Vietnam Query:

Could someone explain to me what is happening here
on this stamp please

Ha Ha Ha, yes yes... Looks like the American eagle of war getting his butt kicked and a peace dove being released.

my HA's were sarcastic, so war veterans please take no offense

That's what I thought Edwin,
but the stamp is commemorating the end of WW2
That doesn't make sense.

the bottom of the stamp translates to this with a generic translator... immediately Nazi victory

this is what I found

ngay = immediately or straight
chien thang= Victory
phat xit duc = Nazi Germany

3rd EDIT:
down the side (poorer translation)
buu = Main?
chinh = Finance

That looks like the German eagle with a German style crest on its chest, the sort of thing you see on old German stamps, in fact. The dove of peace ascending as the nazis fall away?

also found this as a direct website translate

ngay chien thang phat xit duc"Commemorate the Nazi victory"

I think this is what I was thinking of

The Eagle looks like it's stolen the dove's Olive branch !
Also, there is a missile in it's other paw!

Weird.

go this link and translate it via the Google translator, war info

http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng%C3%...h%E1%BA%AFng

should be English version
http://translate.google.com/transla...s%26prmd%3Do

Buu-Chinh = Postage

'Hand releasing dove and eagle falling'.
Gibbons take on the stamp [one of a set of 4].

But then Gibbons description for the famous 1946 GB Victory [3d] variety featuring a Dove of Peace is 'SG492a....Seven Berries' !!
Since when have olives been called berries !!???

Londonbus1

The 2009 Scott catalogue description of the series (1502-1505) describes the 4 dong stamp as "Dove, falling American eagle."

To Edwin's earlier point, there likely was alot of political symbolism associated with that stamp -- in 1985 the Reagan Administration still opposed recognition of Hanoi.

I have to believe it's an anti-US statement. But now we're friends again . . . .

That American eagle sure has a dorkey look in its eye.

rod,

I think its a poke in face at America. The eagle definitely looks like an American eagle. Notice the shield on it's chest. You see that all the time here in the USA. It is a take on our flag, a solid blue field with red and white stripes. (Yes I know those colors are not in the stamps just use your imagination.) They are equating us with fascists, which is a very common tactic from the political left. Also the bomb is a gravity bomb not a missile. And the eagle is facing the bomb which means the USA is at war, in peace time the face is looking at the olive branches. That what I take away from that stamp.