Vietnam Reflections (1963-2025) Veteran USAFA '59 Major General Dick Carr
- Christina DeSantis
- Jun 6
- 11 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
Vietnam Reflections (1963-2025)
By Major General Richard "Dick" Carr, USAF (ret.) — USAFA Class of 1959
For more than sixty years, Vietnam has remained a place of memory, contrast, and unfinished questions for me. As a young Air Force officer in 1963, I stepped into a country on the edge of conflict—one still shaped by French colonial influence, bicycles crowding the streets, and a war that had not yet become America’s own.
When I returned decades later, I found a nation transformed beyond recognition. Modern Vietnam is vibrant, crowded, and full of energy. In many places it is hard to tell you're standing in a Communist country at all. Yet the nation is still marked by echoes of the past. Reminders of the war remain.
Places like the B-52 Museum and the Hanoi Hilton present a particular narrative—one that emphasizes American "atrocities" and heroic resistance. It is propaganda, certainly, but it is also part of how Vietnam tells its own story.
My reflections bridge two Vietnams: the one when I served in as a pilot and advisor, and the modern nation rising with remarkable speed. What follows is my firsthand account of that journey—then and now.
Communism, Collapse, and Reform
To understand how the country arrived at its current state, you have to look back to 1975, when the North took over and imposed true Communism. Overnight, the State owned everything — your land, your house, your crops, your car, even the fuel you needed to run your vehicle.
I have a photo of a bus from that era with a large tank strapped to the back, like a water heater. The tank was filled with water, and charcoal burned beneath it to create steam. That steam powered the engine. It was an ingenious workaround, but it also said everything about the state of the economy.
By 1980, the system was collapsing. The government sent officials to China to study their early experiments with partial privatization. Those ideas eventually led to Vietnam’s own reform program, known as Doi Moi — “Innovation” — fully functioning by 1986. From that point on, the economy began to turn around.
By 2025, the signs of investment were everywhere: new high‑rise buildings, new factories, and a sense of forward momentum that would have been unthinkable in the years immediately after the war.
1963: A Land of Bicycles and Advisors
My own connection to Vietnam started long before any of those developments. When I entered Vietnam in 1963 on my first tour, the country appeared decades behind the Western world. Saigon’s traffic was a sea of bicycles and cyclos, and the hospitality industry consisted of older French-designed hotels whose colonial influence was unmistakable.
At the time, the conflict was a guerrilla war against the Viet Cong. Only about 5,000 U.S. military personnel were in-country, mostly working serving as advisors to the South Vietnamese military. That was my role. I taught and advised Vietnam Air Force students in flying and Forward Air Control (FAC).
I was stationed in Nha Trang, a beautiful setting on the South China Sea with a wide horseshoe beach with an uninhabited, jungle-covered island dominating the harbor. This was down the coast between Da Nang and Saigon. The beach itself was wide and empty—no buildings, no hotels.
A mountain rose to the north, with a river running through the town to the South China Sea. Two more mountains enclosed the town from the west and south. To the south lay Cam Rahn Bay, where we would eventually build a fighter base. Those days, getting to Cam Rahn required a half-day drive up the river and down the mountains.
In those years, Nha Trang was a quiet fishing village of just 16,000 people, known for fishing and elegant French summer homes. I still recall the local flavor—dining at French restaurants like Fregat and Fransuas—and the ever-present reality of the war, such as local soldiers catching Viet Cong heading into town on R&R passes.
1) Dick Carr in Nha Trang, Vietnam on the South China Sea waterskiing; 2) At the beach; 3) At his villa 1963-1964USAID and Unintended Consequences
I should add a small story here about USAID. The well-intentioned folks there noticed that the fishing boats would sail out one day, fish the next, and return on the third. They reasoned that if the boats had motors, the fishermen could work more efficiently. And they were right—the fishermen brought in more fish. Unfortunately, no one considered the distribution system. Too many fish piled up in Nha Trang with no way to move them. The industry nearly collapsed, Eventually, the Americans took their motors back, and things returned to normal. Thus, it is a lesson in unintended consequences.
The Diem Coup
Life in Saigon was busy but relatively predictable—until November 1963. I had been sent there on a mission, and the day after completing my work, I packed my small bag to depart. However, I was stopped from leaving the hotel by armed soldiers.
A few fellow pilots and I decided to head to the rooftop bar with a six-pack. From that vantage point, we watched history unfold as tanks filled the streets and a red-tailed T-28 bombed the Presidential Palace. The Diem coup had begun, signaling a turning point of the conflict that would define a generation.
Fast Forward to 2008: The First Return to Vietnam
Forty-five years passed before I returned to Vietnam. Jean and I were able to travel together on this trip. Landing at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport in 2008, I was struck by the preservation of history. The airport kept the name of the last emperor of Vietnam and even displayed his throne in the airport entry hall. The city retained the echoes of the French architecture, small hotels, mom-and-pop businesses, and the bicycle and cyclo traffic of my youth, yet the scars of the war were on full display.
Pains of the Past: Hanoi Hilton
I visited the Hanoi Hilton, finding it reduced to half its original size and structure to make room for the modern Hanoi Tower office building. The infamous area called the Yard was gone, yet the interior remained a gruesome reminder of the POW experience.
1) The Hanoi Hilton taken by reconnaissance aircraft during Vietnam War; 2) A corridor at the Hanoi Hilton showing cells on either side of the hallway; 3) Hanoi Hilton EntranceThe B-52 Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam
The "B-52 Museum" was equally eye opening. There were enough aircraft parts on display to build four B-52s. I walked past an arc of the North Vietnamese Army's AAA guns and surface-to-air missiles that were standing before a MIG-21 credited with three kills. Inside the Museum Building the propaganda about American atrocities was mostly taken from photos and articles that had been published in U.S. newspapers and magazines.
The B-52 Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam GROUND WARFARE
While Hanoi reveals the air war, the ground war in the South was shaped by a very different kind of battlefield — one hidden beneath the earth.
The Củ Chi Tunnels
Not far north of Saigon lies the Củ Chi region, and area that played a significant role in the war. Beginning in 1953, during the fight against French colonial forces, the tunnels eventually expanded into a vast underground network stretching an estimated 160 miles. By the height of the Vietnam War, these tunnels formed a hidden city with supply routes, fighting positions, and living quarters beneath the jungle floor.
The Viet Cong survived inside these tunnels for years. Entire units could disappear underground within seconds. Some sections were large enough for meetings or medical care; others were barely wide enough for a single person to crawl through. The system included sleeping quarters, kitchens, medical stations, meeting rooms, supply caches, and escape routes that opened into the Saigon River or dense jungle.
Life inside the tunnels was harsh. Ventilation was poor. Food was scarce. The air was thick with humidity, smoke, and insects. Many Viet Cong fighters spent weeks at a time underground, emerging only at night. Yet the tunnels allowed them to strike quickly, vanish instantly. For U.S. and South Vietnamese forces, the Củ Chi region was a challenging area in the war.
Portions of the tunnels have been preserved as a historical site. Walking through them gives only the faintest sense of the claustrophobic, unforgiving world the Viet Cong inhabited. But it remains a powerful reminder of both the ingenuity and brutal conditions that defined the ground war.
MORE SIGHTS ALONG THE JOURNEY
Daily Life
The small details of daily life in the streets caught my eye. The economy was small-scale. Gasoline for motorbikes was still sold in one- and two-liter glass bottles—"think Coke bottles"—and poured directly into tanks. People on the street appeared mostly indifferent or even a bit cold toward us. Yet as we proceeded south from Hanoi, affluence increased noticeably with each city.
Nha Trang's Transformation
We visited Nha Trang in 2008, but not in 2025. The population had grown to 400,000. Because of the mountains, the expansion pushed up the river. The French summer homes were gone, replaced by five-star high-rise hotels. From our own hotel, we could see a huge white Buddha up the river. The small airport I once flew from could now accommodate only light aircraft due to encroachment.
Nha Trang's international airport had moved to Cam Rahn Bay using our fighter base. A superhighway now ran along the cliffs from Cam Rahn, turning what had been a half-day journey into a 20-minute drive.
VinPearl, Nha Trang, VietnamThe first thing you on the superhighway approaching the city is the VinPearl Resort on that island that was previously uninhabited. There is no need for a boat anymore; they built a cable car straight to the resort. Tourism is now the dominant industry. Nearly every major tour line operating in the region makes a stop in Nha Trang.
2025 Second Return to Vietnam: A Nation Economically Transformed
By 2025, the nation’s transformation was astonishing. On this trip I traveled with Jean and my daughter, Kelly and her partner, Rich. Upon arrival in Hanoi, we checked into our hotel. From the 900-foot-tall Lotte Hotel in Hanoi, I looked out the window down a boulevard that ended at West Lake. I knew exactly where I was and quickly calculated that, if anyone flew the bombing run during which John McCain was shot down, he would have hit our new 900-foot-tall hotel!
We visited the "Hanoi Hilton," B-52 Museum and all the usual sights. Some new buildings and factories indicated that a lot of investment is flowing into Vietnam.
Next, we took a boat tour of Ha Long Bay with the magical karsts rising straight up from the water. Unlike our last trip where we stayed overnight on a junk, this time we stayed in a beautiful VinPearl Resort on an island! I was not surprised to see it, because in 2008 when we visited Nha Trang where I spent my first year in Vietnam in 1963-64, we found a VinPearl Resort built on the uninhabited island in the harbor.
The quiet fishing villages of my youth had given way to the "Vin" era. Pham Nhat Vuong (Mr. Vin), Vietnam's first billionaire, transformed once-uninhabited islands like Nha Trang into sprawling VinPearl resorts, water parks, and golf courses. Mr. Vin, born in 1968 in Hanoi, was educated in Ukraine, USSR. While there, he started a lucrative noodle shop and dehydrated food production. He became engaged in real estate after returning to Vietnam. His VinGroup conglomerate now touches almost aspect of Vietnamese life. This includes the VinFast electric auto company, whose vehicles seen throughout Hanoi.In Saigon now named Ho Chi Minh City, the transformation was equally jarring. The streets once clogged with cyclos and bicycles were now crowded with Lexus and Land Rover vehicles. New high-rises and factories signaled growing investment. Yet, some things remained unchanged: the locals still call District One “Saigon”, and the Rex Hotel—the former Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) for American officers—still operates its rooftop bar, decorated with pictures of the Friday Night Follies press briefings given by the military command to the media representatives. The hotels have the same names as they did in the sixties. The Opera House, Bazaar, and Notre Dame Cathedral remain open and have not changed.
1) Sign for Rex Hotel Rooftop Garden Five O'clock Follies; 2) As we hurriedly left Saigon in 1975, a very famous photo of a ladder full of people climbing to a helicopter was published everywhere. The caption said that they were leaving the US Embassy; however, it was actually the CIA safe house in the photo. 3-5) Signage in the Rex HotelThere is also a "War Remnants Museum" near town. It includes many tanks, guns and aircraft the north captured in 1975. There, among the captured aircraft, I came face-to-face with a U-17A. Upon checking the tail number, I realized it was the actual tail number of a plane I had flown during my first tour!
Vietnam now sees so much business and tourist travel that the government is moving Tan Son Nhut International Airport operations to the old U.S. base at Bien Hoa. During our trip, Kelly and I boarded a 36-passenger boat and sailed down the Saigon River to the Mekong, passing through many villages on the way to Cambodia. One notable stop, Kampong Cham, triggered a vivid memory of the war's end, when I accidentally encountered over a hundred North Vietnamese trucks on Route 13 and faced intense fire from about twenty 37mm heavy anti-aircraft guns. This was near the end of US involvement in the War and is the subject of another of my vignettes on the website.
1) The only sign of communism is the flags (top right of photo); 2) Buddhist monks walk freely; 3) Luxury mall; 4) Motorcycle for saleUltimately, what stays with me is not only how much Vietnam has changed, but how much those years changes all of us who served there. The country has moved forward with remarkable resilience.
There is a bustling energy among the people, a presence of stores like those in New York or Chicago, and an absence of beggars on the streets. The heavy police and military presence common in other Communist nations is largely missing here. Yet beneath the new buildings and busy streets, the echoes of the past remain. For those of us who served, those echoes are personal. They carry the weight of missions flown, decisions made, and the names of those who never came home.
As I departed from this second trip, I looked out over the modern skylines of Hanoi and Saigon and found myself pondering a profound question for all who served:
“What would this look like if we had never come?”
There is no simple answer. History rarely gives us one. But I do know this — those who served did so with courage, professionalism, and a sense of duty that deserves to be remembered. Their courage endures. Their sacrifice endures. And their legacy endures — in the lives they touched, the freedoms they defended, and the generations who now walk the same halls at the Air Force Academy.
I encourage anyone to take a tour of Vietnam. I hope you see not only the country it has become, but also the legacy of those who helped shape its path. Walk its streets, meet its people, and draw your own conclusions. And as you do, remember the Americans who served there — with honor, with resolve, and with a commitment that time cannot erase.
About the Author
Major General Richard "Dick" E. Carr is a distinguished member of the USAFA Class of 1959. A command pilot with over 7,500 flying hours, he is a veteran of the Vietnam War, where he flew over 200 combat missions, 900 flying combat hours, and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and 12 Air Medals.
His career includes senior intelligence and reconnaissance roles, including Director for Foreign Intelligence at the DIA during the onset of Desert Shield and he held high-level positions including Chief of Staff for the UN Command/US Combined Forces Command in Seoul.
Today, General Carr remains deeply committed to his fellow service members. As a Vietnam veteran himself, he is actively involved in working with and supporting Vietnam Veterans organizations, ensuring that honor and the "bridge" of support for those who served remains strong. He was the Chairman of a committee who raised funds and built an exact replica of the Vietnam Wall in Punta Gorda, Florida. Today, he is President of a non-profit corporation formed for the perpetual care and maintenance of that Wall.
Comments