I’ll be honest. I’m not sure what to say today about the Fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975. I don’t like being redundant, but I want to show up for you all on this important day.
So, I’ll discover my thoughts as I go. Hopefully it’s coherent, and hopefully I leave you with something meaningful and worth your time at the end.
I’m proud of my Vietnamese roots. I’m proud of my South Vietnamese roots. And I am proud of all our people, both civilians and heroic soldiers who sacrificed for freedom, justice, and a better world for future generations.
I think about Vietnam today, and how the communists have failed so miserably, not just at governance, but at basic, elementary human intelligence and fundamental human decency. The communists in Vietnam today, who are stupid, dishonest, lazy, and spineless, are nothing compared to the former South Vietnam, its everyday people, or its soldiers, in terms of work ethic, regular ethic, intelligence, manners, courage, or dignity.
In South Vietnam, people were proud to be Vietnamese. They respected each other, protected each other, and stood by their word and their honor.
When it came time to fight, the South Vietnamese people fought. When it came time to show compassion, the South Vietnamese people gave their time, their energy, and whatever they could to help their fellow humans.
This courage, love, and humanity was what made South Vietnam what it was. These are the reasons why, after 46 years since its downfall, Vietnamese people across the world continue to come together and remember this great nation, its achievements, and its ideals.
South Vietnam was a nation that stood for freedom, fairness, and justice. It was a nation feared and hated by communists, fascists, fake news journalists, and beta radical leftists all over the world, most notably on U.S. college campuses.
In the midst of all its struggles, South Vietnam was a proud nation, one that bred proud and courageous people making a difference across multiple generations all over the free world.
That is what I want to remind everyone of on this somber day, and that is what I want to say to young Vietnamese-heritage people, in America, as well as all over the world.
To everyone, but I guess especially to the young people, I want you to know that you have a proud heritage in South Vietnam. Embrace that heritage, honor it, strengthen it, and make some time in your busy lives to learn and discover your South Vietnamese roots.
Read books and articles about South Vietnam, speak to elders and veterans, and get as much knowledge and wisdom as you can from them while they are still with you. In the course of your research, learn to discern the real history from the leftist self-promoting, self-aggrandizing, and most hilariously, self-justifying, pro-communist propaganda that pervade U.S. college campuses from the 1960s to present day. It is hard, but you can do it, and you must.
Looking at cancel culture in the U.S. and around the world today, you can see how dangerous it is to even openly and safely call yourself a proud American. Well, that’s what it’s been like for South Vietnamese people for decades, at least when talking to a leftist. It sucks, but it is also the reason why Vietnamese Americans, and Vietnamese Overseas as a whole, are among the best equipped to defend America, and the world, from the current global invasion of “woke” neo-Communism.
For these reasons, embrace your South Vietnamese roots, and continue passing it on to younger generations. Learn the history and the culture, be the best that you can be, and succeed in all that you do, no matter what that may be. Do it for yourself, do it for your family and those that you love, but also do it for the South Vietnamese legacy.
One day, your number may be called, and you may have to step up and defend America and the free world from the communist invaders. When that time comes, you will step up, and your knowledge and experience, both from your everyday life and from your South Vietnamese roots, will have you fully prepared to lead, and to win.
Another day, even further down the line, you may be the one called upon to step up and build, defend, and lead to prosperity a new democratic Vietnamese nation.
It all starts with knowing who you are, where you came from, and being proud of it. Your roots are Vietnamese. South Vietnamese.
You have roots in a nation that, from 1955 to 1975, was the economic, military, and cultural giant of Southeast Asia, and among the top in all of East Asia. During its existence, South Vietnam had already had its own auto manufacturer named La Dalat. In terms of education, South Vietnam’s universities were top tier, drawing exchange students from all across the eastern hemisphere.
South Vietnam was also the nation that fought back against China, when China invaded the Paracel Islands in 1974. The South Vietnamese knew that they were outnumbered and outgunned by the Chinese, but chose to stand and fight nonetheless, dying for their freedom and country. Although South Vietnam lost this battle, the stories of these soldiers live on to this day. From their sacrifice, Vietnam still has sovereignty claims over the islands today, and China’s current occupation is viewed as nothing more than an illegal encroachment.
Earlier, in 1972, South Vietnam withstood a wholesale invasion attempt by the Communist North. Flushed with Chinese and Russian ammunition and artillery, enjoying an element of surprise gifted by the fraudulent Paris Peace Treaty, and emboldened by massive U.S. withdrawal from the war, the communist North Vietnamese launched their Spring Offensive of 1972. Their objective was to overtake South Vietnam once and for all. However, their efforts failed, and failed miserably.
Despite being riddled with threats of all kinds, such as ongoing Soviet and Chinese subversion, constant betrayal from the U.S. government, and relentless slandering and disparagement from dishonest, gutless, and insecure beta-male “reporters” and “journalists” from western mainstream fake news media, South Vietnam stood and fought against the Northern invaders and won.
At Quang Tri, Kontum, and An Loc, the South Vietnamese, once again outnumbered and outgunned, through enormous resiliency and fortitude, confronted and eviscerated the communist invaders for the umpteenth time.
Famously, at the Battle of An Loc, General Le Van Hung pledged that “as long as I am alive, An Loc shall stand.” Here, despite being outnumbered by the North nearly three to one, the South Vietnamese crushed wave after wave of Northern onslaughts until eventually, the North withdrew and abandoned their efforts.
Excellence, respect, honor, and fighting at all costs, no matter the odds, that is the legacy of South Vietnam. When you look at your Vietnamese roots, this is what you should remember.
South Vietnam was a nation of patriots, hard and honest workers, and kind, decent human beings.
When that great nation fell on April 30, 1975, millions of Vietnamese people fled the nation on small boats, searching for safety, security, and freedom. Wherever they landed, they brought with them that culture of honor, respect, hard work, and exceptionalism.
This spirit lives on through multiple generations of Vietnamese people and families all across the world. It is exemplified through the success, leadership, and influence of people of Vietnamese heritage in America and the free world.
Looking to the future, it is this spirit that will see Vietnamese Americans, and Vietnamese Overseas as a whole, play an instrumental role in protecting America and the free world in the coming war against neo-Communism. But that is a story for another time.
Today, on April 30, 2021, as you reflect on the Fall of Saigon, on this day 46 years ago in 1975, mourn for the loss of that great nation, honor the fallen, and be thankful for their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of all those who risked everything to bring you the freedom that you currently have.
Along with this commemoration, look deep inside of yourself, and embrace your South Vietnamese roots. Be proud of that legacy and how it has bred so many patriots, heroes, and tremendously kind and wonderful people generally, and how it laid the foundations for so many leaders of Vietnamese heritage in the world today.
Pay your respects, honor the fallen, thank your parents, grandparents, and elders, be proud of your roots, and be proud of who you are.
Thanks for your time. Thanks for reading. Hope that made sense.
A snippet of the NBC hit piece on the Vietnamese American community, published last Friday, Jan. 15, 2021.
Estimated reading time: 16-20 minutes
Last Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, NBC published an article titled, “Why the defunct South Vietnam flag was flown at the Capitol riot.” Despite their careful efforts to obscure it, that article was undoubtedly a hit piece on the Vietnamese American community, as revenge for our enthusiastic and unapologetic support for President Donald J. Trump.
Like all of the leftist writings about Trump supporters, the NBC portrayed Vietnamese American Trump supporters in its hit piece as gullible, simplistic, and somehow associated with the “far right.” Furthermore, consistent with the leftist tactic of using children as political human shields, the article tried to suggest that young Vietnamese Americans are somehow sick and tired of their South Vietnamese roots, and that these young people have wholeheartedly embraced socialism as the path forward. While that may be true for some dumb “woke” college students and graduates, it is not the overarching view of young Vietnamese Americans or the Vietnamese American community as a whole. More on this generational issue later.
Overall, the NBC article aimed to create a divide among the Vietnamese American community. The article praised and venerated leftist Vietnamese Americans who subscribe to Marxism, and it shamed and denigrated Vietnamese Americans who support Trump and reject the socialist agenda. While I doubt this coordinated leftist attack on the Vietnamese American community (the radical leftist Washington Post and other pro-communist outlets also threw jabs at us) will phase us by any stretch, I do believe that it is worth talking about, for the sake of our children and our identities as freedom-loving Vietnamese Americans.
Right off the bat, the NBC article opened its narrative with neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the Confederacy, in order to paint a dark and distorted picture of the Make America Great Again movement. Though the author Claire Wang did not explicitly compare South Vietnam’s flag to the symbols of hate mentioned above, she set the tone of her article with these symbols. From that dark tone, the reader would go on to read her article while, at the back of their mind, thinking of South Vietnam and the Confederacy in separate but parallel thoughts. The reader will subliminally associate our democratic South Vietnam with the racist and slave-holding Confederacy, and they will not even realize that they are doing it.
Another snippet of the Jan. 15, 2021 NBC hit piece on the Vietnamese American community. The article employs leftist tactics such as false narrative and passive-aggressive innuendo to imply a connection between South Vietnam and white supremacy, when in reality, no such connection exists.
This is one tactic that the “tolerant” and “brave” leftists often use in their “journalism.” Instead of risking getting called out for explicitly making an inaccurate and inflammatory point, the leftists simply imply it, so that if they need to, they can deny it. It is a nasty, low, cowardly, sleazy, and passive-aggressive trick, and one that very much sums up the leftist media and elites today. The tactic is used daily to denigrate Trump and his supporters, and it was used against the Vietnamese American community in that NBC article.
In addition to falsely associating Vietnamese Americans with white supremacists, Wang employed the common liberal tactic of painting Trump supporters as fanatical, emotional, and dumb. Her dishonest tactic here is also consistent with the behavior and conduct of the leftist media.
Throughout her article, while initially paying lip service to the true meaning of our South Vietnam flag, Wang went on to utilize statements from communist-leaning Vietnamese Americans to undermine the true and noble ideals that the flag represents.
Wang quoted Tung Nguyen, president of the “Progressive Vietnamese American Organization, or PIVOT,” to make her point. An ex-Obama employee (so, a Democrat), Nguyen said that “Trump is not someone you can be free under,” that supporting Trump was automatically “white supremacy,” “authoritarianism,” and an “overturning of the people’s will.”
Furthermore, Wang quoted Thuy Vo Dang, “an ethnic studies professor” at the University of California, Irvine, saying that there is a “can of worms” to be faced with regard to the South Vietnam flag. According to the author Wang, in tandem with bits and pieces of Dang’s comments, there is an alleged rising concern for the South Vietnamese flag’s “growing visibility on the far right.”
NBC is not the only leftist outlet to attack the Vietnamese American community. The even more radical Washington Post published a similar attack on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, employing the same tactics, with equal if not more hate and toxicity, than the NBC piece.
Remember earlier in this article, when I mentioned Wang’s use of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the Confederacy to set the overarching tone of her article? Well, this is what it was meant to do. She causally invoked these symbols of hate at the start of an article centered around South Vietnam’s flag, so that later in the article, she can quietly associate the South Vietnam flag with the “far right,” without the reader noticing what she was trying to do.
What Wang pulled is a dirty, sleazy, and cowardly writing tactic, and illustrative of every fake news media article about Trump and his supporters for the last four years and beyond. This dirty trick, this manipulation of words, is also the only skill that young people walk out of college with, after spending $150K to be taught for four years that it is “brave” and “enlightened” to embrace socialism and hate their own country, but I digress.
Wang tried to play that trick on our Vietnamese American community in her NBC hit piece. This should be brought to light. Our community needs to be aware of how white liberals and their obedient colored subordinates treat regular everyday colored people who disagree with them. It’s nasty, it’s sniveling, it’s pathetic, it’s demeaning, and it’s evil. But, like I said, it’s what liberals do today. It’s a staple, incremental, and dearly embraced strategy of the leftist playbook. I will go one step further, and dare say that in the leftist circle, this attitude and behavior is systemic.
The weaselly tactics do not end there. Wang also cited the leftist PIVOT leader in claiming that the “younger generation” of Vietnamese Americans is “strongly progressive,” and suggesting that following the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, that “many young people started questioning the elders’ unyielding loyalty” to what South Vietnams’ flag stands for. The “evidence” for this so-called youthful questioning came from a tweet by some run-of-the-mill Democrat, who was merely tweeting run-of-the-mill Democrat things (outrage, pretentious art, righteous victimhood, canceling things, hate America, etc.).
A third snippet of the NBC hit piece against the Vietnamese American community. In addition to imagery and narrative, the leftist media utilizes communist-leaning members from ethnic communities to stoke division within the community.
Addressing the supposed “strongly progressive” tendencies of “younger people,” I will simply reiterate that the modern college campus is extremely skewed towards socialism. Leftists usually cite campus communists as their measure for “young people,” and pretend that the silent majority does not exist. This is what the NBC article is built on, and this is what the entire media narrative has been built on for the last four years and beyond. There are many young Vietnamese Americans who are proud of their South Vietnamese roots, who know that the Democrats are liars and thieves, and who reject and defy the creeping socialism that is threatening the U.S.
People like Tung Nguyen, Claire Wang, and Democrats as a whole, know of the silent majority, but they purposefully pretend not to know of the silent majority. They write fiction and fantasy about an increasingly progressive world, pass it off as “news reports,” and, in these writings, paint themselves as the supposed future leaders of this communist utopia. Regular folks like you and me read this leftist “news” and wonder what the hell is wrong with them, how sick and mutated leftist brains have truly become, and feel sad at what continues to happen to our society as a result of the direction that this corrupt, rotten elitist group is steering towards.
In addition to the passive-aggressive and subliminal attacks already mentioned, there are numerous other examples peppered throughout Wang’s article.
Another instance is the leftist PIVOT leader Nguyen’s statement that South Vietnamese elders in the Vietnamese American community, which includes a large population of military veterans, have suffered greatly and “associate that suffering with things like communism.” The crux of Nguyen’s point is that the elders’ “emotions are so strong they don’t always see what’s the real cause of their suffering.”
To that point by Nguyen, I wonder, then: If communism, the ideology that destroyed the elders’ entire country, families, homes, livelihoods, sense of self and existence, and created mass deaths of tens of millions of Vietnamese people, is not the source of the suffering, then what is? Is it Capitalism? Toxic masculinity? White privilege? Male privilege? Systemic racism? Gendered norms? Lack of abortions? Not enough free shit from the government? What, in Nguyen’s opinion is the source of the elders’, the war heroes’, suffering?
I’m sure he can bring up a lot of pretentious and tone-deaf Democrat talking points as a possible source of the elders’ suffering, and I am even more certain that no matter what the ailments, the leftist Nguyen’s solution is socialism. With the leftists, the answer is always socialism.
Along with this tactic, the author Wang in her article tries to associate us with terms like “hypernationalism” and “alignment with right-wing causes.” From what I have established so far, Wang’s use of these dirty leftist tricks, which are consistent with the playbook of the powerful fake news media empire, should not be surprising.
I can go on and on about the passive-aggressiveness of this NBC article and their dirty and cowardly tactics, such as that of quietly trying to paint the Vietnamese American community as allies of white supremacists. However, I think I did my job on that front quite well by now.
In 2018, I quipped that leftists might associate us with white supremacists for supporting President Trump. The fact that it is actually happening today is both hilarious and disturbing. The saddest part is that I am not the least bit surprised that this is how low leftists will go. And it’s not even their lowest. Not by a long shot.
Now, addressing the Capitol riot itself: It was a few hundred idiots who trespassed, broke stuff, stole stuff, and went on a moronic selfie-laced crime spree that lasted for a few hours. President Trump condemned the violence and stupidity, and the rest of the MAGA movement as a whole has denounced these dumbasses for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
There were tens, possibly over a hundred thousand Trump supporters in Washington, D.C. on the day of the Capitol breach. The overall majority of these people were law-abiding, legitimately peaceful protesters. The few hundred morons who breached the Capitol were but a tiny percentage of Trump supporters in D.C.
We were all angry and embarrassed by this small group of troublemakers. Their actions do not represent MAGA in any respect. Oh, and I know leftists will love this: Antifa and anarchists were among the rioters, posing as Trump supporters to encourage and facilitate the destruction. Not sure how many brave liberals know about that, but here it is.
Compare this brief incident to the hundreds of thousands of Antifa and BLM thugs and criminals, who spent the entire summer of 2020 rioting, looting, cop-killing, creating “autonomous zones,” destroying black-owned businesses, and burning America’s cities to the ground. The Democrats, fake news media, and RINOs had zero problem encouraging the violence and destruction during that “summer of love.” Now they want to act “outraged” and “concerned” about the few hours of mischief by a few hundred morons?
Give me a break.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump in a Cabinet meeting on November 19, 2019.(U.S. Government)
As for the question of why the Vietnamese American community supports Trump, the answer is very simple: Trump is a very good president.
Leftists choose not to understand this agonizingly simple point, but yet, here it is.
President Trump’s policies are excellent. He follows through on his promises, he has intuition and common sense that 4-6 years of college, five PhDs, and a lifetime of brown-nosing can’t give, and he tells you exactly what he is thinking without “pivoting” or hiding behind fake, pretentious “scholarly language” like some soft, arrogant, corrupted academic or political scumbag.
Leftists pretend not to understand why so many Americans support Trump, and they will continue to do it here. I am sure that leftists will not read this article, and even if some do, they will pretend it doesn’t exist.
The entire leftist source of self-esteem and self-worth is dependent on not knowing how good of a president Trump truly is. They will continue to shelter themselves from the facts of Trump’s accomplishments, and continue to shelter themselves with lies about how bad Trump and his supporters are.
Furthermore, under Trump, China’s expansionism, global military aggression, and malicious targeting of U.S. intellectual property and economy were condemned and brought to light for the world to see. Trump forced China to cease its building of artificial islands in the Pacific, and called China out on its Uyghur genocide, and its exploitation of slave labor to produce many of its goods and products.
Where Obama was too much of a coward to substantively challenge China on its human rights abuses, Trump exceled in this respect. Trump openly tweeted support for the pro-democracy protesters of Hong Kong in late 2019. In addition, Trump signed an executive order and passed legislation sanctioning China for its suppression of free speech in Hong Kong.
Speaking of the Middle East, in four years, President Trump achieved peace in the Middle East. As president, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and brokered normalized relations between Israel and four other countries in the region. Past presidents have pledged to recognize Jerusalem but were either insincere or too cowardly to follow through.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s accomplishments, and it’s more than the average leftist “academic” or “expert” can tell you about the President.
Donald Trump is simply a very good president. Like I said before, the leftists’ self-esteem and self-worth hinge on suppressing, erasing, whitewashing the fact that Trump is a bold, courageous, transparent, and exceptional president, who is not racist, not homophobic, not sexist, and is smarter than all of Congress combined. Trump’s accomplishments in four years are ten-fold that of Barack Obama’s in eight years, and even more than Joe Biden’s 47 years in politics.
The Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster, California, USA. Photo shared in accordance with CC BY-SA 2.0. (via InSapphoWeTrust)
Liberals will pretend, or actively choose not to know, of the facts mentioned above. No one should expect a leftist to engage in a conversation with good faith and balanced information. This situation is no exception.
In offering a brief recap of Trump’s accomplishments here, I am simply providing easy access to the facts. That way, if a leftist tries to pretend not to know of these accomplishments, they will have to work extra hard at playing stupid. Somehow, I’m sure they’ll still manage to pull it off.
As far as getting attacked by leftists, should we be worried about it? No. This is not the first time that leftists have attacked the Vietnamese American community, and we are more than capable of fighting back. And we should, unapologetically.
Now then, should we take the leftists’ attacks seriously? Yes. We should always be paying attention to what leftists and other detractors say about our community. To be complacent is to be weak, and to be unprepared is to be foolish. To reiterate, we should always be ready and willing to fight back and defend our community.
To my fellow Vietnamese Americans, young and old: Be proud of who you are and where you came from, and continue fighting to keep our South Vietnamese legacy alive and strong. Keep learning, teaching, and passing on our history and culture to the new generations. Let the young know that resilience and liberty are part of, and will always be part of, our DNA as freedom-loving Vietnamese people, and Vietnamese Americans.
Also, have yourself a good laugh, because hey, we pissed off the leftist media. We fought so hard for President Trump, and were so well-represented in the MAGA movement, that the fake news media couldn’t ignore us any longer. So, the leftists did what they do best: Lash out, get nasty, and try to distort, slander, and denigrate us with smears and lies. If the media goes out of their way to smear you by name, then you must be doing something right – just ask our favorite president Donald J. Trump.
Hong Kong protesters photoshopped President Trump’s face on the character Rocky Balboa’s body, as a token of appreciation for his vocal support for Hong Kong democracy. In typical Trump fashion, the President tweeted the photo to troll his detractors. Since Jan. 6, 2021, President Trump has been banned from Twitter.
Anyone who is not a self-denying, self-important, and self-conscious leftist coward knows that the MAGA movement is an inclusive movement, built on love of country, family, friends, and neighbor, regardless of the color of their skin, what they believe, who they love, where they came from, or how much money they make. It is an honor to be a part of this movement, and it is an honor to have supported President Trump in his fight to Make America Great Again.
Moreover, it is a great honor to be a part of the Vietnamese American community, who has done so much to represent the MAGA movement. 75 million Americans voted for Trump, and unlike Joe Biden, the ballots for Trump were casted in person, by real, living, breathing people, who are actually Americans. If you know anything about Stop the Steal (the leftists sure don’t, and purposely so), then you know that this is actually a big deal.
The silent majority has seen us and now know who we are. At the countless rallies for Trump, it is not only Vietnamese Americans, but also African Americans, White Americans, and so many others, who are seen proudly waving or golden South Vietnam flag alongside Old Glory. This is all thanks to you. To every single patriot in the Vietnamese American community, both old and young, who played their part in the MAGA movement, we have made our distinguished and indelible mark in this incredible movement. And that is something to be very proud of.
To everyone in the MAGA movement, not just in the Vietnamese American community, but everywhere: It has been an honor to fight alongside you. The election didn’t go our way, due to the sadly successful election heist by the fraudulent Democrats and their network of thugs, bums, criminals, Wall Street, mega corporations, Hollywood, RINO slaves, fake news media, and big tech. With that said, the fight is not over.
The MAGA movement started with President Trump, but it will finish with We the People. America First is not going anywhere, and neither is MAGA.
Wish Joe Biden a successful presidency, because, unlike the leftists, We the People still believe that a successful president makes a successful nation. If he does well, give him credit. If he does poorly, then we will bury him with our voice and our vote. With that said, keep speaking up, keep fighting to protect the country, and keep holding our elected officials accountable.
We are all watching and waiting to see what President Trump will do once he officially leaves office. If he is still anything like the Trump we know, big things will be happening, and we should be excited. Will he run again in 2024? If yes, will he be running as a Republican or as a leader of his own party? What will he do to fight big tech censorship of his rights to free speech?
These are just a few of the questions that I have for Mr. Trump, the greatest American president since the likes of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. Whatever he decides to do, I’m sure it will be substantial.
In the meantime, it has been a pleasure and an honor.
Vietnamese Americans rally for President Trump in Orange County, California, on October 17, 2020 (Jimmy Do/YouTube)
The enthusiasm of Trump supporters in the Vietnamese American community is huge across the United States. Whether in Texas, California, Florida, Virginia, or anywhere else in the U.S.A., the Vietnamese American community is excited about four more years of President Donald J. Trump.
This article will be a brief one. With only two days left before the election, everything has pretty much been said, and Vietnamese Americans everywhere have expressed unwavering support for President Trump. Whether at rallies, in the streets, in the newspapers, or online and through social media, the Vietnamese American people have made their case for Trump.
All that is left to do now is make sure that everyone gets out there to vote. If you haven’t already, make sure that you vote. Make sure that you cast you ballot for the most important election in more than a generation. For Vietnamese Americans, this might be the most important election we ever had.
Under President Trump, America saw the lowest Asian unemployment, along with the lowest unemployment for so many other demographics of Americans. President Trump has been tougher on China than any other president in history, he is the first and only president to stand up to the powerful titanic leftist mainstream media. He is a champion for human rights, and he has fought back unapologetically against the spread of Communism, both domestically and abroad.
In short, President Donald J. Trump has done incredible things for the American people, and specifically for the Vietnamese American community. From his actions, there is no longer any doubt that he is a friend and ally of the Vietnamese American community. We need four more years of President Trump, so let’s make sure we make that happen. Get out there and vote!
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2020, but many states have allowed for early voting as well. (Got questions on how to vote? Click here for more info!)
Just to get an idea of the support for Trump within the Vietnamese American community, below are 17 photos showing the enthusiasm for the President in some communities across the U.S.
These first five photos show Vietnamese Americans rallying for President Trump in Orange Country, California in mid-October. The photos are screenshots taken from a post by the YouTube account Conservative Resurgence.
The next four photos are also screenshots, taken from a YouTube post by user Jimmy Do. These photos show Vietnamese Americans rallying for Trump in Orange County on the evening of October 17, 2020.
In the next seven photos, a massive march for Trump takes place in Washington, D.C., in mid-October. These are also screenshots, and are taken from a YouTube post by the account Trust Media Network.
Finally, this last photo simply shows a Vietnamese American Trump supporter brandishing a “Thin Blue Line” flag in the streets of Orange County, California, as part of a pro-Trump parade in early October. The source for this screenshot is @ FromKalen via Twitter. #BackTheBlue
Like the rest of America, the silent majority in the Vietnamese American community is no longer silent. The people are speaking out, and they are speaking for four more years of Trump.
If you haven’t already, make sure you get out there and vote! (Got questions on how to vote? Click here for more info!)
Once again, Election Day, aka the last day you can vote, is Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
Exercise your sacred democratic rights, use your most powerful voice, and vote for four more years of President Donald J. Trump!
P.S. Vote Republican (R) on your ballot for House of Representatives and Senate candidates as well!!!
I’m sure that by now, everyone has heard that President Donald J. Trump has tested positive for coronavirus and is undergoing treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center.
There isn’t much else that I have to add to the extensive list of well wishes that has not already been said over the past few days. So, hopefully without sounding redundant, I will briefly say the following.
I am praying for President Trump. I hope he will be okay. I hope that he recovers fully, and that it happens sooner than later.
My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
Donald Trump is the first president in more than a generation that has taken the job with the intention of actually doing the job. He kept the promises he made, and he does exactly what he says he would do.
Under the Trump administration, faith in America has been restored, and for the first time in a long time, there is hope in the American Dream, and in America itself.
And so, with that said, I stand with Americans across the country who are rallying around the President, praying, and having faith for the best.
Here are just a few videos of Americans of all colors and creeds coming together to support President Trump.
People in the city of Hue lay to rest their family members, friends, and neighbors, after South Vietnamese and U.S. forces liberate the city from communist occupation. Over the course of one month, the communists brutally murdered thousands of innocent people in the name of “revolution” (U.S. Army).
The “long story short” version of this is that in 1968, journalists in the mainstream U.S. media witnessed the shocking discovery of mass graves, created by the murderous communist regime, in the city of Hue, South Vietnam, and explicitly decided not to report on it. All the while, the liberal media continued its common practice of peddling pro-communist and anti-American propaganda to the American people, glorifying the evil communists, while vilifying the real heroes, which were the South Vietnamese and American troops.
With that main point established, we will now dive into detail about the coverup of the communist mass murder at Hue. The analysis provides another glaring example of how far leftists will go to protect and glorify totalitarian regimes at the expense of America.
Estimated reading time: 12-16 minutes
The Tet Offensive of 1968 and the Battle of Hue
In late January of 1968, the communist state of North Vietnam launched a surprise attack on its southern neighbor, the fledgling democratic nation of South Vietnam. The communists were hoping to knock South Vietnam and their U.S. allies out of the war for good, and ultimately, to establish control over all of Vietnam under the blood-red banner of Communism.
South Vietnam’s capital city of Saigon during the Tet Offensive of 1968 (UISA/NARA).
Sadly for the communists, they failed. Big time.
This fiasco by the communists would be known in history as the Tet Offensive of 1968.
The lunar new year period, known as “Tet” in Vietnam, is usually a time of peace, love, and friendship among Vietnamese. Though it was unstated, there was an understanding between the North and South that, for at least a few days, there would be a truce, and that no blood will be shed.
In hopes of gaining an upper hand, the communists violated the truce, and launched a massive military campaign against the South. Despite, their underhanded attack, the communists were still handily defeated by South Vietnam and U.S. forces.
Though initially surprised by the communist sneak attack, the South Vietnamese and their American allies responded quickly and resolutely, destroying the communist invaders and expelling them from nearly all of South Vietnam’s major cities.
South Vietnamese and U.S. Special Forces members. Photo taken in September 1968 (U.S. Army).
There were only a few key locations where the communists managed to hold on for a while. Eventually, these places too would be liberated from communist occupation by South Vietnam and U.S. forces.
The old imperial capital city of Hue was one of the last places to be freed from the communists. Victory at Hue was accomplished after 26 days of intense fighting.
This fight came to be known as the Battle of Hue, and lasted from January 31 to February 25, 1968.
At the end of this long and bloody battle, 384 South Vietnamese soldiers were killed, 216 U.S. soldiers were killed, and 5,113 communist soldiers were killed. The communist forces paid dearly at Hue and got ripped to pieces by the South Vietnamese and American troops (Smith 1999: x).
Following the battle, on February 26, 1968, “South Vietnamese and American troops made a horrifying discovery” at Hue (Zimmerman & Vansant 2009: 78).
The Hue Massacre and North Vietnam’s Official Policy of Violence and Murder
After the liberation of Hue from communist control, the South Vietnamese and U.S. forces uncovered bodies of men, women, and children buried in shallow graves all around the city. Some bodies had bullet wounds in them, others had their arms bound by rope and wire, and some bodies were still wet, as if drenched in water before being buried. It appeared that many of these people had been buried alive (Smith 1999: ix).
In a chilling anecdote, George W. Smith described many of the corpses as still having “their mouths open, silent screams frozen on their faces,” (p. ix).
South Vietnamese residents standing in the midst of the destruction in the aftermath of the Hue Massacre of 1968 (Douglas Pike Collection).
James H. Willbanks explains that after the communists had seized control of Hue, they started rounding up people all around the city and systematically executed them en masse (p. 55). In the words of Willbanks, most of the victims were either “shot, bludgeoned to death, or buried alive, almost all with their hands tied behind their backs,” (p. 55).
In the end, a total of 2,810 bodies were discovered in these mass graves, although the number is estimated to be much higher than this (Moore & Turner 2002: 278). Another 2,000 people were unaccounted for after the liberation of Hue. It is strongly suggested that they too were murdered in the communist mass executions (Herring 2002: 232; Moore & Turner 2002: 278).
The purpose of this organized and systematic murder of the people of Hue was to instil fear and terror into the South Vietnamese population, and to discourage people from supporting or associating with the South Vietnam government. There was also a revenge element, as the communists sought to punish “uncooperative” civilians in South Vietnam for not supporting the barbaric communist regime and their evil ideology (Moore & Turner 2002: 278).
As part of their terror campaign, the communists compiled a list of targets that included local politicians, civil servants, shopkeepers, and other civilian groups. This “execution list” had at least 3,000 names on it and was compiled before the Tet Offensive was even started (Aikman 2013; Moore & Turner 2002: 278).
North Vietnamese communist troops. During the Vietnam War, North Vietnam and their Vietcong subordinates committed grave atrocities that were largely covered up by the pro-communist mainstream liberal media (U.S. Army).
Upon the capture of Hue, the communists put their horrific execution plan into action, going house to house and butchering defenseless residents and civilians. This was not an isolated incident carried out by renegade, insubordinate, or unruly troops. It was a deliberate part of communist policy, planned, organized, and authorized at the highest level of the North Vietnamese government.
As explained by John Norton Moore and Robert F. Turner, “For the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese, the ‘tactic’ of ‘political struggle’ included the use of terror to isolate the people from their government… Selected assassination of government officials was official policy.” Not only that, but for the communists, “Grave breaches” by their troops and cadres “not only went unpunished, they were mandated,” (p. 277-78).
The result of their terror and violence program was the death of thousands of innocent lives. Victims of this mass execution included schoolteachers, merchants, religious leaders, police, government employees, political officials, foreign visitors, and regular everyday civilians.
“We are not here to spread” this. The Liberal Media Coverup of the Hue Massacre
When the horrifying discoveries were being made at Hue, the leftist mainstream media was there. The liberal media saw with their own eyes the corpses of all the innocent people, being dug out of the ground by the dead’s traumatized and heartbroken relatives, friends, and neighbors. They knew that it was the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong operatives that committed these atrocities. And they chose to say nothing about it.
One firsthand account by a German reporter, Uwe Siemon-Netto, showed just how blatant and deliberate the U.S. mainstream media was in their decision not to say a word about the mass killings at Hue.
In a review of Siemon-Netto’s 2013 memoir Duc: A reporter’s love for the wounded people of Vietnam, David Aikman described the interaction between the German reporter and some mainstream media liberals at Hue:
When this fastidious German reporter came upon a mass grave of victims, he was astonished to find an American television crew standing around with idle cameras. The crew refused to shoot the scene because, they said, they didn’t want to film “anti-Communist propaganda.”
Siemon-Netto would retell this experience himself in a 2018 letter to the Wall Street Journal.
I remember how furious Peter Braestrup, I and others were when Walter Cronkite stated in front of millions of U.S. viewers that the war couldn’t be won, when in fact we had just witnessed American and South Vietnamese soldiers shed their blood vanquishing the communists and destroying their infrastructure. I stood next to Braestrup at a mass grave filled with the bodies of old men, women and children. A U.S. television team walked idly about this site. Braestrup asked them: “Why don’t you film this scene?” “We are not here to spread anticommunist propaganda,” one answered.
As a result of the mainstream media’s decision not to report this tragedy, the world would pay “little attention to these atrocities at Hue… the ghastly events at Hue became footnotes in a highly unpopular war,” (Smith 1999: x).
The Hue Massacre was not the only massacre committed by the communists during the Vietnam War. There were others, many others, and the media would stay overwhelmingly silent on them. That, however, is a discussion for another time.
The Mainstream Media. Liars Since At Least the Vietnam War
What happened at Hue between January to February of 1968 was a massacre. A mass slaughter of innocent lives by a murderous communist regime propped up by the Soviet Union and Red China, and widely adored by leftists and traitors in the U.S.
The communists carried out a violent and horrific purge of innocent people in South Vietnam, and their friends in the U.S. mainstream liberal media helped them cover it up. It would be decades before the world learned of the Hue Massacre, and even then, it would not be widespread knowledge.
The remains of the Brinks Hotel in Saigon after a bombing attack by Vietcong terrorists on December 24, 1964. At the time, military personnel and civilian guests were inside the hotel. Terrorism was a core strategy of the communists during the Vietnam War. Much of the communists’ terrorist activities were, like the Hue Massacre, either ignored, covered up, or denied by the mainstream liberal media (U.S. Air Force).
From the evidence, it would seem that, according to leftists, something they see with their own eyes, a literal fact, may constitute as “propaganda” if it does not align with their points of view. Opinions, hearsay, and outright lies, on the other hand, may serve as “fact” if it affirms whatever the leftists are thinking and feeling.
Leftists in the U.S. loved the North Vietnamese for some reason, and were so determined to paint communists as heroes that they covered up a mass slaughter to make it happen. The liberal media covered up a genocidal act by North Vietnam in order to advance a pro-communist narrative. Let that sink in.
When we look at the mainstream liberal media today, defending Marxist riots in U.S. cities, enabling anarchy, waging a war on police, silencing those who quietly suffer from this violence and unrest, and overall, just lying to the American people every second of every day (not just misleading, but outright lying), just know that this is nothing new.
They have had a lot of practice.
The Third Police Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is set ablaze by rioters in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by dirty cop Derek Chauvin on May 28, 2020. Democrats, the media, and general leftist elites have largely and wrongfully described the violence and looting across America as “peaceful protests,” glorifying the criminals, vilifying the police (of which the overwhelming majority are good, great people), and ignoring the cries of everyday people of all colors who are adversely affected by the unrest (Wikimedia Commons).
The liberal media has been doing this for decades. Glorifying communists, anarchists, terrorists, and totalitarian regimes, all the while vilifying real heroes, patriots, and regular everyday good people who just happen to disagree with them.
The mainstream media is pro-communist and anti-American, and they have gotten away with peddling their treasonous agenda to the public, to our youth and children, for far too long. It is time that we see the leftist media for what they truly are: Liars, cowards, and traitors.
As President Donald J. Trump has said many times before: The leftist mainstream media is dishonest, fake, and the enemy of the people.
From the Vietnam War to now, and most likely well into the future, the leftist mainstream media cannot be trusted. They can never be trusted.
Then-Vice President Gerald Ford addressing Congress on December 6, 1973. During this time under President Nixon, as well as in the future Ford presidency, a Democrat-controlled Congress would do everything they could to undermine the American war effort in Vietnam in order to help the communists. Photo shared in accordance with CC BY-SA 4.0. (via Carl Albert Research and Studies Center)
Estimated reading time: 5-9 minutes
In his influential and meticulously researched book Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam 1973-1975 (2012), George J. Veith explained that the “U.S. Congress’s aid cutbacks and legislation denying fire support were the main culprits in South Vietnam’s demise,” (p. 7-8). Veith then elaborated on this point, saying that “congressional aid reductions were imposed in perverse synchronicity with increased Communist aggression,” (p. 8).
According to Veith, the communists admitted this themselves, since “Communist accounts written after the war trumpet the fact that aid cuts progressively weakened the RVNAF [Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) Air Force], while North Vietnam’s military strength concurrently recovered from the debacle of the 1972 offensive,” (p. 8).
The 1972 offensive referred by Veith is known in history as the Easter Offensive, which took place in the spring of that year. After the exit of the majority of U.S. forces from Vietnam, the North Vietnamese launched the most ambitious military campaign of the war, larger than the 1968 Tet Offensive, in hopes of knocking the South Vietnamese out of the war once and for all.
Despite their ferocity, this campaign by the North Vietnamese, like all of their attempts in the past, failed miserably.
Supported by the remaining U.S. airpower, who stayed behind to fight alongside their Vietnamese brothers in arms, the South Vietnamese, largely on their own, ripped the invading North Vietnamese to pieces, crushing their forces at An Loc, Kontum, Quang Tri, and more. The aftermath left the communist forces drained, decimated, and humiliated.
The Southern victory demonstrated not only the success of Vietnamization (or as I like to call it, Re-Vietnamization), but also dispelled the leftist media and Democrat narrative that the South Vietnamese soldiers were unprofessional, unable, and unwilling to fight. The leftists in America got proven wrong, and this hurt them and angered them deeply.
On the media’s end, they simply did not bother to write about the South’s victories in 1972. This was consistent with the leftist media conduct throughout the war: amplifying, exaggerating, and fabricating the successes of communists, while ignoring, suppressing, and whitewashing the many, many successes of South Vietnam and the U.S.
For Congress, which was led by Democrats, they continued their efforts to defund and bankrupt South Vietnam. Only now they did so at an accelerated pace.
From 1973 to 1975, the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress pushed through resolution after resolution, slashing financial aid to South Vietnam, castrating the political power of President Nixon and then President Ford, until there was nothing left for South Vietnam to run on (Veith 2012: 33-34; 55; 58-59).
Democrat Joe Biden was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 and sworn into office in early 1973. He would spend the next 47 years of his life in government as a career politician. (via U.S. Congress)
At the same time, thanks to the Democrats, the North Vietnamese were given time to rebuild and retry their attempts to conquer the South. Unlike their southern counterparts, the North had reliable allies in China and the USSR who did not hesitate in financing their friend (Sorley 1999: 382).
Following the victory over the communists in the 1972 Easter Offensive, South Vietnamese General Cao Van Vien said that the South was “fully capable of confronting the NVA [North Vietnamese Army] if U.S. support were provided in three vital areas: tactical and strategic air, to include troop transport; sea transport; and the replacement of weapons, materials, and supplies,” (Sorley 1999: 373).
Because of the Democrats, these vital needs were cut off from South Vietnam. By April 30, 1975, the fruits of the Democrats’ treasonous labor would come to fruition with the fall of Saigon.
Lewis Sorley stated the painful truth in his book A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam (1999), and this is the fact “that two totalitarian states – the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China – had proved more faithful and reliable as allies than the American democracy…” (p. 373).
If you ask me, I would say that the North Vietnamese had another ally: The Democratic Party.
Concurrent with the USSR’s and China’s consistent funding and support of the North Vietnamese, the Democrats in Congress did everything in their power to turn the tide of the war against South Vietnam and the U.S.
The mainstream media made sure that the communists were glorified and the South Vietnamese were hated. At the same time, Democrat politicians fed off the public exhaustion and anxiety generated by the leftist media, used that antiwar sentiment to elevate themselves to positions of power, and made it their personal mission to bankrupt South Vietnam and ensure a communist victory in Southeast Asia.
Both the Democrats and the leftist media rejoiced when Saigon fell and the communists took over Vietnam. To this day, Democrats and liberal journalists alike try to paint the communists in a positive light, while spitting on the sacrifices of the real heroes like the South Vietnamese and American soldiers.
This is the Democratic Party. This is what they stand for, and it has been going on for much too long.
Whether it be the Democrats in the 1960s and 1970s kowtowing to the North Vietnamese, Bill Clinton being buddy-buddy with communist China and communist Vietnam in the 1990s, Barack Obama surrendering to China, Iran, ISIS, Russia, Syria, and so many more in the 2010s, or Joe Biden and the Democrats surrendering to these same hostile actors (except ISIS, which got destroyed by the Trump administration FYI) while also being a Trojan horse for the radical left in 2020, the story of the Democratic Party in the late 20th and early 21st century is always the same: The Democrats love to surrender to the enemy, and they love to undermine and sabotage America.
It is about time we recognize this. Americans love to forgive and forget, and the Democrats and leftists have exploited that good heart for decades. If we let them do it much longer, we will no longer have a country.
As a person of South Vietnamese descent, I know exactly how it feels to lose your country. It literally happened to us, thanks to the Democrats. This is not a joke. The threat is more real than many of us want to admit.
If the Democrats take power in 2020, America will be a thing of the past, and in whatever socialist wasteland that results, the rulers, overseeing the poverty, death, and misery that is already so rampant in other socialist trash countries right now, will still try to blame their problems on made-up social issues like “toxic masculinity,” “the rise in white supremacy,” and “systemic racism.”
Reject this stupidity, reject this socialism, reject the Democratic Party.
Cited:
Sorley, Lewis. A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam. New York: Harcourt, Inc. 1999.
Veith, George J. Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam 1973-1975. New York: Encounter Books. 2012.
No U.S. presidential administration has been tougher on China than the Trump administration. That was further shown this week, when the top levels of the Trump White House launched a full-throated attack on China’s predatory global ambitions.
Estimated reading time: 7-11 minutes
‘Unlawful’: State Sec. Mike Pompeo Denounces China’s Longstanding Outrageous Claims in the Pacific Ocean
This past Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a public statement saying that the United States will no longer tolerate China’s ridiculous and far-reaching claims in the South China Sea.
The U.S. position, expressed by Pompeo, includes America’s rejection of China’s claims in maritime territories that rightfully belong to other countries including Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
In addition to saying that the U.S. will continue to strengthen its position in the Pacific region, Pompeo also cited a 2016 decision by the United Nations that greatly angered China. The UN ruled that China’s sweeping nine-dashed line claim, which asserted ownership over almost all of the territories and resources in the South China sea, was, in a nutshell, nonsense, and based on nonsense.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses reporters alongside a Chinese official in Washington, D.C. on May 23, 2018. (U.S. State Department)
Due to the meekness of the Obama administration at the time in 2016, China was largely successful in ignoring and circumventing the UN decision and to continue its land-grabbing, bullying, and general aggressiveness in the Pacific region. Under President Trump’s leadership, China’s malignant and conniving conduct on the world stage is finally being addressed with clarity and resolve.
In the words of Pompeo, “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them.”
The U.S. went as far as to assert the rights of its regional allies over their respective territories. Pompeo said that the Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal belong to the Philippines, and that the U.S. rejected China’s claims over Vietnam’s Spratly Islands and Vanguard Bank, Malaysia’s Lucania Shoals, Indonesia’s Natuna Besar, and Brunei’s general waters within its Exclusive Economic Zone.
In response to the U.S. position, the infantile Chinese Communist Party released a statement through its state-run media outlet, raging and whining that the U.S. was “mentally retarded.”
Further statements by U.S. Secretary Pompeo include:
“In the South China Sea, we [the U.S.] seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law, maintain the unimpeded flow of commerce, and oppose any attempt to use coercion or force to settle disputes.”
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law. We stand with the international community in defense of freedom of the seas and respect for sovereignty and reject any push to impose ‘might makes right’ in the South China Sea or the wider region.”
A.G. William Barr Rips Leftist American Corporations and Hollywood for Pandering and Kowtowing to Communist China
Also this week, U.S. Attorney General William Barr made a speech at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan, calling out China for its “economic blitzkrieg” and global aspiration to replace the U.S. as the world’s superpower. Barr also called out cowardly leftist U.S. corporations and Hollywood, who slavishly do the bidding of the evil Chinese communist regime while at the same time lecturing Americans on freedom and social justice.
“The CCP has long used public threats of retaliation and barred market access to exert influence. More recently, however, the CCP has also stepped up behind-the-scenes efforts to cultivate and coerce American business executives to further its political objectives — efforts that are all the more pernicious because they are largely hidden from public view.”
“Privately pressuring or courting American corporate leaders to promote policies (or politicians) presents a significant threat, because hiding behind American voices allows the Chinese government to elevate its influence and put a “friendly face” on pro-regime policies.”
“Following the recent imposition of the PRC’s draconian national security law in Hong Kong, many big tech companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Zoom, and LinkedIn, reportedly announced that they would temporarily suspend compliance with governmental requests for user data. True to form, communist officials have threatened imprisonment for non-compliant company employees.”
“Every year at the Academy Awards, Americans are lectured about how this country falls short of Hollywood’s ideals of social justice. But Hollywood now regularly censors its own movies to appease the Chinese Communist Party, the world’s most powerful violator of human rights.”
“This censorship infects not only versions of movies that are released in China, but also many that are shown in American theaters to American audiences.”
“But many more scripts likely never see the light of day, because writers and producers know not to even test the limits. Chinese government censors don’t need to say a word, because Hollywood is doing their work for them. This is a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese Communist Party.”
In his long speech, Barr explains in detail the ways in which China is looking to overthrow the U.S. as the world’s global leader. Barr breaks down how the leftist elite in the U.S. have been bowing their heads to the Chinese Communist Party, gleefully following the orders of the evil communist regime while shamelessly virtue-signalling and disparaging everyday Americans.
President Donald Trump Signs an Executive Order in Solidarity with the People of Hong Kong
President Donald Trump, in response to the Chinese Communist Party passing its oppressive “national security” law, which effectively dissolves Hong Kong’s civil rights and autonomous status, announced on Tuesday that he has signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.
The President said, “I signed legislation and an executive order to hold China accountable for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong. No administration has been tougher on China than this administration.”
According to the Congress government website, the Hong Kong Autonomy Act “imposes sanctions on foreign individuals and entities that materially contribute to China’s failure to preserve Hong Kong’s autonomy.”
U.S. President Donald J. Trump in a Cabinet meeting on November 19, 2019.(U.S. Government)
The Act also clarifies that “Hong Kong is part of China but has a largely separate legal and economic system with protections for civil rights such as freedom of speech.” Furthermore, the Act states that “The President shall impose property-blocking sanctions on an individual or entity” and “various sanctions on a financial institution” that “materially contributes” to the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to violate Hong Kong’s autonomy.
In addition, President Trump has signed an executive order removing Hong Kong’s special economic status with the U.S., stripping Hong Kong of preferential economic treatment, and reducing it to the same level as the rest of mainland China. President Trump specified in the executive order that this action was made in direct response to China’s totalitarian “national security” law over Hong Kong.
Conclusion
For the first time in U.S. history, there is a presidential administration that is unafraid to say plainly that China is a primary threat to America. Furthermore, for the first time in U.S. history, there is a president who is unafraid to take action against China, in defense of America, without hesitation.
This is shown by the strong words and actions of top-level officials in the U.S. administration such as Mike Pompeo, William Barr, and even President Trump himself.
In the 2000s, Bush was too weak (and dumb) to stand up to China, allowing China to carry out its gradual climb up the world’s economic and military standings, and to gain a financial chokehold over the American economy through the purchase of billions, upon billions, upon billions of dollars in U.S. treasury bonds.
In the 2010s, Obama was even weaker than Bush, allowing China to plunder the U.S. economy at an accelerated rate, steal U.S. technology at will, dominate the Pacific, openly insult America with impunity, and brag about its goal of attaining top country status by 2025.
Before that, in the 1990s, Bush Sr. and Clinton were both also very weak on China. Let us not forget that it was Bill Clinton who lobbied aggressively for China to join the World Trade Organization in the first place.
The Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster, California, USA. Photo shared in accordance with CC BY-SA 2.0. (via InSapphoWeTrust)
For too long, American presidents have been wrong about China. It is only President Trump who has the guts and the brains to fight China both physically and psychologically.
No other administration is tougher on China than the Trump administration. For Vietnamese-Americans, and for Americans in general, this is a wonderful thing.
The following is a collection of sources and excerpts I selected which talk about the ancient ancestors of the Vietnamese people, known in history as the “Hundred Viets” race (Bach Viet/Baiyue).
My original plan was to present the sources in my standard blog format, which is to write about each topic individually, one article at a time. I still intend to do that, so anyone who enjoys my history articles will still have that to look forward to.
At the same time, however, there is so much information that I would like you all to be aware of and see as soon as possible. That way, you know that the information exists, and if you wanted to do a little exploration of your own into our ancient and glorious past, then you can.
That is why I’ve compiled this short list of academic sources about the Hundred Viets. The following are some excellent excerpts quoted directly from the works themselves. They provide some detail into the ancient roots of the Vietnamese people, further demonstrating that Vietnamese history is pretty awesome.
The sources are not organized in alphabetical order, but rather in the order that I believe will make the most sense to the reader and help them see the big picture.
I hope you enjoy this read, and that you find it helpful in discovering and understanding the rich heritage of the Vietnamese people.
Brace yourself, though. It’s a longer read.
Word count: 2709**
Estimated reading time: 15-19 minutes
*photos in this article are presented primarily for aesthetic purposes, and, while they could be, are not necessarily related to the topics discussed
**word count does not include the standard bibliography at the end of the article (word count with bibliography: 2955)
1. Murphey, Rhoads. East Asia: A New History, Fifth Edition. Boston: Longman. 2010.
“ The Yue kingdom had included the related people and culture of what is now northern Vietnam… In Han times, the southern people and culture of Yue were regarded as foreign and were in fact very different from those of the north. More than traces of these differences remain even now, including the Cantonese language and cuisine… The people and culture of Vietnam were still more different, and they regained their independence from China after the fall of the Han. “(Murphy 2010: 60)
“ The name Viet (Yue in Chinese) derives from the name of an ancient kingdom that existed during the Warring States Period (sixth to third centuries BCE) on the southeastern coast of what is now China. The name came to be applied by the ancient Chinese to peoples on their southern frontier… Nam Viet (Chinese Nan Yue, meaning “South Viet”) was the name of an ancient kingdom in southern China. “(Murphey 2010: 188)
“ … 111 BCE to 220 CE: Han conquest of Yue, northern Vietnam ”
(Murphy 2010: 189)
2. Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2011.
“ The new nineteenth-century name Vietnam was consciously intended to evoke the memory of an ancient (208-110 BCE) kingdom called Southern Viet (pronounced Nam Viet in Vietnamese). Because the capital of that ancient Southern Viet kingdom had been located at the site of the modern city of Guangzhou (in English, Canton), in China, however, nineteenth-century Vietnam was obviously somewhat further south… The reason, then, why the capital of the ancient kingdom of Southern Viet was… located north of modern Vietnam in what is now China, was because the very earliest Bronze Age kingdom called Viet (in Chinese, Yue 越), from which all of these names presumably ultimately derived, had been located even further north, in the vicinity of the modern Chinese Province of Zhejiang, almost halfway up the coast of what is today China! Early Chinese texts, in fact, referred to most of what is now southeast China as the land of the “Hundred Viets.” “(Holcombe 2011: 9)
3. Nguyen, Dieu Thi. “A mythographical journey to modernity: The textual and symbolic transformations of the Hung Kings founding myths.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, no. 2 (2013): 315-37.
“ The origin or founding myth of Vietnam is ‘Truyen Hong Bang’ (The tale of Hong Bang)… According to the tale, King Kinh Duong, who belonged to the bloodline of the Northern Than Nong (in Chinese Shen Nung, or the Divine Farmer) on his paternal side, and to the Immortals on his maternal side, ruled over the Southern realm named Xich Qui Quoc (The Red-haired Devils’ Realm)… During a journey to the Water Realm, Kinh Duong married a Dragon Spirit, who gave birth to one son, Sung Lam, also known as Lac Long Quan (Dragon Lord of the Lac)… The Dragon Lord met Au Co, an Immortal from the Mountainous Realm, and was smitten by her beauty… The quoc dan (realm’s people) over which they ruled were known as the Bach Viet (One hundred Viet), noted for their custom of tattooing as taught by their Dragon Lord-Father to ward off crocodiles and other aquatic creatures. “(Nguyen 2013: 318-19)
4. Cameron, Judith. “Textile Crafts in the Gulf of Tongking: The Intersection Between Archeology and History.” In The Tongking Gulf Through History, edited by Nola Cooke, Li Tana, and James A. Anderson: 25-38. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011.
” According to Vietnamese folk history, the earliest groups in the Red River region had no knowledge of spinning and weaving until the time of the Hùng kings, the first indigenous chiefdom centered on the Red River valley. It was ruled by kings who claimed descent from a heroic ancestor, the Lạc dragon lord, who had come from the sea, subdued evil elements in the region, and civilized the people by teaching them to cultivate rice and weave clothes. “(Cameron 2011: 31)
” The spinning and weaving data from these excavations provide firm evidence for the introduction of textile technology into the Red River valley by late prehistoric groups belonging to the Tanshishan culture (probably Yue) from Fujian Province. “(Cameron 2011: 30-37)
5. Milburn, Olivia. “A Virtual City: The ‘Records of the Lands of Yue’ and the Founding of Shaoxing.” Oriens Extremus, vol. 46 (2007): 117-46.
” The city of Shaoxing 紹興, in what is now northern Zhejiang province, is one of China’s oldest recorded planned cities. At the time of its foundation in 490 BCE, the city was intended to function as the capital city of the independent and culturally distinct kingdom of Yue 越, at that time on the southern edge of the Chinese world. It was laid out by order of King Goujian of Yue 越王勾踐 (r. 496-465 BCE), the most famous monarch of that kingdom, who played a crucial role in the political life at the very end of the Spring and Autumn period (771-475 BCE). “(Milburn 2007: 117)
” There are fundamental problems with understanding any Yue text, in that many aspects of the cultural and linguistic background are unknown, and completely different from those recorded in other ancient Chinese texts. ” (Milburn 2007: 118)
” It was only towards the end of the Spring and Autumn period that the people of the Zhou confederacy began to become aware of the Yue peoples in the south. The Yue peoples, related culturally and linguistically but not politically (and indeed often at war with each other) stretched along the coast from what is now southern Jiangsu province down the coast to northern Vietnam. “(Milburn 2007: 118)
” Every reference in ancient Chinese texts to the people of the south, particularly to the kingdom of Yue, spoke of their unusual appearance and strange customs. The people of Yue were regarded as alien by the inhabitants of the Central States since they wore their hair cut short and they were tattooed. In addition to that they were a riverine and coastal people, travelling by boat rather than by horse and cart. They were highly bellicose, with a reputation for great bravery. This was enhanced by the widespread use in Yue culture of swords, generally admitted to be of unparalleled quality. To the people of the Central States (whose records provide virtually everything that is known of the Yue people prior to the archaeological discoveries of the last half century), the Yue were exotic and dangerous. “(Milburn 2007: 119)
6. Hartmann, John, Wei Luo, Fahui Wang, and Guanxiong Wang. “Sinification of Zhuang place names in Guangxi, China: a GIS-based spatial analysis approach.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, no. 2 (2012): 317-33.
” Zhuang, the largest minority language in China, is the label given to a variety of Tai languages and dialects spoken mostly in Guangxi. As a result of the process known as Sinification or Sinicisation stemming from the influx of Han soldiers and settlers moving in from many directions, but primarily the north, many Zhuang place names (toponyms) were changed to Han or pronounced with a Han accent or spelled in Chinese in such a way as to obscure the original Zhuang form. “(Hartmann et al. 2012: 317)
” The origin of the Zhuang can be traced to the ‘Baiyue’ peoples in southern China, recorded in history as early as in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (475-221 BC) (e.g. Pan 2005). Historically, the Zhuang were farmers who specialised in growing rice in irrigated fields called naa in Zhuang languages. They lived primarily in thousands of villages or small towns in the lowlands close to rivers and streams that were dammed to divert water into the naa. The history of the Zhuang, like other minorities in Chinese frontier regions (e.g. Herman 2007), is marked by a relentless series of violent conflicts with their northern neighbour, the Han (the Chinese majority). “(Hartmann et al. 2012: 318)
7. Fu, Songbin, Pu Li, Xiangning Meng, and Yali Xue. “Study on the Distribution of the ‘MSY2’ Polymorphism in 9 Chinese Populations.” Anthropologischer Anzeiger, h. 1 (2005): 23-27.
” The Buyi, who came from the ancient “Baiyue” and had the same predecessor with the Zhuang, were relatively closed by living in plains isolated by mountains. “(Fu et al. 2005: 26)
8. Weinstein, Jodie L. Empire and Identity in Guizhou: Local Resistance to Qing Expansion. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 2014.
” In northwestern Guizhou, the Lolo, known today as the Yi predominated, interspersed with small settlements of Han immigrants and Miao. The southwest had a high concentration of Zhongjia (Buyi)… “(Weinstein 2014: 17)
” To begin answering the question “Who are the Zhongjia?” it will be useful to first examine some modern demographic and ethnographic data. As noted earlier, the Zhongjia have been called the Buyi since 1953. Numbering around 2.9 million, the Buyi today constitute the eleventh-largest minority nationality in the People’s Republic of China. “(Weinstein 2014: 19)
” The Buyi represent one of many Tai groups in southern China and Southeast Asia… Their closest kin in both ethnolinguistic and geographic terms are the Northern Zhuang, a subgroup within the much larger Zhuang nationality that is found mostly in Guangxi… The Buyi and Northern Zhuang share so many cultural and linguistic similarities that it is impossible to study one group without reference to the other… More distant relatives of the Buyi include the Southern Zhuang of Guangxi and the Nung and Tay of Vietnam. The Buyi also share some cultural and linguistic features with the Dai of southern Yunnan as well as the Thai, Lao, and Shan populations of mainland Southeast Asia. Their extended ethnic family also includes the Dong (Kam), Shui, and Maonan ethnic groups dispersed throughout Guizhou, Guangxi, and Hunan, and the Li of Hainan. “(Weinstein 2014: 19)
” Archeological findings, linguistic data, and DNA evidence suggest that these Tai-speaking populations all descended from the Hundred Yue (Baiyue) peoples who occupied a vast area of eastern, central, and south- ern China as early as 2000 B.C.E. Two Baiyue civilizations in particular have been linked to the Buyi of Guizhou and their Zhuang neighbors. The Buyi and Northern Zhuang seem to share ancestral ties to the Xi’ou people who inhabited the West River basin along Guangxi’s present-day border with Guangdong. The Southern Zhuang, along with the closely related Nung and Tay, may have descended from the Luoyue people who lived in the area extending from Guangxi’s current provincial capital of Nanning to the Red River basin of northern Vietnam. Like their contemporaries in other Yue societies, the inhabitants of Xi’ou and Luoyue relied primarily on rice farming and other agricultural activities for their livelihood. “(Weinstein 2014: 19-20)
9. Ruan, Xing. Allegorical Architcture: Living Myth and Architectonics in Southern China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 2006.
” The Dong are an ancient but little-known ethnic group who today number more than 2.9 million, a little less than the population of, say, Jamaica. All existing historical records on the Dong are in Chinese, which, as mentioned earlier, was based on various “travel notes” from adventurous Han literati like Lu You. “(Ruan 2006: 14)
” Generally speaking, the Dong are believed to have originated from a branch of the ancient Luoyue, who are known to have lived in Guizhou at the end of the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220). The Luoyue were native people of the area now inhabited by the Dong. The historically recorded Luoyue customs—tattoos, bronze drums, men and women bathing together in rivers, and the like—are still alive in today’s Dong social life. In some places, even mountains and clans are named Luo. Through time, the ancient Baiyue migrated into this region, mingling with the native population. Other propositions regarding the origins of the Dong associate them with the ancient Yue, the Ouyue, the Ganyue, the Jinyue, and others. In all of these cases, the Dong are thought to have derived from these people.” (Ruan 2006: 22)
10. Wang, Feng. “Report of Conference in Evolutionary Linguistics (2012).” Journal of Chinese Linguistics, no. 1 (2013): 246-53.
” How to draw genetic trees of languages is an important area where methods and information from mathematics can be brought into evolutionary linguistics… Deng Xiaohua of Xiamen University applied molecular anthropology and lexicostatistics to obtain a genetic tree of Austronesian languages in Taiwan. Based on the analysis of this tree, the BaiYue-Austronesian group was thought to be formed around 4000 B.P. in southeastern China. “(Wang 2013: 251)
11. Bush, Richard C. Untying the Knot: Making Peace in the Taiwan Strait. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. 2005.
” In May 2001, scientists in Taiwan announced the results of research on the genetic origins of the island’s Minnan (southern Fujian) majority. This is the part of the population known as Taiwanese, as opposed to mainlanders, Hakkas, and aborigines. The researchers found that they were in fact descended from the Yueh people, who were scattered along the southeastern coast of China during the later Zhou dynasty (770–221 B.C.). The political implication: Taiwanese were not ethnically Chinese. “(Bush 2005: 225)
” Not to be outdone, PRC researchers announced in December 2001 that four aboriginal groups in Taiwan exhibited a specific chromosomal pattern characteristic of the Li ethnic group on Hainan Island and that all five groups were descended from the Baiyue people of eastern China. The Baiyue were said to have migrated to both Hainan and Taiwan, where they maintained the same lifestyle and customs. The Chinese message: even Taiwan’s aborigines had a connection with the mainland. “(Bush 2005: 225)
12. He, Yinan. “Competing Narratives, Identity Politics, and Cross-Strait Reconciliation.” Asian Perspective, no. 4 (2010): 45-83.
” On prehistoric Taiwan, three theoretical models exist in the academic debate: theories of southern origin, arguing that Taiwan’s aborigines are the carriers of the Austronesian languages who originally lived on the islands in Southeast Asia and moved to Taiwan; theories of northern origin contending that the aborigines are descendants of the ancient Baiyue (hundreds of Yue tribes), people who came from southern China, although the Yue people remaining in China have since been assimilated by the Han; and theories suggesting that Taiwan is the land of the Austronesian languages and center of the southern islands culture. “(He 2010: 50)
” Two pieces of news caught peoples’ eyes in 2001. First, two students of Fudan University compared the gaoshanzu with the osseous remains found in a Yue relic in Maqiao, near Shanghai, and claimed that their chromosome match was 50 percent or more. In the other report, the Institute of Genetics of the Chinese Academy of Science concluded that the Li minorities living in Hainan Island today share ancestors with four gaoshanzu groups because their chromosome type is the same as the Baiyue people in Zhejiang province but differs from Southeast Asian people. “(He 2010: 51)
Conclusion:
That’s all (for now), folks! As you can see, the Vietnamese people have an ancient ancestry. Our influence vast, and our historical impact immense. Hope you enjoyed the read.
Bibliography (standard and alphabetical):
Bush, Richard C. Untying the Knot: Making Peace in the Taiwan Strait. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. 2005.
Cameron, Judith. “Textile Crafts in the Gulf of Tongking: The Intersection Between Archeology and History.” In The Tongking Gulf Through History, edited by Nola Cooke, Li Tana, and James A. Anderson: 25-38. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011.
Fu, Songbin, Pu Li, Xiangning Meng, and Yali Xue. “Study on the Distribution of the ‘MSY2’ Polymorphism in 9 Chinese Populations.” Anthropologischer Anzeiger, h. 1 (2005): 23-27.
Hartmann, John, Wei Luo, Fahui Wang, and Guanxiong Wang. “Sinification of Zhuang place names in Guangxi, China: a GIS-based spatial analysis approach.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, no. 2 (2012): 317-33.
He, Yinan. “Competing Narratives, Identity Politics, and Cross-Strait Reconciliation.” Asian Perspective, no. 4 (2010): 45-83.
Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2011.
Milburn, Olivia. “A Virtual City: The ‘Records of the Lands of Yue’ and the Founding of Shaoxing.” Oriens Extremus, vol. 46 (2007): 117-46.
Murphey, Rhoads. East Asia: A New History, Fifth Edition. Boston: Longman. 2010.
Nguyen, Dieu Thi. “A mythographical journey to modernity: The textual and symbolic transformations of the Hung Kings founding myths.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, no. 2 (2013): 315-37.
Ruan, Xing. Allegorical Architecture: Living Myth and Architectonics in Southern China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 2006.
Wang, Feng. “Report of Conference in Evolutionary Linguistics (2012).” Journal of Chinese Linguistics, no. 1 (2013): 246-53.
Weinstein, Jodie L. Empire and Identity in Guizhou: Local Resistance to Qing Expansion. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 2014.
Guangdong Province of China was once the place of the ancient Vietnamese kingdom of Nam-Viet in the late first millenium B.C. Photo by Irina Iriser onPexels.com
The Cantonese language is a derivation of the Vietnamese language. If you didn’t know, then now you know.
A brief excerpt from Rhoads Murphey’s textbook, East Asia: A New History, 5th Edition, says the following (p. 60):
In Han [China] times, the southern people and culture of Yue [Viet] were regarded as foreign and were in fact very different from those of the north. More than traces of these differences remain even now, including the Cantonese language and cuisine… The people and culture of Vietnam were still more different, and they regained their independence from China after the fall of the Han.
The excerpt from Murphey above candidly shows that the Cantonese language and cuisine were part of Viet culture. This is further evidence demonstrating that the Vietnamese people’s role and influence in Asia during ancient times were larger and more prominent than is commonly believed in popular history.
One important note about Murphey’s book is that it is heavily skewed in favor of China. His coverage of Chinese history is presented with more enthusiasm and glorification than his coverage of Vietnamese history. Despite this point, there is still some useful information about Vietnam to be found in his work.
If taken with other sources on Vietnamese history (one recommendation are the works of Cornell University’s Keith W. Taylor), Murphey’s reluctant coverage may assist a newcomer in learning some introductory things about the Vietnamese nation and its people.
Prior to the invasion by the Chinese Han Dynasty in 111 B.C., there existed a Vietnamese kingdom named Nam-Viet in what is today Guangdong and Guangxi (Murphy 2010: 191). The capital of the Nam-Viet kingdom was located in what is today the city of Guangzhou (aka Canton) (Holcombe 2011: 9).
After the fall of the Han, the people of Viet would wrestle from the grips of Chinese control, occasionally breaking free, but ultimately being recaptured by a new Chinese dynasty. The Viet people’s fight for independence would eventually be achieved once and for all in 938 A.D., with Ngo Quyen’s victory at the Battle of Bach Dang River.
The people of Vietnam have ancient roots that stretch back more than 4,000 years.
Ancestors of the Vietnamese people are known as the “Hundred Viets” race. These Hunded Viets occupied a vast region in Asia that included today’s northern Vietnam and much of today’s China south of the Yangtze River.
Today, Vietnam is a nation in Southeast Asia, with a rich and proud history that is only beginning to truly be grasped by western observers.
Cited:
Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2011.
Murphey, Rhoads. East Asia: A New History, 5th Edition. Boston: Longman. 2010.
There is already a lot of information out there about Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. Much of the following is common knowledge.
We are a nation in Southeast Asia.
We fought a bloody and destructive war in the 20th century, which took place between the 1950s and 1970s. The U.S. was involved in this war and fought alongside the good guys (the South Vietnamese).
Since the 10th century, we became an independent nation called Dai Viet (“Great Viet”) after 1,000 years of Chinese occupation, which started when the Han Dynasty took over in the first century BC.
Vietnam has some pretty incredible historical heroes, such as Lady Trieu, who led a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful rebellion against the Kingdom of Wu in the third century; General Tran Hung Dao, who crushed the mighty Mongol Yuan Empire invaders in the 14th century; and Emperor Nguyen Hue Quang Trung, who eviscerated the invaders from the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the 18th century.
These are just a few of the things that encompass the long and storied heritage of the Vietnamese people. They are a cornerstone of the Vietnamese identity, and are commonly known to anyone who is interested in Vietnamese history.
As important and timeless as these truths are, however, they are things that happened relatively recently, within the last 2,000 years in the AD era (Anno Domini; also known as the Common Era [CE]; after the birth of Christ). Therefore, they do not explain who the Vietnamese people were in ancient times, in the BC era (Before Christ) of the western calendar.
And so, in pursuit of a deeper understanding of Vietnamese history, the following questions are raised:
Did Vietnam exist before 2,000 years ago?
If yes, what was Vietnam like before 2,000 years ago?
Just how old are the Vietnamese people?
The proceeding sections of this article will present more detailed answers to the questions above. If you’re short on time right now, though, then the quick version of the answers, in their respective order, are:
Yes.
Pretty sophisticated and impressive.
Really, really, really old.
Brief Answers:
1. Yes, a Vietnamese state did exist before 2,000 years ago:
It wasn’t called “Vietnam” during that time, but it did exist. And it existed in several forms in different time periods.
Vietnam had a number of names throughout its existence. Some (but not all) of these names include “Van Lang,” “Au Lac,” “Nam-Viet,” and “Dai-Viet.” It was not until the 19th century that the modern name “Viet-Nam” was adapted by the Nguyen Dynasty.
The Vietnamese state we will talk about specifically in the next section is Au Lac.
2. This Vietnamese state, Au Lac, was independent, sophisticated, and impressive.
In the first millennium BC, there existed the Vietnamese state of Au Lac. Its capital city was named Co Loa. As the next section will show, Co Loa was quite advanced and developed, signifying that the people who built it were socially, politically, and culturally sophisticated.
3. The Vietnamese people have existed for more than 4,000 years.
Besides the testament presented by the state of Au Lac, there is evidence that the Vietnamese people have existed in northern Vietnam and much of southern China for a really, really, really long time.
Read on to find more detailed explanations for these answers.
Co Loa Citadel and the Vietnamese state of Au Lac in the first millennium BC:
In his book The Origins of Ancient Vietnam (2015), Nam C. Kim presents valuable insight into the state of Au Lac. From Au Lac, the Vietnamese people can trace their heritage back to at least the first millennium BC.
Traditional accounts signify that the kingdom of Au Lac was founded through conquest by a man named An Duong Vuong (aka “King An Duong”) in the third century BC (Kim, 2015: 5). There is common agreement that in Vietnamese tradition, King An Duong is recognized as one of the early ancestors of the Vietnamese people.
Following his conquest, the newly crowned King An Duong ordered the construction of a large citadel in Tay-vu called Co Loa Thanh (aka “Co Loa Citadel”). This citadel, which may simply be called “Co Loa,” would be the capital city of Au Lac, and thus, the political and power center of this new kingdom (Kim, 2015: 5).
(Note: Be careful not to confuse “Co Loa,” the name of the capital city of Au Lac, with “Cao Lo,” the name of one of King An Duong’s advisors, who is also an important historical figure associated with the city’s founding.)
The statue of Cao Lo, builder of the mythical magic crossbow that, according to legend, allowed King An Duong to conquer countless enemies in battle. Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo shared in accordance with CC BY-SA 4.0. (via Julez A. / Wikimedia Commons).
What is significant about the city of Co Loa is its size and sophistication.
Kim’s account presents the fact that Co Loa was a large and heavily fortified city. This, he argues, is proof of significant complexity and consolidated authority that was present within this Viet society when the city was built (2015: 6).
The name “Co Loa” itself means “old snail city.” It comes from the city’s artful and intricate architecture, whose “walls appear to be laid out in concentric rings of earthen ramparts reminiscent of a snail shell,” (Kim, 2015: 5).
The builders of the Co Loa settlement, which Kim calls the “Co Loa Polity,” is said to be an organized political entity. They were centralized, operated at the state level, and had longstanding political institutions (2015: 9).
All of this suggests that the founders of Au Lac, and its capital Co Loa, were people of military, political, and cultural sophistication. These early ancestors of the Vietnamese people were organized, civilized, and well-established.
In addition to Au Lac, the general Red River Delta region in northern Vietnam has been considered the “heartland” of Vietnamese civilization since at least the third millennium BC. (Kim, 2015: 18).
Further investigation into Vietnam’s past shows the existence of ancient peoples whose roots stretch further back than is commonly understood in popular culture.
Collectively, these peoples are known as the Hundred Viets, and had occupied the regions of northern Vietnam and southern China long before the Chinese came.
The Hundred Viets peoples who inhabited Southern China before the Chinese did:
One of the more commonly known examples of Vietnamese people occupying parts of southern China comes from Nam-Viet, another kingdom that also existed in the first millennium BC. Based on its founding year, Nam-Viet is newer than Au Lac.
Nam-Viet existed between 208-110 BC, and, like Au Lac, was a state of Vietnamese origin. It was located in what is today the city of Guangzhou, China (Holcombe, 2011: 9). The name “Nam-Viet,” if translated to English, means “Southern Viet.”
Earlier than this, possibly by a thousand years, there existed yet another Vietnamese kingdom. Charles Holcombe, in A History of East Asia (2011), talks about an early “Bronze Age kingdom called Viet,” which was “located even farther north [than Guangzhou], in the vicinity of the modern Chinese Province of Zhejiang, almost half way up the coast of what is today China!” (2011: 9).
Tellingly, it is also noted by Holcombe that, “Early Chinese texts, in fact, referred to most of what is now southeast China as the land of the ‘Hundred Viets,'” (2011: 9).
A snapshot of modern-day Zhejiang Province in southeast China. Notice the province of Anhui directly northwest. These locations were once the homes of several Viet groups before the arrival of the Chinese.
Holcombe also spends some time in his book briefly talking about one specific tribe of the Hundred Viets. These are the Mountain Viets (in Chinese, “Shan Yue”), who occupied the lower Yangtze River area, and who took their last stand against the Chinese kingdom of Wu before being defeated in the third century AD (2011: 62).
During the “Three Kingdoms” era in Chinese history, the Kingdom of Wu waged a military campaign against the Mountain Viets. This campaign started in the year 234 AD, lasted for three years, and culminated in the surrender of approximately 100,000 Mountain Viets at what today is modern Anhui Province in China (Holcombe 2011: 62).
From Holcombe’s account, it appears that the Mountain Viets were then assimilated into the Chinese population. After the Three Kingdoms period, the name “Mountain Viet” was not spoken of again (2011: 62).
The evidence here shows that before the Chinese came, much of what is today southern China was inhabited by the ancestors of the Vietnamese people. More specifically, it is proof that the Vietnamese people have a long and deep history that is much older and more sophisticated than is commonly believed.
4,000+ Years and counting:
Whether it be the kingdoms of Au Lac and Nam-Viet during the mid-late first millennium BC, or the Kingdom of Viet before that during the Bronze Age, it is clear that prior to the AD era, the Vietnamese people did exist.
The evidence shows that the various Viet kingdoms are connected to a larger family of ancient Viet peoples, which, together, comprise the “Hundred Viets” race.
The Dong Son Bronze Drum is a known symbol of Vietnamese antiquity. This photo was taken at the Vietnam History Museum, and posted to Wikimedia Commons on April 13, 2009 by Binh Giang (Public Domain).
The Hundred Viets occupied vast areas of both East Asia and Southeast Asia, reaching from what is northern Vietnam today, all the way through modern-day southern China up to the Yangtze River.
While further research continues to provide more clarity on just how old the Vietnamese people are, current findings show that they have existed for at least 4,000 years.
Not bad.
Cited:
Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2011.
Kim, Nam C. The Origins of Ancient Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press. 2015.
Freedom For Vietnam 