3 Quarks Daily editor Morgan Meis went to Vietnam with his new bride Stefany Anne Golberg for their honeymoon last year. As is usual with Morgan, he took an obsessive interest in the country, its history, literature, cuisine, and, of course, its vexed relations and encounters with the United States. He travelled widely while there, and read deeply when he returned. He even did some posts at 3QD about Vietnam here, and here.
Recently, Morgan and Tom Bissell were commissioned by the Virginia Quarterly Review to travel to Vietnam to cover the celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the reunification of North and South Vietnam (the fall of Saigon), along with a photographer. They left a week ago, and Morgan posted this at The Old Town Review Chronicles four days ago:
I spoke with the young Vietnamese about the American War. “I’ve heard about this war,” a young woman said, “it seems like it was very terrible.” “Yes,” said another, “there was a documentary about it a few days ago. Those must have been difficult times.”
So much for presuppositions. Perhaps the final and sweetest revenge is that they’ve moved on more than we have.
The next thing I heard was a hair-raising email that Stefany forwarded, in which he says:
It’s a long story but we made it out of Vietnam. Because they were going to potentially detain us indefinitely and God knows what if we didn’t get out right away we were forced to fly to Singapore under constant guard from the secret police. I am very mentally exhausted and was very scared for awhile. Now I’m in Singapore with no way to get home. I’m trying to figure things out from here.
I have just spoken to Stefany, and Morgan seems to be out of danger, and just trying to make his way home. We wish him a safe passage back. Here is the Monday Musing column Morgan did for 3QD just before leaving.