Calvin NguyenVietnam means many things to different groups and people. A political and military blunder- a fallen domino in the arctic wind of the Cold War. A napalm-burnt graveyard of fathers and brothers who could never live their lives in full. A red fortress of the people that stood against Western imperialism. From a perspective less swayed by political and personal bias, Vietnam is a land of rich culture, delicious cuisine, beautiful architecture, and intricate history. Home to many. Was home to many more who found a new home overseas. Vietnamese Americans are one of the largest, yet most recent, immigrant groups in the renowned American melting pot. In 2017, it was estimated that over 2 million Vietnamese Americans lived in the US, mainly centered around California and Texas. Within California, the Vietnamese community established itself heavily in Orange County, followed by large communities in Los Angeles, Santa Clara, and San Jose. Here at UCLA, Vietnamese Americans are represented by a variety of organizations, from the Vietnamese Student Union to Vietnamese Community health. To promote the diversity of cultures and ethnic groups within our campus, it’s crucial to understand the history and background of the Vietnamese community. This begs the question: what caused the influx of these immigrants to the US? This two-part blog post will answer this question by touching upon both modern Vietnamese history and the history of the Vietnamese American community. In this first part, I’ll explore the foundations of modern Vietnam and how the Vietnam War escalated and concluded. In the next part, I’ll explore how the Vietnam War’s aftermath led to the immigration wave to the West that set the foundations of the Vietnamese American community today. Buckle up- it’s story time. Vietnam’s contemporary history is one intertwined with imperialism and intervention. During the 19th Century, the recently unified Nguyen dynasty of Vietnam was conquered, colonized, and fractured into three separate political states by France: Tonkin (North Vietnam), Annam (Central Vietnam), and Cochinchina (South Vietnam). For over half a century, Vietnam became known as French Indochina; the colony was heavily exploited for its resources, serving as yet another puppet to a European power as empires stretched across the globe. Rebellions and anti-French sentiments were widespread, but nothing was able to permanently dislodge the French occupation. In 1940, during the Second World War, after the fall of France and the establishment of the Vichy French puppet regime, Vietnam was occupied by Imperial Japan. During the half-decade long occupation, the deterioration of Japan’s military situation and strategic bombings over French Indochina led to a horrific famine, killing over a million innocents. The end of the war brought no end to Vietnam’s conflicts; after Japan’s surrender, France reinvaded Vietnam in an effort to maintain control over its fading colonial empire. Supported with US aid, the French were able to reoccupy Vietnam’s south, but faced heavy resistance from the Vietnamese that steadily became more organized thanks to aid from communist countries. In 1954, after nearly another decade, led by communist leader Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnamese forces were able to decisively defeat the French at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, leading to a total French withdrawal from Indochina and the signing of the Geneva Accords. The Geneva accords split Vietnam at the 17th parallel, dividing it into North Vietnam and South Vietnam; North Vietnam was run by a communist government and headed by Hồ Chí Minh, while the South established a democratic government supported by the US. Although the Geneva Accords mandated that a vote eventually reunite the split country, South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm refused to do so. During the 1950s and 1960s, South Vietnam would be wracked with political corruption and unrest. Ngô Đình Diệm’s government faced an insurgency from communist guerrillas (later formally organized as the Việt Cộng). Additionally, Diệm’s government actively adopted anti-Buddhist policies (Diệm was Catholic), and religious violence erupted in the streets of South Vietnam; a Buddhist priest famously burnt himself alive in the streets of Saigon to protest Diệm’s government. In 1963, Diệm was overthrown by a military coup and assassinated by military officers, setting the stage for political instability that would plague the South for the rest of its existence. Meanwhile, the United States was steadily increasing its military presence in South Vietnam, attempting to preserve democracy in the region. During the Cold War; the domino theory was a prevailing concern amongst American politicians and military men, predicting that the communist ideology would steadily crawl across Asia from China to India if left unchecked. With China falling to communism in 1949, Vietnam was predicted to be the next domino to fall. Prior to the 1960s, the power of America was not fully committed. However, its military might would dramatically escalate in 1964, when the USS Maddox, a US Navy warship, was allegedly fired upon by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The incident led President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions, providing him extreme power to confront North Vietnam and wage military action against the spread of communism.
In the next decade, Vietnam became a horrific battleground between communism and democracy. Communist forces included the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), the regular army of North Vietnam, as well as the Việt Cộng, a political movement based in South Vietnam that heavily used guerilla forces. Opposing the communists was South Vietnam with its Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), heavily supported by the US Armed Forces and the Australian Defence Force. The US, though unable to fully commit its entire power against North Vietnam due to the conditions of the Cold War, still utilized airstrikes and brutal technologies; napalm was deployed to burn out entire jungles, while Agent Orange was a chemical agent utilized to destroy forests and rough terrain that could conceal opposing forces. Across the duration of the war, over seven million tons of explosives were dropped across Indochina. Despite overwhelming military strength, the US was unable to decisively defeat the North. Communist forces famously employed guerilla tactics against the US, using incredibly colossal tunnel systems, building booby traps, and frequently ambushing American and Australian troops. Additionally, the Việt Cộng and PAVN created the Hồ Chí Minh trail, a massive logistical supply route that ran through the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia; despite heavy bombings, the trail kept running throughout the war and provided immeasureable aid to communist attacks and offensives. Within the US military, the situation seemed nearly unwinnable; during the dawn of 1968, during the Vietnamese New Year, communist forces launched the Tết Offensive, a voracious attack that struck across the entirety of Vietnam, employing the aforementioned Hồ Chí Minh trail. Surprise raids launched from guerillas hiding in coffins overwhelmed the unsuspecting defenders, and frontlines became convoluted and scrambled as communist forces swarmed into South Vietnam; attacks even reached the heart of the country in the southern capital of Saigon. Though the offensive was defeated, its effects upon morale were unrepairable. Public outrage within America rang across the country, and individual soldiers within the military often became disillusioned with the war. Vietnam proved to be an immensely unpopular war amongst the Western forces, with young students protesting heavily against intervention. Student protests at universities were met with violence from the national guard, and the infamous Mỹ Lai massacre perpetrated by US forces cast doubt upon the “righteousness” of the American military. Western forces gradually began to pull out of the warzone from domestic pressure. By 1973, a peace agreement was reached between America and North Vietnam. In its new policy of “Vietnamization”, the US withdrew its military combatants to let South Vietnam fight its own war, followed by Australia. Eventually, South Vietnam stood alone against the North Vietnamese domino- in two years, that domino would finally fall. In 1975, the North launched a tremendous offensive against the South, aiming to finally eliminate and annex their neighbor once and for all. Without military aid from the US, South Vietnam quickly crumbled to North Vietnam’s onslaught. During South Vietnam’s final days, planes from across the country carried evacuees to nearby nations affiliated with the US. When the airports were bombarded, the evacuation of the South was carried out with the US Navy and helicopter fleets instead. Crowds erupted across Saigon as the North raced closer to the capital, with remaining American personnel and at-risk Vietnamese civilians were evacuated first. As the end drew near, evacuators grew so desperate to rescue as many people as possible that they pushed helicopters into the sea to make room for other landing helicopters faster. Finally, the domino fell. On April 30th, 1975, Saigon was captured (Or from the North’s perspective, “liberated”). There was no more South, and there was no more North. There was only Vietnam. The Vietnam War was now at an end, with the continuously fractured country finally united under a single banner- a banner that fluttered in the opposite wind against the American flag, but a banner nonetheless. However, the end of one story always leads to the beginning of another. The fall of Saigon was the primary evocation of Vietnamese immigration to the West, setting the stones for what would be the forerunners of today’s Vietnamese American community. In the next blog post, we’ll study the final evacuation of Saigon with greater detail, and better understand how Vietnamese immigrants were forced to flee their homes in search of a better life in America. But that’s a story for another day.
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