By Nick Gier
New West Politics
On March 24 I was at Bangkok’s new international airport, the fifth busiest in Asia and to me the most beautiful. Along with my travel companions we boarded a brand new Airbus 321, Air Vietnam flight 830 to Hanoi.
I thought to myself: “Forty years ago Americans flying this direction would be pilots on bombing runs.” Over 80 percent of the ordnance dropped on Vietnam, triple the tonnage of both the European and Pacific theaters of World War II, were carried by F-4 Phantoms and F-105 Thunderchiefs from seven bases in Thailand.
As we drove into Hanoi from the airport we saw many bridges over the Red River that had been destroyed time and time again by U.S. bombs, only to be rebuilt or spanned by pontoons. The river was crowded with boat traffic, mainly loads of basic building materials.
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