Confronting History
Vietnam is vibrant, breath-taking, and above all, resilient. Sadly, a good deal of Vietnam’s resiliency was forged under warfare in the last 100 years.
As US tourists visiting Vietnam half a century after the countryside was besieged by the US army, it’s impossible to ignore our shared histories. Vietnam is much more than a playground for American tourists. Vietnam is a country with a long history shaped by and involving my country too -- both as inspiration for its independence movement, then later as its antagonist.
In the past century, Vietnam went from being a protectorate of avuncular French colonialists, to being occupied by Japan, to being puppeteered and ravaged by the USA, to finally becoming the unified and independent state that it is today. Wartime is behind Vietnam, and today Vietnam is consistently ranked among the fastest developing countries in the world. Yes there is still poverty and corruption, but in light of recent conflicts, it’s astonishing how quickly Vietnam bounced back with patriotism, solidarity, and fierce pride in traditional cultures (embracing those of all its 54 ethnic groups).
I was fascinated by this twisty turvy narrative, which I pieced together across visits to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum, Hoa Lo Prison, Vietnamese National Museum, Women’s Museum, War Remnants Museum, and Cu Chi Tunnels. Allen and I also read The Sympathizer on the planes, trains, and buses of our voyage down the Vietnamese coastline; we were gripped by its mutli-faceted inquiry into Vietnamese/American history.[1] I highly recommend all these perspectives as eye-openers into modern history.
There were many things I didn’t know before exploring Vietnam these past two weeks. I’m grateful for how this time has broadened my perspectives on independence, communism, war, and the courage it takes to confront history.
On Independence
For most of its history, Vietnam was not recognized as its own country.
It’s difficult to appreciate the harsh conditions under which Vietnamese nationalism emerged. In the 19th century, Vietnamese dynastic sovereignty was eroded by the French military until all of Vietnam fell into the French Indochina in 1887. The French administration imposed harsh political and cultural changes; they developed a plantation economy for cheap export of tobacco, coffee, and rubber, while suppressing civil rights. Then during World War II, the Japanese occupation exploited Vietnam’s natural resources for the war effort, resulting in the Vietnamese famine of 1945 and two million deaths. Throughout, Vietnamese mandarins (bureaucrats) aided imperialists in subjugating their countrymen.
Faced with external oppressors and internal corruption, the Vietnamese were unified in their sense of crisis, but divided in what to do about it. Some nationalists believed in first kicking out the French and then organizing the country; they fought back violently in disorganized resistance plots that were easily dispatched by the French. Other nationalists believed in reforming Vietnam and then earning freedom from France; they developed public education programs around science, hygiene, and foreign language, but were also quashed by the French. Still others wanted to appease France, writing letters petitioning for better conditions.
Communism emerged as the unifying answer to French oppression, domestic corruption, and vast economic inequality. Ho Chi Minh was the charismatic leader behind the movement, inspiring and unifying a critical mass of loyal nationalists with common goals and common vocabulary. To call these communists “diehard” would be an insulting understatement. These nationalists painted propaganda using their own blood in prison and composed patriotic poetry on their way to the guillotine. During the war, the countryside fasted one meal a day to save rice to feed the poor. They shared a vision of Vietnam’s independence that lasted through impossibly difficult decades. You have to respect and admire their resolve.
On Communism
It’s impossible to understate the role of the Communist Party and of Ho Chi Minh in leading Vietnam through decades of struggle. Western history critiques communist societies for lacking “basic human rights”: property, democracy, and unbiased education. Yet the more I learn more about Vietnam, the more I find myself asking “when it comes to liberty, the most basic of all rights, what exactly is so wrong with communism?”
In my read of the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, communism is regarded less as a class struggle between proletariat and bourgeois, and more as a struggle between nationalists and foreign oppressors. The document is political, not economic. The philosophical tenet is to abolish exploitation and return sovereignty to the people.
The opening lines of Vietnam’s Proclamation of Independence, composed and read by Ho Chi Minh in 1945, are as follows:
“All people are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.”
And it concludes:
“Vietnam has the right to be a free and independent country—and in fact it is so already. And thus the entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.”
On Anti-Communist Wars
It’s ironic that in the US, we refer to the conflict in Vietnam as the “Vietnam War”. Because Vietnam calls this period the “American War”.
Our tour guide in the Cu Chi Tunnels said that one of the most common questions Vietnamese ask themselves is, “Why did the Americans come here?” From their perspective, why would a world superpower spend $168 billion and send 9 million young men to fight the civil war of a third-world country 8,000 miles away?
The truth is, I don’t know either.
I was born in the 1990's, two decades after the “Vietnam War'' ended and became a shadowy mention in US history. The US school system’s primary slant on Vietnam War history is about the anti-war, peace-sign, draft-burning demonstrations of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Leaving so many questions unasked and unanswered. Including, why did the US get embroiled in foreign conflict in the first place? How did this unpopular conflict escalate so heavily? How did we justify the massacre of innocents to our troops?
The textbook answer is that we were fighting the rise of communism in Asia. Which is a flimsy excuse to cover the extent of stupid things that America did while defending democracy and fighting communism:
Violate the Geneva Accords by meddling in Vietnam’s elections to stand up a puppet government, and staging a coup d’etat to change out the leadership
Engineer a civil war between North and South Vietnam
Force relocation of millions of rural villagers into “strategic hamlets”
Indiscriminately shoot up women, children, and elderly; torture, rape, maim and murder across the countryside
Drop 7.5 million tons of bombs, the largest air campaign in US military history
Deforest 4.5 million acres of jungle with dioxin (Agent Orange), exposing 4 million humans to toxic chemicals
Continue supplying arms to South Vietnam for years after the US declared peace in 1973 and “pulled out” of the war
I don’t have any answer that can justify what happened in Vietnam. But I do know who stood most to benefit for the War on Communism:
Lyndon B Johnson, who said, "I'm not going down in history as the first American President who lost a war." (1966)
Robert Nixon, who said, “For the United States, this first defeat in our Nation's history would result in a collapse of confidence in American leadership, not only in Asia but throughout the world.” (1969)
Military leadership promoted on the basis of body count, enemies and innocents alike; “If it’s dead, it’s Viet Cong.”
Chemical companies Dow Chemicals, Monsanto, and others who profited from military herbicide contracts for 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides
The military and defense contractors profiting off some of the $11 billion spent on military operations during the Vietnam War
Whatever the reasons were, we were definitely wrong.
On Confronting History
Yes I know, history is written by the victor. And in the West, history written by communists is called propaganda. The Communist Party of Vietnam pumps all its pride, praise, and propaganda (definitely propaganda) into its legacy of communist unity and foriegn oppression. Armed guards stand motionless every 5 meters or so defending the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum from ideological attack (especially questions of Ho’s travels, authorship, and celibacy).
There’s two sides to every story. The Communist Party also committed atrocities during the war. After their victory, they sent Southern soldiers into “re-education camps”. Even today, those whose parents supported the South cannot serve in the government. And the current regime is far from perfect -- poverty is still visible on the sidewalks, and police corruption is often the butt of jokes told by tour guides.
Nevertheless, I respect Vietnam for confronting their national history and telling their side of the story. For displaying the guillotines, stories, bomb remnants, and photographs documenting what happened.
It’s all the more important that Vietnam tells its own story, because no other nation can. US Courts rejected lawsuits from Vietnamese citizens for Agent Orange’s poisonous legacy of health problems (although they did settle the same claim by US veterans), and rejected data showing the magnitude of harm to Vietnamese people. The US will not admit the war crimes committed in Vietnam, because that would open the doors for lawsuits that could cost the government billions of dollars. And world history in general glosses over the tragedies that occurred in Southeast Asia.
It takes courage to talk about bad things with those who do not share your point of view. I’m grateful that recent history is on the tourism agenda in Vietnam because it inspires dialogues I otherwise would not have had. I believe this openness helped Vietnam heal from its unjust history. And I wish that a similar light were shed on other aspects of US history too.
In Conclusion
We can’t do anything about the atrocities that happened in Vietnam decades before we were born. But there is still war happening during our lifetimes. And, like Vietnamese of decades past, there are generations of Afghan and Iraqi children who learned to listen for the sound of bombs. It’s important to learn from the cost of warfare, and petition for peace during our lifetimes.
In two weeks traveling across Vietnam, I find it remarkable how invariably welcoming Vietnamese people have been towards Allen and I, even when we say that we’re from the United States. We hear from locals that life goes on, that there’s optimism that tomorrow will be better than yesterday. And it genuinely does not feel like an empty platitude; people in Vietnam are industrious hustlers, from those employed in tourism, to the small business owners, to the farmers in the countryside. They have a fierce work ethic because they believe they can work towards a better life.
I’m leaving Vietnam touched by the lessons I learned here and inspired by the spirit of resiliency and optimism.
Footnotes:
[1] Set as a flashback by a Viet Cong undercover agent, The Sympathizer explores the duality of North and South Vietnam, and of Vietnam-America events following the fall of Saigon. This novel is vivid and gripping, and I heartily recommend it to deepen appreciation for the complexity of American and Vietnamese/American history.
