I visited China and North Vietnam in 2003 with a very small tourist group, mostly from Durango. Our guide in Hanoi, who spoke perfect English and had a degree in history, told me quietly: “I know that a lot of people in your country think the war was bad. If the USA had not been here, we would now just be part of China, but someday we will be a democracy.”

I found it interesting that, on the same day, Adam Taylor’s column on the Herald Opinion page emphasized the negative aspects of the Vietnam War but waited until the last sentence to briefly mention with no elaboration that 70 percent of Vietnam citizens currently like the United States.

Jim Burpee

Durango