Vietnam War display Dao

This blade may never have been meant for combat or even practice, but it is definitely a bonafide piece of history, though perhaps not the part of history one would immediately think of. At the end of the Vietnam war, many returning soldiers were eager to bring back momentos of their harrowing time serving in South-east Asia. This gave rise to a cottage industry producing souveniers to meet the demand many of these vets had, perhaps the first ever tourist market in the modern world! This sword is one forged for that market. Crafted after a traditional Thai dao, it was likely brought back by a young Californian in the 70's originally drafted to the standby reserve of a couple thousand troops in Thailand. Many vets later made up stories of having picked similar swords and knifes off the battlefield or even off the bodies of Viet cong they had killed. Though the truth isn't as exciting, this dao is truly a piece of Americana history, reperesenting one of the earliest intances of a culture marketing itself to Americans and a critical development in America's relationship with the rest of the world.