2009 Biking Vietnam

We ended our one month trip in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam from 1956 to 1975 when it fell to the communist north and was renamed Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). We visited the People’s Committee Building (built in the early-1900s by the French); the Reunification Palace (originally the French governor’s residence, it was occupied by President Diem after the French departed Vietnam; Diem was so unpopular his own air force bombed the palace in 1962, but did not kill him; a new residence – with a bomb shelter – was built on the same site; Diem never saw it completed as he was assassinated by his troops in 1963; on 30 April 1975, a communist tank burst through the gate and a Viet Minh soldier ran up the stairs to unfurl a North Vietnam flag on the fourth floor; he then met with the President of the south who said: “I have been waiting since morning to hand over power to you”; the soldier responded: “You cannot hand over what you do not have”; the palace is used today for state occasions); the War Remnants Museum (originally called the Museum of American War Crimes, the museum is both devastating and one-sided**); but mainly we walked the vibrant streets and dined well.

** Beware propaganda in Vietnam. While French and American atrocities are well-documented, no mention at all is made of communist atrocities and very few of South Vietnamese atrocities.

History in brief

 First independent Vietnamese state founded almost 5,000 years ago

 111BC China annexed the Red River delta beginning 1,000 years of Chinese rule

 938AD Chinese defeated by Vietnamese

 1010 Hanoi founded as new capital of Vietnam

 Early-1400s China reoccupied Vietnam

 1428 Chinese defeated by Le Loi who became first in long line of Le dynasty emperors

 1471 Vietnamese defeat Chams

 1516 Portuguese land at Danang, set up trading post, convert some to Catholicism

 1765 Tay Son Rebellion led by Nguyen brothers; Emperor Gia Long takes throne; Nguyen dynasty born ruling until 1945; country united for first time in 200 years

 1825 Emperor Minh Mang imprisons and persecutes missionaries – gives French excuse to intervene

 By mid-1880s French colonial empire in southeast Asia comprises Vietnam (Tonkin (North), Annam (Central), and Cochinchina (South)), Cambodia and Laos

 Start of 70 years of colonial control (active resistance throughout)

 1911 Ho Chi Minh leaves Vietnam, 1925 establishes forerunner of Vietnamese Communist Party

 During World War II Vietnam administered by Vichy France under Japanese occupation

 1941, the Viet Minh (communists under Ho Chi Minh) began a revolt against French rule and Japanese occupation supported by OSS (CIA)

 After persuading Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate in his favour, on 2 September 1945 President Ho declared independence for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

 French with British help re-established colonial control – bitter fighting ensued

 South Vietnam (anti-communist) was granted independence in 1949

 In 1950 Ho again declared an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam – recognized by China and the Soviet Union

 1954 Ho defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu

 Geneva Accord signed 1954: supported the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Indochina; granted it independence from France; declared the cessation of hostilities and foreign involvement; delineated northern and southern zones into which opposing troops were to withdraw; mandated unification on the basis of internationally supervised free elections to be held in July 1956

 Neither the US nor South Vietnam signed the Geneva Accords – bear in mind the Cold War years and genuine fear of communism

 1954 marked the beginnings of US involvement in Vietnam which led to the Vietnam War

 Laos and Cambodia also became independent in 1954, but were both drawn into the Vietnam War

Vietnam War (American War) – stats

 The Vietnam War, known as the American War in Vietnam, was fought primarily in South Vietnam between Diem’s government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces (the Viet Cong) aided by North Vietnam

 58,148 Americans were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2,59 million who served.

 The average age of those killed in Vietnam was 23,11 years

 The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40 days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year, thanks to the mobility of the helicopter

 From 1957 to 1973 the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 South Vietnamese and abducted 58,499. Death squads focused on leaders that included schoolteachers and minor officials

 South Vietnamese dead were estimated at more than 400,000, and Viet Cong and North Vietnamese at over 900,000

 One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. Although the percentage who died is similar to other wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War II. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled

 Two-thirds of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers

 Civilian deaths were put at two million in the north and south

 The war began soon after the Geneva Conference (1954) provisionally divided Vietnam into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)

 It escalated from a Vietnamese civil war into a limited international conflict in which the United States was deeply involved, and did not end, despite peace agreements in 1973, until North Vietnam's successful offensive in 1975 resulted in South Vietnam's collapse and the unification of Vietnam by the North