Falling for Saigon

Fifty years ago, when the longest and most unpopular war in American history finally ended, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, was left traumatised by the conflict and cut off from the world. This was a cruel fate for a city that had in its short mercurial history blossomed on the back of US military spending and international trade. Boatloads of Vietnamese, fearing their future under the rule of the Communist party, took their chances on the seas, never imagining they would ever wish to return. And through the 1980s, not even the Saigonese could have imagined the city's re-emergence as a rapidly growing financial powerhouse in the 21st century. But for the last three decades overseas Vietnamese of all ages have been flocking back to what has become one of the fastest growing cities in Southeast Asia. They're not alone. Today Ho Chi Minh City, renamed in 1976 in honour of Vietnam's founding father, is a pulsating and multicultural hub that is welcoming the world (yes, American