>> What interests were we pursuing in Korea or Vietnam [What interests were the French pursuing there? Imperialism has a logic of its own]
The problem has never been Communism or Islamism or even "Terrorism"; The problem is always the indigenous nationalism who believes in a better future for their own country and that the profits of their resources and labors should primarily be directed at home rather than the foreign corporations. Do you ever wonder why so many thugships had communists as their main opposition? Why were we not supporting some true freedom loving groups against those thugs so that the only choices would not have been between brutal right dictatorships and communism? As you read the fallowing passage, note how little the struggle (from the Vietnamese point of view) had to do with ideology and how it was almost entirely a nationalist movement. The idea that we were primarily fighting Communism is patently false; we were fighting an independent movement that had the backing of the soviets (and yes there were soviet strings attached).
Vietnam actually makes a good case study. I could write pages and pages about the US interests in Vietnam and why we were there, none of which would be coincide with the "champion of freedom" propaganda that we have been fed. But I am not in the mood for writing books and in any event there are plenty of resources for those who want to do the research. But I will provide for a summary of events and the issues.
The French Government wanted to establish a strategic and religious sphere of influence in Indochina, but their demands to install a French Consulate and Commercial Attaché in Danang were rejected by the Imperial Court in Hue. The French responded by occupying Danang, in August of 1858. For nearly a century, the Vietnamese struggled against the French for their independence. During this time span, they tried a variety of solutions ranging from appeal to traditional Royalist and Confucianism to more modern solutions and establishment foreign relations with the world, including the first Vietnamese envoy to Washington D.C. who presented his credentials to President Ulysses Grant. But these were of little use and In 1861 the French took Saigon. Six years Later the entire southern part of the country, rechristened Cochinchina, was annexed as a French colony. Vietnam lost its independence in 1883 with the extension of French control to the North. The Center of Vietnam, renamed Annam, and the North, Tonkin, became French protectorates. The three regions were each governed somewhat differently. Cochinchina at first came under a military government, then later a civil governor with a civic council elected by civil servants and naturalized French. The colony sent a representative to the French Parliament. Tonkin was governed in a similar way. In Annam, the Emperor kept his title to power under strong, but more indirect French control. There were several uprisings led by various members of Royal family, which unfortunately were all squashed. French efforts to develop the country's natural resources brought no change to Vietnamese thinking. The Vietnamese were no happier living under French domination than they had been under the Chinese.
By the beginning of the 20th century, various nationalist resistance movements had formed. They got two inspirational breaks in the form of Japanese [and later Chinese] victories and the Russian Revolution. In an effort to break away from the traditional royalist thinking they embraced the new idea of democracy. The new resistance was greatly influenced by the Japanese victory over Russia in 1904 and was convinced that Western power was no longer invincible. Nationalist sentiments intensified in Vietnam, especially after World War I, but all the uprisings and tentative efforts failed to obtain any concessions from the French overseers. The Russian Revolution which occurred at this time had a tremendous impact on shaping 20th century Vietnamese history.
This is the important part Like most armed struggles, without outside help the freedom was impossible. So various groups turned towards different supporters ranging from China, to Japan, to the Soviets, and to the United States. A debate over the sources of support for independence caused a rift between the Westernized reformist Phan Chu Trinh and the nationalist Phan Boi Chau. Phan Chu Trinh opposed Phan Boi Chau's appeal for foreign help to resolve the French occupation. He believed Vietnam could regain independence through the democratic process as purported by the French constitution. Now if you believe the myth of America's championship of democracy and freedom in the world, then you should believe that we would side with the faction that did not believe in over emphasis on foreign help and wanted democratic process, but read on. Ho Chi Minh was in fact a leader in this faction and started out by believing he could have a independent nationalist and democratic reform. It was Ho who led the battles against the French occupation and by all measures should be considered the national hero. In an unprecedented move, the Indochinese Communist Party announced its self-dissolution in November of 1945. In 1949, France consented to an autonomous Vietnamese government within the French Union. The emergence of Communist China towards the end of 1949 favored the communist dominated struggle. After Ho's guerillas had wiped out several French posts on the Chinese border, the two regimes established direct contact for the first time. Peking supplied the young republic with military equipment, substantial provisions and further aid to develop the Vietminh army. On his side, Ho Chi Minh attempted to increase his government's base of nationalist support. In the beginning of 1951 it was announced that the Unified Viet Minh Front would gradually merge with the new league for the National Union of Vietnam (Lien Viet), which was a nationalist multi-party alliance...how are we doing so far? Here is the summary:
Summary of events before 1954
1. The French colonized Indochina in the late nineteenth century and exploited the resources and people, but left a cultural legacy.
2. Independence movements emerged in the 1930s, especially in Vietnam. The Indochinese Communist Party played a significant role in these movements.
3. In 1941 the Japanese invaded and occupied Indochina and nationalist-independence movements increased their activity.
4. The Vietminh, an umbrella nationalist organization led by communists, was founded by Ho Chi Minh in 1941 to wage guerrilla warfare against the Japanese, ironically with US aid.
5. On 2 September 1945 Ho proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but the French, with US backing, returned to occupy Indochina.
6. Unfortunately the Vietminh was identified by the Americans as a communist rather than a nationalist movement. At the time, and for some time after, the US feared the spread of communism in Asia [the so-called "Domino Theory"]. This was an extension of the Cold War in Europe.
7. Gradually the war between the French and the Vietnamese increased in intensity and spread into Cambodia and Laos. Despite American backing, the French could not sustain a long war against entrenched and highly organized guerrilla forces.
8. In April 1954 the Vietminh, led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, successfully attacked the French at Dien Bien Phu in north-west Vietnam. On 7 May the French capitulated. A settlement of the "Indochina problem" was made at Geneva: the so-called Geneva Accords were signed. These gave independence to Cambodia and Laos, but divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel into the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam [North Vietnam] and the Republic of Vietnam in the south [South Vietnam]. The United States, although important at Geneva, never signed the Accords.
9. Elections were to be held in the following year with the aim of unifying Vietnam. Faced with an inevitable victory by Ho, the President of South Vietnam never called the elections. The rest, as they say, "is your history" to study.
There was to have been no "North" and "South" Vietnam; they were suppose to have been unified fallowing an election, but we did not like where the elections would lead. Basically the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel into ("Communist") North Vietnam and ("Democratic") South Vietnam because America feared communism and had enough influence to insist on this division. The accord also provided for elections to be held in 1956 to create a united and independent Vietnam. Note that once again, we were backing a government that would not have stood democratic elections. How American was that? The Vietnam war was in fact the invasion of South Vietnam by the United States.
Despite the good intentions of Ho Chi Minh, many people living in the north did not wish to live under a communist regime. Some elements of society, notably Catholics and some intellectuals, fled to the south. There is some evidence that a number of peasants who were unhappy with the communists disrupting traditional life also went south.
One of the first moves of Ho's government was to undertake land reform. Over 810,000 hectares of land were nationalized and redistributed. Ho was wise enough to keep the village administration intact. This program was completed in 1958. However, many thousand "enemies of the state" were imprisoned, re-educated or in some cases executed. In 1956 Ho largely reversed this policy and most political prisoners were released.
The Communists also believed that education was important to the development of the state and consolidating the revolution. Ho's aims were to remove illiteracy, provide skilled workers and instill in the population the "necessary" revolutionary ardor. By 1964 the number of students in schools had quadrupled and North Vietnam had one of the highest literacy rates in the developing countries. Some observers have placed this as high as over 90 per cent. Education in united Vietnam today is still compulsory, although literacy rates have fallen a little.
One of the problems for the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) was that there were many villages that were unsympathetic to the Diem regime. Most of these were under the control of the Vietcong or the Vietminh. Some observers have estimated that almost half of the population of the south was always opposed to the Saigon government.
For more references on the subject, I suggest you look at "International Studies in Peace and Conflict" at Charles Sturt University of Australia hsc.csu.edu.au Or read the "The Pentagon Papers" with a critical eye mtholyoke.edu
Sun Tzu
Our objective was national independence... (Vo Nguyen Giap)
There is nothing in our history except struggle. Struggle against foreign invaders, always more powerful than ourselves... Because we had nowhere else to go, we had to fight things out where we were. After two thousand years of this, our people developed a very stable nervous system. We never panic. (Pham Van Dong)
If insurrection is an art, its main content is to know how to give the struggle the form appropriate to the political situation. (Vo Nguyen Giap)
The struggle must build, however slowly. The way to win is by small defeats, one after the other until the coup de grace. (General Giap)
It is my belief that socialism would motivate the farmers and the workers. (General Giap)
It is impossible for Westerners to understand the force of the people's will to resist, and to continue to resist. The struggle of the people exceeds the imagination. It has astonished us too. (Pham Van Dong)
I never thought that it would go on like this. (Robert McNamara) |
