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"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Wait a minute! You're thinking, that's OUR Declaration of Independence, written by none other than Thomas Jefferson. And you're right, Ho Chi Minh had asked a couple of American OSS (WWII predecessor of the CIA) officers for a copy; we were on the same side then, fighting the Japanese.
Usually the 2nd or 3rd question you get upon meeting a someone new is, "what country are you from?" (anh la nguoi nuoc nao?) It's quite natural to lower one's head slightly and reply in a subdued tone, "I'm an American"; like, remember us, the guy's in the B-52's? The normal response from the locals is a big smile and a genuinely "happy to see you!" outpouring. It takes a lot of getting used to, that these people do not hate my guts, a red-blooded Ohio boy who really was fixing B-52's in 1973 (in California, planes used for training flight crews, no glory there!). As a matter of fact, during my 4 years on-and-off living here, I have never encountered any outward hostility or resentment whatsoever. Never.
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We have an organic connection, the USA and Viet Nam. Part of it is the blood of 58,000 Americans in the ground. Part of it is the legacy of the Boat People, the Vietnamese-Americans who became just as much part of America as the Africans, the Irish, or the Jews. What a key role Viet Nam played in the Cultural Revolution in America, the 1960's. We have a lot in common: Vietnamese are quite egalitarian, the average guy is proud and independent. They have lot of respect for the United States, which frankly is kind of refreshing after having the rest of the world blame us for their problems...how ironic!
Historically it's called the American War, the 14 years from 1961 to 1975. In the span of Vietnamese history, it is a fairly brief but influential interlude. Like the Russians who succeeded us, but one can find scant evidence of today, or even the French, whose architectural efforts remain but most other cultural artifacts were quickly forgotten, the signs of American presence could have easily been washed away by the first wave of monsoon rains after the last U.S. Marine Corps helicopter left Saigon on April 30, 1975. Why did that not happen? Like the words of Mr. Jefferson, did the American virus get into the Vietnamese blood?
The impact of the Viet Kieu, a term generally referring to any Vietnamese living outside the country but in practice meaning a VN American, should not be underestimated. In a status-conscious society, an average guy in the US is quite wealthy here, and that definitely got people's attention. The Vietnamese who went to the US were quite successful, and there's a lot of pride in that fact, that they could succeed just the same as anybody else. After a thousand years of tip-toeing around the Chinese, then having the French park their snooty butts here for 100 years, the Japanese came in during the 1940's and were none too polite frankly, then the US came in like a supercharged bull in a china shop, so yes there's a hint of national inferiority complex and they can be a bit sensitive about slights, but it's not a problem if you simply nhap gia tuy tuc, when in Rome do as the Romans.