The leaders of our region, along with special guest Hillary Clinton were in Hanoi this weekend for the East Asia Summit. It was an appropriate venue as the ancient Vietnamese city is celebrating an auspicious birthdays, its 1,000, David Brill our man is no stranger to Hanoi, he's been based there and filmed there often during the Vietnam War. We thought we would send him back to Hanoi to give us a personal account of how much the city has changed since the dark days of the war.
REPORTER: David Brill
I've been going to Vietnam since 1970, since the fall of Saigon in 1975. I realised when I first went to Vietnam what wonderful people these were. Now they've been at war for many, many years - they were attacked by the Mongolians, the Chinese, the French, the Japanese, the Americans, the Australians, so on. What I noticed wandering around Hanoi celebrating 1,000 years old city, was the country is together and it's at peace.
There's tremendous change in Hanoi - the Western influence, I noticed. All the big fashion labels have got stores there. When I was there before, I worried about the Western influence, but the thing I do notice, and after talking to people, they want Western things, they want to go and buy nice clothes, they want to have more money, they want to have a better life.
Here this Bentley would cost roughly about 600,000 US to buy - that's in Vietnam. 30 years ago you would never see anything like this. You would be lucky to see cars in the street, let alone a Bentley. When I was in Hanoi in 1973 during the war, the tallest building was about four storeys high - I went out of the centre of Hanoi, about 20 minutes drive, to see this new construction going on. They are putting buildings up 70 floors high, not just one building, but dozens of buildings. There was one major road out there, it reminded me of Fifth Avenue in New York. I never thought I would see that - never.
I went for a walk around the lake area in Hanoi, this beautiful lake that is in the middle of the city. People were celebrating, the proudness, the enthusiasm of the Vietnamese, that the city is a 1,000 years old and that it went through so much tragedy during the war. They asked questions like "Did you ever think Hanoi would survive all the bombing it went through during the Vietnam War?" and the Vietnamese say "Yes, we beat the Americans and their allies".
MAN (Translation): I am very proud of our Vietnamese army - we have defeated the forces that wanted to crush Vietnam. The Vietnamese people are kind but we are also prepared to fight enemy invaders.
When I was in Vietnam in 1973 during the war, I was taken on a tour of the city just after the heavy bombing that the Americans had done on Hanoi, to get them back to the peace talks inParis. I went to a hospital that had been bombed accidentally, the Americans said. The doctors and nurses were doing operations in the theatres, in the operating theatres, and it was the monsoon season, so the rain, because of the roofs being all gone, the rain's pouring into the operating theatres and the doctors and nurses were operating with plastic over the people. Could you imagine that?
The Vietnam War has been over for a long time now. But it takes a very long time for any country to get back on their feet and Vietnam is starting to. I've never seen so many people like it, coming up for the last night of the festivities in Hanoi. Thousands of people came in from the countryside who had never been to Hanoi before. They came in for the celebrations, and they came to the war museum to see the American plains that the North Vietnamese shot down. They had their photographs taken in front of some of these planes. They said they felt very proud that the North Vietnamese army had shot these planes out of the sky.
I met this lovely woman, Mrs Tu who remembers the bombing of Hanoi in the '60s, and '70s, and how the North Vietnamese shot down the American planes. She invited me into her house for a cup of tea and we sat down and had a nice chat.
MRS TU (Translation): The Vietnamese love for life is amazing. Unimaginable…. How the country survived! Honestly, during that difficult time we had limited supplies. The teachers didn’t have enough materials – it was very difficult. Now people are so happy. We are happy, life is good now.
Mrs Tu has three children. Two of them are doctors, like her husband, and the other one is an engineer. She's got this wonderful old house right in the heart of Hanoi. It probably was worth maybe $10,000 during the war. Now it's been valued at $3 million-$4 million, they need the money - doctors don't get paid much in Vietnam. But they don't want to sell it because it's a family home that goes back many generations.
The Vietnamese government put on a big parade outside Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum very similar to the Soviets. All the leadership was there - the President, Prime Minister, Defence Minister. Young people were dressed in the Viet Cong uniform as the Viet Cong played a major part in winning the war for Vietnam.
Wandering around the old French quarter in Hanoi, all the wonderful old silk shops and bits and pieces that you can buy, the beautiful crafts, I looked up at one shop and there at the entrance was the American flag and the Vietnamese flag together. I never thought when I was there in '73 that I'd ever see that. That's all very nice, but the suffering that went on before that, the carnage of people being killed, what for? I knew this war wouldn't go anywhere particularly for the Vietnamese or the Americans. I knew it and what did we prove in Vietnam by bombing it, particularly Hanoi - nothing.
As the Vietnamese said to me, "We've got to move on, we can't hold grudges against the Americans. If we are going to improve our country we've got to work with America, now let's forgive, not forget, but move on." It's wonderful to see the Vietnamese at peace, the people are happy.
GEORGE NEGUS: Nostalgic David Brill in Hanoi for the 1,000th. The happy faces may be one thing, but dissidents in Vietnam, a bit like in Burma are very likely to find themselves behind bars if they speak out against their nations rulers. There are profiles of the team, including more on David and his 43 years behind the camera on our website.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID BRILL
Producer
PETER CHARLEY
Editor
CATHERINE WHELAN
Translations/Subtitling
THOMAS NGUYEN
Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN
31st October 2010
REPORTER: David Brill
I've been going to Vietnam since 1970, since the fall of Saigon in 1975. I realised when I first went to Vietnam what wonderful people these were. Now they've been at war for many, many years - they were attacked by the Mongolians, the Chinese, the French, the Japanese, the Americans, the Australians, so on. What I noticed wandering around Hanoi celebrating 1,000 years old city, was the country is together and it's at peace.
There's tremendous change in Hanoi - the Western influence, I noticed. All the big fashion labels have got stores there. When I was there before, I worried about the Western influence, but the thing I do notice, and after talking to people, they want Western things, they want to go and buy nice clothes, they want to have more money, they want to have a better life.
Here this Bentley would cost roughly about 600,000 US to buy - that's in Vietnam. 30 years ago you would never see anything like this. You would be lucky to see cars in the street, let alone a Bentley. When I was in Hanoi in 1973 during the war, the tallest building was about four storeys high - I went out of the centre of Hanoi, about 20 minutes drive, to see this new construction going on. They are putting buildings up 70 floors high, not just one building, but dozens of buildings. There was one major road out there, it reminded me of Fifth Avenue in New York. I never thought I would see that - never.
I went for a walk around the lake area in Hanoi, this beautiful lake that is in the middle of the city. People were celebrating, the proudness, the enthusiasm of the Vietnamese, that the city is a 1,000 years old and that it went through so much tragedy during the war. They asked questions like "Did you ever think Hanoi would survive all the bombing it went through during the Vietnam War?" and the Vietnamese say "Yes, we beat the Americans and their allies".
MAN (Translation): I am very proud of our Vietnamese army - we have defeated the forces that wanted to crush Vietnam. The Vietnamese people are kind but we are also prepared to fight enemy invaders.
When I was in Vietnam in 1973 during the war, I was taken on a tour of the city just after the heavy bombing that the Americans had done on Hanoi, to get them back to the peace talks inParis. I went to a hospital that had been bombed accidentally, the Americans said. The doctors and nurses were doing operations in the theatres, in the operating theatres, and it was the monsoon season, so the rain, because of the roofs being all gone, the rain's pouring into the operating theatres and the doctors and nurses were operating with plastic over the people. Could you imagine that?
The Vietnam War has been over for a long time now. But it takes a very long time for any country to get back on their feet and Vietnam is starting to. I've never seen so many people like it, coming up for the last night of the festivities in Hanoi. Thousands of people came in from the countryside who had never been to Hanoi before. They came in for the celebrations, and they came to the war museum to see the American plains that the North Vietnamese shot down. They had their photographs taken in front of some of these planes. They said they felt very proud that the North Vietnamese army had shot these planes out of the sky.
I met this lovely woman, Mrs Tu who remembers the bombing of Hanoi in the '60s, and '70s, and how the North Vietnamese shot down the American planes. She invited me into her house for a cup of tea and we sat down and had a nice chat.
MRS TU (Translation): The Vietnamese love for life is amazing. Unimaginable…. How the country survived! Honestly, during that difficult time we had limited supplies. The teachers didn’t have enough materials – it was very difficult. Now people are so happy. We are happy, life is good now.
Mrs Tu has three children. Two of them are doctors, like her husband, and the other one is an engineer. She's got this wonderful old house right in the heart of Hanoi. It probably was worth maybe $10,000 during the war. Now it's been valued at $3 million-$4 million, they need the money - doctors don't get paid much in Vietnam. But they don't want to sell it because it's a family home that goes back many generations.
The Vietnamese government put on a big parade outside Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum very similar to the Soviets. All the leadership was there - the President, Prime Minister, Defence Minister. Young people were dressed in the Viet Cong uniform as the Viet Cong played a major part in winning the war for Vietnam.
Wandering around the old French quarter in Hanoi, all the wonderful old silk shops and bits and pieces that you can buy, the beautiful crafts, I looked up at one shop and there at the entrance was the American flag and the Vietnamese flag together. I never thought when I was there in '73 that I'd ever see that. That's all very nice, but the suffering that went on before that, the carnage of people being killed, what for? I knew this war wouldn't go anywhere particularly for the Vietnamese or the Americans. I knew it and what did we prove in Vietnam by bombing it, particularly Hanoi - nothing.
As the Vietnamese said to me, "We've got to move on, we can't hold grudges against the Americans. If we are going to improve our country we've got to work with America, now let's forgive, not forget, but move on." It's wonderful to see the Vietnamese at peace, the people are happy.
GEORGE NEGUS: Nostalgic David Brill in Hanoi for the 1,000th. The happy faces may be one thing, but dissidents in Vietnam, a bit like in Burma are very likely to find themselves behind bars if they speak out against their nations rulers. There are profiles of the team, including more on David and his 43 years behind the camera on our website.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID BRILL
Producer
PETER CHARLEY
Editor
CATHERINE WHELAN
Translations/Subtitling
THOMAS NGUYEN
Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN
31st October 2010