First US Commercial Flight To Vietnam Since Fall Of Saigon Takes Off (MAJOR BARF ALERT)

Yahoo News ^ | December 9, 2004 | Agence France Presse

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

The facade of the reservations office for United Airlines at Ho Chi Minh City.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A United Airlines jumbo jet took off from San Francisco at the start of the historic first US commercial flight to Vietnam since the fall of Saigon nearly 30 years ago.

Flight UA869, a 347-seater Boeing 747-400 airliner, lifted off from San Francisco International Airport bound for Ho Chi Minh City, the southern Vietnamese hub formerly known as Saigon, via Hong Kong.

The jet will on Friday become the first American commercial carrier to touch down in Vietnam since the end of the war in 1975, marking another step in the slow normalization of once-bellicose US-Vietnam ties.

The flight took off 24 minutes late at 12:34 pm (2034 GMT) at the start of diplomatically and commercially charged journey that will take 20 hours to complete, including a two-hour stop in Hong Kong, airline officials said.

"Today's launch of direct service to Vietnam marks an historic step in the relationship between the United States and Vietnam," said United chairman Glenn Tilton.

US and Vietnamese officials took part in a ceremony to see off the plane on its historic journey, and US television hearthrob David Hasselhoff of "Baywatch" and "Knight Rider" fame was on board the jet, the airline said.

US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta (news - web sites) said in a statement that the flight, the culmination of a groundbreaking bilateral aviation pact signed a year ago, turned a page in the troubled history of the two nations.

"Today's historic flight from the United States to Vietnam -- the first direct flight in almost 30 years -- represents a new beginning of strengthened relations and closer ties that will reunite families and open new doors for businesses in both countries," he said.

The maiden trip marks the start of a regular daily service linking the United States with the city that was once capital of the now-defunct US-backed state of South Vietnam.

"I welcome direct air service and the closer economic and cultural ties between our two countries that will surely result," said Chien Tam Nguyen, Vietnam's ambassador to the United States.

The envoy said the air link would further "the understanding, friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation" between the two nations.

California is home to the largest Vietnamese community outside of Southeast Asia, most of whom fled their home country after the communist take-over in 1975.

US-Vietnamese are vehemently opposed to broadening US ties with Hanoi, but there has been relatively little criticism of the establishment of direct air links.

United, which is currently under bankruptcy protection, has been lured back into Vietnam by the fastest-expanding aviation market in Asia.

The last flight linking the United States and Saigon was a Pan Am service shortly before the fall of the South Vietnam capital to communist force who united the country.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Actor David Hasselhoff, right, and his wife Pamela Hasselhoff board a
United Airlines flight at San Francisco International Airport to Vietnam,
Thursday Dec., 9, 2004. This is the first scheduled flight of a U.S. airline to
Vietnam in almost 30 years. David Hasselhoff is bringing wheelchairs for the
disabled on behalf of Wheels for Humanity.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

In light of this, I will walk before ever taking a United Airlines flight to anywhere.

[trickyricky]

What the heck? We're (not me) bosom buddies with stinking communist China.
Next it will be Fidel, if the rat lives that long.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

ping

[AmericanInTokyo]

Now we might know how some average Japanese who had served their national duty in the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII must have felt when the first direct flights from Haneda Airport took off for the United States, following the War (1949?)--bringing more and more Japanese to the US and more and more Americans to Japan during the Postwar Age.

Eventually they came around to accept it, and their children and grandchildren couldn't have a care about flying to the country that was once a bitter, to-the-death enemy.

It will be the same with the US in about 20-30 more years vis-a-vis Vietnam.

Communism in Vietnam will eventually die, IMHO, over the years, just as it is eventually destined for the ash heap in North Korea and Cuba, too.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Pan Am. Now there was an airline.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Apples and oranges.

The difference being that we defeated the Japs and then occupied Japan after the war. Fellow countrymen like John Kerry and Bill Clinton betrayed our efforts in Vietnam and then went back over there as soon as they could to rub America's nose in our retreat.

[Piquaboy]

Sucking up to another communist country that should not be in existence.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Do the VC know not to rent a 250CC Honda two stroke to Hasselhoff while he's in Saigon? Wonder if he took his alcohol rehab study guide with him to read on that long flight.

[AmericanInTokyo]

We have no problem as a country visiting countries where we were eventually able to prevail to victory in wars we fought: Mexico, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, Grenada, Panama (except Iraq for the time being). (In Korea, we neither won nor lost, another exception, i.e. North Korea).

But some still have a problem when it comes to Vietnam. We suffered an inane political direction of that war from far away Washington, that did NOT allow us to complete it to victory in the field; in fact, the enemy in Vietnam did prevail and overran our allies' positions, claiming complete victory in 1975. The US lost in Vietnam, that is the sad truth. And, IMHO, therein lies one of the distinctions and maybe just why a lot of people still cannot fathom visiting Vietnam today even 30 years later.

As I said, the inescapable reality of time is that this won't matter a bit to kids who are now 10 and 20 years old, some 10 or 20 years from now, either in Vietnam or in the United States. Nobody needs to scalp me, the messenger. I am just laying out what will eventually happen. In fact, I would imagine that those United Airline flights from SFO to Tan Son Nhat, Saigon, will start filling up with former Vietnamese refugees now in the States going back for visits and family reunifications.

Communism will not long prevail. It will come down, by internal economic decay and technological (information) revolution.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

As I said, the inescapable reality of time is that this won't matter a bit to kids who are now 10 and 20 years old, some 10 or 20 years from now, either in Vietnam or in the United States.

It matters to a lot of kids that I know, even in the age group you site. Their folks have clued them in on the realities of that war. The biggest problem that loyal Americans have with the U.S. establishing relations with Vietnam stems from the betrayal by some of our own here at home. If you want to visit Vietnam and take in the sights, United Airlines will be glad to take you there.

[Redleg Duke]

Looks like United has lost another passenger here too.

[OSHA]

HMMMMMM The last Zogby on-line poll I took was chock full of "vacation in Viet Nam" type questions. Looks like it may have been for the Airlines.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

ping

[MeanWestTexan]

I wonder if John Kerry is on the flight so he can explain his failure to his superiors.

[Just mythoughts]

What no mention of McCain/Kerry??? I sure would love to see the passenger list to see else is setting up shop in the land of the lost.

[JLO]

Ping

[FreedomCalls]

You can track the flight here graphically:

http://www.fboweb.com/cob/google.asp?SCREENX=&num=11920848&zoom=30

and here textually with arrival and departure times:

http://dps1.travelocity.com/dparflifo.ctl?aln_name=UA&flt_num=869

It's currently over water having just left the Alaska coastline (9:50 am CST) headed towards a landing in Hong Kong. From Hong Kong it will go to Saigon.

[AmericanInTokyo]

But the issue isn't about establishing relations with Vietnam. That has already been done. Done by the Clinton Administration already. John Kerry, John McCain, Pete Peterson, Max Cleland and others all in tow (at varying degrees of sedition.) And the Bush Administration to my knowledge has absolutely no intent of severing those diplomatic relations with Hanoi. Unless there is a new American administration elected that intends to freeze or suspend US-Viet diplomatic relations, and somehow recognize a yellow w/ three red stripes government-in-exile in Irvine, California, it isn't going to happen.

The issue is about a US air carrier flying to a country that we have diplomatic relations with, a nation we fought at one time as our enemy. The current batch of septogenarian leaders in Tokyo (many of them) outright deny or sweep over many Imperial Japanese atrocities, such as Nanjing, China or Pearl Harbor, and yet we have flight after flight to our former enemy from US soil. It is only a matter of time when flying to Vietnam will be no big deal, and the economic foolishness of communism causes Vietnam to join for the former Soviet East bloc nations in finally waking up.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Once more.

I know all about Clinton's trip to Vietnam. The U.S. defeated the Japs and took control of Japan. The U.S. retreated from Vietnam as a result of public pressure brought about about a treasonous news media, members of the academic community and corrupt politicians in Washington. Do you see the difference?

If you think that giving U.S. dollars to Vietnam is no big deal, then by all means, visit Ho Chi Minh City.