35 years later

I absolutely love visiting the Vietnam Center and Archive of Texas Tech online and pouring through the pictures and documents they have available. You can find some true gems about Vietnam's past.

I was reading this article ("Are The Cities of South Vietnam Large & Beautiful?" by Ngoc Tuan, August 1975) over the weekend and thought it was an interesting look back on where Vietnam has come from in 35 years, particularly how the government has altered its stance on so many things.

An article like this, which disparaged the Americans and their puppet regime for building cities with high rises and retail outlets certainly stands in contrast to April 30, 2010 when the parade of victory took place only blocks away from the opening of Vincom Tower, yet another retail outlet high rise in the city. I think the author got some parts right, particularly the slums intermixed between these modern structures, but then again, it's still a prevalent problem today, is it not?

Nonetheless, I like this article not so much for my opinion about it as I do how it gives a window in time to how we've changed in 35 years.