eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781627798723 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Holt, Henry & Company, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 08/22/2025 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 166 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
| Age Range: | 13 - 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Vietnam There and Here
By Margot C. J. Mabie
Henry Holt and Company
Copyright © 1985 Margot C. J. MabieAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62779-872-3
CHAPTER 1
Vietnamese Roots
Vietnam today is an S-shaped country on the eastern edge of the large Asian land mass known as Indochina. The coastline, which extends more than 1,200 miles, is about as long as the Atlantic coastline of the United States from Maine to Georgia.
Despite the long border formed by the sea, the Vietnamese have always looked to the land for their livelihood. The country's two delta areas — the Red River delta, in the north, and the Mekong River delta, in the south — are astoundingly fertile. Blessed with unusually rich soil, plenty of water, and a tropical climate, the Vietnamese developed a society focused on the sowing, growing, and reaping of rice. Because of their country's shape and its primary crop, the Vietnamese frequently compare their country to two rice baskets at either end of a pole. The northern area of the country embracing the Red River delta, often called Tonkin, represents one basket. The southern area of the country embracing the Mekong River delta, often called Cochinchina, represents the other. The skinny corridor connecting the north and the south, often called Annam, represents the pole.
Today, Americans have a hard time envisioning Vietnam's shimmering rice paddies. Instead, we see only battlefields. Defeated there, we struggle to understand just what went wrong with our Vietnam War. To do so, we must go back to the beginning, for history is like a web, and the strands of the present were spun in the past.
According to one legend, the Vietnamese people trace their origins to the marriage of Lac Long Quan (pronounced Lock Long Kwahn), the Dragon Lord of Lac, and Au Co (pronounced Oh Kuh), the daughter of a Chinese emperor. When Au Co gave birth to a sack of eggs from which one hundred sons hatched, Lac Long Quan became unhappy with his wife. They parted, each with fifty sons. The father took his fifty sons south; the mother took her fifty sons north to a place near present-day Hanoi. Hong (pronounced just as it is spelled), the oldest of the boys in the north, started what became known as the Hong Bang dynasty, a succession of emperors from the same family line, which is said to have lasted from 2879 to 285 B.C.
Many scholars believe that there was no such dynasty. Instead, they believe that during that period northern Vietnam contained only various unorganized tribes. But even if it is not true, the legend has a rich significance for the Vietnamese. Au Co's parentage accounts for the similarities between the Vietnamese and the Chinese. Lac Long Quan, with his dragon blood, fits in nicely with all the demons and spirits that the Vietnamese have always worshiped. The legend accurately locates the first state of Vietnam in the north. At the same time, it places people of a common ancestry in the south. Most important, the legend expresses a fierce sense of Vietnamese identity.
Scholars do agree about the arrival of the Chinese. In 208 B.C., Trieu Da, a Chinese warlord, marched south and conquered the peoples in the Red River delta. He then established his own kingdom, independent of China. He named it Nam Viet, which means Southern Country of the Viet. Less than a hundred years later, in 111 B.C., the Chinese took control of the kingdom, renaming it Giao Chi.
Chinese rule lasted almost without a break for more than a thousand years. Chinese government officials, known as "mandarins," held the high positions. Vietnamese landowners, however, were permitted to manage their own land and all the people who lived and worked on it.
During their period of dominance, the Chinese brought to Vietnam many aspects of their culture that would endure long after they themselves were evicted. They brought the Chinese system of government, the Chinese writing system, which was adapted for the Vietnamese language, and the Chinese educational system. They also brought Buddhism, a religion developed in India. They introduced the use of water buffalo in agriculture and an intensive system of growing rice.
The Vietnamese accepted much of the Chinese way of life, but they refused to accept Chinese rule. The Chinese state demanded large sums of money from the Vietnamese landowners, which they in turn raised by taxing the peasants who lived on their land. In addition, the Chinese forced the Vietnamese to work for them, either serving in the Chinese military or providing labor for the many Chinese building projects — roads and canals and ports by which the Chinese could send home some of the enormous quantity of rice harvested in this land to the south. The harsh demands made by the Chinese and the remarkable sense of national identity among the Vietnamese gave rise to rebelliousness. Throughout the long Chinese occupation, Vietnam bubbled with unrest.
The Trung sisters, among the most revered patriots in Vietnamese lore, represent an example of this unrest. In A.D. 39, the Chinese governor of Vietnam assassinated a landowner. The governor intended to make the Vietnamese so fearful that they would cooperate. Instead, his act inflamed the landowner's widow, Trung Trac (pronounced Troong Trahk). She and her sister, Trung Nhi (Troong Knee), raised an army, which eventually overwhelmed the Chinese. For two years, the Trung sisters ruled as queens. But the Chinese wanted their colony back, and they fought to regain supremacy. Defeated inA.D. 43, the Trung sisters committed suicide by drowning themselves in a river.
After the Trung revolt, the Chinese held Vietnam in a tighter grip. Still, the Vietnamese continued to try to break Chinese rule. Finally, in A.D. 939, they succeeded. China was at that time ruled by the Tang dynasty, which had grown very weak. With disunity at home, China was unable to put down a revolt in Vietnam.
Except for a twenty-year period during the fifteenth century, Vietnam was from then on able to maintain its independence from China. The Vietnamese emperors kept their northern neighbor at bay by paying China an annual tribute. On occasion, the Vietnamese had to fight. Often outnumbered and poorly armed, they became masters of guerrilla-warfare techniques. The term guerrilla war, derived from the Spanish for "little war," refers to a conflict between a small, poorly equipped force and a large, well-equipped army. Outnumbered and outgunned, guerrillas tend to avoid classic battles in which both sides array themselves on the field. Their goal was to defeat the enemy by attrition — the process of wearing down. Vietnamese guerrillas made lightning-fast attacks on small groups of enemy soldiers far away from the enemy's main areas of control. Like mosquitoes, the guerrillas kept the Chinese troops rushing to swat one pest here, another there. When the enemy was tired and disorganized, the guerrillas attacked the main force.
China's army marched south and gained control of Vietnam one more time, in 1407. The inevitable rebellion was led by a landowner named Le Loi (pronounced Lay Loy). He raised an army and trained it in the guerrilla tactics that had already worked against the Chinese. The guerrillas began attacking the Chinese troops posted in rural areas. As the attacks grew worse, the Chinese pulled farther and farther back until they were concentrated in the cities. Le Loi was then able to mobilize even more Vietnamese citizens. By 1427, the balance of power had shifted to the Vietnamese, and the Chinese were sent packing.
Le Loi became emperor, and he and his successors set out to organize and strengthen Vietnam. The government, fashioned after China's, was made effective and efficient; an army was developed; education and the arts were encouraged; a legal system was put in place; a land-reform program gave ownership of valuable rice paddies to the peasants.
The state of Vietnam also expanded. Originally confined to the north around the Red River delta, the Vietnamese had begun moving south in the tenth century A.D. A village would send some of its people south to set up a new village. The new village relied on the mother village until it was well established. Once established, the new village sent some of its people farther south to create yet another new village. Village by village, Vietnam grew to include the Mekong River and its lush delta.
As it grew far beyond its original boundaries, Vietnam was less and less under the control of its emperors in the north. Local landowners began vying among themselves for power. By the end of the sixteenth century, two families had emerged as the strongest forces in the country. The Nguyen (pronounced Win) family managed the south; the Trinh (Tring) family managed the north. Both families formally recognized the emperor as head of the nation, but, unable to contest their power, the emperor's rule was diminished. In the 1630s this split was given physical proof when the Nguyen family built two walls across the plain of Quangtri, in slender central Vietnam. The division was at once a haunting reminder of Vietnam's legendary past and an eerie foreshadowing of Vietnam's tragic future.
Despite the walls, the separation between north and south did not last. In 1772, three brothers from Tayson began a peasant rebellion against the wealthy ruling class. Starting in the south, the Tayson army defeated the Nguyens, then moved north to defeat the Trinhs. By 1787, all of Vietnam was again under the control of a single leader. But the Tayson army's rule failed to hold the loyalty of the people, and a member of the defeated Nguyen family would later rise to take the army's place. In the process, he whetted the colonial appetite of another foreign nation — this time, France.
CHAPTER 2West Comes East
Visitors from the Western world had been to Vietnam as early as A.D. 166, but not until the sixteenth century did Westerners come with the intention of staying. In 1535, the Portuguese established a trading station at Faifo, a harbor about fifteen miles south of present-day Danang. Other European traders, equally excited by the riches of the East, soon followed.
Along with commerce, the Portuguese were eager to spread Christianity, so Portugal sponsored Catholic missionaries in Asia. One of the first — and surely the most impressive — of the missionaries the Portuguese sent to Vietnam was a Frenchman by the name of Alexandre de Rhodes. He arrived in 1627 and quickly mastered the Vietnamese language. In addition to converting thousands of Vietnamese to Catholicism, he developed Quoc Ngu, a writing system for the Vietnamese language using the Roman alphabet.
The Vietnamese emperors were of two minds about what Rhodes and other missionaries might mean to their country. They were intrigued by the missionaries' knowledge but worried by their beliefs. The Vietnamese government, after all, was rooted in Confucianism, which focuses on the group rather than the individual. Developed in China, Confucianism is a moral system aimed at promoting the highest state of humanity. Family ties of respect and obedience are emphasized. Both the Chinese and Vietnamese governments were based on Confucianism, for as the child respects and works harmoniously with his family, the adult will respect and work harmoniously with the state. The emperors had always been leery of Buddhism, which holds that the individual must free himself from all worldly desires in order to attain nirvana — release from the Wheel of Life, and thus from suffering. But what about Christianity, which stresses the individual's relationship with God? Would Christian converts continue to give their loyalty to the emperor? Further, would the Westerners take over Vietnam if Christianity gained many converts?
Unsure about the missionaries, the Vietnamese emperors were sometimes helpful, sometimes hostile, to the priests. In 1630, Rhodes himself had to flee the country. However, he was still convinced that Vietnam was fertile ground for the Catholic church. He returned to Europe to get backing for a vigorous missionary effort. Because Portugal was by then a weakened power, Rhodes turned to his native France for support. To make his proposal irresistible, he described Vietnam as a country rich in both religious and commercial possibilities. His efforts in France succeeded. In 1664, the Society of Foreign Missions was established. Its goal was to spread Catholicism in Asia and to assist French businessmen to develop trade.
Both priests and traders found work in Vietnam difficult. Many of the Vietnamese people did not like foreigners, and they could be roused to fight them. When the Vietnamese were not fighting with the foreigners, they were often fighting among themselves, making the country unsafe even for outsiders. As a result, Dutch, English, and French traders left Vietnam to concentrate their efforts in other areas of Asia.
The missionaries, however, did not give up so easily. Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau de Béhaine was sent to Vietnam by the Society of Foreign Missions in 1767. Ten years later, he found himself in the midst of the Tayson rebellion. When the rebels overwhelmed the Nguyen family, who controlled the south, they massacred all of the Nguyens they could find. One member of the family who survived was Nguyen Anh (pronounced Win Ong), then a sixteen-year-old boy. With the help of Pigneau, he escaped to Phu Quoc, an island in the Gulf of Siam. From there, Nguyen Anh attempted to reassert his family's rule.
In 1787, Pigneau took Nguyen Anh's cause to the French court of Louis XVI. The king had many problems with France itself, but Pigneau convinced Louis that France's rivals would get into Vietnam if he missed this opportunity. Louis XVI reluctantly agreed to assist Nguyen Anh. France would supply men, arms, and transport. In return, France would be given the city of Danang, Poulo Condore Island (off Vietnam's southwest coast), and exclusive commercial privileges. Louis later withdrew his support, but Pigneau took over the forces, paying them with funds raised by French businessmen in India, who were promised trading opportunities in Vietnam. For ten years, Nguyen Anh and his Vietnamese followers fought the Tayson rebels, finally defeating the last of them in 1801. In 1802, he crowned himself emperor, taking the name Gia Long (pronounced Jah Long).
The new emperor owed nothing to the French government, so Danang, Poulo Condore Island, and the exclusive commercial privileges offered by Nguyen Anh in 1787 were not given to France. But in appreciation for Pigneau's help, Gia Long permitted traders and missionaries to work in Vietnam. His successor, Minh Mang (pronounced Min Mahng), was not so tolerant. His instinctive fear of foreigners grew as revolts broke out, revolts he blamed — accurately — on the priests. Under Minh Mang, missionaries were executed, converts were persecuted, and trade was made not worth the effort for French businessmen.
Four decades after Nguyen Anh became Emperor Gia Long, the French government and French businessmen felt renewed interest in Asia. Other countries were gaining access to Asian goods, and France wanted a part of the action. The difficulties the missionaries and their converts were encountering in Vietnam now served as a good excuse for French intervention.
In 1844, ten years after his arrival as a missionary in Vietnam, Dominique Lefèbvre joined other priests who were plotting to replace Emperor Thieu Tri (pronounced Tee-ow Tree) with an emperor who favored Christianity. Caught, Lefèbvre was to be executed. Thieu Tri reconsidered, and Lefèbvre was expelled from the country. Determined to work in Vietnam, Lefèbvre sneaked back in in 1847. Again he was caught, sentenced to death, and then deported.
In the meantime, a French naval squadron stationed in China had sailed for Vietnam to save Lefèbvre, though it arrived in Danang weeks after he had been deported. There a clash developed over a matter of protocol — the French had been spoiling for a fight. When the squadron set sail, much of the harbor had been destroyed, and many of the citizens of Danang had been killed. Angry, Thieu Tri and his successor, Tu Duc (pronounced Too Duck), tried to rid Vietnam of Christianity.
Increasing persecution of the troublesome missionaries became the excuse for France's increasing belligerence. But France's desire to maintain its national glory and acquire Asian possessions was at the root of its efforts there. In 1858, the French returned to take Danang. That done, they sailed to Saigon. Saigon did not fall as quickly as Danang. The French took the city after two weeks, but they could not claim real control until additional French forces arrived in 1861.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Vietnam There and Here by Margot C. J. Mabie. Copyright © 1985 Margot C. J. Mabie. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
PART I: THE FIELD OF BATTLE
1. Vietnamese Roots
2. West Comes East
3. The Nationalists
4. The Indochina War
PART II: AMERICANS TAKE TO THE FIELD OF BATTLE
5. The Geneva Accords
6. The Two Vietnams
7. The Insurgency Begins
8. The Coup
PART III: THE AMERICAN WAR IN VIETNAM
9. President Johnson's War
10. Escalation
11. President Nixon's War
12. Negotiations
PART IV: THE VIETNAM WAR IN AMERICA
13. The Hawks
14. The Doves
15. The Media
16. Protest at Home
PART V: AFTER THE BATTLE
17. The Communist Victory
18. Vets at Home
19. The Weakened Giant
20. Sorting It Out