Argenta

Before we made this site on Vietnam, all I really knew about the country was that it was a country somewhere in Southern Asia that had a communist government. Vietnam to me was a war that took place thirty years ago. One that held little consequence in my life. I learned all about the war in eight grade American history class; or at least the American side of the war. I didn't really understand it; why were we there in the first place? The text book gave all sorts of political reasons, but the logic behind them just didn't seem to click in my mind. After constructing this site, and conducting extensive research on the country, I am still baffled as to why America got involved, but at least I know a lot more about the country of Vietnam. I know that it is an interesting country full of interesting people with a unique culture. Vietnam is a beautiful country, just south of China on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. I wrote the reports on the climate and geography, and people and culture, and many of the book reviews in this section. I still have a lot to learn on the history of Vietnam and the Vietnam war. To get the feeling of Vietnam, one can't just read facts. One has to either go there (which, unfortunately we could not do), or read books on the country that are more than just facts. We suggest a few good ones in our book reviews section. I learned a lot about Vietnam, and believe it is an important topic because Vietnam is an emerging country with a lot of potential to become important in industry, tourism, and more.

Zach

Before: Before I did my part of the site on the Vietnam war, I thought that it was just another war. I didn't know much about the Government or culture of Vietnam either. When ever I heard the name "Vietnam", I always associated it with the war. I thought of the Vietnam war as "No different than world war 2." After: After writing my reports on the Vietnam war and Government, I realized that the Vietnam war was more than just a war. The Vietnam war was not only a military war but, a political one as well. Much effort could have been saved if the US would have stayed out of the war. I also learned a lot about the Vietnamese culture and history from reading my team member's reports.

Yaohong