08 September 2021

"Hecho En Viet Nam"

In an earlier post I touched on the fact that a beloved Uncle, who spent almost a year in a German P.O.W. camp, bought an "Anglia Ford" in the early 1960's as a second car rather than a VW because he could not bring himself to put money in the pockets of any German. I could fully understand his reasoning.
My Father fought in the Pacific theater. In 1973 he bought a Datsun Pickup truck. I was proud the had rejoined the world. (He put over 200,000 miles on that ugly little thing.)

My son has purchased a nice home in the bedroom suburbs of Nashville, TN. The home is large enough that if/when Sara Jean and I come to visit, we will not be walking all over one another.
Rather than move a bunch of stuff from Phoenix, he sold much of his home furnishings there prior to his move. So now he has to buy NEW here, and we've been running all over town looking for stuff that pleases both he and SJ to furnish this home.

Loaded into the back of "Grouchy", our 3/4-ton diesel pickup, printed clearly on most of the boxes of furnishings were the words, "Hecho En Viet Nam".
Further inspection revealed the words: "Frabique En Viet Nam" and "Made in Viet Nam."
I went to Viet Nam to protect our country while trying to improve the lives of Vietnamese citizens.
Looks like I may have succeeded after all.
By the way... I have NO qualms whatsoever about buying a quality product, reasonably priced, manufactured by the grandchild of someone who might have been trying to kill me over 50 years ago.
That world is LONG GONE.

5 comments:

Greybeard said...

As an aside, the Anglia Ford was a piece of dung, and the electronics of the thing caused him heartache the entire time he owned it.
He'da done better with the indestructible Beetle.

Old NFO said...

Concur with all, and the Anglia, along with 'most' British cars had electrics by the Prince of Darkness, AKA, Lucas...

Well Seasoned Fool said...

60's Germany and enlisted POVs - what a mishmash of dubious transportation. In general you needed to be a E-4 before the CO would allow you to buy one. They traded hands every two to three years for a few hundred dollars. They had to be insured and pass a not too rigorous safety inspection. I had an Anglia that was, by GI standards, OK. Made it to Stockholm and back once. Ranch raised, I could fix most simple things. And Lucas? Grrr.

Greybeard said...

WSF and NFO-
My perception is that the G.I.'s stationed in the UK brought home MG's and the guys in Germany brought home VW's, or at least knew how reliable they were.
Is that a valid perception?

Ed Bonderenka said...

I bought a second hand 68 Ford Cortina. Did well by me.
But I never considered buying a car in Germany.
I was TDY all over the place, all the time.

Vietnam is practically an ally against China now.