https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/Vietnam-s-Vingroup-considering-IPO-or-SPAC-deal-for-car-unit?fbclid=IwAR2ysWqMNLhYqVvHv0ZpT7VCWFoMmT37DTGp0KUYrCN6mTTjlmftteLcJ1A
This news item speaks of Vietnam's automaker to compete in domestic and world markets. This makes me think of the first automobile made in South Vietnam, La Dalat, product of war-time 1970s. What a pride for a small country (or, half of a country on the world's map and at the U.N. while the separating 17th longitude (song Ben Hai, cau Hien Luong) was still the dividing mark)? La Dalat went into extinction after the "unification" of Vietnam? As the young consumers and workers celebrate Vietnam's automobile via Vingroup, do they remember or even know about the La Dalat? So I write this note...La Dalat, the trade name, the automobile, with such an elegant form, should become part of history, but not the official history that was deliberately wiped out... (La Dalat actually looked like today's SUV, with such a light appearance and structure, allegedly designed by Citroen, but manufactured by a Vietnamese subsidiary of Citroen, made locally in Vietnam. Why did it take four decades for Vietnam to produce its first automobile to compete in the world's market, now with capitalist jargons like IPO, SPAC, etc., while La Dalat came into existence in the 1970s? Or, do history writers now call La Dalat a "French product," shameful vestige of colonialism destroyed by the Vietnamese revolution?
https://saigoneer.com/vietnam-heritage/12112-photos-the-iconic-la-dalat,-vietnam%E2%80%99s-first-domestic-vehicle
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