It’s déjà vu all over again – back to Vietnam

My good American friend down in Pattaya, Wayne (we worked together 20 years ago on a US force protection defence contract in Kuwait), recently invited me to go to Vietnam with him for the Songkran holidays. I immediately accepted.

It has been at least 10 years since I was last there. I am looking forward to see all the many changes I am sure the country has gone through. When I moved back to Thailand for good back in 1991, I was using Vietnam as my every 90 day “visa run” destination. I also was raiding the Dan Sinh (also called the “American”) market in Ho Chi Minh City for used (and used) Vietnam War era military goods for American collectors (the Vietnamese call the Vietnam War the “American War”).

Back then collecting war related militaria was a big business. But eventually the buyer ran off with all my goods and never paid me so that ended that business partnership.

At the time the market was quite small, but the vendors were very lively – all firm elbow grabbing hard sell. All of them very anxious to give you something for your cash. It had heaps of old uniforms, equipment, paraphernalia, boots, helmets, instruments, and related goods, some of them still in the original packing cases or boxes untouched and collecting dust after decades of post-war unuse.

I was impressed with the inventiveness of the Vietnamese traders. There was one pristine US military ‘boonie’ hat for sale (a soft, camouflaged, wide brimmed hat that is easily rolled up). These hats were a much sought after collector’s item being rare in any condition. I asked the price. Dirt cheap. I inspected it carefully – a dead perfect specimen. It was a size seven. My size. I tried it on. Two sizes too small. Then it instantly dawned on me: it as a counterfeit. Someone exactly reproduced the hat as a fake, but never checked the actual hat size tag.

I also saw thousands of US military ‘dog tags,’ or little aluminium military ID badges, also for sale. I knew from reports that some people in the US also heard about these items and said they were the tag tags of POWs still being held captive or MIAs. That the US government should just go in there, snatch them all, and find the missing troops. However, the real story soon emerged. The US military left behind all their dog tag making machinery plus there were still plenty of lists of Americans with names, social security numbers, blood types, dates of birth, etc., and mountains of blank tags left behind when the war ended in 1975. So, the Vietnamese traders simply made up new dog tags, buried them for a while, then shoved them into the marketplace for unsuspecting tourists for a sale.

I heard later someone finally bought them all. Then they were told to stop manufacturing them. Travel report to follow next month.