Number one, they should not have overthrown Ngo Dinh Diem. With all his faults and weakness, Diem was a strong leader who was a strong nationalist, similar to Ho Chi Minh before he turned Communist.

Number two, Americans has always thought of this war as their own war, when it should have been thought of as a civil war between North and South. This led to the next 2 mistakes.

Number three, the Americans didn’t trust their South Vietnam ally, not supplying them with adequate weapons to fight their North enemies who were well supplied with latest equipments from the Chinese and the Soviets. Imagine using single-shot rifle to fight against automatic AK-47. The modern weapons are only available to GIs.

Number four, abandoning their South Vietnam ally with no weapon or ammunition supplies after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, while the North continued their fight with ample supplies from Beijing and Moscow.

For these reasons, I lament the wasteful lost of 3 millions Vietnamese lives, and I am seeing the same mistakes, already happened or in the making, in the current dealings with Iraq. I wish more Americans learn their history so that their loved ones would not die in vain.

Which brings me to Buddhism. Buddhism excels in these situations. When you are stll trapped in semantics, you are not liberated or enlightened. A true enlightened person should be able to adapt to any environment they are in and still maintain a smile and inner peace. I remember readin a story about a monk who frequent whorehouses to practice his mediatation. If you can still maintain your inner peace, what can contaminate you?

I want to talk a bit about a music DVD produced by Asia Entertainments: Asia 50: Trần Thiện Thanh Anh Không Chết Đâu Anh. A tribute to the late songwriter who created a wealth of songs that really capture the image of individual soldiers for eternity. The history of South Vietnam and its soldiers haven’t been treated well after the fall of Saigon in 1975. The DVD has done a great job celebrating the soldiers and bringing out the tears in me. The opening and closing numbers are heart wrenching. Fate wasn’t fair to the veterans of the South Army after the fall of Saigon. To the rest of the world, and sadly to America, their sacrifices have been forgotten, their lives made miserable. Only in songs have they been treated as they richly deserved. And Nhật Trường was able to really elevate the status of the regular soldiers on the frontline.
As a comparison, I was disappointed not seeing a single song that captures the feelings of the 9/11 tragic event.

We had a car accident this morning. The car was banged up pretty bad on the front end. It’s raining, we are on the I-5 northbound in the middle lane, when suddenly the green van in the right lane veered into our lane. Instinctively I swerved right to avoid a collision, and that’s when our car got out of control. It happened too fast, the only thought I had during the several seconds there was “keep the wheels in the direction of where you want to go”! You didn’t realized how difficult it was to keep the car under control. I braked and braked but the car kept sliding right and left, then it headed towards the middle barrier. I didn’t feel much on impact. The hit wasn’t hard enough to deploy the airbags, but tonight we started to feel a bit of a body ache. The hood flew right up blocking the view, but I crouched down and kept steering the car.

We were very fortunate. When we came to a stop, we were looking right at 4 lanes of traffic coming towards us. I looked down at the gear box and the shift was at neutral. I put it into gear, and amazingly the car started moving. Traffic came to a stop to let us drive through to the right side of the freeway where we pulled to a stop at the curb.

My wife and I looked at each other in silence, then realized we didn’t have any injury. I looked up and a state patrol car was already behind us, its light flashing. “Amazing, where did he come from that fast?”.

The car was drivable but couldn’t go very fast. We ended up having it towed.

So what’s my thought of the day, you ask? Well, We believe in MIRACLE. The day has been quite an experience, and we realized we’re very lucky. We’ll take the day as it goes.

If I could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, that person would be my uncle TTH. He was the kindest and also the funniest guy I’ve ever met. I lost him just a couple years after he got out of the so-called re-education camp. He would be a great person for my niece and my two nephews to be around. I miss him so much. We wish you the happiest time uncle H, wherever you are now. I’d have loved to hear all your wartime stories all over again, and I have so many questions for you now.