Saigon, Southeast Asia?

Alright, let's get this on the record.

Prior to the Communist takeover of all of Vietnam in 1975, the most prevalent religion among the Vietnamese was Buddhism. If I recall correctly, surveys showed that well over 80 percent of the population was Buddhist. The second most popular religion was Catholicism practiced by 30 to 40 percent of the population. The numbers add up to more than 100 percent because Buddhism is non-exclusive. Third most popular was Cao Daism. If I understand the religion correctly, it is an odd fusion of Buddhism and Taoism founded in Tay Ninh in 1926. I forget the percentage, but it was fairly significant, maybe 20 percent or higher.

There were not enough Hindus to make it useful to count them when I learned about Vietnamese religion. I don't know if this has changed much since. I would expect the Communists to be strongly suppressing, repressing, and oppressing religion since they took over. More than half a million Vietnamese Catholics fled North Vietnam in 1954 in order to be able to practice their religion in the south. I don't remember any mention of Islam or Muslims at all.

The language sounds nothing like anything spoken at anytime in this film. That is not surprising, because there are absolutely no Vietnamese in it, not in speaking roles, not as background characters, and not as extras. There is no tradition of costumes or dancing of a kind that appears at all like the Thai or Kampuchean dancers shown in the film. The people tend to be much shorter and thinner than Europeans (on average), with fine bone structure. The language is tonal like other languages in the Chinese family. The northern dialect, Tieng Ha Noi has six tones and the southern dialect, Tieng Sai Gon, has five.

I would not expect to find a "Little Saigon" in Los Angeles in 1939. I would not expect the average American to know anything about the country. I had never heard about it until it entered American news in the 1960's, but I was only in primary school in those days. Still, missionaries, including Americans had visited Cochin China and Tonkin China. The French had occupied the country since about 1795. Somebody that was known by somebody who was involved in making this thing must have known something about the country.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.