NHI's Vietnam: Vietnam now has one of the world's fastest-growing economies. For young people like Nguyen Song Nhi, 16, the "American War" is ancient history; their focus is on the future.

• Author: Johnson, Kay
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

When Nguyen Song Nhi's parents were teenagers in North Vietnam, the main image of the United States was of warplanes raining bombs from the skies. But ask 16-year-old Nhi what America means to her, and the first thing she thinks of is Hollywood.

"Lindsay Lohan, I like her a lot," she says. "She's very pretty, and she makes a lot of films for people our age. And Britney Spears--she's good too."

It's Saturday night in Hanoi, and Nhi and her cousin Thao, 14, are waiting their turn to be photographed at the "Cute Photo Stickers" shop. For just 15,000 dong--about $1--each can become a cover girl for Vogue or Seventeen, magazines Nhi is barely familiar with, though she did flip through a copy of Seventeen once. She wasn't much impressed.

"American girls have a natural, relaxed style," she says with a shrug. "But Vietnamese girls dress more fashionably."

The photo shop is just a stone's throw away from Truc Bach Lake, where Senator John McCain crash landed when his plane was shot down in 1967 during the Vietnam War. The badly injured McCain spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," where he and other American P.O.W.'s were tortured.

But Nhi and her friends rarely give a thought to the lake's history. To them, it's just another leg on the weekend circuit of cruising around on their motorbikes, drinking juice and coffee in cafes, and finding some precious privacy by paddling around the lake in two-seated swan boats.

"No one really thinks about the war much now," Nhi says. Even her father, a shopkeeper who is now 43, was too young to fight against the Americans, though he did later serve in the army, as all young men are still required to do.

It's not that Nhi doesn't know about her country's past. What's referred to as the "American War" is taught in schools. It's just that for Nhi and millions of other young people in Vietnam, the war might as well have been centuries ago. Some 60 percent of the population were born after the war ended with a Communist victory in 1975, and 28 percent are younger than 15. And these days, there are so many other things to think about. Clothes, for instance. And the future.

Nhi hopes to become a flight attendant. She's never been on a plane, but she has another, older cousin who works for Vietnam Airlines and describes a life of travel and glamour. So when she finishes high school next year, Nhi hopes to pass the tough university entrance exams and study foreign languages in...