It is said that between the years of 200 B.C. and A.D. 200 a Vietnamese culture began to take shape. These Vietnamese people of the Red River Delta were ruled by the Chinese Nation from around that time up until A.D. 938. Vietnam was founded by a Chinese General, Chao Tuo. During the Chinese rule, the Vietnamese learned of ways to better their environment from the Chinese people. Farming and planting were made easier by creating irrigation systems, and pathways were made to connect people with one another. People from China moved south to live in the Vietnam region and they became comfortable with the new land and made it their home increasing the Chinese cultural influence being given to the Vietnamese.
Around 220 A.D. Buddhism was being spread from India to Vietnam and this new religion was making its mark on the people of the area. Temples were built in order to dedicate them to certain seasons or spirits changing the landscape of Vietnam as well. Those who really took to the Buddhist ways were mostly the common people of Vietnam. The Chinese aristocratic ones kept to Chinese Confucianism.
From the third to sixth centuries China was having difficulties keeping a strong government. While the dynasty in position in China was weak Vietnam became stronger, but as the dynasty became more powerful its power would go over Vietnam and revolts would erupt causing feudalism throughout this entire period of time.
As the sixth century came, Vietnam began to take serious steps forward in their quest for independence. The Vietnamese were becoming independent from the Chinese authority while still keeping the Chinese form of politics and culture. During the time that China ruled over Vietnam, dynasties were the head leaders in governmental control in Vietnam. Some of these dynasties had more Chinese involvement than others. By 939, however, a Vietnamese general, Ngo Quyen declared himself king of the new, independent Vietnamese nation.
Rising to a commander from a palace guard, Ly Thai To became Emperor in 1009 to begin the Ly Dynasty. The Ly Dynasty worked to establish a strong Buddhist society similar to other Southeast Asian countries at that time. It was also during this time that the Vietnamese spread their empire south. This dynasty also supported developing strong agricultural systems.
Coming to power in 1225, the Tran Dynasty did so by arranging a marriage between one of its own and the Ly’s eight year old princess. The Tran Dynasty worked to model themselves even more after the successful Chinese by studying literature and imitating their public administration. Perhaps the Tran Dynasty is best known for their successful defeat of the Mongols three times!
As early as the 16th century, trading began between Southeast Asia and Western Europe. The Dutch, English, Portuguese, and French established centers of trading in Pho Hien, however, conflict between Europeans and locals forced these trading posts to shut down by 1700. Missionaries, however, continued their visits. One of the best known missionaries is the French Jesuit Alexandre Rhodes. He is credited with baptizing over 6,000 Southeast Asians and even developing a Romanized written version of the Vietnamese language (quoc ngy). The French became and remained the most active in the area, and by the late 19th century they had sent more missionaries, diplomats, armed forces than any other country. By the mid 19th century, nearly half a million Southeast Asians were converted to Christianity. The Nguyen government, however, saw this spread of Christianity as a threat to their country. Various injunctions forbade Christianity and nearly 95% of French priests and laity was executed. In response, missionaries pressured France to establish a colonial state in Vietnam. Furthermore, Louis-Napoleon of France was convinced that invasion to establish Vietnam as a protectorate was the only way to gain a foothold in Asia and not fall behind European counterparts.
In 1857, France sent its naval personnel to capture Tourane. By early 1859 the French had progressed to Saigon (currently Ho Chi Minh City). The French began to experience disease outbreaks while also dealing with the Vietnamese resistance being stronger than originally anticipated. In 1860, France sent nearly twice as many personnel to stabilize Saigon. They succeeded and captured the surrounding provinces as well. As a result, the current Emperor Tu Duc signed the Treaty of Saigon which officially ceded the provinces around Saigon, opened ports for trade, gave missionaries freedom to worship and evangelize, and allowed the French access to the Mekong. In 1863, French admiral de la Grandiere forced Cambodia to cede itself to France as a protectorate because of Treaty of Saigon made France heir to all Vietnamese claims over Cambodia. In efforts to secure all of Indochina, France attempted to secure Tonkin (present day northern Vietnam). In 1883, Tu Duc died and the French were able to capture Tonkin and Central Vietnam a month after his death. The Treaty of Protectorate of August 1883 officially ended Vietnam’s independent state.
The Scholarly Revolt
The Scholarly revolt was a twelve-year resistance movement against the French. It gets its name because many of the participants were scholars. The revolt was lead by Ton That Thuyet, a member the emperor’s court. Ton’s job was to protect the safety of the 13-year-old emperor Ham Nghi. The revolt started with the flight of the Emperor Ham Nghi, in 1885. The early years of the revolt were successful for the Guerrilla fighters, who would use the cover of night to ambush the French. Because Emperor Nghi had fled, the French picked Dong Khan as a new Emperor. The French captured Han Nghi in 1888, but he refused to cooperate with them and was sent to Algeria for the rest of his life. After the capture of Nghi, only the most loyal Guerillas remained to fight against the French forces. In 1897 this proved not to be enough; the French were able to successfully overcome the last of the Guerrilla forces in that year.
In 1887 the French government formally established the Indo-Chinese Union making the colony Cochinchina and the protectorates of Annam, Tonkin, and Cambodia. The implementation of the French government in Indochina was taken well by some Southeast Asians. Faced with repression for over 50 years, now liberated Catholics welcomed the French rule. However, things slowly changed. Over the next couple decades, local governors were replaced by French administrators and the French proceeded to take over all government operations. By 1925, there were over 5,000 French government employees. Under French laws, the Vietnamese were not allowed to publish anything or organize themselves. In addition, over 80% of the land was owned by 25% of the population. Over half the rural peasants had no land. Nearly 95% of the rubber plantations were French owned. The French began to open up school that educated the Vietnamese in the Romanized version of their language, but less than 10% of school-age children were even educated. Under the colonial empire, uprisings still occurred frequently. Significantly in 1929, a French official was assassinated by a member of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. In return, French officials arrested hundreds of nationalists. The nationalists chose to begin hoarding weapons. They staged revolts, but all were quickly suppressed by the French. By 1929, communist ideas had infiltrated into Indochina and the Indochinese Communist Party was founded in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh was becoming a well-known figure supporting Vietnamese independence at this time. He even attempted to meet with Woodrow Wilson at the Versailles Peace Conference in Paris to discuss his ideas supporting Vietnamese independence, but the meeting never took place. At the age of 30, Ho Chi Minh founded the French Communist Party in Tours, France. Over the next decade Ho Chi Minh led groups such as the Vietnam Revolutionary League and the Communist Youth League and the Vietnamese Communist Party. Eventually these groups joined forces in the Vietnamese Revolutionary Allied League with aim to overthrow the French government. Eventually the nationalist groups joined forces with the Indochinese Communist Party.
Japanese control of Vietnam during WWII
In August of 1938 General Georges Catroux was appointed governor general of Indochina by the new French government. His main focus was on China, which had been invaded by Japan in 1937. To help them with the war on China, Japan wanted the French government to stop the movement of supplies from Vietnam to China to stop the Chinese from having any power. In 1939 France entered WWII against Germany, Japan’s ally. In 1940, France was occupied by the fast advancing Nazi party in Europe. Germany, however, sought control of France, but not their colonies. Instead the Nazis set up a puppet regime in southern France, the Vichy regime, which maintained control of the colonies in Southeast Asia. The Vichy sent Admiral Jean Decoux to replace the governor of Indochina, Catroux. To help them stop the Vietnamese trade with China, Japan convinced Thailand to invade Cambodia for control of land. No war was waged between the two, and the land was given to Thailand. By 1941 Japan had control of Vietnam. Vietnam was exploited by Japan for their resources, rubber, rice, and minerals. Japan needed these resources to feed their war efforts. As the end of the war neared, Japan was defeated, and the Vietminh led by Ho-Chi-Minh was able to declare the country of Vietnam independent.
United States Involvement in Vietnam
During WWII when the Japanese were occupying Vietnam the United States were helping the Viet Minh and Ho Chi Minh, a leader of the Revolutionary Youth League, with financial support. Because of this financial aid, Ho Chi Minh believed that the United States would back him on making Vietnam an independent state. The U.S., however, agreed to let France take back control of the nation to colonize it once WWII had ended.
The French soon found themselves partaking in the First Indo-Chinese War with the Vietnamese, as well as the Algerian War. The revolutionary movements being made by the Algerians and the Vietnamese took a toll on the French. In the mid 1960’s, the French colonization efforts in Vietnam as well as in Algeria were weakened. Consequently the United States became the main country that would back the republic of South Vietnam after the French left. The U.S. had been helping South Vietnam for a while, but 1965 marked the beginning of the United States fighting in the Second Indo-Chinese war or the Vietnam War. President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops into Vietnam to bomb the north in hopes to stop the spread of communism. North Vietnam, the communist backed group and South Vietnam would continue their battling for years. The United States stood behind the South and found ways of trying to keep the communism out. The war went on for years causing the losses of many American lives.
By 1954 the United States was bearing 80% of the cost of war in the Second Indo-Chinese War. That same year, Viet Minh forces closed in on Dien Bien Phu in North Vietnam and the French were forced to surrender. The Geneva Agreements were announced and plans called for a line of demarcation to be drawn at the 17th parallel until elections could be held in 1956. The United States refused the agreement, and the elections were never held. The communist forces in the north infiltrated to 
the south and in 1961, President John F. Kennedy secretly sent 400 Green Berets to South Vietnam to teach Vietnamese how to fight against the communist guerilla forces. Aid was increased to over $200 million dollars in both economic assistance and military equipment. Angered by the United States’ increased support, communist forces decided to ban together as the People’s Liberation Armed Force (PLAF) in 1961. Peasants’ support of the PLAF increased when the communist forces began allocating land to them. The group tripled in size to over 1 million people from 1962 to 1964. The number of U.S. forces increased until Kennedy was assassinated, and then Johnson committed even more soldiers under the Golf of Tonkin Resolution.
In February of 1965, Johnson authorized bombing of sites north of the 17th parallel. The amount of ground troops, air personnel, and navy forces were increased. Although the U.S. first gave aid in order to prevent the spread of communism, the war was more about keeping up the United States’ reputation as a powerful nation. Across the country, anti-war and civil rights activists protested the war. While gaining much ground in 1966, the United States faced increased opposition when the PLAF halted all non-war related operations in the north and enlisted even more men in its armed forces. On January 31, 1968, the communists attacked over 100 cities, U.S. airfields, and the United States embassy. Called the Tet Offensive, this event was considered a major turning point in the war. With Johnson’s approval rating plummeting after the offensive, he decided in 1968 that he would not run for president again. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon authorized covert bombing of Cambodia in attempt to cut off supplies to North Vietnam. In 1973, talks for peace in Paris reached an agreement. A cease-fire was the result, and the military draft ended. The same year, all U.S. troops and advisors were removed from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. As a result, the Khmer Rouge and horrific Pol 
Pot regime took over Cambodia while communist Pathet Lao, backed by North Vietnam and Russia, took over Laos. The Laotian refugee crises resulted from Pathet Lao’s government carrying out massacres and genocide, killing more than 300,000 citizens, government officials, and even the royal family from 1975-1995. Many of the emigrants fled to Thailand, however there are substantial populations of Laotian people in the United States today.
In 1974, the communists continued their progress and took control of the Mekong River Delta. Around the same time, impeachment hearings for President Nixon began. He was accused of bombing Cambodia at a time when its neutrality was officially recognized. Nixon resigned the same year. Communist forces continued progress until 1975 when the last strong-hold for the south, Saigon, was captured by the communists. In 1976, North and South Vietnam unified as a communist state.
Hmong Involvement
In efforts to combat communist counterassaults in Laos, the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency enlisted and trained thousands of Hmong people from Laos to fight along side American troops in Southeast Asia. For over ten years, the Hmong people under the command of General Vang Pao fought North Vietnamese along the border, collected intelligence, and aided both U.S. and South Vietnamese ground troops. Most Americans knew nothing of these secret forces that helped the United States so much until 1994 when the United States government publicly admitted to the Hmong aid.
Upon the United States’ withdrawal of troops, the North Vietnamese army moved in. They aimed to punish those who helped the United States’ cause in Southeast Asia. More information on the human rights violations committed by the communist governments can be found here: Laos Human Rights Council In efforts to escape the continuing ethnic cleansing and biological warfare in Asia, many Hmong fled to Thailand the United States. Currently, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California have the largest Hmong populations in the country.
This includes some stuff about Vietnam and the United States
Even though the war had ended, the suffering did not. Landmines continued to plague both northern and southern Vietnam. In April of 1975, the trade embargo imposed by the United States on Northern Vietnam was extended to Southern Vietnam. The estimated cost of the war to the United States topped $160 billion, and Americans felt the effects. Inflation skyrocketed and national debt climbed. The 1973 War Powers Resolution passed by a strong democratic Congress forbade the president from using military action abroad for more than ninety days without Congressional approval.
Unlike praising war heroes from World War II, American seemed to ignore nearly 2 million Vietnam veterans upon returning home. Virtually nothing was done to aid veterans and their loved ones who needed assistance in adjusting. Film and television began presenting Vietnam veterans as a corrupt, drug-ridden, disturbed population. It took the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1982 to debunk the stereotypes and have American recognize the losses and horror veterans experienced. In 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Pol Pot regime. The next year, additional non-communistic countries join the U.S. on their trade embargo against Vietnam in protest of its invasion of Cambodia. Vietnam chose to withdraw from Cambodia over ten years later. In the mid-1980s, Vietnam introduced “doi moi.” It was a rejuvenating outlook on the economy that first allowed farmers to sell their crops privately. Today, while the political operations are strictly communistic, the economy is wholly capitalistic.
It was not until late 1991 that Americans – journalists, businessmen, and tourists – were able to travel to Vietnam. In 1994, President William J. Clinton announced the repealing of the trade embargo sanctioned almost 20 years earlier. One year later, an agreement was reached that opened up embassies in each country.
Reaction to Vietnam’s Fragmented History
With its many fragments, the history of Vietnam and South East Asia has become very unique. It is a history composed of many changes, as well as one with much violence and hardships. The Second Indo-Chinese War, the Vietnam War, followed by the Pol Pot regime, caused many people to leave from Southeast Asia, and come to the United States. Among these exiles to the United States is the author Mai Neng Moua from Laos, and two authors from Vietnam, Le Ly Hayslip and Trinh T. Minh-ha. Moua is the editor of a Hmong journal called Paj Ntaub Voice and also edited a book call Bamboo Among the Oaks. She works hard in order for the Hmong-American voice to be heard telling their stories in America. Hayslip has written two memoirs and has had a movie made to depict them both. She has become a social activist and works to better the conditions in Vietnam. Minh-ha makes herself busy by writing books, movies, and poetry, she teaches, composes music, and is a literary theorist. She currently teaches Women’s Studies at the University of California, Berkley. More information on Immigrants from South East Asia can be found at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center website. Information on the authors listed above can be found by following the links up above.
