Sign advertising "Surf Vietnam".
Vietnam was a country in Southeast Asia that was ravaged by a war from 1959 to 1975. After communist North Vietnam won the war, a government-planned economy and the emigration of educated and skilled workers, along with a trade embargo by the United States and Europe, caused isolation and economic disaster through 1985. However, the economy turned around in 1986, when the Communist Party of Vietnam began to allow private ownership of companies, and trade with foreign countries.[1]
By 2015, signs for US Air were advertising "Surf Vietnam", indicating that the country had recovered and gained a tourism industry.
In the 1985A timeline, President Richard Nixon, in his fifth term, promised that by 1983, the U.S. would pull out of Vietnam by 1985.
Behind the scenes
- The "Surf Vietnam" advertisement seen in 2015 may have been an homage by Gale and Zemeckis to the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, in which Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore ordered his soldiers to capture a particular village near a beach only so that he and his men could go surfing there.
- When Marty goes back to 1955 later in Part II, the sign in front of the Ask Mr. Foster travel agency is advertising a vacation in Cuba. Both Vietnam and Cuba remained off limits to American travelers in 1985.
- In real life President Clinton ended the US trade embargo with Vietnam in 1994 as part of his normalization of relations with the country, meaning the country is open to US tourists now.
- In an alternate script for Part II, Trans World Airlines operated the flights to Vietnam instead of US Air.
Appearances
- Back to the Future Part II (Mentioned only)
References
- ↑ Vietnam and Vietnam War at Wikipedia