Reimbursement Issues with Saigon Reunion 2025.

[Carl Robinson]

This is very important for those who attended Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs 'Press Week' back in April for the 50th anniversary of the Fall/Liberation of Saigon on 30 April 1975.

We were invited to this event by FA on the assurance that our economy airfares to and from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) would be reimbursed.   As instructed by Mr Tung Pham, I submitted my invoice upon my return to Australia. 

So far, I have not been reimbursed.   How about you?   

On 28 July, I FW'd a message to VOH from Foreign Affairs HCM City office that " due to certain complex administrative procedures, the reimbursement process has not yet been completed as expected" and assured us we'd be reimbursed "in the soonest possible time."   

I reckon it's time we did something about this, quite frankly.  Maybe another corruption Substack post from me?  At any rate, certainly pretty lousy Vietnamese hospitality after making such great use of us propaganda-wise for the 50th anniversary.  They invite you for a meal and then stick you with the bill.  I'm really annoyed about this and told Tung so only last week.   

Any other bright ideas would be most gratefully accepted.

But this is ridiculous -- even if in the end not totally surprising either, eh?

Best regards,

Carl Robinson

  

[Jim Caccavo]

I wouldn't hold my breath.  I remember one reunion we had, the govt picked up our  hotel  expenses for   the first few days, but we were   expected  to  attend promotional programs.  A long trans-Pacific flight for me now (at 81 yrs) has to be business class and they  wouldn't pay for that.   Also with so many of us now   absent, the reunios were more  of a current  media event than  a celebration  and remembrance of past days - the likes of which we will never see again in any current or future   war coverage.    

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[Carl Robinson]

Sorry, Jim Caccavo, but this is addressed to those who accepted Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs invitation to attend this year's 50th anniversary celebrations in April and in the good faith that our airfares would be reimbursed.   

That's from whom I am requesting this information.

Carl

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[Jim Laurie]

Hi Carl.  Suggest a little longer wait.  On August 8 got this note from Tung 

“So sorry for the delay. We’ll try our best to reimburse by end of this month.” 

Not a good situation - true but don’t think creating a big fuss will help   

All best 

Jim 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 17, 2025, at 09:47, Carl Robinson <robinso...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Calvin Godfrey]

Mr Laurie,

I respectfully disagree. 

Kicking up a big fuss with the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is DEFINITELY something Carl should do. Everyone knows diplomats LOVE being publicly humiliated by their foreign guests. And, even if they don’t expressly LOVE it, they certainly respond well to it.

As a careful reader of the Old Hacks list serve for over a decade now, i can confidently say that kicking up a fuss is something Carl does exceptionally well and (almost) NEVER needlessly suffers from.

Even if Carl were not uniquely well-suited to taking on MOFA, what possible downside could there be to anyone antagonizing the consular arm of a country he or she frequently visits and (just as often) publicly maligns?

This is just one reader’s opinion, but I don’t think we should be so hasty in discouraging Carl from doing the Lord’s work.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 17, 2025, at 12:56 PM, Jim Laurie <jimla...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Carl.  Suggest a little longer wait.  On August 8 got this note from Tung 

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[paul harrington]

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

What did ole P T  Barnum say about  “One Being Born Every Minute”?.