed by the communist credo of one-for-all and all-for-one. Individual and corporate investment withered.

Until the 1990s, that is. That’s when Vietnam fully embraced the Chinese model of open-market capitalism while clinging to a strict communist political system. Despair turned to daring. Even those Vietnamese who fled the country – known as Viet Kieu -- were invited to invest in the homeland. And they did – at the current rate of $7 billion a year, according to government figures.

Today, Vietnam is still one of the world’s impoverished nations, but a recent two-week vacation there, including eight days on a motorcycle down remnants of the renowned Ho Chi Minh Trail, provided evidence the country is clear-eyed about opening its doors to the world.

Vietnam is the second fastest growing economy in Asia, behind China. But poverty is still a problem. One-third of the country's residents live below the international poverty line. This scene in an urban Hanoi neighborhood shows the squeeze of living conditions. (Photo by Brian Dennis)

“We will never be as rich as you Americans,” said Ngoc. “But we’re now enjoying a better life. We can own property, start businesses, make good money. We have rice, coffee, tea, rubber and oil ” – significant exports that fuel free-market reforms that, in turn, spawn English-language newspapers, magazines and television programs. None, of course, enjoy press freedom as we know it. They do, however, aggressively report crime, corruption and catastrophes. And they did not appear to sugar-coat the country’s economic challenges.

"It is true the communists have ultimate control over the news media,” said Ngoc. “But it is not in the interest of the communists or Vietnam to black out the news of things that everybody knows about anyway through the Internet.”

Ngoc, who served as chief guide and interpreter for the motorcycle adventure, is an example of the new Vietnam, second only to China in economic growth in Asia since 2002.

Open-market wheeling and dealing at this Ho Chi Minh City store and elsewhere is evident in Vietnam after a long, dark period of communist government control of commerce. Making money and getting ahead is now encouraged as a way to grow the country's economy. (Photo by Larry Hall)

At 34, he has no personal memory of the war that killed 3 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians as well as nearly 60,000 American military fighting on behalf of the South Vietnamese. College educated and fluent in French and English, he reads and listens to the news in all three languages, residing with his wife and three-year-old daughter in a modest home in Hanoi. He’s considered a tourism expert, serves as a consultant to travel agencies and is the proud owner of a start-up company http://vietnamontrails.com/home/ that specializes in customized motorcycle tours.

Ngoc loves Vietnam, reveres Ho Chi Minh as the George Washington of his country, lives to ride a motorcycle and raves about the scenic beauty of his native northern landscape. He is not, however, a member of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

Ho Chi Minh, founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party, is revered as the George Washington of today's unified Vietnam. Statues of him appear prominently at museums and public buildings. (Photo by Bill Ketter)

Two-thirds of Vietnam’s 85 million people were, like Ngoc, born after American combat ended in 1973. They are reminded of the bloody clash by their elders, monuments and museums – all of which tout victory over “American imperialism.” But the war does not grip the Vietnamese psyche the way it weighs on the American mind.

Furthermore, the country’s communist leaders no longer insist on command and control of everyday life. People are encouraged to show initiative and get ahead. Ngoc estimated there are only about 3 million card-carrying communists.

“You join the party if you want a career in politics or government,” said Ngoc. “Otherwise, there’s no need to belong. As a nation we are comfortable with the arrangement. We all want a prosperous Vietnam.”

A marble monument at the official start of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Tan Ky, a small north-central town. The American motorcyclists who rode the trail are (first row, left to right) Bill Ketter of Scituate, Mass., Larry Hall of Atlanta, Ga., Gary Powell of Cohasset, Mass. (back row, left to right) Greg Kelly of San Diego, Calif., Tom Hall of Scituate, Mass., and Brian Dennis of Atlanta, Ga. (Photo by Hoang Ngoc Minh) .................................................................. Halong bay, Vietnam.2 August 2010. Olivier LOUISE , Virginie LOUISE and their 2 kids.A family from France.   Ngoc, Je m'assoie a ma ferme eta mes 2 garcons pour te remercier du fond de mon coeur. Plus qu'un guide, tu as ete un ''eclaireur pendant ce voyage. A ta facon tu nous as eclaire sur l'histoire,les peuples, la culture,la religions de ton beau pays, ton etat d'esprit positif et ton professsionalisme sont remarquables.Si le Dieu le veut un jour nous roulerons peut-etreensemble en moto !.Moi ca me plait. Bonne chance et bonne route. ..........................................................   HO CHI MINH TRAIL RIDE.   This is my recent ride down to the Ho Chi Minh trail, an 11 days ride with a group of 4 American friends,a dream trip. Here I let Nick, one of my friends, he talks about the ride. Wow! The Epic Adventure was epic in so many ways: Getting friends to visit me in Vietnam, seeing the sun rise over Angkor Wat, getting on a motorcycle for almost the first time and then riding 1,000 miles down the length of Vietnam. The trip was two years in the making, but it was well worth it -- one trip friend called it "life-changing." It definitely will be an event that I will replay in my mind when I'm rolling in a wheelchair instead of down a curvy mountain trail overlooking the ocean. I hope you've read the daily summaries and looked at some of the amazing pictures. I also shot a lot of video, and will hopefully boil that down into a coherent video in the next several months. But several weeks after the trip here are some impressions and thoughts about the experience: * Keep your eye on Vietnam: Vietnam definitely has problems. Poverty is widespread, the infrastructure is stretched thin (electricity outages were common), flooding is common, and water buffalo are still used to plow many rice paddies. But you can definitely see the potential in the nation of 80-million people. It's a Communist country, but the entrepreneurial zeal is everywhere. Women selling loaves of bread by roadside, peddlers going door to door selling trinkets, small motorcycle shops selling warm water and beer on the side, even kids speaking amazing English pushing DVDs and postcards. Some day all this drive will result in a regional economic powerhouse, as soon as the government gets more of its act in order, and stops doing penny-ante stuff like blocking Facebook. The infrastructure is also improving. There is a huge highway being built out of Hanoi (which accounted for the scary first part of the trip). Even small villages had paved roads, and there were few potholes on the roads we took. Many rivers had new bridges being built. (The country could do with a few more stoplights though....) Vietnam has unlimited tourist potential. The landscape is infinitely varied, from jagged limestone mountains to rolling hills to the flatness of endless rice paddies. The coastline consists of white sandy beaches, warm waters and great mountaintop views. The food was also wonderful -- filling, tasty, and without the greasiness common in a lot of countries. And most of all, the people are warm and friendly. Every American goes to Vietnam with a certain wariness in the back of his mind, but the smiles are genuine and the hearts are welcoming. They were just fun to be with. Service was good too. If you are considering a getaway, Vietnam should definitely be on the list. * Reconsidering history: Every boomer has Vietnam imprinted on his DNA. We all grew up with daily news related to the Vietnam War (called the American War in Vietnam), and passions were strong among all those against or in favor of the war. Many Americans believed, as President Johnson said in 1965, "we have to fight the Communists in Vietnam so we don't have to fight them in San Francisco." As a result of the war, 50,000+ Americans died, 3.5 million Vietnamese were killed and the political divide that still impacts US politics today began. It was amazing to visit the places that had been just headlines in my youth -- Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh trail, My Lai, Khe Sanh, Hanoi Hilton, tunnels that survived B-52 bombings and more. More than 40 years later hillsides stand naked where the infamous herbicide Agent Orange was dropped. Yet look at Vietnam today. Two US presidents have visited. The country welcomes US tourists and investment. It is stable and peaceful, and slowly shrinking its military. It makes you wonder: Why did we spill so much blood and treasure there, and what were we fighting for? Wouldn't it have been simpler and better, as one Senator suggested at the time, just declare victory and go home? The parallels with Afghanistan are clear. Americans are fighting and dying in a land many could not find on a map, supposedly because, as bush put it, "we have to fight the terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them here." The Afghan government is corrupt, incompetent and isolated. Like the Vietnamese, who fought for more than 50 years to unite their country, the Afghans are skilled and tenacious at fighting outsiders. At first I supported President Obama's well-considered strategy to deploy more troops to Afghanistan, but now I'm not so sure. While I was in Vietnam Afghanistan became the longest war America has ever fought, and the end is very very distant. And I keep thinking, in 40 years, are there going to be motorcycle tours of today's battles, and will our children wonder why so many US soldiers died there? * The value of friends: The invites went out to the world, but in the end only three brave souls -- Doug Traub, his brother David Traud and Peter Manieri -- put away the demands of daily life and avoided the easy excuses to fly to a distant and unknown part of the world to do something that was crazy and unimaginable -- slum around SE Asia before motorbiking down the Ho Chi Minh trail. Doug soldiered on when his body told him stop, David was the best den mother ever making sure we were all safe and accounted for, and Peter became America's finest ambassador ever with his generosity and open heart. Without the mutual support and sharing, we would have never made it. (There were moments when our guide didn't think we'd complete the trip, and I gained a newfound respect for my daughter Crystal, who had previously made the same trip by herself.) There were moments that will shine forever. (Some will be forgotten immediately: "38 hours!" comes to mind.) And there has to be a special thank-you for our friend and guide Ngoc, who taught us a lot about Vietnam and friendship. If you want the perfect tour in Vietnam or elsewhere in Southeast Asia, with a patient, helpful, well-organized and knowledgeable guide, be sure to contact our friend Ngoc at http://vietnamontrails.com/home/. But even if you don't make it to Asia, it's time for you to take a trip!