B-52 Lake, Hanoi

I have recurring visions of the few weeks I spent in Vietnam a few years ago. One is of an an ordinary Hanoi neighborhood, in which there is a small pond. In this pond rest the remnants of a B-52D downed on December 19, 1972. Callsign, Rose 1.

Operation Linebacker II, conducted over 11 days in December 1972 against Communist targets in North Vietnam, was the largest aerial bombardment conducted by the United States Air Force since the end of the Second World War. The entire crew of Rose 1 survived the shootdown and were confined in the infamous Hanoi Hilton (Hoa Lo Prison). They were repatriated. Rose 1 remains -- silent, rusting.

There is little doubt war is one man's of the most destructive activities -- if not the most destructive. Curious, I had to query a willing local on his or her view of America, the belligerent. As I was bartering with a local merchant, his English was good and he seemed more than willing to chat. So I asked him what he thought of Americans. "I do not like America but I like your money."

We tried to change the course of Vietnamese politics with military force, ignoring a thousand years of history and the failure of French colonialism. At what cost? As I drifted through Hanoi's streets, markets, I began to believe it will be market economics, as opposed to military force, that will define both Vietnam's and America's futures.