Table of Contents:
Introduction
In this module, YOU will be introduced to the history, mythology, and origins
of the Vietnamese people. We will examine what factors have influenced the Vietnamese,
and how they continue to affect Vietnamese thinking and lifestyles to this day.
Objectives
AT THE END OF THIS MODULE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
(A) In your own words, describe how the three main invading cultural influences
have impacted upon Vietnamese development.
(B) Explain in your own words, how Vietnamese Nationalism and resistance has
shaped and influenced Vietnam and the Vietnamese to this day.
(C) Explain in your own words, how communism, the American War in Vietnam, and
Vietnamese immigration has impacted upon Vietnamese development.
i. Vietnam; The Land We
Never Knew
ii. In the Presence of Mine Enemies
iii. U.S. State Department
Papers on Vietnam
iv. America Takes Over
v. Fighting for Time
vi. Various Vietnamese Web Sites
vii. Years of Upheaval
"Nothing is more precious
than independence and freedom."
- Ho Chi Minh
THE CHILDREN OF THE DRAGON LORD
Vietnam is a land steeped
in mysticism, legend, and lore. The Vietnamese according to legend, are the
offspring of a dragon, Lac Long Quan, and a mountain spirit or fairy,
Au Co. Their union resulted in the birth of the "one hundred peoples"
of Southeast Asia. Fifty of the children returned with their father to the seacoast,
the others remained in the mountains with their mother. Those who made the trek
to the sea and the river deltas became the Vietnamese.
The legend speaks of an actual migration of peoples. The Vietnamese of today
are descendants of a common people the "Mon-Khmer", who are related to the Vietnamese
by race and language. Thousands of years ago however, the Vietnamese left their
cousins in the mountains and settled in the wet Delta lowlands around the Red
and Black River valleys near present day Hanoi. They have lived there since
the seventh century B.C. establishing a sophisticated agricultural civilization
in a land they call Van Lang.
INFLUENCES FROM CHINA
In 208 B.C. China began
a long series of conquests, and reconquests of Vietnam. Trieu Da, a traitorous
Chinese general, conquered a domain in the northern mountains of Vietnam. Defying
the Ch'in dynasty, he established his capital in Canton and declared himself
emperor of "Nam Viet", Land of the Southern Viet; a territory which reached
as far south as the present day city of Danang.
The Chinese absorbed Vietnam in much the same manner as the Roman legions were
doing at the same time in Europe and the Middle East. They created administrative
districts under military governors whose civilian Chinese advisors imported
Confucian bureaucratic concepts (to be discussed in Module C) that underlined
respect for authority. They introduced plow and draft animals, built roads,
ports, canals, dikes and dams, and perhaps most importantly, established rice
growing in the wet delta lands.
Another heroine, Trieu Au, known as the "Vietnamese Joan of Arc", launched a revolt against the Chinese in 248 A.D. riding gloriously into battle in golden armour seated on an elephant. Like the Trung sisters before her, she committed suicide rather than accept the shame of surrender.
"I want to rail against the wind and the tide, kill the whales in the sea, sweep the whole country to save the people from slavery, and I refuse to be abused"
The role of Vietnamese women
in their history has given women in this country a somewhat unique status, contrasting
with their counterparts elsewhere in Asia, or even in western society. Women
could traditionally inherit land, serve as trustees of ancestral cults, and
share their husband's property.
For a thousand years, Vietnam
became a Chinese colony, ironically referred to as "Annam, the pacified south".
Nevertheless, Chinese authorities continuously faced resistance and rebellion.
During this long period of foreign rule, Vietnam absorbed a great deal of Chinese
culture, and philosophy (factors we will examine in Module C). Vietnam was influenced
to a lesser degree by India, a trading partner with China during this era. Indian
seafarers, traders, and priests, particularly in the southern regions of modern
Vietnam, added yet another cultural ingredient to the make-up of these people.
The mountains of the South belong to the Viets of the South. This is written
in the Celestial Book. Those who try to conquer this land will surely suffer
defeat.
- Ly Thuong Kiet 1076 A.D.
A thousand years of Chinese rule did not quell the Vietnamese thirst for independence.
Over the millennium, the Chinese were compelled to put down ten major rebellions
. Finally, in 939 A.D. the Vietnamese threw off the colonial yoke. Through cunning,
and military bravado in the face of superior numbers, the Vietnamese defeated
the Chinese and drove them from their lands. Vietnam would, except for brief
periods, remain independent for nearly nine hundred years.
Vietnam, in the 15th century,
became themselves, an Imperial power, invading the Champa Empire to their west
in what is today Cambodia. The destruction of the Champa Empire began a legacy
of bitterness which persists in Vietnamese, Cambodian relations to this day.
Political disunity hampered Vietnamese expansionism during the proceeding centuries.
Vietnam, while obtaining it's current geographical size in 1757, was ruled by
two separate and hostile governments established in the traditional capital
of Hanoi, and the new city of Hue, 400 miles to the south. Vietnam suffered
repeated civil wars between it's ruling dynasties for two centuries, unity only
coming as late as 1802. The new emperor, and founder of Vietnam's last imperial
dynasty, gave the nation it's name Vietnam.
Vietnam, throughout it's
unsettled and bloody history, would continue to face challenges from foreign
invaders. Vietnamese patriotism, and longing for independence, appear to have
given these people an unconquerable resolve to endure suffering, resist oppression,
and ultimately, triumph even in the face of vastly superior odds.
European Influence and Conquest
The first European contact
with Vietnam came in the form of Portuguese traders and missionaries in 1516.
The Portuguese however, were soon supplanted by the French who attempted to
establish Catholic missionary centres in the land despite the strong opposition
of Vietnam's ruling class.
A french Jesuit missionary, Alexandre de Rhodes, wrote a grammar of Vietnamese
using Roman script. Over the centuries this has become accepted as the "quoc
ngir", or national script, the only roman script style used today in Asia.
What could not be accomplished by diplomacy, was ultimately achieved by bullet
and bayonet. France continually used the pretext of protecting her missionaries
to steadily expand her territories and influence in Vietnam. By 1883, Vietnam
had become in effect, a colony within french controlled Indochina.
Vietnam was partitioned into three sections, and the modern day nations of Laos
and Cambodia were incorporated as well into the colony.
French colonialism followed the established pattern of other European powers
who made similar conquests throughout Asia, Africa, North America and other
regions of the world. The French accepted the notion that their culture, language,
and beliefs were superior to those of the native population, and quickly went
about transplanting France on Vietnamese soil.
French lycees, architecture, language, arts, cuisine, and other foreign influences
supplanted wherever possible, the Vietnamese way of life. Many Vietnamese, particularly
in the national capital of Hue and in Saigon, (the Paris of the Orient) embraced
french culture, and strived to emulate it by adopting french ways. Still others
offered traditional Vietnamese resistance, and were brutally, and systematic
suppressed.
French control remained absolute for nearly a century. Vietnam was given a puppet
emperor, the last being Bao Dai, but despite the trappings of royalty, it remained
clear who were the masters of "Indochine".
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World War II and the Fall of Colonial Indochina
The fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, appeared to have dealt a death blow
to France's colonial ambitions throughout the world. Shortly after this incident,
the armies of Imperial Japan, Germany's ally, swept into Indochina unopposed.
While Japan occupied Vietnam, the French were permitted to maintain bureaucratic
control over the country. French colonialism in effect persisted throughout
WWII.
In northern Vietnam, the beginnings of a nationalist movement started to take
root under the leadership of a Vietnamese communist named Ho Chi Minh. Japanese
cooperation with the French dashed the hopes of many Vietnamese for a promised
degree of independence under the Japanese Empire.
The end of World War II should have spelled the end of French colonialism in
the region. The United States, France's ally during the war, was opposed to
colonialism, and during the war had supported nationalist ambitions amongst
Asian nations such as China. There had even been some cooperation with Ho's
Vietnamese nationalists, despite their leader's political affiliations with
Russian and Chinese Marxists.
Despite these assurances, the commencement of Cold War tensions between the
west and the Soviet Union, and the desire of the allies to see France restored
to strength and former greatness, allowed France to return in force to "Indochine"
after the Japanese withdrawal. Isolated from the west, and once more facing
French oppression, Ho launched from the north, a guerrilla war which was to
last eight years.
Despite cautious American support, France's war against the "Viet Minh" went
poorly. Finally in May of 1954 after a 54 day siege of the French held garrison
of Dien Bien Phu, the french were dealt a humiliating defeat which in effect,
drove them from northern Vietnam, and ended French colonial rule in the country.
Later that same year, The Geneva Agreement temporarily partitioned the nation
North and South along the 17th parallel, to be reunited in 1956 following general
elections. The elections were never held, and full scale war between north and
south ensued.
The present communist regime in Vietnam today can be credited largely to it's two most famous revolutionaries, Ho Chi Minh, and General Vo Nguyen Giap.
Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890, the son of a mandarin. The boy's actual name was Nguyen Sinh Cung, but like other communist revolutionaries before him, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, he would adopt an alias. Ho Chi Minh means; "One Who Enlightens."
General Vo Nguyen Giap was Commander in Chief of the People's Army of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) during the Vietnam War. Earlier, he had commanded the Viet Minh forces which overwhelmed and defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu.
Giap, like Ho, had spent
most of his life as a communist revolutionary. During his varied and interesting
career, Giap wrote for several leftist newspapers, was a school teacher, and
ultimately, Minister of the Interior, then Deputy Prime Minister before assuming
command of the North Vietnamese armed forces.
Remarkably, Giap military prowess sprung from reading the military annals of
the world's foremost military leaders, and not from any form of professional
training. Giap attributed Viet Cong strategies, which proved so successful against
both the French and the Americans, to T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), whose
strategies of "hit and run" he had read in Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom."
Giap played a leading role in what the Vietnamese referred to as, "the unification"
of the country. At the time of this writing he was still living.
American Influences and the War in Vietnam
In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it
or lose it. We can help them... but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam.
-President John F. Kennedy
Yankee, I swear to you
With words sharp as knives
Here in Vietnam, it is either you or me
And I am already here
So you must go!
The United States became
enmeshed in the Vietnamese conflict as a consequence of a national policy
to contain the spread of international communism sponsored at the time, by
the Soviet Union. American Cold War policy was vividly reflected in Eisenhower's
"Dominoes Theory", and Kennedy's Inauguration Address to resist any foe.
The U.S. government was compelled to support unpopular and corrupt South Vietnamese regimes against Ho's soviet backed forces. The inability of the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) to defeat or even contain, Viet Cong guerrillas lead to an ever increasing American military presence in Vietnam starting in 1961. By 1965, American land forces numbered over 500,000.
The American involvement in the war introduced yet another major cultural influence in Vietnam. South Vietnam became heavily "Americanized" during the war years, with french colonialism being exchanged by an economy and popular culture devoted in large part, to entertaining the American servicemen.
Despite overwhelming superiority
in weaponry, and manpower, Viet Cong guerrilla strategies and the North Vietnamese
government's intransigeance, created a terrible stalemate, which saw American
loses mounting with no clear end of the war in sight.
A surprise large scale raid on the Vietnamese holiday "Tet", in 1968, over ran
the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. While ARVN and American forces dealt
the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army regulars horrific loses, and ultimately
drove them from the city and surrounding areas, the battle shocked many Americans,
and began to tip the scales of public opinion in favour of those in the U.S.
who favoured an American withdrawal.
While the American involvement
in Vietnam continued after "The Tet Offensive" for another five years, growing
political pressure at home effected military decisions in the field, preventing
the U.S. from taking the decisive action necessary to win the war. Inversely,
the Viet Cong guerrillas appeared prepared to endure any hardship and sacrifice
to ensure the achievement of their objective. The North Vietnamese government
recognized that a war of attrition favoured their cause, and purposely stalled
and vacillated at the series of peace talks organized during the war. The communist
government was well aware of the growing unpopularity of the war in the United
States, and only accepted a peace proposal after it was clear the U.S. government's
ability to continue to wage the war was severely inhibited.
Dr. Henry Kissinger, American Secretary of State during this crisis, provides
a cold assessment of why the North Vietnamese ultimately triumphed over American
lead and supported forces.
"The Vietnamese had lived through centuries of Chinese rule without losing their
cultural identity, a nearly unheard-of feat. They had out lasted French occupation,
all the time nurturing the conviction that it was their mission to inherit the
French empire in Indochina. Lacking the humanity of their Laotian neighbours
and the grace of their Cambodian neighbours, they strove for dominance by being
not attractive but single-minded. So all-encompassing was their absorption with
themselves that they became oblivious to the physical odds, indifferent to the
probabilities by which the calculus of power is normally reckoned. And because
there were always more Vietnamese prepared to die for their country than foreigners,
their nationalism became the scourge of invaders and neighbours alike.
More than passion, the Vietnamese had an invincible self-confidence and a contempt
for things foreign. This disdain enabled them to manipulate other peoples -
even their foreign supporters - with a cool sense of superiority, by an act
of will turning their capital for over a decade into a centre of international
concern. What we considered insolent deception was another definition of truth;
whatever served Hanoi's purposes represented historical necessity. Like a surgeon
wielding a scalpel, Hanoi dissected the American psyche and probed our weaknesses,
our national sense of guilt, our quest for final answers, our idealism, and
yes, even the values of its sympathizers, whom it duped no less cold-bloodedly
than its adversaries. Our misfortune had been to get between these leaders and
their obsessions."
Vietnam
Since the War
While the United States' involvement in Vietnam militarily ended with their
withdrawal, peace did not come to the country. Vietnam would experience two
more major military conflicts in the ensuing years, with neighbour Cambodia,
and her ancient enemy China.
Today the Socialist Republic
of Vietnam (SRV) is a one-party state ruled by the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Immediately following the war with the United States, many persons fled the
nation, others who remained suffered atrocities at the hands of the victors.
Many expatriates continue to fear returning to their homeland, although in many
cases, it is now possible for them to go back.
In recent years, after decades of economic blockade by the United States, Vietnam
has began to open up more to the outside world. Vietnam is an active trading
partner with Asian economic giants South Korea and Japan, and has in the past
few years tolerated foreign investment and the beginnings of a market oriented
economy.
Despite some changes, Vietnam
remains a nation still very much in line with the old communist regimes of the
pre Glasnost era. The government continues to curtail civil liberties, and harshly
punish it's opponents. Human rights agencies monitor acts of government oppression,
arrests of political and religious dissidents, and other human rights violations.
The Vietnamese government controls free speech and freedom of assembly by complete
control of the media, use of the military and police, and active informant networks
in each community, known as "Block wardens." Vietnamese distrust of the police
in Canada, where it does exist, no doubt is tempered by these experiences.
Conclusion
Vietnamese history has been characterized by war, and resistance to foreign
powers. Vietnamese Canadians have inherited a harsh legacy of suffering and
oppression, but it is evident that as a people they are clearly survivors. Despite
all their hardships, Vietnam and the Vietnamese have endured for over 2,000
years.
In our next module, we will examine aspects of Vietnamese culture, philosophy,
and customs, which have also helped to shape the Vietnamese people.
YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE READINGS OF THIS MODULE. THIS MATERIAL IS UNDOUBTABLY
NEW TO YOU, SO IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REVIEW THE TEXT. IF YOU FEEL CONFIDENT
THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD GRASP OF THE MATERIAL, PROCEED TO THE CRITERION TEST.
Did you get them all? Review and/or proceed!
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