Vietnam

"In response to the wave of small business closures [done in fear or in protest against Decree 70 and related actions], state-run media have depicted shop owners as greedy and irresponsible, accusing them of choosing to shut down rather than fulfill their [taxational] obligations. Those reports have largely ignored the underlying issue of chronic corruption."

"While the government’s budget is occasionally made public, the [Vietnamese Communist P]arty’s finances remain classified under Vietnamese law."

"Vietnam led other humanitarian organizations to distance their work from American foreign policy. Since World War II, agencies such as Catholic Relief Services, CARE, and Church World Service viewed their work either as supportive of America's anti-Communist position or at least neutral in the face of international need. By 1965, however, as protest to the war escalated at home, many agencies realized that apoliticism was impossible. Any participation in Vietnam had become a politically partisan act. Vietnam ended the notion of apolitical humanitarianism and cozy church-state partnership overseas. Several ecumenical agencies pulled out of Vietnam while others sought to protest and influence U.S. military action. As a result, they lost millions of USAID dollars."

"While Kiem was imagining how he'd look in Vietnamese Navy dress whites, Viet Minh general Vo Nguyen Giap was busy massing tens of thousands of troops around the French-held valley town of Dien Bien Phu, near the Laotian border. Giap's forces choked off the French supply lines, ringing their noose tighter and tighter as the French got thinner and weaker and monsoon rains beat down on their equipment. The French appealed to U.S. president Eisenhower and British prime minister Churchill for help, but it was not forthcoming. On 12 March 1954 Giap's army of fifty thousand men attacked French general Navarre's eleven or twelve thousand with everything in its arsenal. In early May, as Kiem was preparing to take the written exam for the French Naval Academy in Hanoi, Giap's men overran the last of the weakened French forces- and the Viet Minh won the war. Kime was thrilled that his country had finally gained its independence, but he couldn't help worrying that the French defeat might ruin his future plans. Mr. Sach said not to fear: no matter what happened at the postwar negotiating conference, the French would still want to help shape a young navy just starting out. They were human, and that was human nature."

"But before the ships could be brought into the harbor, their guns had to be dismantled, their ammo unloaded, their names painted over, their Vietnamese flags lowered, and the American colors raised. The shame of it was almost unbearable: Kiem and his men were a bunch of losers. They had lost the long war. In all of the excitement and chaos of the past week, it was the first time the realization had fully hit them. But there was still one small thing Kiem could do to help his men save face. He could ask for a proper changing-of-colors ceremony: something to soften the blow of seeing their flag yanked down like a rag. Late that afternoon, on board every ship, an ex-VNN officer made a speech; then a U.S. Navy officer made a speech. As the ropes creaked and the gold flag with three red stripes began to descend, the refugees broke into their national anthem: "Nay cong dan oi..." (Oh citizen of the country...) Their voices soared over the turqoise waters of the Pacific Ocean. Slowly the US flags were hoisted into place. Then the ex-VNN officers walked to the ship's rail, ripped the insignia from their uniforms, and tossed the gold glitter into the sea with their caps. They were civilians, now, not military men. Stripped of their national identities, they could help bring another country's warships into the bay with no shame."

"The fall of Saigon was the turning point of the Vietnam War, which caused over 1 million North Vietnamese deaths, military and civilian, and a quarter-million South Vietnamese casualties. The war killed nearly 50,000 American troops and displaced about half a million people. Many Vietnamese refugees sought asylum in the United States. Today, they invoke the ongoing cultural value of this “fallen” regime by flying the South Vietnam flag at Lunar New Year parades and musical concerts."

"I have fond memories with this flag. We hung it in our home when my dad hosted political meetings. My mom placed a miniature version of the American and Vietnamese flags together on a little stand above our giant 1980s stereo system. At a Vietnamese event, that flag was displayed next to ."

"Communist authorities view the flag and the people who fly it overseas as linked to campaigns aimed at undermining or even toppling its rule."

"All of you here are free to attach your own meanings to the flag. It is your right in a democracy. The city council, however, as the city’s highest elected body, has a duty to not uncritically endorse these projections and interpretations in the name of the entire city without a fuller understanding of the history of the flag. I personally believe that it is a mistake for the city council to endorse the flag of the former South Vietnam, a flag that is highly controversial and painful to many. When it comes to democracy, the former South Vietnamese government was also a dictatorship..."

"The yellow flag is an emotional and integral part of the identity of some 70,000 Vietnamese living in Washington. It symbolizes where we came from and our fight for a free society."

"So entrenched is the flag of the fallen country that in Orange County — the capital of Vietnamese Americans overseas — it won formal recognition as the symbol for the immigrant community. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later granted the state’s blessing to the flag."

"Many Vietnamese immigrants have used the flag to express hatred for a communist regime that ousted them from their country. …“Since I was born, I’ve always seen the yellow flag with three red stripes everywhere, and I know that it is the flag of the Vietnamese people,” 23-year-old Phuong Anh, born and raised in southern California, told RFA Vietnamese."

"The Yellow Flag is a historic symbol of Vietnamese refugees in Australia. It’s not just a normal property of someone, so when the boy pulled down the flag, it insults all Vietnamese refugees."

"The yellow-and-red-striped banners of the former South Vietnam flew above crowds of rioters all over the Capitol grounds. Many of the flag carriers were Vietnamese Americans who, in support of President Donald Trump, have often used the emblem to express nostalgia for a lost home and opposition to communism."

"The flag represented South Vietnam for its entire existence, from 1955 to 1975. After the Fall of Saigon, it became a symbol of national pride and identity for members of the Vietnamese diaspora who fled the Communist regime. Today, the flag is common not only in Vietnamese communities in the U.S., but also in Canada, Australia, France and western Germany."

"... All those of red blood and yellow skin Together we fight under the nation’s sacred flag The flag is soaked with our crimson blood, shed for the nation The yellow star is the colour of our race’s skin Stand up, quickly! The nation’s soul is calling for us Intellectuals, peasants, workers, traders and armymen United as a five-pointed yellow star..."

"I’m sure the ease with which bare-footed Vietcong marched into Saigon in 1975 now strengthens Pyongyang’s conviction that the “Yankee colony” will not last long after the colonisers pull out. In South Korea, meanwhile, conservatives are now loudly invoking the story of South Vietnam’s demise. They say, “There too you had a richer, freer state, and it fell only a few years after US troops pulled out. Let’s not make the same mistake”. They point worriedly to President Moon Jae-in’s own remark that he felt “delight” when predictions of US defeat in Vietnam came true."

"During the revolutionary conflict, the antirevolutionary state was always flawed in terms of its legitimacy to govern the Vietnamese people because it was either the creation of some foreign power or dependent on foreign support. From the early 1930s to 1955, the playboy emperor, Bao Dai, occupied the role of puppet for whichever outside power was paying the bills. Diem, dependent on US economic and military aid, which was used to suppress revolutionaries and Buddhist religious leaders alike, also failed to gain the support of most Vietnamese. The succession of generals who followed Diem included General Thieu during 1967–1975; he had previously served in the French colonial army. The coercive capability of the antirevolutionary state fluctuated over time. On paper it was high at the time of the victorious communist offensive in 1975. Saigon had 1 million soldiers and outnumbered its adversaries in the south by about three to one. But South Vietnam’s army was riddled with corruption. After US combat troops departed in 1973, the South Vietnamese economy went into decline, deprived of US service members shopping for goods, bars, drugs, and prostitutes. Urban unemployment rose to 40 percent. Many Saigon officers embezzled army funds and even charged tolls for other military units to cross through areas they controlled. By 1975 the large majority of enlisted soldiers were not earning enough to support their families, and morale was low (Karnow 1983; Kolko 1985; Turley 1986). Deprived of US support, the Saigon government and military could not withstand the onslaught of highly motivated revolutionary forces"

"The admiration with which I have watched the progress of the Republic of Viet-Nam during the past year prompts me to send to you the warmest congratulations of the American people on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Republic and upon the promulgation of the Vietnamese Constitution. The American people have observed the remarkable struggle of the Vietnamese people during the past years to achieve and to maintain their independence. The successes of the Republic of Viet-Nam in thwarting the aggressive designs of Communism without, and in surmounting the most difficult obstacles within, have shown what can be achieved when a people rally to the cause of freedom. We in America pray that those now still living in the enslaved part of your country may one day be united in peace under the free Republic of Viet-Nam."

"There were some in South Vietnam who wished to force Communist rule on their own people. But their progress was slight. Their hope of success was dim. Then, little more than six years ago, North Vietnam decided on conquest. And from that day to this, soldiers and supplies have moved from North to South in a swelling stream that is swallowing the remnants of revolution in aggression. As the assault mounted, our choice gradually became clear. We could leave, abandoning South Vietnam to its attackers and to certain conquest, or we could stay and fight beside the people of South Vietnam."

"On the sixth anniversary of the Republic of Viet-Nam, the United States of America is proud to pay tribute to the courage of the Vietnamese people. We have seen and marked well the anguish--and the glory-of a nation that refuses to submit to Communist terror. From the people that twice defeated the hordes of Kublai Khan, we could expect no less. America, and indeed all free men, must be grateful for the example you have set. Mr. President, in 1955 we observed the dangers and difficulties that surrounded the birth of your Republic. In the years that followed, we saw the dedication and vigor of your people rapidly overcoming those dangers and difficulties. We rejoiced with you in the new rice springing again from fields long abandoned, in the new hospitals and roads and schools that were built, and in the new hopes of a people who had found peace after a long and bitter war."

"The record you established in providing new hope, shelter and security to nearly a million fleeing from Communism in the North stands out as one of the most laudable and best administered efforts in modern times. Your brave people scarcely tasted peace before they were forced again into war. The Communist response to the growing strength and prosperity of your people was to send terror into your villages, to burn your new schools and to make ambushes of your new roads. On this October 26, we in America can still rejoice in the courage of the Vietnamese people, but we must also sorrow for the suffering, destruction and death which Communism has brought to Viet-Nam, so tragically represented in the recent assassination of Colonel Hoang Thuy Nam, one of your outstanding patriots."

"I would like to talk representing all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. It's impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit -- the emotions in the room and the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam. But they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do. They told the stories of times that they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in the fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country."

"The enemy has advertised an offensive as they have advertised no other offensive in Vietnam. I am sure that you are aware of the many stories that have been written and continue to be written about the possible enemy offensive in South Vietnam. Always at this time of year there is an increase as far as the enemy's activity is concerned, and that has been an historical fact throughout the entire Vietnam military situation. There has been an increase in enemy activity in this particular period. On my return from Vietnam in November, I had the opportunity to brief many of you in this room, and I made the point at that time that the enemy during the dry period would be able to stage what I referred to as two or three spectaculars with the kind of forces which they had in being. But I had confidence, and General Abrams had confidence in the capability of the South Vietnamese military forces to handle their combat and security responsibilities during this period. They have the capability, they have the equipment, they have the training through this Vietnamization program to do this job. There is one thing, of course, that no one can assure as far as any military force, and that is the will and the desire, but I believe that with the training, with the equipment, with this program, that they will be successful in almost every one of these cases. These spectaculars will, of course, receive a lot of attention. I do not guarantee that the South Vietnamese will win every battle, but 75 percent or more of those battles they will win, and I think that is very good for any military force."

"If you went to the C.I.A. and said "How is the situation today in South Vietnam?" I think they would say it's worse. You see it in the desertion rate, you see it in the morale. You see it in the difficulty to recruit people. You see it in the gradual loss of population control. Many of us in private would say that things are not good, they've gotten worse. Now while we say this in private and not public, there are facts available that find their way in the press. If we're going to stay in there, if we're going to go up the escalating chain, we're going to have to educate the people, Mr. President. We haven't done so yet. I'm not sure now is exactly the right time."

"The South Vietnamese are fighting courageously and well in their self-defense. They are inflicting very heavy casualties on the invading force, which has not gained the easy victory some predicted for it 3 weeks ago. Our air strikes have been essential in protecting our own remaining forces and in assisting the South Vietnamese in their efforts to protect their homes and their country from a Communist takeover. General Abrams predicts in this report that there will be several more weeks of very hard fighting. Some battles will be lost, he says; others will be won by the South Vietnamese. But his conclusion is that if we continue to provide air and sea support, the enemy will fail in its desperate gamble to impose a Communist regime in South Vietnam, and the South Vietnamese will then have demonstrated their ability to defend themselves on the ground against future enemy attacks."

"The deeply rooted religious divisions in South Vietnam were reflected in yesterday's military moves in Saigon against the Government of Premier Nguyen Khanh. There were other factors, too — rivalry among generals and between civilian politicians and the military. But religious divisions have long been among the most troublesome in the war‐torn country. They were sharpened in recent years under the rule of the late President Ngo Dinh Diem, when an essentially authoritarian regime became identified in the minds of many South Vietnamese as a Roman Catholic authoritarian regime. About 10 per cent of the 14.5 million South Vietnamese are Catholics. Ten or 11 million consider themselves Buddhists, but only about half are Buddha worshipers. The rest are more likely to be ancestor‐worshipers."

"In the North, many Vietnamese Catholics led by their priests had fought during the war on the side of the French. Fearing retaliation by the Vietminh, they fled to the South when the war ended. In the South, the United States sought a leader for the new government who was both anti‐French and anti‐Communist. It selected Ngo Dinh Diem, who had an enviable record as a young civil servant."

"Mr. Diem was a devout Catholic. He returned to a shattered country, with little support outside of a political party operated by his own family. He was profoundly suspicious of many elements of the population. In this situation, hundreds of thousands of Catholic refugees were a boon to him. He quickly resettled them—one of the foremost achievements of his regime—and he gave them special privileges. This special relationship was to sharpen feelings of religious discontent in the country. Mr. Diem, a Catholic from the central region, distrusted Vietnamese from the southern part of the country and was suspicious of Buddhists."

"This is a struggle for survival of the South Vietnamese people against the Communists. This is also a struggle for the peace and stability of the whole world, a struggle led by the free world. This is something to which I think we must say yes or no, something toward which we must have a definite attitude. If we are indecisive, then we had better stop making useless sacrifices."

"is manifesting itself in Africa as a chronic symptom of the underdevelopment of political life within the imperialist context. Military coups have followed one after the other, usually meaning nothing to the mass of the people, and sometimes representing a reactionary reversal of the efforts at national liberation. This trend was well exemplified in Latin American history, so that its appearance in neo-colonial South Vietnam or in neo-colonial Africa is not at all surprising. If economic power is centered outside national African boundaries, then political and military power in any real sense is also centered outside until, and unless, the masses of peasants and workers are mobilized to offer an alternative to the system of sham political independence."

"The enemy had achieved in South Vietnam neither military nor psychological victory. For the South Vietnamese the Tet offensive served as a unifying catalyst, a Pearl Harbor. Had it been the same for the American people, had President Johnson discerned the same support behind him that Thieu did behind him, and had he acted with forcefulness, the enemy could have been induced to engage in serious and meaningful negotiations. Unfortunately, the enemy scored in the United States the psychological victory that eluded him in Vietnam, so influencing President Johnson and his civilian advisors that they ignored the maxim that when the enemy is hurting, you don't diminish the pressure, you increase it."

"As any television viewer or newspaper reader could discern the end in South Vietnam, in April 1975, came with incredible suddenness, amid scenes of unmitigated misery and shame. Utter defeat, panic, and rout have produced similar demoralizing tableaux through the centuries; yet to those of us who had worked so hard and long to try to keep it from ending that way, who had been so markedly conscious of the deaths and wounds of thousands of Americans and the soldiers of other countries, who had so long stood in awe of the stamina of the South Vietnamese soldier and civilian under the mantle of hardship, it was depressingly sad that so much misery should be a part of it. So immense had been the sacrifices made through so many long years that the South Vietnamese deserved an end- if it had to come to that- with more dignity to it."

"Forced in January 1973 by American pressure to to accept a cease-fire agreement that left well over 100,000 North Vietnamese troops inside South Vietnam and free access for tens of thousands more, South Vietnamese leaders surely had reason to believe that if their enemy seriously violated the agreement, the United States would interfere. Yet that was not to be. In the face of that grave psychological blow for the South Vietnamese, it required no military genius to assure South Vietnam's eventual military defeat."

"Dating from the days of the Geneva Accords of 1954, the refugees always flowed south, not north, and even those Americans who long maintained that the refugees were not fleeing the enemy but American shelling and bombing would have to admit that even after American shelling and bombing stopped, the flow was still always southward. So it was until the final deplorable end. How could anyone genuinely believe that the South Vietnamese people had no desire to forestall the march of totalitarianism, to maintain their freedom- however imperfect- when for years upon years they bore incredible hardships and their soldiers fought with courage and determination to do just that? They carried on the fight under a government that many Americans labeled unrepresentative, repressive, and corrupt. No people could have pursued such a grim defensive fight for so long without a deep underlying yearning for freedom."

"Vietnam is strong eternal."

"Let me go back one moment. In the Cuban Missile Crisis, at the end, I think we did put ourselves in the skin of the Soviets. In the case of Vietnam, we didn't know them well enough to empathize. And there was total misunderstanding as a result. They believed that we had simply replaced the French as a colonial power, and we were seeking to subject South and North Vietnam to our colonial interests, which was absolutely absurd. And we, we saw Vietnam as an element of the Cold War. Not what they saw it as: a civil war."

"Vietnam’s century-old French villas and colonial-era government buildings are a draw for the 8 million tourists who visit the country every year. “Even in France we don’t have so many examples of the beautiful wrought-iron railings and staircases that you see here,” said French Consul General Emmanuel Ly-Batallan. Heavy roofs are designed to withstand typhoons and large windows placed strategically to catch the breeze. The consulate, now dwarfed by a skyscraper under construction, is considered one of the best-preserved examples of the architecture of Cochinchina, the French name for southern Vietnam."

"Vietnam will pull ahead of Malaysia because its people are very diligent."

"The economic reforms under the theme of "doi moi" (eco- nomic reform) and "mo cua" (openness) introduced in 1986, have caused Vietnam to develop rapidly. With trade incen- tives and the generous terms offered to foreign investors, I am confident that more Malaysian businessmen and corpo- rations will be able to play an effective and mutually bene- ficial role in the Vietnamese economy."

"Bones have broken, and blood has fallen, the hatred is rising high. Our country has been separated for so long. Here, the sacred Mekong, here, glorious Truong Son Mountains are urging us to advance to kill the enemy. Shoulder to shoulder, under a common flag. Arise!"

"We the People remain resolute in our hearts and minds. Courageously we will fight such that everywhere, the Glory of the Vietnamese forever resounds!"

"While [general secretary ] believes that the [Vietnamese Communist Party’s] legitimacy comes through anti-corruption campaigns, in reality, legitimacy primarily comes through performance. …Contrary to strengthening the party, Trong has helped to delegitimize it, exposing the rot across the senior leadership, while at the same time slowing economic growth. He has also stifled civil society and independent media, which tries to hold the party leadership to account."

"Vietnam of course attacked Cambodia."

"I drop bombs like I was in Vietnam."

"Last year the nature of the war in Vietnam changed again. Swiftly increasing numbers of armed men from the North crossed the borders to join forces that were already in the South. Attack and terror increased, spurred and encouraged by the belief that the United States lacked the will to continue and that their victory was near. Despite our desire to limit conflict, it was necessary to act: to hold back the mounting aggression, to give courage to the people of the South, and to make our firmness clear to the North. Thus. we began limited air action against military targets in North Vietnam. We increased our fighting force to its present strength tonight of 190,000 men. These moves have not ended the aggression but they have prevented its success. The aims of the enemy have been put out of reach by the skill and the bravery of Americans and their allies—and by the enduring courage of the South Vietnamese who, I can tell you, have lost eight men last year for every one of ours. The enemy is no longer close to victory. Time is no longer on his side. There is no cause to doubt the American commitment. Our decision to stand firm has been matched by our desire for peace."

"The people of Vietnam, north and south, seek the same things. The shared needs of man, the needs for food and shelter and education, the chance to build and work and till the soil, free from the arbitrary horrors of battle, the desire to walk in the dignity of those who master their own destiny. For many painful years, in war and revolution and infrequent peace, they have struggled to fulfill those needs. It is a crime against mankind that so much courage, and so much will, and so many dreams, must be flung on the fires of war and death... How many men who listen to me tonight have served their nation in other wars? How very many are not here to listen? The war in Vietnam is not like these other wars. Yet, finally, war is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate. Therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in this world."

"Our history this year we see in Vietnam. Men there are dying; men named Fernandez and Zajac and Zelinko and Mariano and McCormick. Neither the enemy who killed them nor the people whose independence they have fought to save ever asked them where they or their parents came from. They were all Americans. It was for free men and for America that they gave their all, they gave their lives and selves. By eliminating that same question as a test for immigration the Congress proves ourselves worthy of those men and worthy of our own traditions as a nation"

"In August 1945, the capitulation of the Japanese forces before the and the Allied forces, put an end to the world war. The defeat of the German and Nippon fascists was the beginning of a great weakening of the capitalist system. After the great victory of the Soviet Union, many people's democracies saw the light of day. The socialist system was no longer confined within the frontiers of a single country. A new historic era was beginning in the world. In view of these changes, in Viet Nam, the Indo-chinese Communist Party and the Viet Minh called the whole Vietnamese nation to general insurrection. Everywhere, the people rose in a body. Demonstrations and displays of force followed each other uninterruptedly. In August, the Revolution broke out, neutralising the bewildered Nippon troops, overthrowing the pro-Japanese feudal authorities, and installing people's power in Hanoi and throughout the country, in the towns as well as in the countryside, in Bac Bo as well as in Nam Bo. In Hanoi, the capital, in September 2nd, the provisional gouvernment was formed around President Ho Chi Minh; it presented itself to the nation, proclaimed the independence of Viet Nam, and called on the nation to unite, to hold itself in readiness to defend the country and to oppose all attempts at imperialist aggression. The Democratic Republic of Viet Nam was born, the first people's democracy in South-east Asia. But the imperialists intended to nip the republican regime in the bud and once again transform Viet Nam into a colony. Three weeks had hardly gone by when, on September 23rd, 1945, the French Expeditionary Corps opened fire in Saigon. The whole was to be carried on for nine years at the cost of unprecedented heroism and amidst unimaginable difficulties, to end by the shining victory of our people and the crushing defeat of the aggressive imperialists at Dien Bien Phu. ... Never before had there been so many foreign troops on the soil of Viet Nam. But never before either, had the Vietnamese people been so determined to rise up in combat to defend their country."

"Kiss me goodbye and write me while I'm gone. Goodbye my sweetheart, hello Vietnam."