written by Mary Klepper In December, I made a pilgrimage to Kanchanaburi, Thailand, a site made famous by the 1957 David Lean classic, The Bridge On the River Kwai, starring William Holden and Alec Guinness. The film is far from an accurate depiction of the horrors that accompanied the Japanese construction of the Burma
In conjunction with the release of the highly-anticipated Apple TV+ series, Masters of the Air, VBC historian host Glenn Flickinger has created a 10-part livestream series beginning Thursday, January 18 at 7:00pm that will preview, recap, and provide history discussion around each episode. Each week, Glenn will cover the action and background of the
written by Todd DePastino Our last full day in Vietnam was a free one in Ho Chi Minh City. Since our hotel is located in District 1—the very heart of the city—there were many options for spending the day within a few blocks. I suggested folks check out the Pittman Building, site of the
written by Todd DePastino Today, we head to enemy country, 35 miles northwest of Ho Chi Minh City to a place once known as the “Iron Triangle.” Before 1966, this was the capital of South Vietnam’s Viet Cong insurgency. The Viet Cong weren’t just present here. They ran the place. They were the village
written by Todd DePastino We often say there was no one Vietnam War. There were many. A unique version of the war was fought in the Mekong Delta, today’s destination. The Mekong Delta juts out from the southern end of Vietnam’s curvilinear land form. It’s an anomalous part of the country, a one-of-a-kind ecosystem,
written by Todd DePastino Officially, it's Ho Chi Minh City. But no one calls it that. For residents and most Americans, it remains Saigon, the former capital of the defunct Republic of Vietnam and, today, the dynamo powering Vietnam's Tiger Economy. We landed at Tan Son Nhut International Airport--another one of those American-developed properties
