rod mclaughlin

Hue day two (10 mar 18)

My bike was in a box full of styrofoam, difficult to dispose of. Not in Vietnam. As soon as I started unpacking my box outside the Vọng Cảnh hotel in Huế, a woman rode up on a bike and asked me for it. The box, that is, plus all the plastic. She cut it all up, loaded it onto her already overloaded bike, and rode off. One small step in the solution to the plastic pollution in the ocean. 

The hotel men "helped" me put my bike together, and I was off. Well, I would be, if I hadn't decided to stay for at least another day. So much to explore. 

This morning, I took a picture of the B-41 cafe, which has a picture from the American War, as they call it here, of a woman with a gun. I looked up B-41, and it's a nuclear bomb. Vietnamese people have a great sense of humour. 

I just looked up the story about the USA offering to use a nuke to help the French at Điện Biên Phủ. According to the BBC, there's no hard evidence. But read the article carefully. I doubt if the French misunderstood Dulles casually throwing the word 'nuclear' around. The BBC also boasts that it was Britain which prevented the Americans following the French in April/May 1954. 

Portland

London