Trip to Hanoi

Upon reading Trip to Hanoi, I was particularly intrigued by one point that Sontag brings up near the beginning of the piece. Specifically, the entry I am focusing on is May 7^th. In this entry, Sontag brings to light that war has been imbedded into the Vietnamese culture for generations. In the text, Sontag states that the region that is now named Vietnam has had “four thousand years of continuous history, more than two thousand years of being overrun by foreign aggressors” (219). It is out of this constant state of turnover that Sontag sees Vietnamese culture as stagnant. Sontag states “repetition confers value on something. It is a positive moral style” (221). The differences seen between Vietnamese culture and American culture is that America has “variety.” This doesn’t mean that Vietnamese culture is wrong, but it is often seen this way by naïve and ignorant foreigners. Their lack of variety is in itself what defines Vietnamese culture. Their heritage has revolved around exposure to these violent and oppressive segments of history, and It wasn’t until the time period in which this piece was written that Vietnam began to grow. Unfortunately, America saw Vietnam’s growth as nothing more as a Communist attempt to corrupt a malleable country. It is obvious that neither the Vietnamese culture or the American Culture will understand each other. Sontag mentions this numerous times, and it is because of this lack of understanding that leads people to question whether or not we had the authority to intervene in a culture we didn’t understand.

With this in mind, I believe that the message that Sontag was trying to convey was that America tended to generalize all North Vietnamese people as the enemy, when in actuality they are people who are also just trying to get through the war in one peace. Just because they were geographically linked to the enemy, doesn’t mean they were linked ideologically. During her stay in Vietnam, Sontag writes to her audience in order to expose them to the respectful and reasonable people that inhabit North Vietnam. She gives many examples of their level-headedness and respect, and her message for a desire for peace is evident throughout the entire essay.