I was in Saigon last week during the arrival of the USS Vandegrift (FFG 48) at Nha Trong Port.
It was every bit as moving to me, as what I imagine our soldiers felt in Baghdad today. Seeing the Navy enlisted and officers on shore leave in downtown Saigon was awsome. The Vietnamese people gave them a gracious welcome and stopped sailors on the streets to offer innumerable enthusiastic greetings.
The Hanoi government exercised its typical excess pride (e.g., having the Vandegrift's captain lay a wreath at the huge statue of Ho Chi Minh on Nguyen Hue Blvd.), but the overall message was extremely moving and important: it shows that the Hanoi government is finally prepared to move forward.
The Communism of Vietnam is a thin veneer atop 1,000 years of tradition and culture, and probably the result of the last century of domination by the French, Chinese, Japanese, and (according to Hanoi) America.
That veneer has finally been pierced, and this is how freedom will come to Vietnam: through commerce and a friendly attitude.
The Vietnamese have repeatedly proven that intimdation doesn't impress them one iota.