The Edge of the Rice Field
We pass field after field of rice, corn, arrowroot, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. It seems that every inch of farmable land is worked to produce food--e ven little patches against main roads. It is symbolic, a universal statement of mankind’s industriousness and the will to survive and thrive. To take care of self, of family, of village, and nation. Land is free if you're willing to work it. While hiking past a village, I learn that Dave, a fellow hiker, was a high school senior when he was number 30 on the upcoming lottery draft. He felt doomed. But the war ended. Dave was spared. After Nixon implemented Vietnamization, the last American troops withdrew in August 1972. Vietnamization was meant to turn the war over to the South Vietnamese. In January of 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed to finally bring peace. America was officially out of the war. The communists were supposed to stay in the north, the South Vietnamese government in the south. The comm...