In Vietnam, you never see Laotian businesses or temples, but Vietnamese stores and restaurants are common in Laotian cities, and there are even temples, including a very large one in Vientiane. What I didn't expect to find was this temple to Tran Hung Dao, a 13th century military hero. For repelling two Mongolian invasions, he's considered a saint by most Vietnamese. He's from Nam Dinh, by the way. That's my ancestral home. This long view of history just doesn't exist in the US. I mean, there's also a Dinh Emperor from the 10th century.
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This long view of history just doesn't exist in the US.
The US is not that old: I remember going to a party in 1976 where the goal was to drink 200 beers for the bicentennial -- history in US schools was always, in my experience, very New World (from a European exploration perspective) and US (colonial beginnings, revolution, development) centric -- that was about as "long view" as it got; which was OK, since the US was a relatively young, mostly racially homogeneous nation, with (what I will call) a strong Euroidentity: we knew where we came from -- not anymore unfortunately ...
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