NAMSOUTH
Brock Townsend
9/19/2024
Saigon 1994
(Beer and
wonderful food for all! I taught a business course at the school of the
gentleman to my right, ESL/Business English an another. My wife is
barely visible between the two of us. It is the custom in Vietnam that
men and women sit at separate tables with the men served first. BT)
Voting
There may be many different people running for office in Vietnam, but you are still choosing between Communists. They make a big deal out of getting everyone to vote and I remember in 1993/4? my Vietnamese CIA man who visited me ever now and then on orders of his superiors, mainly to drink beer, came over and told us that my wife had to go home to vote. When I complained that it was a long way to go, he said he would get in trouble if she didn't, but to just tell one person in her extended family to go to the polls and vote for everyone. So her cousin went, voted for 14 family members and everyone was happy! Just silliness as my mother would say."