Vietnam (Modern)

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Vietnam (Modern)

• HIS 216
• Civilizations of Asia

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Map of Viet Nam

• Slightly larger than New Mexico more populous
  than England, France or Italy (more than 76
  mill.)
• Tropical south monsoonal north with hot, rainy
  season (mid-May to mid-September) and warm, dry
  season (mid-October to mid-March)
• Low, flat delta in south and north central
  highlands hilly, mountainous in far north and
  northwest
• Arable land 19.97 (CIA Factbook)

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Early Europeans in Asia

• In 1511 Portuguese captured Malacca from the
  native, trade-oriented Muslim sultanate, which
  had enjoyed Ming Chinese patronage since the
  early 15th century.
• Organized mission efforts in Viet Nam were first
  launched from Macao. In 1615 Italian Portuguese
  Jesuit missionaries arrived from Macao at Tourane
  (Da Nang), and founded the Cochinchinese Mission
  at Faifo (Hoi An).
• By the 18th century, Southeast Asia was a mosaic
  of tiny states, kingdoms, principalities, and
  sultanates. The European presence was limited a
  few trading posts along various coastlines, and
  Spanish colonial possessions in the Northern
  Philippine islands.

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Alexander de Rhodes

• The most famous resident of this mission was
  Alexander de Rhodes (1591-1660), a Frenchman from
  the papal seat of Avignon.
• De Rhodes has been credited with the development
  of quôc ngu, the phonetic alphabet used in the
  writing of modern Vietnamese. The writing system
  was actually the collective effort of Portuguese
  and Italian Jesuits, but de Rhodes was its most
  famous promoter.

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Early French Involvement in Viet Nam

• The French arrived in Viet Nam later than other
  Europeans (in 1680). However, by the mid-19
  century the French were more involved in Viet Nam
  than any country.
• Nguyen Anh appealed to the French bishop Pigneau
  de Behaine, for support. In return for French
  help in restoring the southern court, Nguyen Anh
  gave the French the port of Tourane and the
  island of Poulo Condore (Con Lon). The support
  never came from the French however, Pigneau
  found troops to help the Nguyen defeat the Tay
  Son armies in the South.

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French Imperialism in Indochina

• The Englishs aggressive stance against the Qing
  government over the issue of opium, and their
  eventual dispatching of gunboats, had an impact
  on the colonial policies of the French
  government.
• In 1858 (in sync with the Second Opium War raging
  in China) a French and Spanish joint fleet of 14
  ships and 3,000 soldiers landed at Da Nang.
• Through treaties that followed this conflict, the
  Nguyen court turned three provinces (Bien Hoa,
  Gia Dinh, and Dinh Tuong) over to the French. By
  1867, the entire Mekong Delta was under French
  control.

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French Imperialism (cont.)

• In March 1874 another treaty was signed with the
  Vietnamese court, granting greater rights to
  travel, trade and proselytize throughout Viet
  Nam.
• In 1883 the French again attacked and shelled the
  citadel at Ha Noi. During August 25 of year, the
  French forced the Vietnamese to sign a treaty
  (Harmand Treaty) relinquishing Bac Bo and Trung
  Bo, the remaining Viet territory, to the French.
• To mark the end of the 2,000 year special bond
  between China and Viet Nam, the French later took
  the imperial seal given Gia Long by the Qing
  emperor in 1803, and melted it down!)

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Native Response to Imperialism

• When the 1862 treaty was signed, local rebellions
  sprang up throughout Viet Nam. Rebels called
  themselves soldiers of nghia (yi), and they
  attacked the Nguyen court for not rallying to
  their cause.
• Chinese translations of Western works, produced
  during Chinas Self-strengthening Movement
  (1874-1894) made new ideas accessible to
  Vietnamese scholars. The ideas of Rousseau,
  Voltaire, Montesquieu, Darwin, and Herbert
  Spencer inspired social activism. In 1904 the
  Association for the Modernization of Viet Nam was
  founded. One of its leaders Phan Boi Chau
  (1867-1940) traveled to Japan in 1905, to
  continue his study of Western learning.
• Both Confucian scholars, and early reformers
  would eventually give way to western-trained
  activists, who sought a more radical means for
  driving out the French.

9
Viet Nams New Modernity

• Viet Nam had become part of the larger
  Indochinese Union. The Union consisted of five
  territories the protectorates of Tonkin
  (northern Viet Nam) and Annam (central Viet Nam)
  the colony of Cochin China and the protectorates
  of Laos and Cambodia.
• Under the administration of Paul Donner
  (1897-1902), the French set about redesigning
  Viet Nam in their own image, initiating and
  intensive construction program including
  highways, bridges, and railroads. The local tax
  burden for these projects was very heavy. The
  need to cheap corvee labor also took its toll on
  the local populace.
• Quôc ngu, along with Chinese, was taught for
  the first time in a school setting.
• Western-trained Vietnamese discovered that the
  colonial glass ceiling prevented them from
  reaching the upper ranks of elite society.

10
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969)

• HCM was born Nguyen That Thanh in May 19,1890,
  and was a son of a minor scholar from a poor
  peasant family in Nghe An Province.
• HCM worked as a teacher until he left Viet Nam in
  1911 abroad a French ocean liner. At this time
  he dropped his given name for the pseudonym Ai
  Quoc (the Patriot). He lived in London and then
  the United States, before traveling to France at
  the end of WW I.
• In 1919 Nguyen Ai Quoc unsuccessfully presented
  an eight-point petition for Viet Nams
  independence at the Versailles Peace Conference,
  which followed the conclusion of World War One.
• In 1920 he was made one of the founding member of
  the French Communist Party. In 1923 Nguyen Ai
  Quoc went to Moscow to study revolutionary
  tactics.

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Nationalists vs. Communists

• In 1925 the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League
  was founded by Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) and
  supporters in Canton. Ho stayed in Canton until
  1927 as a Comintern (Communist International)
  organizer.
• In 1927 a teacher Nguyen Thai Hoc (1901-30),
  along with a group of Vietnamese intellectuals,
  founded the Viet Nam Nationalist Party (Viê?t Nam
  Quôc dân d?ng VNQDD) in northern Viet Nam.
  This new party was modeled on the party
  organization of the Chinese KMT.

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Nationalists vs. Communists (cont.)

• In February 1930, radical Vietnamese factions of
  the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in Hong
  Kong formed the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP).
  In October 1930, members of the VCP Central
  Committee changed the name of their party to
  Indochinese Communist Party (ICP). This change
  was made on the advice of the Comintern in
  Moscow.
• During June 1930, the nationalist VNQDD led an
  uprising at the garrison in Yen Bay, which was
  pacified by the French without mercy. Nguyen
  Thai Hoc was captured and executed. Authorities t
  the time recorded 699 executions with trials in
  1930 alone, along with 3000 arrests, 83 death
  sentences, and 546 life sentences (Buttinger, p.
  437).
• Only with the joint ICP-VNQDD establishment of
  the Vi?t Nam Ð?c L?p Ð?ng Minh H?i (Viet Minh) in
  early May 1941, was the movement on steady ground
  again.

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Viet Nam in WWII

• In early 1941, Nguyen Ai Quoc slipped back into
  Viet Nam after an absence of 30 years. In 1942 he
  changed his name to Ho Chi Minh.
• In March 1944 US advisors to the KMT recognized
  Ho Chi Minh as the strongest leader in the
  anti-Japanese Vietnamese leadership. For this
  reason, the US offered the assistance and
  guidance of the OSS (Office of Strategic
  Services) to the Viet Minh. Saving American
  pilots had also endeared the Viet Minh to the
  Americans.
• On August 7th, 1945 the US dropped the A-bomb on
  Hiroshima. On August 10th, HCM called for his
  forces to lead a general uprisings. On August
  15th, Japan surrendered. On the next day the
  United National Front (a group of nationalist
  groups in the South) took over Sai Gon.
• The Viet Minh soon swept into Hanoi. On
  September 2nd,1945, HCM announced the
  independence of Viet Nam and the establishment of
  a democratic republic.

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First Indochinese War (1946-54)

• The British landed in Saigon on September 13th,
  1945. The British commander Douglas Gracey
  turned power over to the returning French. Three
  months after the end of W.W.II, Viet Nam would be
  divided into a French-controlled south and the
  communist-influenced DRV in the north.
• On December 19, 1946 the Viet Minh launched a
  surprise attack on the French garrisons around Ha
  Noi, and then withdrew to guerrilla camps in the
  countryside.
• The Viet Minh kept a low profile until 1948,
  building their base of support in the northern
  and central highlands of Viet Nam.

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First Indochinese War (cont.)

• In the fall of 1950, Viet Minh forces crushed the
  French garrisons stationed along the
  Sino-Vietnamese border, marking the first major
  defeat of the French in the conflict. This
  victory opened up communications between the PRC
  and the DRV, bringing increased military support.
• In May 1954 all parties finally agree to hold
  talks at an international conference in Geneva,
  Switzerland. On the eve of the talks, the
  (March-May) Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the
  French defeat had a powerful effect on the French
  negotiators.

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Second Indochinese War

• The national election proposed in Geneva never
  took place , so the country remained divided at
  the 17th parallel north (latitude).
• By 1958, the DRV realized that Viet Nam would not
  become unified without a protracted military
  struggle between the two regions. Ha Noi had
  developed the Peoples Army of Viet Nam (PAVN) by
  the late 1950s, In the beginning of 1959, the
  military campaign against South Viet Nam was
  launched.
• In the south US advisors to the new RVN
  government under Ngo Dinh Diem (19011963)
  gradually increased. In February 1962, the US
  established the Military Assistance Command in
  Viet Nam (MACV).

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Second Indochinese War (cont.)

• National Liberation Front (NLF) a loose alliance
  of anti-Diem organizations, secretly guided by Ha
  Noi and first established in the winter of
  1960-61. When the alliance's military arm became
  involved in skirmishes with South Vietnamese
  government, Diem himself gave the groups the
  pejorative title Viet Cong or "Vietnamese
  Communists."
•  
• Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964) events involving
  two allegedly unprovoked attacks by North
  Vietnamese torpedo boats on the destroyers Maddox
  and C. Turner Joy of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in
  the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2nd and August 4th. 
  On August 5th, President Lyndon Johnson issued
  the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to increase US
  commitment of troops and resources to the
  Vietnamese civil war effort.
•  
• Tet Offensive (1968) The NLF and North
  Vietnamese attack on the Lunar New Year's holiday
  in late January 1968 on more than 100 cities and
  military bases in the South.

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Third Indochinese War (1979)

• On February 8th, Deng and his entourage flew back
  to Beijing from a US state visit, and he
  immediately began to prepare for the attack on
  Viet Nam.
• 200,000 Chinese soldiers were made ready for the
  attack. This army faced 50,000 local forces
  under the command of 67-year-old Vo Nguyen Giap.
  The Vietnamese forces was entirely battle-ready,
  unlike the green Chinese troops.
• Beijing sent 1,000 tanks, which would face the
  impressive anti-tank artillery units stationed
  along the border. Chinas air force was no
  competition for the SAM-2 anti-aircraft stations
  and the advanced Russian MIG-21 aircraft that the
  Vietnamese had at their disposal.
• Concrete figures regarding the invasion have not
  yet emerged. Conservative Chinese sources state
  that 20,000 Chinese were killed or wounded,
  compared to 50,000 Vietnamese. VN figures state
  that 62,500 Chinese casualties were incurred.

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Doi Moi (Renovation) Policies

• After the war the US-led embargo and the failures
  of collectized agriculture put great strains on
  the Vietnamese economy. In 1986 Viet Nam imported
  1.5 million tons of rice to feed a population
  that had been self-sufficient even in wartime.
• In December 1986 at the Sixth National Congress
  of the VCP, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh
  presided over a momentous shift in policy
  emphasizing economic growth, and downplaying
  ideological squabbling.
• After ten years of the reforms, Viet Nam had
  become the worlds third largest exporter of
  rice.

20
Viet Nams Future

• The Vietnamese leadership will not turn back to
  the pre-1986 era of policy-making, nor will VNs
  leaders succumb fully to the power of free market
  forces.
• Viet Nam as a Buffer Zone between China and
  Southeast Asia. Some ASEAN nations and Australia
  have reportedly adopted this strategy These
  countries are eager to build up Viet Nams
  military capability to a point just strong enough
  to hold back a Chinese intrusion, giving the
  international community time to respond.
• Chinese involvement in Viet Nams economy.
  According to Ha Nois estimates, 80 of consumer
  products sold in Viet Nams urban areas come from
  China.

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Useful Titles

• Mark Philip Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and
  America The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam,
  19191950. Chapel Hill University of North
  Carolina Press, 2000.
• David G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism
  18851925. Berkeley University of California
  Press, 1971.
• ___________, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial,
  19201945. Berkeley University of California
  Press, 1981
• Truong Buu Lam, ed., Colonialism Experienced
  Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 19001931.
  Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press, 2000.
• Peter Zinoman, The Colonial Bastille A History
  of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 18621940. Berkeley
  University of California Press, 2001.
• Edwin E. Moïse, Vietnam War Bibliography
  URLhttp//www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPag
  es/EdMoise/bibliography.htmlmisc
• NYT multimedia presentation Amanda Hesser, The
  Past Lingers in Changing Vietnam
  http//www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/08/28/t
  ravel/20050828_VIETNAM_AUDIOSS.html

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Contact Info.

• James A. Anderson, Assistant Professor
• The Department of History
• 219 McIver Building, UNCG
• PO Box 26170
• Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
• Phone[phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email jamie_anderson_at_uncg.edu