Don’t forget also that Vietnam has a very young population. No cite handy, but seem to recall that more than half the population was born since the war. So most Vietnamese have had no direct experience with Americans at all. And it’s not like we’re threatening to come back and settle the score.
The one thing this thread seems to prove is… just how effective anti-war propganda can be…
The American’s initally enterend the vietman conflict (term du jour for the ‘war’) at the behest of both France and South Vietnam… we did not start the ‘war’ by any strech… nor did it end when we left (there were still a few years of struggle)…
The cites of ‘torture’ by Americans (while i’m sure some happened) were overblown to say the least…
MANY US soilders/sailors/Marines/Airmen over there wanted nothing more than to help a country that was being over run by their communist enemy… there is little difference between what happened in Vietnam and what happened in South Korea… besides the our ending (how we left, and left it)…
After we left THOUSANDS of citizens of South Vietnam were killed by their Northern Brethern…
In the end what happened in Vietnam was, we left an ally to die (figuratively and literally); at the hands of an enemy we helped upset… it saved many many American lives… but many times that number of innocents were slaughtered after we left… not exactly a victory of ‘peace’ in my mind
The one thing this thread seems to prove is… just how effective anti-war propganda can be…
The American’s initially entered the Vietnam conflict (term du jour for the ‘war’) at the behest of both France and South Vietnam… we did not start the ‘war’ by any stretch… nor did it end when we left (there were still a few years of struggle)…
The cites of ‘torture’ by Americans (while I’m sure some happened) were overblown to say the least…
MANY US soldiers/sailors/Marines/Airmen over there wanted nothing more than to help a country that was being over run by their communist enemy… there is little difference between what happened in Vietnam and what happened in South Korea… besides the our ending (how we left, and left it)…
After we left THOUSANDS of citizens of South Vietnam were killed by their Northern Brethren…
In the end what happened in Vietnam was, we left an ally to die (figuratively and literally); at the hands of an enemy we helped upset… it saved many many American lives… but many times that number of innocents were slaughtered after we left… not exactly a victory of ‘peace’ in my mind
oops sorry for the double post
The Vietnamese don’t hate us because they would rather do business with us.
Well, I tried to make a response twice, and both got eaten.
Short version: No, “government policy” doesn’t cut it. The plicy would not have been the same had we chosen to hate Germany or Japan. We could have done both easily.
What make you think they don’t? The real questions here are how far beneath the surface does the hatred run, and how they show it, or rather how Americans perceive it. It depends on the individual on the street, as well as their age, but I can say that the hatred is definitely still there even after 30 years (and still runs according to the old political geography) Only that it is not open hostility so much as wary suspicions combined with quiet malice.
If you can read it, here’s something to support my point:
http://www.thuvienvietnam.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=4868
The posted example is: When the WTC was attacked, the poster jumped for joice because the “American emperialists” was “punished”. Why? The poster implied that he felt that way because he hated Americans, because it was in accordance with government policies AND what he was taught at school. (He was a sophomore in college then) If you really look, you’ll find elementary text books there today that teach something like “this morning my dad shot 3 Americans, in the afternoon he shot 2 more. How many Americans did he shoot today?” 5 years ago, when I was visiting, there was a “American war crime museum” in Saigon; the name might be changed now, but the place is still there. When hatred is institutionalized it’s hard not to show.
They do business with us out of necessity, not out of love.
The people there are very friendly, but don’t walk around saying you’re an American with no money if you’re in the North! 
(Heck, they hated me just by my association with the Americans!)