#vietnamhistory — Public Fediverse posts

Civilians paid a terrible price. Thousands died. Many were buried in mass graves. This book reminds us that war always hits home hardest.
#books #bookreviews #VietnamHistory #HueMassacre
https://thisgrandpablogs.com/battle-of-hue/

Step back to the 15th century at C?m Ph� Communal House, the oldest communal house in #HoiAn. Admire the original Vietnamese architecture & intricate carvings. #HoiAnCamPhoTemple #VietnamHistory #Travel #Vietnam https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Cam-Pho-Communal-House/

Step back to the 15th century at C?m Ph� Communal House, the oldest communal house in #HoiAn. Admire the original Vietnamese architecture & intricate carvings. #HoiAnCamPhoTemple #VietnamHistory #Travel #Vietnam https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Cam-Pho-Communal-House/

#LongBienBridge is #Hanoi 's 'horizontal Eiffel Tower,' a symbol of resilience, and the best place to catch a legendary Red River sunset or sunrise. Go for the photos, stay for the untold stories! #Vietnam #VietnamHistory https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Long-Bien-Bridge/

France hands Vietnam rare archives on President Ho Chi Minh’s activities

Vo Thanh Hung, Deputy Chief of the Office of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, receives archival…
#France #FR #Europe #EU #CommunistPartyofVietnamMuseum #CuuQuocnewspaper #FrancehandsVietnamrarearchivesonPresidentHoChiMinh’sactivities #FranceVietnamrelations #HoChiMinharchives #HoChiMinhFrance #VietnamFrancecomprehensivestrategicpartnership #vietnamhistory
https://www.europesays.com/france/78114/

Visit the Ho Chi Minh #Mausoleum : a tribute to #Vietnam 's founding father 'Uncle Ho'. It stands on Ba Dinh Square where independence was declared. A must-see #Hanoi landmark! #VietnamHistory https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Ho-Chi-Minh-Mausoleum/

Vietnam During World War II: The Overlooked Occupation That Shaped Southeast Asia

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — September 2, 2026

September 2 is a very special day in the history of Vietnam. In 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent after Japan’s collapse opened a brief window for the country to breathe free. It did not last, and Vietnam would be thrown back into war almost immediately, but the date still matters. It marks the first moment in the modern era when the Vietnamese stood up and said, in effect, this country is ours (Marr, 1995).

Vietnam’s experience during World War II is widely misunderstood or simply ignored in mainstream historical discussion. Some people assume France’s collapse in Europe somehow shielded its Southeast Asian colony from the worst of the war. It did not. Vietnam, then part of French Indochina, went through overlapping foreign control, deep economic extraction, and mass human suffering between 1940 and 1945 (Goscha, 2016; Taylor, 2013).

This period is not some side note. It is the foundation for everything that followed.

Colonial Rule Before the War

Before World War II, Vietnam was under French colonial rule as part of Indochina. French policy focused on extraction, not local well-being. Rice, rubber, and labor were taken for imperial purposes, while political dissent was tightly controlled. Vietnamese nationalist groups existed, but they were watched, suppressed, and often forced underground (Taylor, 2013).

Among those movements were networks that would later become the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh. At the end of the 1930s, however, these groups were still fragmented and operating under colonial pressure (Goscha, 2016).

1940: France Falls, Japan Moves In

The situation changed sharply in 1940 after France fell to Nazi Germany. The Vichy French regime, which collaborated with Germany, continued to control French overseas possessions, including Indochina. Japan then moved into the region, but instead of removing the French right away, it allowed French colonial officials to remain in place while Japanese forces took military control (Marr, 1995; Taylor, 2013).

That created a dual occupation. The French kept much of the bureaucracy running. The Japanese controlled strategy, military power, and access to resources. Vietnam was not spared the war. It was caught under two outside powers at once.

Daily Life Under Dual Occupation

From 1940 to early 1945, ordinary Vietnamese people lived under overlapping systems of pressure. French colonial policies did not disappear. Japanese demands were added on top. Taxes remained heavy. Labor demands stayed high. Food and raw materials were requisitioned for war needs. Transportation systems were strained, and the rural population carried much of the burden (Goscha, 2016).

For civilians, this meant worsening insecurity and shrinking room to survive. The structure of colonial exploitation stayed in place, but wartime demands made it harsher.

The Famine of 1945

The worst disaster of the period was the famine of 1945. A mix of Japanese rice requisitioning, French administrative failure, transport disruption, and crop damage helped produce one of the deadliest humanitarian crises in modern Vietnamese history. Between one and two million people are estimated to have died, especially in northern Vietnam (Goscha, 2016; Marr, 1995).

That famine mattered politically as much as it mattered demographically. It shattered what little legitimacy remained in the colonial order. It also gave the Viet Minh an opening to gain support by organizing relief and presenting themselves as a force that could act where the old rulers had failed (Marr, 1995).

March 1945: Japan Takes Full Control

In March 1945, as Japan’s military situation worsened, it overthrew the French colonial administration in Indochina. Japan no longer trusted the French to stay reliable under wartime pressure. It replaced the dual-control system with direct control and set up a nominal Vietnamese government under Emperor Bao Dai (Taylor, 2013).

That government had little real independence. It existed within Japanese limits and under Japanese power. Even so, the French colonial structure had been broken, and a political vacuum was beginning to form.

August and September 1945

Japan’s surrender in August 1945 changed everything. With Japanese power collapsing and French authority badly weakened, the Viet Minh moved quickly during what became known as the August Revolution. They took control of key cities and state institutions in a fast-moving power grab that was both political and national in character (Marr, 1995).

On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam and announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It was a real turning point, even if it did not bring lasting peace. France would soon try to return, and Vietnam would be driven into another long war (Goscha, 2016).

Why This Matters in Southeast Asia

Vietnam’s wartime experience belongs in any serious discussion of Southeast Asian history. The region was not passive during World War II. It was occupied, exploited, starved, militarized, and then forced to fight over what the postwar order would be. In that sense, Vietnam’s experience shares important ground with what happened in the Philippines and elsewhere under Japanese expansion.

The difference is that in Vietnam, the end of the war did not lead cleanly toward stability. It opened into another struggle over who would rule and whether colonialism would be allowed to come back wearing a different hat.

Conclusion

Vietnam was not out of the fight during World War II. It was inside the storm. First it was ruled by France, then jointly controlled by France and Japan, then directly dominated by Japan, and finally thrown into a brief opening for independence before war returned.

That history deserves more attention than it gets. It helps explain not only modern Vietnam, but the wider pattern of how Southeast Asia was battered by empire, occupation, and postwar power struggles in the twentieth century (Goscha, 2016; Taylor, 2013).

If this work helps you understand what’s happening, help me keep it going: https://www.patreon.com/cw/WPSNews

For more from Cliff Potts, see https://cliffpotts.org

References

Goscha, C. (2016). Vietnam: A new history. Basic Books.

Marr, D. G. (1995). Vietnam 1945: The quest for power. University of California Press.

Taylor, K. W. (2013). A history of the Vietnamese. Cambridge University Press.

Vietnam to Build Memorial to North Korean War Dead in Country’s North – The Diplomat

Vietnam’s government plans to build a memorial to the North Korean soldiers who perished during the Vietnam War,…
#EuropeSays #Korea #KR #Diplomacy #KimYong-nam #Korean #NorthKorea #NorthKoreahistory #NorthKoreaintheVietnamWar #SouthKoreaVietnam #SoutheastAsia #Vietnam #vietnamhistory #Vietnamwar #Vietnam-NorthKorearelations
https://www.europesays.com/korea/110658/

Step back to the 15th century at C?m Ph� Communal House, the oldest communal house in #HoiAn. Admire the original Vietnamese architecture & intricate carvings. #HoiAnCamPhoTemple #VietnamHistory #Travel #Vietnam https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Cam-Pho-Communal-House/

#LongBienBridge is #Hanoi 's 'horizontal Eiffel Tower,' a symbol of resilience, and the best place to catch a legendary Red River sunset or sunrise. Go for the photos, stay for the untold stories! #Vietnam #VietnamHistory https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Long-Bien-Bridge/

Explore the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, #Hanoi #Vietnam! Discover the deep archaeological dig, the Doan Mon Gate, & a secret wartime bunker (D67) in this UNESCO site. #VietnamHistory #Vietnam https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Imperial-Citadel-of-Thang-Long/

Visit the Ho Chi Minh #Mausoleum : a tribute to #Vietnam 's founding father 'Uncle Ho'. It stands on Ba Dinh Square where independence was declared. A must-see #Hanoi landmark! #VietnamHistory https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Ho-Chi-Minh-Mausoleum/

#LongBienBridge is #Hanoi 's 'horizontal Eiffel Tower,' a symbol of resilience, and the best place to catch a legendary Red River sunset or sunrise. Go for the photos, stay for the untold stories! #Vietnam #VietnamHistory https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Long-Bien-Bridge/

We had about 2 months of no violence after the big US pull-out official date. Then, the new & not cohesive Communist regime took over. With a ton of corrupt & inhumane officers put into leadership for awhile. Those new Saigon officials opted to go very heavy handed, starting in May of 1978. They violently targeted Chinese Viet citizens, including my family, at that time. My Grandpa had been working on rebuilding the incense factory in Cholon at the time. He was held up, at gunpoint by Viet Communist cops & beaten up - even after giving them all the cash he had (June 1978). The same kinda thugs targeted my Dad, a leading university human rights activist at the time - beating him up & imprisoning him. When Grandpa & Dad were released, Grandpa started to plot our escape from Vietnam. Grandpa said, if we stay now - They'll kill all of us because we are Teochew & we won't stop being Teochew. We are leaving for freedom from endless wars!

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

At end of day, it's like this. We may hate our fucking governments. We will hate you more, if you try to interfere with our hatred of our domestic shitty governments. It is not up to any foreign forces to tell any sovereign nations what to do. You cannot even deal with your domestic social issues & your inhumanity towards your own citizens. Fuck right off, trying to tell sovereign nations how to run anything.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

After the official GTFO US invaders date, there was ongoing disharmony because US puppet militants were still running around Saigon & shooting people, indiscriminately. They were hunted down & imprisoned. People hunted down a lot of leftover US invaders too. It was lawless for awhile. Some people who captured US invaders had built their own domestic prisons of torture for any leftover US personnel they found. They were given same tortures that they enacted upon our citizens. In February of 1978, there was a public event with leftover US invaders brought out & the government gave bamboo whips to every Vietnamese citizen, in Saigon, to hit the enemy. The US invaders left behind by their government were beaten by Vietnamese citizens from 8am-8pm. For a full week. 8 US marines died during those beatings. Angry Vietnamese people wouldn't allow their bodies to be sent home & they ripped them off trucks & burned the bodies on the streets of Saigon.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

Making tea & taking a few deep breaths, before continuing our family's saga of surviving invasion war on Vietnam by US terrorist invaders & how we eventually had to flee our beloved home, in 1978.
We survived that invasion. We then faced more persecution from new Communist government regime because our patriarch family has Chinese roots. My patriarch grandparents had fled China due to domestic classist persecution & we have family members in Chinese prisons as longtime political prisoners.
My family have never been nationalists. They've been humanity over borders people. On both matriarch & patriarch sides. My Mom's family is mixed Indigenous Vietnamese & Teochew because her ancestry comes from ancient times when the official Chinese/Vietnam borders didn't exist & nor did the other borders surrounding Vietnam now.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

My Mom was running with Dad, my Uncles, my Aunts(except for big Auntie, who was still fighting near Da Nang), my Grandpa (who brought his pitchfork) & all of our neighbours who had been bombed in Cholon. They ran down main strip & caught up with 4th US invaders truck. Invaders were yanked out & their truck was destroyed by Dad & Uncles who threw Molotovs at it. The invaders were beaten up & dragged to the airport. So many people were screaming in Vietnamese, Chinese & English. Lots of: Yankees, go home! - chants. Molotovs were flying everywhere & US marines were crying, begging for mercy while angry citizens told them to - Shut up! You killed our family! Shut up!
People kept screaming at them. The rage from citizens was through the roof. That's what happens when you just follow orders to go commit war crimes in sovereign nations, where you do not fucking belong whatsoever.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

OK. I'm ready to continue this thread a bit more, today. Starting with day the US invaders fled, although some were still left behind for a few years after 1975 official pull-out.

The smell of firepowder, mixed with napalm, filled Saigon city air, all that day, April 30th, 1975. 5 days prior, my parents & most of our patriarch family, had received news that US is pulling out & Vietnam will be reunited with North & South. We were in a local displaced refugees camp, within the city, at the time. All the adults started making Molotovs to prepare to chase US & domestic sellouts out of Saigon. Women made rock-swing weapons from scarves & rocks, to hit US terrorists on their way out. There was a lot of rage because many of us witnessed our loved ones murdered by US invaders & their puppet domestic terrorists. People were out for blood vengeance.

Mom made me a baby metal army helmet & baby body plates from scrap metal. Our whole patriarch family hit the streets. Me, on my Mom's back. Thousands of Vietnamese people came out on the streets, waiting to give US invaders a lively exit out of our lands. The first US invader truck was ambushed by angry citizens in sandals & my parents said that you couldn't see the truck after 5 minutes because so many people had surrounded it. The US terrorists in that truck were beaten to death & left on road. The citizens ran down the street, looking for more US invaders.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

#LongBienBridge is #Hanoi 's 'horizontal Eiffel Tower,' a symbol of resilience, and the best place to catch a legendary Red River sunset or sunrise. Go for the photos, stay for the untold stories! #Vietnam #VietnamHistory https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Vietnam/Long-Bien-Bridge/

My Mom lost 9 family members in one week after a massive #AgentOrange spray attack over our matriarch village.

I will challenge every single person in US who still thinks their soldiers in Vietnam were ever heroes. They are ALL terrorist invaders to people like me/my family. They never should have been in Vietnam at all!

How many of you US military family folks have ever buried 9 family members killed by foreign invaders in a single week?

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

Of all the illegal, never tested before on humans weaponry used by the US, the deadliest was #AgentOrange. It's a #toxic chemical herbicide/defoliant. #USTerrorists called their AOcampaign 1962-1971, #OperationRanchHand. Their purpose was to clear Vietnam’s forest cover & farms which hid/fed #VietCong resistance forces.

80 million litres were sprayed over 26,000 villages across 3.06 million hectares. Operation Ranch Hand not only defoliated vegetation & crops, but pushed numerous animal species to extinction & caused skin rashes, cancer & birth-defects down multiple generations(we're in our 4th generation of victims) in Vietnamese/Laotian/Cambodian peoples - all were exposed to the toxic sprays.

The US told their own military, who were foolish enough to trust their criminal government, that AO was safe to handle. Many US military personnel still live with lifelong effects from handling/being in close contact with AO. Unlike us, the civilian invasion survivors - US military people actually got help. We were ignored, repeatedly by the evil US government. The US government kept telling us there's no proof that their use of Agent Orange had serious bad human effects. Yet, they admitted it had effect on their military personnel. We aren't humans to US government then, nor now. They're still denying AO effects on Vietnamese folks & never paid reparations for it!

This is only part of what #TerroristUSA did to our peoples!

Evil USA used us as a fucking war munitions lab. The exact same way Zionazis used Gaza as a testing lab.

WAKE THE FUCK UP. USA NEVER STOPPED TERRORISM WAR CRIMES!

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

US terrorists got to go home with PTSD. We suffered from PTSD too. While suffering from PTSD, while still being bombed - our family was trying to find more bodies/blown up pieces of our peoples, who were massacred by #USTerrorists. Many of us had no home left - because your US invaders blew them up. We still have our peoples dying & suffering from your terrorist government’s evil on our peoples. To this fucking day.

That is the reality.
Refuse to be deployed for #TerroristUSA.
Do not fucking enlist in 2026 - when you should fucking know better!

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

@coolcalmcollected I really appreciate anyone/everyone who is interested in knowing/learning the truth from survivors of US terrorism invasions across the Global South. Our experiences are really raw, atrocious & vastly different than what almost all Global North folks are taught/told about.

I've had bigots who support genocide on Palestine & support US warmongers literally tell me that US should have bombed us more & should kill people like my parents so they couldn't give birth to someone like me. They call me a terrorist for speaking truths about our lived experiences under foreign invasion war. They say that's why US/Israel needs to kill the kids because if they don't - we get to grow up. They want to kill kids so they can't grow up like me & tell the truth to the whole world.

That is the kind of sickass fucking mindsets that I encounter for speaking out, trying to educate & trying to stop more warmongering madness. I am not going to shut up because of bullying bigots who can't handle the truth. I'm growing even tougher skin.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

So, excuse me if I don't feel much sympathy for folks in Western places who invade Global South to terrorize POC in our homelands & deployed for shorter than a decade, with visits home/back with family & able to receive care packages from home. Those of us who were under siege by foreign Western invaders never got to see/talk to some our family members for over a decade. Many of us had to bury many family & friends murdered by your terrorist invaders. Some of us weren't even able to bury all of our loved ones because their bodies were blown to smithereens by your government’s terrorist invaders.

Refuse to fight dirty illegal wars on foreign sovereign lands. You have a choice to not serve your terrorist governments. People you terrorize, don't forget.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

The massive tunnels system saved many Vietnamese lives. That's why I get upset at white people who called us tunnel rats & are calling #Palestinians tunnel rats too.

More tunnels for another purpose were made in DMZ - site for most violent of exchanges between the north/south. #USTerrorists were releasing thousands of tons of bombs on Vinh Moc village which they believed was a supplier of arms/food to a resistance base on Con Co island .

Villagers dug - with their hands - a 2 km long tunnel, 30 m underground, for safety/survival. Vinh Moc Tunnels included family rooms, community halls, kitchens, wells, health clinics & a kindergarten. 60 families called it home from 1967-1972; 17 children were born inside it. Not a single person from Vinh Moc village died in the war.

Built 30 metres below ground-level, #VinhMocTunnels had 13 openings of which seven opened out into the East Sea.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

#USInvaders & allies recorded the war using war photographers, North Vietnam & Viet Cong did it through #art.

In #TetOffensive 3 phases in 1968, North Vietnam army & Viet Cong attacked military & civilian sites across South Vietnam.

#USTerrorists retaliated with #MyLaiMassacre on 16 March 1968 - 504 civilians, mainly women & children, were gang-raped & mutilated. Those who helped the Vietnamese were seen as traitors. Only one of the US terrorists - William Calley, was tried. He was only sentenced to house arrest for 3.5 years for the atrocious war crimes. None of the other US terrorists were ever punished for participating in same atrocities on our peoples.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #VietCong #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism #UShistory

My big Auntie lived/worked in the tunnels for years, after quitting her nursing job & leaving our family for a decade. She worked mainly in the resistance army comms & also on their medical team. She was part of the organizational team that planned the #TetOffensive

North Vietnam & Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive in 1968 took South Vietnamese & #USATerrorists by surprise. Launched on Vietnam’s lunar new year holiday, it was one of the biggest military campaigns in the war.

Cu Chi Tunnels near Saigon was integral. The 121-kilometre-long network of subterranean tunnels, a larger network that cut across most of Vietnam, were Viet Cong’s lifeline.

Hidden under camouflaged booby traps, the tunnels provided our resistance fighters with supply/comms routes, living quarters & storage for food/weapons. Air and water were scarce, insects, scorpions, and rodents aplenty, it didn't deter them.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

#USInvaders were guided by the #DominoTheory - if Vietnam fell to communism, so would Laos, Cambodia & all of southeast Asia. The Gulf of #Tonkin changed things a lot.

According to the USA, Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the USS Maddox moored in the Gulf. Immediately, a resolution was passed to officially engage in war. President LB Johnson, the ‘heart of the war,’ sent 500,000 US troops to South Vietnam in 1965 to fight against North Vietnam in the north and the Viet Cong in the south. He called it Operation Rolling Thunder. The campaign would rain 864,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam over the next three-and-a-half years, killing 52,000 North Vietnamese.

In the 2003 #documentary - #TheFogOfWar - the #USgovernment admitted that they had fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism #USALies #NeverTrustUSA #Communism

Xa Loi Pagoda in #Saigon was a hub of opposition to the Diem #USPuppet government. In 1963, Diem had his domestic terrorists attack the monastery. They arrested 1,400 monks, nuns & patriarch.

In 1963, faced with a coup, Diem tried to escape from the tunnels under one of his houses [now the Ho Chi Minh City Museum] to the perceived safety of Cha Tam Church in Cholon. Here he was captured and assassinated.

The #coup was staged by the #USA, the same USA who had brought him to power.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #GenevaAccords #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #Guerillas #VietnamLiberation #BuddhistCrackdown #Buddhists

Some folks don't understand why I had no faith in UN helping Palestinians or Lebanese or Syrians stop the terrorism by Israel invaders. The above is why. If Vietnam had waited for UN to do the right thing - I'd likely had never been born because my family would have all been slaughtered. I support resistance fighters/revolutionaries who fight for liberation & sovereignty of their peoples. Those are the brave warriors who fought so people like my family could live.

Maybe more folks will start to understand why war survivors of foreign occupation/invaders do not trust/have faith in the UN.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #GenevaAccords #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #Guerillas #VietnamLiberation #UselessUN

The Pro-US, autocratic, Catholic, and anti-Buddhist, traitor Diem who stopped the UN-mandated elections was responsible for violent crackdowns on Buddhists & had military attack temples, arrest/beat/kill monks & raid/target supporters of Buddhism.

Our family was targeted multiple times. My patriarch Grandpa owned the largest incense factory in Saigon & donated a lot of supplies to temples. Our family's house/compound was beside factory. Diem’s domestic terrorists raided factory & our family's home multiple times during Diem’s evil regime rule. My Grandpa was beaten several times by his thugs.

Diem’s hatred & targeting of Buddhists led to monks protesting with self immolations in public. The world saw images of some of those desperate protests. Our peoples were trying to get the world to see & understand what was happening in Vietnam. The grave injustices & the atrocious treatment by an evil foreign puppet.

Diem was a capitalist colonial puppet/traitor to Vietnam. He was hated by almost everyone in Vietnam back then.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolution #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #geopolitics #USPuppet #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #BuddhistCrackdown #SaigonSurvivors

The #UN failed our peoples in Vietnam - just like they've failed everywhere else because the UN protects capitalist imperial interests over #sovereignty of nations & it's never really had much enforcement teeth.

One of the outcomes of the DMZ was Ngo Dinh Diem’s regime in South Vietnam. Prime Minister of South Vietnam when the DMZ was drawn, in 1955 he proclaimed the country Republic of Vietnam and made himself its President. All with the help of the USA.

The latter’s intelligence had revealed 80 percent of Vietnamese were in favour of Ho Chi Minh. Which translated to a communist regime should General Elections take place. Pro-US, autocratic, Catholic, and anti-Buddhist, Diem ensured the UN-mandated elections never happened.

He also liked the good life. His Independence Palace in #Saigon came with a night-club and private helipad on the top floor, and bunkers deep in the bowels of the earth under the building.

Meanwhile, a stratum of Vietnamese society who were unhappy with Diem’s rule, and were pro-Ho Chi Minh, decided to go underground in 1961. Literally. Known as the #NationalLiberationFront, the guerilla force functioned from subterranean tunnels and jungle cover. They were determined to overthrow South Vietnam’s Diem government and unify Vietnam under #communism. The US called them #VietCong.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #GenevaAccords #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #Guerillas #VietnamLiberation #USpol

#Revolutionaries behind the 1908 Hanoi Poison Plot detained at the Hoa Lo Prison by the French colonists in 1941.

13 of them had their heads chopped off instantly and displayed in public. The French later used the photo for an #Indochina #propaganda postcard.

Whilst the second world war was raging across the world, in Vietnam the #VietMinh #Liberation Movement, led by famed revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, was taking birth. #HoChiMinh had one dream. An independent Vietnam free of foreign rule.

The first year after the war had Japan, and then Britain keen to get their hands on Vietnam. But they were soon replaced by Vietnam’s old colonial rulers: the French.

For nine long years, thereafter, from 1946 to 1954 the First Indochina War ripped across the country. Spilling blood, lives, and peace. On one side were the French. More adamant to stay. More aggressive in their rule. They were helped by the US who provided advisers, funding, and weapons from behind the scenes.
Anti-communist Vietnamese loyalists aided the French rulers’ legitimacy. On the other side was Ho Chi Minh and his revolutionaries.

Things eventually came to a head in 1954 with the Geneva Conference and creation of the 17th Parallel, a Demilitarized Zone [DMZ] on 17 degrees latitude north.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #historicalPhotos