Blog 1

In the PBS documentary part three, America's Mandarin, I learned that the US had sent in advisers to help train Vietnamese Commandos, but were strictly held to just aid and training and no major involvement in the south by the South Vietnamese president Ngo Diem. Diem didn't want foreign forces in the south especially American forces, but he gladly took their weapons, money and overall aid.

In "A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain", Butler combines two narratives, one of the narratives being how this old Vietnamese man, Dao, who was very good friends with Ho Chi Minh, visions these nightly visits from Ho Chi Minh, and the other narrative is about all the family that visits Dao as he is very old and it is Vietnamese tradition to try and see everyone in your family and your friends before you pass on. With the setting of the story being in New Orleans, it's pretty obvious that the visits from Ho where not real even though Dao insists that he had seen Ho every night he had showed up. It's pretty obvious that something is bothering Ho, for Dao feels that his old friend should be resting in peace along with everyone else that passes on from life to death. Dao realizes the path that Ho followed has created tension for Ho and Dao follwed the path of religion. Dao would never understand the things that Ho had done because Ho asked Dao, "Have you ever done the political thing"(248). What Ho had done in the North as a communist wasn't really because he wanted to, but because he had the power to make a statement, a political statment and to show that he was in charge. The second narrative is about his family coming to visit and Dao listens to his Son-in-law and grandson talk about the shooting of an old Vietnamese gentlemen in their neighborhood. They explained how he bought a chevy pick up truck which is one of the most defining american things that one can do and through the conversation, Dao felt his grandson and son-in0law were part of this killing. The two stories connect to show how people from the past, who experience the war, are still upset and restless about what had happened in Vietnam and there are still people in the world in the present time that feel the same way. They want their people to be free, but they want their own freedom and not have their people turn to america in order to be free.