"Saigon Gold" takes the reader on a wild chase through Vietnam, from the resort town of Vung Tau south of Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon unless you're talking to a Communist government official) to Hanoi in the north.
A bit of history: The first Westerners to visit Vietnam were Portuguese sailors, who landed at Da Nang in 1516. Later, they established a commercial center a few miles south, at Hoi An, which now is a World Heritage site best known for its cobbled streets and legendary cuisine.
The French arrived in force in the mid-19th century, first attacking Da Nang in 1847 and seizing Saigon in 1859.
Following the defeat of France in 1940, Japan occupied the major cities but allowed French administration to continue. Ho Chi Minh organized the resistance, founding the Vietminh in 1941. When WWII ended with Japan's surrender in 1945, the French sought to regain control of their former colony. Had American President Harry Truman responded to Ho Chi Minh's requests for Vietnamese independence, history might have followed a different course.
It has been argued that the United States acquiesced to French demands largely because it needed France and its ports in the NATO alliance. Perhaps that was the correct choice at the time, but when the Vietminh defeated the French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, it was obvious that the U.S. had backed the wrong horse.
