title

Dr Tien Manh Nguyen

May 1997

paper presented in the seminar “Vietnam Voices”

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 04th May 1997 )

To be able to understand the VN war, one has to go back in history to appreciate a few facts.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTS.

The regaining of independence for Vietnam was not the credit of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) alone like they have always been boasting, but the culmination of the 100 year long resistance war against the French domination which had the participation of many nationalist Vietnamese. Long before Ho Chi Minh founded the VCP in 1930, there had been numerous uprisings and anti-French movements led by famous VN nationalists like Nguyen Thien Thuat, Hoang Hoa Tham, Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chu Trinh, Nguyen Thai Hoc…

Ho Chi Minh was not a true nationalist, but a fervent communist who helped found the French Communist Party in 1920. He also had extensive training in Russia in the 20’s, and was working in China and South-East Asia under the direct command of Moscow in the 30's and 40's.

During the anarchist period in Vietnam at the end of WW II when the Japanese occupation force surrendered and the French forces were still paralyzed, Ho took advantage of the lack of organization and leadership of non-communist parties and staged an effortless takeover, declared himself President of the nation.

Under the terms of the Postdam Agreement, the Chinese Kuomintang government who had been backing the Vietnamese Nationalist Party and the Vietnamese Revolutionary Alliance was to move into North Vietnam to disarm the Japanese, posing a direct threat to Ho’s communist group. To ease off pressure, he formed a coalition government on 1/1/1946, which included various nationalist parties to avoid harassment from the Kuomintang forces. Soon after that, France negotiated the withdrawal of the Kuomintang force to prepare for its coming back to North Vietnam. On 6/3/1946, Ho signed an agreement with the French, effectively recognizing the right of French troops to re-enter North Vietnam in exchange for French acknowledgement of the Democratic Republic of VN as a free state within the French Union. This agreement, considered by many as a traitorous act, was part of a dilatory tactic which gave Ho and his communist clique the détente and free hands they needed to concentrate on something far more important and urgent on their agenda : the elimination of the nationalist forces.

On the night of 27/6/1946, Ho ordered his troops to launch a nationwide surprise attack on non-communist parties and religious sects ( the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao in the South ), and killed 50,000 leaders and members of those groups. Three members of Ho's coalition cabinet, the vice-president Nguyen Hai Than ( of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Alliance ), the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Tuong Tam and the co- Minister of Defense Vu Hong Khanh ( of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party ) survived the attack and fled to China. During the period between 1946 and 1954, the communists continued the killing of the VN nationalists who had been fighting side by side with them in the anti-French war, and virtually destroyed most of the nationalist forces, especially in the North. Such was the bloody experience that the VN nationalists had of the treachery and ruthlessness of the VN communists. In July 1954, the Geneva Accords temporarily partitioned Vietnam, allowing the re-grouping of the communists to the north, and the non-communists to the south of the 17th parallel.

HOW AND WHY THE VIET NAM WAR STARTED?

The ensuing 20 year long VN war took roots from there : on one side the North VN Communists determined to take over South VN by force as part of their commitment to the Comintern's global strategy, on the other side the non-communists in the South, still fresh from their horrific experience of the 40's and early 50’s, stood up to defend themselves from the northerners' invasion. Both sides were backed by international forces, the Communist bloc on one side and the Free World on the other. The VN war therefore was not a civil war in the strict sense of it, because it was started and driven by the ideological pursuit of the Northern Communists in serving the worldwide ambition of the 3rd International.

Some people blamed the South VN Government of Ngo Dinh Diem for the refusal to hold the 1956 election to reunite the country specified in the Geneva Accords, thus triggered the war. Again, we have to look at a few facts in order to understand the situation at the time.

After Vietnam was partitioned according to the Geneva Accords in 1954, one million people chose to move from North VN to the South to avoid living under communism, whereas only less than a hundred thousands left South VN to go North. This discrepancy was partly due to the fact that many communist cadres under the leadership of Le Duan were ordered to stay back and lie in wait in the South to manipulate the election supposed to be held in 1956. This was later confirmed in memoirs of communist leaders such as Vo Nguyen Giap and Van Tien Dung.

The South VN government of President Ngo Dinh Diem refused to hold election because of two reasons:

1. The government of South VN at the time ( the Bao Dai government ) strongly opposed to and did not sign the Geneva Accords, and

2. In the context where the communists had severely maimed the nationalist forces, had their iron grip well established in the north, and arranged an effective network of cadres in the south, while the nationalist government of the South was only less than two years young, and had few available resources and facilities to match those of the opposition, it was not possible to have a free and fair election.

The so-called “spontaneous insurgence” in South VN was a contingency carefully planned and prepared by the communists. By the time the National Liberation Front ( a communist puppet organization ) was formed in 1960 following a decision of the Hanoi Politburo in 1959, communist heavyweights like Le Duan, Pham Hung and Le Duc Tho were already present in the south to take direct command of the guerilla war. Thousands of North VN troops continuously infiltrated the South through the Ho Chi Minh trail, evidenced of the determination of the Northern Communists to take South VN by force.

The South Vietnamese only wanted to be left alone to build the society they chose in which freedom and democracy are respected. Of course the SVN government at the time was no where near the democratic standards we are having nowaday in Australia, but at least we had the basic structure on which democracy can be built on, such as a degree of free press and political opposition. Facing the threat from the Northern Vietnamese communists, the South Vietnamese had no choice but to fight to protect themselves and fend off the invasion.

Hanoi’s propaganda machinery, assisted by Western media’s journalistic sensationalism, had a large hand in obtaining the result that the VN war has often been portrayed in the West as a war between the United States and other allies versus the Viet Cong and the North VN Communists. The 30 millions Vietnamese of South Vietnam were largely ignored, as were the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam who lost their lives. Let me remind those people that the VN war was OUR war to defend our land from invasion by the northern communists. We fought valiantly through it all, driven by our belief in freedom and democracy, the virtues that we have been toiling for and that we knew do not exist under communism through our own bloody experience. Equipped with that conscious fighting spirit, the South VN Armed Forces have proven their capacity to defend the nation on their own in many battles, such as the victorious smashing of communist forces in the 1968 Tet offensive and the recapture of Binh Long and Quang Tri in Easter 1972. We are very much offended by some simplistic and myopic views which suggest that we were ignorant mercenaries who sacrificed our lives, fighting in harsh condition on meager salaries, for the US or the capitalist bloc!

THE VIETNAM WAR WAS A JUST CAUSE FOR AUSTRALIA’S INVOLVEMENT.

From the allies' point of view, their involvement in Vietnam was part of a worldwide strategy of containment of the communist expansionism, which aimed at spreading communism throughout Europe and Asia. The declaration of emergency in Malaysia following the communist insurgency in 1948, the invasion of South Korea by communist North Korea in 1950, the rapid spread of communist movement in North-East Thailand in the 60's, the 1965 attempted coup of the communists in Indonesia, all pointed to the Reds' clear objective of subversion and expansion in South-East Asia. If the communists succeeded in taking over South Vietnam in the 60's, the danger of the whole South-East Asia going communist would have been imminent. Due to its geographical proximity to the region, naturally Australia was quite concerned about that real and substantial threat to its security, and chose to get involved in the Vietnam war.

In his article in the SMH of 24/4/1995, Michael Sexton has pointed out a few facts worthy of our attention:

1. The Australian Government was not coerced into its VN commitment by the United States, but in fact in late 1964 pressed the American administration to escalate the war efforts in VN and to accept an offer of Australian troops

2. The Australian community did support the conscription and the commitment of troops to VN, and Harold Holt won the 1966 election in which the VN war was the central issue with the largest margin ever in the Australian political history.

Given that it was a war to contain the communist expansion to Australia’s north, the VN war was a just cause for Australia to be involved in, and we South Vietnamese always appreciate Australia's help, as well as admire the fighting ability and the immaculate discipline of the Australian troops.

The domino theory was proven correct when in the late 70’s the VN communists in reality took control over Laos and Cambodia. In the words of the ex- PM of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew : "If VN goes by default, we ( other South-East Asian countries ) will all go through the mincing machine". We South Vietnamese have sacrificed ourselves holding off the communists for 20 years, giving other South-East Asian nations ample time to consolidate their strength and immunize themselves against the communist virulence, therefore preventing them from going through "the mincing machine" that Mr. Yew mentioned !

WHY THE VIETNAM WAR ENDED THE WAY IT DID.

The collapse of the Soviet Empire in the early 90's, effectively proving that communism is a total failure, has vindicated the South Vietnamese's anti-Communist stand. Our cause was proven just! The next question is why then the VN war ended the way it did ?

Being the main ally of South Vietnam, the United States should have played the supportive role of a good friend and provided us with the things we needed to match the unreserved support that our communist enemy had enjoyed from their communist allies, namely military advice and training, arms, equipment and financial assistance. Instead they had behaved like a foolish bossy partner, trying to impose onto South VN their idiosyncratic ideas of how to run the war the American way despite their poor knowledge of the land and the people. They propped up and supported only lackeys they could easily manipulate, regardless of their poor ability and popularity. They got rid of effective and popular nationalist leaders like Ngo Dinh Diem who strongly opposed that kind of typical American bossy intervention. They poured troops in and pulled troops out at their own convenience, having little regards of what effects those might have had on the morality of the SVN people or the SVN army. At the end, they heralded the death of South VN by delivering the final blow when the US Congress voted in April 1975 to severely reduce military aids to South VN. The inevitable result was the incredibly rapid collapse in less than 2 months of the South VN government and its mighty armed forces! In my view, the communists never really did win the war in the true sense of the word victory. It was just mere luck for them, and circumstantial misfortune for the South Vietnamese! South Vietnam was just a pawn in the international chess game!

THE EXODUS OF BOAT PEOPLE.

Another tragic outcome was the massive exodus of more than one million Vietnamese boat people fleeing Vietnam in unseaworthy boats, risking their lives in the high sea to escape the tyranny of the VN communist regime. Logically, after the war ended they should be elated now that their country was united and peace restored. Why that phenomenon of boat people?

The VN communists had had indeed a very good chance for bringing about true national reconciliation and unity to rebuild VN from the damages caused by years of war. Instead they have methodically implemented draconian measures aiming to revenge people with connection to the former regime and to abolish private ownership in line with the Marxist-Leninist policy. Living through those measures which included the prolonged detention of ex- military officers and civil servants of the former regime, the confiscation of private properties and enterprises, the forcible evacuation of urban people to remote and unproductive New Economic Zones, the collectivization of land …etc, the South Vietnamese quickly became disillusioned, and left the country in droves at all costs. People from the North joined the exodus soon after they had the chance to see the much better quality of life the Southerners have enjoyed contrary to the party’s propaganda, and realized that they had been taken in for years by the communists! The exodus which followed was one of the largest in world history, and an undeniable evidence of the oppression of the VN communist regime.

THE PRESENT VIETNAM AND THE ISSUE OF RECONCILIATION.

After 10 years (1975-1985) of Stalinist-style governing, Vietnam was close to the brink of economic collapse, and the VCP had to change in order to survive. Following the 6th Party Congress in 1986 a limited version of the Soviet Glasnost and Perestroika was implemented. The regime started to open up more in economic terms, allowing a degree of free trade and encourage foreign investment. Rice fields were returned to individuals, agricultural cooperatives abolished. Those measures have had positive effects on the flagging economy, especially after the US lifted its embargo against VN in early 1994 and the admission of VN to the Association of South-East Asian Nations in July 1995. Vietnam has also been receiving considerable economic aids from many Western countries including Australia.

But in reality, the people who have benefited most from the economic reforms are not the ordinary Vietnamese, but communist cadres in key positions and business people who have good connections. The per capita GDP of Vietnam is currently 301 US dollars per annum, still ranking amongst the lowest in the world. The environment has been severely damaged by free exploitation and lack of concern from the government. Foreign companies, for example Nike, are free to exploit and abuse Vietnamese workers. Health and education are in a pathetic state. The problem of corruption at all governmental levels has run to a phenomenal height.

More importantly, nothing much has changed in VN in terms of human rights, freedom and democracy. The VCP is still the one and only party in VN, recognized by the constitution as the only body to lead the country. The ordinary person in VN is still deprived of basic human rights such as the right to free speech, the right to form free unions, freedom of association, freedom of religion, freedom of press…etc. Thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are detained in numerous jails and concentration camps throughout the whole nation, including advocates for democracy like Dr Nguyen Dan Que, Professor Doan Viet Hoat, leaders of the Vietnamese United Buddhist Church such as Venerable Thich Quang Do, Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Tri Sieu and Thich Tue Sy, ex-communists daring to criticize the party like Do Trung Hieu, Hoang Minh Chinh, socialist intellectual like Ha Si Phu…etc

Many overseas Vietnamese have great reservation about the concept of reconciliation with the VN communist regime in the present setting. As long as they continue to oppress the VN people and violate basic human rights, as long as there is no democracy where the people can exercise their right to choose the kind of government they want, reconciliation only means to submit to the Politburo’s lines and the continuation of their dictatorship.

At present, many Vietnamese inside and outside Vietnam are continuing to fight relentlessly for freedom and democracy for Vietnam. In the last couple of years we have seen an increasing number of ex-communist party members inside the country including ex-resistance fighters, writers and poets, Marxist-Leninist philosophers…like Nguyen Ho, Ta Ba Tong, Le Hong Ha, Do Trung Hieu, Hoang Minh Chinh, Tieu Dao Bao Cu, Ha Si Phu, Bui Minh Quoc… courageously raising their voices to denounce the lack of freedom and demanding that the VCP respect basic human rights. The Vietnamese people are becoming more assertive and less afraid of their rulers. In true dictatorial tradition, the Politburo called that phenomenon “peaceful evolution”, blaming it on overseas VN communities and other “imperialist reactionary forces” and trying desperately to contain the movement.

The VCP is now facing the critical choice : either to abandon its authoritarian legacies and adapt a pluralistic political structure as the first step towards democracy, thus open the door for true and meaningful reconciliation. Or to continue their path of dictatorship and repression, and the struggle of the Vietnamese people both inside and outside the nation will continue until the day they achieve their ultimate goal : a truly democratic and free Vietnam, where human rights are fully respected.

And I believe that day will definitely come in the very near future.

Dr Tien Manh Nguyen