10 Câu Hỏi Thi: Tìm Hiểu Lịch Sử và Văn Hóa Việt Nam | Môn Vietnamese History and Culture - Trường Đại học Quốc tế, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
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Môn: Vietnamese History and Culture 7 tài liệu
Trường: Trường Đại học Quốc tế, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 1.1 K tài liệu
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lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
1. What are the main characteristics of Vietnamese History & Culture? -
Firstly, Vietnam has a long history filled with a lot of wars, especially resistant wars against
foreign invaders. During the Van Lang – Au Lac civilization, Chao To conquered Au Lac in 179BC and
then established Nan Yue Kingdom until 111BC when Han Dynasty replaced, starting 10 centuries of
Chinese domination. During this period, there were a lot of Vietnamese people’s uprisings against
Chinese ruler such as uprising 2 sister Trung, Ms Trieu, Phung Hung, Ly Bi, Trieu Quang Phuc, …
Finally, in 938AD, Ngo Quyen defeated Southern Han troops on Bach Dang River, beginning an
independent era of our country. After that, there was a civil war between 12 warlords until Dinh Bo Linh
unified the country. In the Earlier Le Dynasty, Le Hoan defeated Sung troops from China. After that,
our army won against 0.5 million Mongolian – Yuan troops when they attacked our country 3 times
during Tran Dynasty. Later, Le Loi swept out Ming troops, established Later Le Dynasty in 1427-1428.
However, in the next period, Vietnam faced a national division into Northern Court, ruled by the Mac
and Southern Court, ruled by the Le. When Mac collapsed in 1592, civil wars and peasant wars took
place, the most significant one is Trinh – Nguyen War, which finally ended in the 18th century when 3
Tay Son brothers stood up. In 1788 – 1789, Nguyen Hue defeated 290,000 Tsing troops, only 5,000
survived, starting Tay Son Dynasty. In 1858, Vietnam was attacked by French colonials. While fighting
against the French, our army also had to face 200,000 Tuong Gioi Thach troops from China. From 1846
to 1954, there was Indochina War which was a resistant war against French imperialism. Soon after we
defeated the French, we immediately faced The Vietnam War – which was a resistant war against
American for nation salvation. The final general offensive and uprising 1975 totally defeated the Neo-
colonialism and unified our country. After seizing independence, Vietnam armies faced Southwest
Border War and fought against 600,000 Chinese troops in 1979. Up until now, we still have to fight over sea territory against China. -
Secondly, Vietnam has special culture which has acculturation, or, cultural exchanges. The most
important exchanges are Sinicization and DeSinicization - the process whereby non-Han Chinese
societies come under the influences of dominant Han Chinese state and society and conversely, the
elimination of Chinese influences. Sinicization includes normal exchanges and compulsory exchanges
– which were the result of Chinese assimilation during 1000 years of Chinese domination. However,
Vietnam also went Desinicized, which means choosing the bets to improve. For example, Vietnamese
people did not completely use Han scripts but changing to Nom scripts, which was based on Chinese
but included newly invented characters meant to represent native Vietnamese words... Moreover, we
even pronounced in Han – Vietnamese. Another acculturation is Westernization and
Dewesternization, which started from the 16th century until now. Like Sinicization, Westernization also
had normal and compulsory exchanges, including the adoption of the Latin alphabet and the spread of
Catholicism and Protestantism – which soon became a new religion in Vietnam. Meanwhile,
Dewesternization was shown through the process of how Vietnamese people build the structure of
university and education system. We learnt to apply Western technology. Art and music was also
affected. Some foreign words that we borrowed from Western languages were Vietnamized in
pronunciation. Marxism was approved and adapted through Ho Chi Minh ideology. Currently, Vietnam
is in the process of Dewesternization to build up modern Vietnamese culture with Vietnamese identity.
On the other hand, Vietnamese culture also acquired Hinduisation, for example, My Son Holy Land in the central Vietnam. lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008 -
Thirdly, Vietnamese history & culture has 2 cycles of civilization. The 1st one is Red River
civilization, or Van Lang – Au Lac civilization, a civilization is full of cultural achievements. Van Lang
and Au Lac were the 2 first states of Vietnamese people. The reunion of tribes showed that we already
had enough differentiations of classes and enough strength to control and build up cannel along the Red
River. If there had been no Van Lang – Au Lac civilization, there would be no Vietnam today. This
civilization formed and built up the fundamental foundation of Vietnamese identity of Vietnamese
culture. After it collapsed, the country experienced 10 centuries of Chinese domination. However, with
the winning of Ngo Quyen in 938 against Southern Han on Bach Dang River, the 2nd era of Vietnamese
civilization started as Great Viet/ Dai Viet civilization during Ly – Tran – Later Le Dynasty. This
civilization created a lot of new things. Without Dai Viet civilization, there would be no Vietnam today
too. Its collapse in the 16th century resulted in division, civil wars and peasant wars. After that, Vietnam
was put under colonization, bringing about the impoverishing living standard. After the Doi Moi Policy
in 1986, Vietnamese people hope to return to civilization with the new establishment of Vietnamese Socialist. -
Finally, another main characteristic is that Vietnamese history & culture has special development
of socio-economic formation. For instant, compared with European world which went through primitive
communist, slave-owning mode of production, federalism and capitalism, Vietnamese world also started
with primitive communist, but then continued with Asiatic mode of production, federalism and then
semi-feudal colonial society along with colonial capitalism. European culture had seeds of new society
in old society, while remains of old society still existed in new society, but they only lasted for a short
time then stopped completely. Meanwhile, Vietnamese socio-economic formation did not stop at any
particular time. All mode of productions continuously existed throughout the history of the country up
until 1945. For example, primitive society was still on some mountainous areas. There were no
landlords, just rich and poor people. In other words, Vietnamese world experienced multimode of production.
2. What were relations between the Red River civilization and the formation of Vietnamese identity? -
A country’s identity is the most distinguished element in culture, including changeable and
unchangeable values. Vietnamese identity includes 4 characteristics. Firstly, Vietnamese people have
deep community mind. Living as a community, Vietnamese people had strong and deep nationalism and
patriotism. They treasured family values, village values and country values. Secondly, Vietnamese
identity includes flexibility and synthesis. In other words, they are open-mindedness, Vietnamese people
had no conservativeness, dogmatism, xenophobia and segregation. Besides, they were known to had
tolerance, especially religious tolerance. As we know, there were no religious wars throughout the entire
Vietnamese history. Vietnamese followed & respected, waiting for a favorable moment to upset. For
example, in politics and military, when the Vietnamese defeated an army, we sent delegation to excuse,
organized diplomatic talk and established the reasons for the army to withdraw, … Another example in
religion is that the Vietnamese combined religions under Ly – Tran Dynasty. When a Vietnamese person
shouted “Trời Phật ơi” – it included the three religions: Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism in just
one phrase. Thirdly, there was deep sentimentalism among the Vietnamese. Relations between people
was based on cooperation, no friends means no cooperation. They also used family position to call the
society, such as addressing older women as aunts, older men as uncles, etc. Finally, in Vietnamese lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
identity, we paid full respect to women. We called “cái” (female) for the biggest part such as “Sông Cái”
(Big river), “ngón cái” (thumb), … We also called Bà Điểm, Bà Quẹo, Hai Bà Trưng, … to show respect for women. -
From the 8th century BC to the 2nd century BC, Van Lang and Au Lac culture together formed the
Red River civilization, along with its identity. There were a lot of relations between the Red River
civilization and the formation of Vietnamese identity.
● Even though it was not a nation yet, just only a strong ethnic group with national
orientation, but it was the primary or starting factor for nationalism later. Rising from the needs
of controlling water from Red River, ancient Viet tribes were needed to unify and make solidarity
in order to survive. Wars and conflicts between primitive tribes taking place during that period
leaded to the reunion of Viet tribes. Also, archeologists has found many weapons in ancient
tombs, which shows that ancient Viet people believed that they could use in another world.
Unlike ancient communes such as Greek and Latin ones and German commune, Red River
civilization was based on Asiatic commune, which had only public ownership of land and had
no private ownership. This resulted in the social stratification as a community, forming the deep
community mind of Vietnamese identity.
● Also, the cultural exchanges during the Red River civilization formed the flexibility and
synthesis of Vietnamese identity. Its culture was influenced from North China and Southeast
Asia, making a cultural combination and diversity. Red River civilization is a result of
combination and cultural exchanges in history. Vietnamese could not survive without exchanges.
● At that time, hunting and farming were Viet people’s basic methods to earn their living.
The agricultural culture formed the deep sentimentalism among Vietnamese people, which was
the foundation of the formation of Vietnamese identity.
● On the other hand, with the long domination of Matriarchy in the previous time, the
formation of Vietnamese identity brought about the respect for women. -
All of these things combined together and founded the formation of Vietnamese identity. Before
Chinese domination, Vietnamese had had already independent culture and diversified civilization.
3. What were the processes of Sinicization and DeSinicization during over 10 centuries of Chinese
domination (Explain why the Vietnamese people could reserve Vietnamese identity after over 10
centuries of Chinese domination) -
In theory, Sinicization means Chinalization – the process whereby non-Han Chinese societies
come under the influences of dominant Han Chinese state and society. In the contrast, DeSinicization is
the elimination of Chinese influences. The combination of these 2 process are called cultural exchanges
– a rule for cultural development. In culturology and socio-cultural anthropology, this is a special category. -
Sinicization and DeSinicization were resulted from the Chinese domination in Vietnam over 10
centuries. During and after this period, Vietnamese people could still reserve Vietnamese identity
because they knew how to practice special acculturation. When Chao To conquered Au Lac in 179BC
and Han Dynasty ruled the country in 111BC, Vietnam was divided into administrative sub units, named lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
as Chiao Chih (Giao Chỉ) and Chiu Chen (Cửu Chân), which belonged to Chiao Chou (Giao Châu).
Later, Vietnam was called An Nam Colonial district While ruling Vietnam, Chinese enacted some
policies. They carried out bloody suppression in politics and military by hegemonism and ethnic
cleasing . They used Vietnamese people to rule Vietnamese people in the 2 controlled Chinese districts
and autonomies of Vietnam in villages – which could not be controlled by the Chinese but the
Vietnamese. They still kept the old system that Vietnamese people used in the previous time – having
Military functionary and Literature under the chief. Moreover, the Chinese rulers conducted economic
exploitation – which was part of their “feudalist colonialism”. They also enacted immigration policy,
which means bringing the Chinese to Vietnam to live, including prisoners, peasants, soldiers,
intellectuals, officials, landlords, merchants, …) More seriously, the Chinese did the cultural
assimilation over Vietnam. Vietnamese people had to learn Chinese writings, wear Chinese clothes, …
Until that time, Vietnam had only 2 groups surviving: Au Viet & Lac Viet, the remaining 98% had been
assimilated by the Chinese. In other words, Vietnamese people knew how to desinicize. - Even though
Vietnamese could not keep the race identity (material), we could still keep the cultural identity (mental).
For the Sinicization, Vietnamese people experienced both normal exchanges and compulsory
exchanges. Normal exchanges, which means positive sides, were shown as how
Vietnamese learnt Chinese, but Chinese also learnt Vietnamese. In history, no exchange means no
development. Therefore, everyone was free to choose, everyone has the equal opportunity to learn
together. However, there were also compulsory exchanges, which are known as assimilation - Chinese
authority wanted to assimilate Vietnamese into Chinese. Likewise, by DeSinicization, Vietnamese
people not only experienced normal exchanges by accepting, receiving, improving and adapting
selectively, but also struggling against assimilation through compulsory exchanges. -
The processes of Sinicization and DeSinicization took place mainly on language and religion –
the most 2 important elements of an identity or a culture. In regard to language, Chinese wanted to
destroy Vietnamese spoken language. However, Vietnamese soon practiced the DeSinicization by
selecting the best to improve. We accepted and learnt Han script but still kept Vietnamese spoken
language in the villages. We pronounced Han script in Vietnamese way, which was called Han – Viet
pronunciation. We created our own national words. For example, we did not called the moon as “nguyệt”
like the original Chinese but “trăng”. Vietnamese people did not completely use Han scripts but
changing to Nom scripts, which was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters meant to
represent native Vietnamese words. This is also a way to enrich Vietnamese vocabulary. - In the aspect
of religion, the process of Sinicization and DeSinicization was shown as a combination of
Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism. We accepted and selected advantages to follow. For
example, Confucianism affected most in education and politics. Vietnamese people respected
intellectuals or learning. We gave prominence to social bonds such as “Tam cương” (the relationship
between emperor and servant, father and son, husband and wife) and “Ngũ thường”/Five Virtues
(humanism, etiquette, loyalty, intelligence and sincerity). However, Vietnamese people did not follow
the idea of not respecting manual labor and women in Confucianism, since we considered “first my
wife, second my heaven” (“nhất vợ nhì trời”) in daily cultural dialogues. Vietnamese people mainly
followed Buddhism, parts of it came from Chinese as Phật, the remaining came directly from India as
Bụt. We created new and unique combination of 3 religions, known as “Tam giáo đồng nguyên”. We
leant Chinese orders and centralized monarchy court. lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008 -
The result of Sinicization and DeSinicization has some significances to Vietnamese culture. It
was the best way to keep Vietnamese indentity, the best way to develop, to be diversified more and
more, the best way to enrich Vietnamese culture. This is the foundation for the 2nd era of Vietnamese
civilization – Dai Viet/Great Viet civilization.
4. What were the formation and development of Đại Việt civilization under Lý – Trần Dynasty?
- Đại Việt civilization was formed under 3 historical needs: political, cultural and socio-economic.
● Under political conditions, after more than 10 centuries of Chinese domination,
Vietnamese people need to protect and defend sovereignty and independence. Therefore,
reunification and solidarity are the most important conditions to prevent losing independence
again when facing the danger of Chinese’s conquer. Moreover, we also had to struggle against
decentralization, which was the autonomy of villages and centralization, which was the reunion
of villages and tribes. In 968, After Đinh Bộ Lĩnh stopped the anarchy of 12 warlords and unified
the country, we needed the strongest state, so we could not use Văn Lang – Âu Lạc structure. As
a result, we learnt the Chinese model in politics: we needed a centralized monarchy, in which the
emperor was the son of the heaven with absolute power to decide everything. Besides, we needed
the strongest army to fight against enemies. For example, Lê Hoàn defeated Sung army and
established Earlier Lê Dynasty in 981. A perfect centralized monarchy was the most important
condition for Lý – Trần civilization.
● Under cultural conditions, Văn Lang – Âu Lạc origins continued to be kept. Community
minds and filial piety (chữ “Hiếu”) existed along with results of exchanges – the culture forming
after 10 centuries. Until Lý – Trần Dynasty, it was the combination of origins and creation that
formed the cultural needs for Đại Việt civilization.
● Under socio-economic conditions, we had a wet rice agriculture, which was a system of
canals and dams to control water. The Asiatic mode of production in our country before meant
there was no private ownership, only public ownership existed. After 10 centuries of Chinese
domination, Chinese landlords had private ownership but the number was very small, and
Vietnamese landlords were even fewer. Therefore, at the 10th century, public ownership
accounted for ¾ of the area. Under Lý – Trần Dynasty, we inherited, continued and developed
capacity for wet rice agriculture, which included labor, productivity, … till the 16th century when
Đại Việt civilization collapsed and caused famine and death of starvation.
- The development of Đại Việt civilization was the top achievement of culture in terms of both material
and intellectual (or mental or spiritual) aspects.
● Under material content, we built 10,000 kilometers of canals in North VN, which still
exists until now. Thăng Long imperial citadel was 40 km2 in total. In architecture, we built One
Pillar Pagoda, Phổ Minh Temple, Quy Điền Tower, … In handicrafts, we had Bát Tràng village
which was specialized in pottery, and many other villages with specialization in ceramics, textile, lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
bronze casting techniques, … We also developed on-water transportation. This was the top
development of wet rice agriculture with high capacity of production.
● Meanwhile, the intellectual content was the most important. The tolerance of religions in
our country meant there was a combination of 3 religions: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.
3 within 1, 1 within 3. Vietnamese mind, spirit, sentimental feelings were influenced by
Buddhism while Vietnamese education, politics and social relations were based on
Confucianism, with 3 social bonds: Emperor – servant, father – son, husband – wife and 5 virtues:
benevolence, righteousness, priority, intelligence and sincerity. Meanwhile, Taoism affected
Vietnamese attitude to nature, in which people enjoyed living together with the nature. We
selected the best ones from 3 religions to form Vietnamese identity. Lý Anh Tông established the
school of 3 religions and taught simultaneously. Monks of 3 religions could be officials.
Moreover, these 3 religions also had influences in poetry and literature. Buddhism was applied
in many areas, such as military arts. In addition, we had a deep, special and unique nationalism,
including a special art of political art and military art to ensure national solidarity. Political art
featured some special relationships: general – army such as Trần Hưng Đạo, emperor – officials
formed a royal family, and a good relation between majority and minority under political
marriages between princesses and chiefs of minorities. Military art consisted of diplomatic
measures, segregation and use of guerilla and regular armies to defeat Mongolians. For the law,
we had writing court and criminal court. In education, we established the 1st school named Quốc Tử Giám.
In conclusion, if there had been no Đại Việt civilization, there would be no Vietnam today. Later
generations continue to inherit a lot from Đại Việt civilization.
5. What were the socio – economic, political transformation during the period of 15th – 18th century?
First, we take a look at historical background. In 1400, Hồ Dynasty was established until 1408 when
Ming army invaded our country. In 1428, Lê Lợi defeated them and established Later Lê Dynasty. In
1527 Mạc Đăng Dung usurped the throne of Lê emperors. Shortly after this, in 1533 Đại Việt was
divided into 2 parts: the Northern Court ruled by Mạc and Southern Court of Lê emperors controlled by
Nguyễn Kim. In 1558, Nguyễn Hoàng went to the south, which he wanted to build up the southern area.
In 1592, Southern Court defeated Northern Court, continuing the division of the country with Trịnh
lords in the North and Nguyễn lords in the South. From 1627 to 1672 there were civil wars with
GianhRiver was the boundary between 2 regions. Starting from 1771 in Quy Nhơn, Nguyễn Nhạc,
NguyễnHụê and Nguyễn Lữ began the uprising. Then in 1785, Tây Sơn army had Rạch Gầm – Xoài
Mút victory, defeated 50,000 Siamese troops. After defeating Nguyễn, in 1786, Tây Sơn army passed
GianhRiver and defeated Trịnh. In November 1788, 290.000 Tsing troops headed by Soun Che Y came
directly to Thăng Long citadel. In December 1788, Nguyễn Huệ proclaimed himself as the new emperor
and made a counter-attack. Only 5000 Tsing troops were alive. New dynasty was established, which
meant new feudalization started until 1792 when Quang Trung died. However, in the south, lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
Nguyễn Ánh recovered force and made a counter – attack the north until 1802 when Tây Sơn collapsed
while Nguyễn Ánh took the throne and established Nguyễn Dynasty. In late 18th century, the territory
was as the present day by clearing the land.
The political changes during the period of 15th – 18th century had both negative side and negative side.
For the negative side, the most severe one was the division of the country into northern part and souther
part during 3 centuries. According to the historical law, reunion makes a country stronger and stronger;
in contrast, division makes it weaker and weaker. In addition, there were civil wars among feudalist
groups such as Mạc - Nguyễn Kim, Trịnh - Nguyễn, Tây Sơn - Nguyễn Ánh. Meanwhile, the positive
side features peasant movements during 16th – 18th century. The strongest development of peasant
movements was peasant wars when 3 Tây Sơn brothers stood up to defeated Trịnh - Nguyễn and Tsing
army. The reason for peasant wars was the contradiction notables, landlords, which were the collapse of
political regimes, and peasants. The significances of peasant wars included 3 ideas. First, they were
dynamics for changing society. Second, Tây Sơn won feudalism while before, peasants were limited.
However, peasants did not know how historical rule to form a new society. After the winning, Tây Sơn
built up and established Tây Sơn Court - Tây Sơn feudalism, but peasants could not represent mode of
production. Third, we recognized and overcame historical limitation. Tây Sơn movements fought for
both class interest and national interest. Not only did they stopped the deeper reasons for national
division by destroying Trịnh - Nguyễn but they defeated foreign invaders (Siamess and Tsing army)
The socio – economic changes included land ownerships or land tenure. From 11th to 15th century, public
ownership dominated 2/3 of the land, while private land only accounted for 1/3. Public land included
state-owning land and communal land; private land owners included landlords and small peasants.
However, in 18th century, there were changes in direction of decreasing public land and increasing
private land. 2/3 of public land reduced to only 1/3. The increase of small peasants and landlords was
positive. However, the peasant movements could not answer the question: “What were the historical
needs?” No class understood “a cry for land”, which was also “land to the tiller”. As a result, history failed into crisis.
In addition, there were new factors in society. Seeds of capitalism appeared, which was higher
development of “commodity economics”, and seeds of wage labor. The establishment of handicrafts
factories was the sign of differentiation of classes. However, these elements were very small, and they
developed very slowly or even did not develop. The reason for this was the conservativeness of
multimode production and feudalism. Poor peasants did not dare to leave the villages or avoid feudalism.
They continued to stay in the villages because of communal land, as for every 6 years, communal land
was redistributed and given to peasants, unlike European case when peasants left to form factories. This
caused a stagnation of the seeds of capitalism for a long time.
Socially, the structure of classes also experienced some changes. In the 18th century, the number of
notables decreased significantly while landlords increased very fast, along with tenants and small
peasants. However, there was a deep contradiction between landlords and peasants. Generally, no
development of industry and progressive classes, which were capitalist and workers resulted in no strata,
no revolution in the society and led to comprehensive crisis.
6. Why did the Nguyễn Court lose the independence of Vietnam in the late 19th century? lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
First, we take a look at the historical background during this period. On August 31st, 1858, French first
came to Vietnam in Đà Nẵng. The failure in Đà Nẵng battle made French turn to attack Gia Định. By
1862, through Nhâm Tuất agreement, French controlled 3 eastern provinces: Biên Hòa, Gia Định,
Định Tường, along with 3 western provinces: Vĩnh Long, An Giang, and Hà Tiên by 1867. Southern
Vietnam was put under control of French Colonial. In 1873, French attacked Hà Nội citadel for the 1st
time, Nguyễn Tri Phương died. In 1874, by the 2nd agreement, Nguyễn Court officially recognized the
domination of French in Vietnam. In 1882, French attacked Hà Nội secondly, Hoàng Diệu committed
suicide. In August 1883, Nguyễn Court signed Harmand agreement with the French before signing
Patenotre treaty in 1884 as a complete surrender agreement.
The reasons for losing the independence of Vietnam contain two aspects: objective and subjective. The
objective reasons also meant international conditions. In the 19th century, the world-wide capitalism
changed for the 2nd time. In the 1st phase, capitalism of free competition changed into imperialism, which
was monopolized capitalism, and France was among imperialists. As a result, colonialism became the
objective trend of capitalism’s development. Because domestic natural resources bacame smaller and
smaller, and domestic labor, manpower, manforce became limited, the need to expand and find out new
natural resources, new market, new sources of cheap labor was necessary. Imperialists wanted to get
more “higher monopoly interest” in colonies, which was the deep reason of colonizing the world –
colonization. Therefore, imperialist colonized a lot of countries, especially Asia, Latin America and
Africa. This was the objective process of colonization. Most of the countries were colonized by Western
countries; however, some could avoid colonization. Thailand and Japan were sample cases. It depended
on the talented leadership of the country. In Japan, the authority practiced the exact policies through
Meiji reform, which was similar to capitalist revolution. They wanted to modernize the country, which
meant industrialism and capitalism. The reform covered many fields, including improving foreign,
capitalizing Japanese economy, infrastructure for capitalism. Education was prioritized by focusing on
modern subjects such as Mathematics and Physics. In Vietnam, Nguyễn Trường Tộ’s proposal featured
similar suggestions like Japan, but Tự Đức emperor did not accept, and he did not allow to apply into
economy. As a result, Vietnam fell down significantly. Meanwhile, Thailand belonged to the buffer area
of Britian and France, so it was put under balanced influence of these 2 countries. Thailand emperors
practiced open-door policies. In Asia especially, feudalish authority was the most important. If they had
good policies to adapt the situations, which was subjective.
In Vietnam, subjective reaons in Vietnam belonged to the responsibility of Nguyễn Dynasty because
they made a lot of mistakes in internal and external policies. They practiced the wrong model for the
development of the country, making Vietnam weaker and weaker and soon become a delicious decoy
for foreign invaders. In economics, Nguyễn Court practiced closed-door policy, which meant stopping
exchange with foreigners. They paid attention but followed obsolete agriculture with low capacity and
productivity. The absolute ownership of landlord class resulted in reactionary attitude in economic
development, as it supported feudalism which was the negative sign of history in the 19th century.
Nguyễn Court gave a lot of barriers to stop import and export, such as heavy tax. Handicraft and industry
had no condition to develop. Besides, there was no development in monetary system, which meant no modernization in economy.
In social policy, there was a deep contradiction between landlord class and small, tenant peasants. There
were many peasant’s uprisings under 4 independent emperors during this period because peasants had lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
to pay tax, labor levies and rice rent to landlords, sometimes including interest, as peasants had no land
to cultivate, so they had to rent land from landlords. Meanwhile, Nguyễn Dynasty controlled communal
land and public land. Landlords became notables in villages and controlled private land and communal
land. The redistribution of communal land was practiced in the way which was more beneficial to
landlords and led to inequality in society. At that time, the feudalist class, which included notables and
bureaucratic rank became ruling class, while ruled class were peasants, laborers, …
In political policy, Nguyễn Court copied Tsing feudalist monarchy, which emphasized on centralized
power. The bureaucratic system became dictatorship. In the court, the imperial censor could not criticize
the emperor when he made mistakes, which led to corruption as a whole. Even though Nguyễn Trường
Tộ wrote many proposals to Tự Đức emperor from 1861 to 1871 after traveling around many countries
to reform the country similar to Meiji reform, the king and other officials ignored because they did not understand Western countries.
In military, Nguyễn army were very weak because they did not have modern weapons, so they could not
modernize the army. In addition, they did not have enough training and lacked strategies to defend
independence of the country. There was no strong navy, as well as powerful warships.
In culture, education had no change, but traditional education could not develop the country. For
example, Hán scripts and Chinese ancient books from classic scholars were too difficult to learn.
Besides, Nguyễn Court paid attention to only Confucianism with absolute respect. The Sung
Confucianism was reactionary ideology to protect obsolete relationship between the king and servants.
It defended feudalism monarchy and made many mistakes. Traditionally, Vietnamese were very
openminded and flexible towards religion. But Nguyễn did not accept new religion and stopped that
tradition by killing a lot of Catholic believers of Christianity but still could not stop it.
On the other hand, Nguyễn Court had wrong strategies when French attacked in negotiation peace. There
were many favorable moments for Vietnamese to counter-attack but Nguyễn Court did not take
advantages, which was a wrong national defense policy. During 1858 and 1861, there were only 1000
French troops but Nguyễn army did not dare to counter attack, which was unreasonable. In 1862, we
had a suitable time to ounter-attack, but Nguyễn signed negotiation agreement, which was also unreasonable.
7. What were the cultural, socio-economic transformations in Vietname under the French
domination and exploitation in the early 20th century?
First, we take a look at the historical background, after the Patenotre agreement in 1884, from 1897 to
1913, French practiced the phase I of exploitation program under General Governor Paul Doumer, which
focused on establishing infrastructure for mining industry. From 1914 to 1918, because of World War I,
French stopped exploitation but after this, in from 1919 to 1928, under the General
Albert Sarraut, French practiced phase II of exploitation, which focused on agricultural exploitation in
Mekong Delta but still continued to exploit mining in North and Central Vietnam. The colonial objective
of French was colonial exploitation: hunting for higher monopoly interest on the basis of exploiting
cheap labor, raw material resources. lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
In Vietnam particularly and Indochina generally, the colonial policies covered many aspects. In politics,
French practiced “division to rule” - using Vietnamese to beat Vietnamese, along with bloody
suppression. In culture, they practiced assimilation through Westernization and “stupid people” policy.
In economics, the colonial exploitation was aimed to search for more and more super interests. To
summarize, the basic policies contained four things.
●First, French recognized the most important thing for them was to keep “multi-mode of
production” in socio-economic formation. Before French domination, Vietnam already had 3 modes of
production: primitive, Asiatic and feudalist. When coming to Vietnam, French declared to civilize
Vietnamese. Instead of the stopping old modes of production and developing modern ones, which was
the responsibility of revolution, French continued to develop such old modes. No modernization meant
no civilization. Besides, French introduced a new style of relation into Vietnam: colonial capitalism –
new industry, commerce, banking system, transportation, … were controlled by French.
●Second, French wanted to keep Vietnam in the orbit of world-wide market of French colonialism.
For 50 years from 1890 to 1939, the first 9 years was trade deficit, or import overbalance, while the
remaining 41 years was trade surplus, or export overbalance. By doing this, French was successful in
hunting for super interests, but in the society, Vietnamese people suffered from impoverishment.
●Third, French gave privileges and concession, or special support to French businessmen. They did
not have to compete because they received priority to monopoly: buying at low prices but selling at
expensive prices to get more monopoly interests
●Fourth, French wanted to limit industrialization. They focused on exploiting industry, especially
mining industry such as coals for exportation. However, they limited manufacturing industry, such as
making chemicals, food, textile, rubber, … because they did not want Vietnam to compete with French industry.
Under the French domination in the early 20th century, Vietnam experienced some changes in both negative and positive sides.
● In economics, the “economic traite” policy was “economy milked”. To be more specific,
Vietnam was cows for milking, and French was “selfish colonialism” because they got many benefits
but they did not supply good grass for Vietnamese cows. Every 100 franc produced, 90 was sent directly
to France, but only 10 was for reinvestment. For nearly 1 century, there had been not yet
industrialization, but there were some good signals in the economy. New economic structure was formed
in direction of modernization, and new process of capitalist urbanization appeared with newstyled cities
such as Sài Gòn, Hà Nội, Hải Phòng, which were economic centers, especially Sài Gòn was a seaport
city. Compared to the pre-colonial era, the industry now included both traditional handicraft and modern
industry, which contained exploiting coals, tin, gold, wolfram, … and manufacturing electricity, water,
chemicals, mechanicals, textile, food, tobacco, rubber, … Agriculture was basically the same as in the
previous time, as obsolete agriculture still dominated Vietnamese economic structure. There were still
traditional ploughs with low productivity, obsolete equipment but new plantation. In commerce, import
and export were modernized, from shipping through small boats and ships to sea ships. Transportation
was improved by moving on water with large and modern sea ships and sea ports such as Sài Gòn, Hải lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
Phòng and on ground with a big railroad system and a system of routes. There was a national road from
the north to the south of Vietnam. In the pre-colonial era, there was still no financial or banking system,
but in the colonial era, French established Indochina Bank to issue money.
● In society, the differentiation of classes also had transformation. In the pre-colonial time, in the
structure of class there were only landlords, feudalist strata and peasants. These classes still existed in
the colonial era, but landlords developed very strongly. Great landlord class accounted for 2.4% of the
owners, owning 48.3% of area in Cochinchina. Meanwhile, peasants became impoverished, causing a
negative sign in the history. Despite this, there were still some positive changes. New classes was
formed, with the appearance of capitalist class, small bourgeoisie which included intellectuals and small
traders, and workers class which was also called proletariat. Currently, there were 2 basic social
contradictions in the society: national contradiction between Vietnamese and French colonist and class
contradiction between landlords and peasants.
● In culture. There was acculturation of Westernization and Dewesternization. French started to
teach history of France and Vietnamese national language as a foreign language. Vietnamese had to
struggle against cultural assimilation by keeping and developing Vietnamese spoken language,
Vietnamese writings and history of Vietnam. The process of Dewesternization included the formation
of Quốc Ngữ writing. Vietnamese national writing was Romanized and Latinized in pronunciation. In
religion, Christianity and Catholicism were introduced to Vietnam. Vietnamese people had chances to
approach new ideology, new poetry, and new style of literature.
In conclusion, we should recognize both sides of the transformation. Even though negative side was
mainly considered, positive side was very necessary for Vietnamese to continue developing.
8. Which was the crisis of way for national salvation from the late 19th until the early 20th century?
First, we take a look at the historical background. Since the attack of French in 1858, Nguyễn Dynasty
always released the wrong strategies for national defense. From 1861 to 1867 there were many patriotic
uprising of Nguyễn Trung Trực, Trương Định, Thủ Khoa Huân, … but most of them fell down. In July
1883, Tự Đức passed away. During only a few months from November 1883 to early 1884, there were
3 emperors: Dục Đức, Hiệp Hòa, Kiến Phúc. In May 1884, Hàm Nghi enthroned. In July 1885, “Cần
Vương proclamation”, which meant “loyalty to emperor” was released in order to call for the support
from people to fight against French.
From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, there were 3 patriotic movements significantly. For
the late 19th century movement, the most remarkable one was “Cần Vương proclamation” with typical
uprisings: Ba Đình (1886 – 1887) in Thanh Hóa, Bãi Sậy (1883 – 1892) in Hưng Yên, Hương Khê (1886
– 1892) in Hà Tĩnh and Hoàng Hoa Thám (1884 – 1913) in Bắc Giang, which was a peasant movement.
The reasons for the failure of these uprisings was because there was no good preparation because it
could not make solidarity among different uprisings. The ideology of Cần Vương uprisings was
feudalism, but feudalist class (Huế Court) had no leading role in defending independence. Hàm Nghi
patriotic but he could not represent the feudalist class. The Patenotre agreement in 1884 already meant
surrendering completely. All Cần Vương uprisings followed feudalist ideology, and they wanted to lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
recover feudalism influenced by Confucianism, which was obsolete and no longer suitable. After the
failure of Cần Vương, Vietnamese patriotics fell into crisis of way for national salvation.
The early 20th century patriotic movements were influenced from China and Japan. In China, Kang Yew
Wei and Liang Ki Chao were reformists who wanted to change from feudalist to democracy, which
affected Confucianists in Vietnam. In Japan, the Meiji reform spread the inspiration to Phan Bội Châu
and Phan Chu Trinh, resulted in new patriotic movements. According to Phan Bội Châu’s ideology, from
1904 to 1908, he sent Vietnamese students to Japan to study as he wanted to count on Japanese
assistance. However, French discovered and discussed with Japanese authority to expel
Vietnamese out of Japan. After that, Phan Bội Châu returned to China. After the uprisings of Chinese
Nationalist Party led by Sun Yat Sen in 1911, he continued to go to Thailand and organized patriotic
activities. French sent some spies to China to capture Phan Bội Châu in Shanghai and sentenced his life.
Meanwhile, according to Phan Châu Trinh’s ideology, he believed he could build up cooperation with
French. In fact, it was impossible because French wanted to invest Vietnam and search for surplus
interest. They did not want to cooperate with Vietnam for development. Phan Châu Trinh mistook when
recognizing the nature of French colonialism. The failure of the early 20th century patriotic movements
was because they was in the wrong way. Phan Bội Châu made mistakes when thinking that because
Japan had similarities in culture with our country. He did not recognized the major of Japanese were
emperorlism. Moreover, Phan Bội Châu and Phan Chu Trinh did not understand the socio-economic
transformation and social contradictions between French and Vietnamese, landlords and peasants. They
did not know who were enemies. Phan Bội Châu recognized exactly that French was one enemy, but
French was not the only enemy. He did not know the role of farmers and peasant class, which accounted
for 90% of the population. Phan Chu Trinh recognized exactly the feudalism, as he criticized Khải Định
emperor, but he did not know all the feudalist class. He wanted to reform many things but it did not
change much at all. He did not recognize exactly enemies and the role of peasant class as well, resulted
in crisis of way. To be deeper, it was the crisis of progressive class, which was leading class. In the early
20th century, before World War I, worker class was very small, so they did not take the leading role in
society. Phan Bội Châu & Phan Chu Trinh learned capitalism but un Vietnam, there was no capitalist,
as it was in ideology only. The historical limitation was that Phan Bội Châu and Phan Chu Trinh were
very talented but at that time, there was no leading class, so they could not overcome historical limitation.
The 3rd patriotic movements were after World War I. In 1920s, Vietnam had some influences from
China with “Three people” slogan: independence – happiness - freedom, France with French revolution
ideology, and Soviet Union, especially the October Revolution. In 1919 – mid 1920s, among the
capitalist class, reformism was promoted with the establishment of Constitutional Party by Bùi Quang
Chiêu. He wanted to practiced political reform. In 1923, Vietnamese people struggled against the
monopoly of Sài Gòn port. Movements by small bourgeoisie and intellectuals developed as well. In
press, there were appearances of progressive newspapers such as Cracked Bell by Nguyễn An Ninh,
L’Annam, Times of Indochina, The voice of people, … to criticize French colonialism strongly. In
addition, struggles of the mass were strained to call for releasing Phan Bội Châu from sentence his life
to outside prison, organizing Phan Chu Trinh’s funeral and demonstration. Besides, many political
parties appeared such as Party of Mind by Phạm Hồng Thái in Guangzhou, Vietnamese Revolutionary
Party, Party of Youths, Aspiration of Youths Party by Nguyễn An Ninh, Association of Revolutionary lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
Youths by Nguyễn Ái Quốc. The reasons for the failure of these movements were partly the same as
previous period’s ones. We were practicing the wrong ways to save the country. No party recognized
exactly the enemies and the way for national salvation. They recognized French colonialist but they did
not know landlord class was the 2nd enemy of Vietnamese people. Therefore, they did not know basic
contradictions in Vietnamese society after World War I. Moreover, they did not recognize exactly the
revolutionary forces. Vietnamese Nationalist Party by Nguyễn Thái Học did not have slogans like
Chinese Nationalist Party, which paid attention to landlords, workers and peasants. The crisis of no
leading class resulted in a spontaneous process. Methodology was wrong because it caused separation,
no solidarity, no unification. Vietnam continued to fall into crisis.
To overcome this crisis, there were influences from October Revolution and Nguyễn Ái Quốc’s
activities. In 1911, Nguyễn Tất Thành left Sài Gòn for seeking national salvation. He respected Phan
Bội Châu, Phan Chu Trinh but he recognized something wrong, so he would like to seek another way.
In 1920, Nguyễn Ái Quốc became the 1st communist of Vietnam and participated to be a member of
French Communist Party. In the next 10 years, he wanted to disseminate Marxism and Leninism into
Vietnam, which was a new way for national salvation. In August 1925, he established Association of
Revolutionary Youths. From 1925 to 1928, he practiced a lot of activities, such as publishing Youths
newspaper, opening training classes to prepare for the formation of the party in Guangzhou, publishing
many books to make clear new way for national salvation. He pointed out who were enemies of
Vietnamese people, who were the revolutionary forces, who were our friends to cooperate, … The role
of communist party was dignified. Finally, in February 1930, Nguyễn Ái Quốc established Vietnamese
Communist Party on the basis of reunifying 3 communist parties at that time. This was the final point
for crisis of way for national salvation.
9. What were reasons for the victory of the August Revolution in 1945?
After the establishment of Vietnamese Communist Party in 1930, which later changed to Indochina
Communist Party, we had a preparation of 15 years, divided into 3 periods of movements until the
August Revolution in 1945, which took only 2 weeks. This victory gave declaration for independence of Vietnam.
There were 2 kinds of reason for the victory of the August Revolution in 1945: objective and subjective.
The failure of fascism in the World War II was the most important objective reason. In 1945, Japanese
fascists surrendered, which was a very favorable condition for Vietnamese revolution, as Japanese army
fell into posture of dilemmas. When the World War II started in 1939, the face of the world was divided
into 2 sides: Allied Army (Ally) which included United States, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
France, … and Axe of Fascism, which included Germany, Italia and Japan. From 1939 to 1943, Fascist
was almost in active posture, but in 1943, after the counter-attack of Red Army of Soviet Union in the
Battle of Stalingrad, which was considered as the turning-point of the European theatre of the war, the
situation changed when Fascist turned into passive posture. In late 1944 - early 1945, many Eastern
European countries were liberated. In May 1945, German fascism collapsed, bringing about the failure
of fascism in general. This was the favorable moment for Vietnamese to up rise. Many Western lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
historians considered this was the most important reason for our victory of the August Revolution in
1945, but we had to recorrect that opinion, because the subjective reasons were the most important.
The subjective reasons belonged to the leadership of Indochina Communist Party headed by Hồ Chí
Minh, and heroism of Vietnamese people. To be more specific, it was thanks to the long preparation for
the August Revolution during 15 years and the talented leading role in art of mastering favorable
moments. With Hồ Chí Minh’s short manifesto and Trần Phú’s thesis, throughout 15-year preparation,
Vietnamese Communist Party would lead people to gain the government by struggles of the mass in
economics and politics, then develop to military struggles and wait for favorable moments for military
uprisings. It was clear that the revolutionary forces included peasants, proletariat, small bourgeoisie,
national capitalist, … We needed international solidarity from colonial people in Western countries and
international proletariat. In the high tide 1930 – 1931, the Soviet Union in Nghệ - Tĩnh was the first
preparation for the future. It built up revolutionary government but soon be suppressed bloodily by
French and collapsed. However, it left some deep significances behind the failure. It demonstrated
Vietnamese Communist Party’s lines Vietnamese revolution by making solidarity among classes. In
addition, it left many good lessons and experiences on how to organize uprisings for the future.
The 1936 – 1939 phase was for democratic movements, which was the 2nd preparation. The appearance
and development of Fascism became new and the most important danger of the world, as it would
destroy socialism and many democratic countries. Every country needed to focus on struggling Fascism
internationally. As a result, Vietnam had to change tactics to struggle and started a new movement so-
called as “Indochina Democratic Movement”. We focused on struggling Fascism – who was the direct
enemy. In this situation, we reaffirmed direct enemies were reactionary colonialists, Fascists and their
followers. We used a lot of semi-legal measures. Combined with secret activities of the communist party,
we utilized opportunities to make propaganda, which was a good chance to disseminate Marxism,
Leninism and revolutionary lines of the communist party.
The 3rd preparation - 1939 – 1945, was the direct preparation for the August Revolution, which was
divided into 3 periods. From 1939 to 1941, we prepared lines for the revolution through 3 meetings of
Central Committee of Indochina Communist Party: 6th (11.1939), 7th (11.1940), and 8th (5.1941) – in
which Nguyễn Ái Quốc attended after returning to Vietnam. In 1940, Nguyễn Ái Quốc predicted the
failure of fascism, so that was the time for many countries, including Vietnam to uprise, The 3 meetings
made clear the ways for the August Revolution. They pointed out the most important objective was
national liberation. There were 2 strategic objectives: defeating French for national independence and
beating landlord class for “land-to-the-tiller” slogan. For a long time, we did not know the exact answer
which was more important. After that, the preceding slogan was replaced to get land from enemies
(French, reactionary landlords) and redistribute land to poor peasants and landless peasants. This was
very important to build up solidarity. Besides, we built up national solidarity through “Front” – front for
great national solidarity including many classes, ranks, strata, … In the 8th meeting, Việt Minh Front
was established. The most critical standard was patriotic individuals. Above all, the most important was
the preparation of military uprisings, which was the direct responsibility to decide the favorable
moments, forces,… for uprisings and to make clear formation of uprisings in Vietnam. Local uprisings
were practiced first as the pre-conditions for general uprisings when having favorable moment. lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
From 1941 to March 9th 1945, we prepared revolutionary forces and bases. We defined the political
forces with the establishment of Việt Minh Front, which included many organizations for women,
youths, peasants, … for national salvation. For the military forces, after the collision of Bắc Sơn
uprisings in 1940, Hồ Chí Minh established small unit guerrillas called Bắc Sơn guerrillas, then
developed to army for national salvation – platoon. On December 22th 1944, the National-liberating
Vietnamese army for propaganda was founded. We built up bases in mountainous provinces in North
Vietnam: Cao – Bắc – Lạng – Hà – Tuyên – Thái. In February 1941, Nguyễn Ái Quốc returned to Cao
Bằng, he established Cao Bằng base. After Bắc Sơn uprisings, Cao Bằng was connected with Bắc Sơn
- Võ Nhai base, which was the foundation for Việt Bắc base.
In the 3rd period from March 9th to August 1945, we prepared local uprisings. From Fall 1940 to March
1945, Japanese and French co-dominated Vietnam, but on March 9th, Japanese upset French domination
in just one night to gain power. In early 1945, the imbalance between Allied Army and Fascism led to
the risk that Fascism was on the verge of collapse. In the future, Allied Army would come to Indochina
to disarm Japanese. Therefore, the only way for Japanese was to upset French. This was the new
favorable moment for local uprisings. We focused on resistance to Japanese fascists and mobilized
against them. We organized political struggles and mass movements to avoid terrible famine, which
made more than 2 million people die of starvation. We developed military units and established Việt
Bắc base in June 1945. There were also local uprisings in mountainous areas. As soon as Hồ Chí Minh
predicted Japanese’ surrender, he sent messages to representatives and waited until August 1945, when
new favorable moment came, he hold national conference in Tân Trào to officially uprise. Since the first
uprising on August 14th, it was only 2 weeks for general uprisings. We took advantage of the good time,
which was soon after Japanese surrender but before Allied Army came to Vietnam to disarm Japanese.
Why we did not organize revolution before that time was because the imbalance of power between
Vietnamese revolutionaries and Japanese fascists, who have hundreds thousands troops and many
modern weapons. At that time, Japanese could suppress Vietnamese easily. And why we also did not do
that after that time was because in the north of Vietnam was Chiang Kai Shek troops, and the south of
Vietnam was British army, followed by French army, which was very crowded and strong.
10. In your opinion what do you think about the Viet Nam War (1955 – 1975)
According to Mark Bradley, if we resumed the good relationship with America after the August
revolution we could avoid the war. However, many believe that the Vietnam War is unavoidable because
it's not simply a war between 2 countries, instead it was a war between capitalism and socialism in
which: - Vietnam has an important strategic position with plentiful resources. - After World War II,
Vietnam's achievements in the national liberation movements gave a great impetus to the anti-imperialist
movements in the world. The August Revolution in 1945 resulted in the establishment of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam. Socialism might have a great potential to spread in Southeast Asia and other
regions in the world. - The US had indirectly intervened in the war in Vietnam through Chiang Kai
Shek's force and aided French colonialism şince 1956. When the French were defeated the U.S had to
take actions on their own to prevent socialism from expanding.
During its invasion the U.S had practiced many strategies: The one-side war or Eisen house strategy.
The flexible response included 3 wars: Special war Local war All-out war (didn’t happen) Our strategies:
having no army, Vietnam used the political force and guerrilla mainly which includes mass struggles
against 1-side war. The most typical is the Dong Khoi uprising. In the special war we practice the people
war with the formula as follows: 2 feet: political force and military force. 3 arrows: military attack,
political attack, mobilization of enemy. 3 regions: mountainous region, rural and delta region, urban lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008
area. 3 armies: Guerrilla army, Local army, Regular army. Before 1968: combination between offensive
and uprising. From 1986 to 1975: combination between general offensive and uprising 3 fronts: military
front, political front, diplomatic front. Special war: US: By the end of 1964 there were 560,000 puppet
well-armed soldiers and many raids were made to eradicate the revolutionary forces VN: People in
South Vietnam expanded and developed their resistance with the motto "attack the enemy" in three
fronts: military, politics, and propaganda. In 1962, many large-scale raids into U Minh, Tay Nính and
Southwest of Saigon made by Ngo Dinh Diem were defeated. On January 2, 1963, won at Ap Bac(My
Tho) making clear the capacity of Vietnam. revolutionary to win special war On June 1, VN won at
Binh Gia (Vung Tau). This victory signaled the failure for the special war in Vietnam. Local war: Failed
in stopping the spread of people's strugglés in South Vietnam in three fronts: military, politics, and
propaganda. On March, 8, 1965, American soldiers waged "local war' in the South and simultaneously
destructively bombed the North. From 1964 to 1967: American soldiers in South Vietnam increased
from 26.000 to 37.000 let alone 7000 soldiers were stationed at military bases in Guam, Philippines,
and Thailand and the 7 Fleet was ready to participate in the war. Right after landing in the South,
America opened an attack on Van Tuong (Quang Nam), two successive "dry seasons" counter-attacks
on areas that were suspected to be at the mércy of Vietnam. The US wanted to change the situation, won
victory and then terminated the war. All the attacks, above especially the General Attack and Mau Than
Offensive in Spring 1968, however, were defeated by Southern people. In fact, that was the
acknowledgement of the defeat of "Local war". Successive losses in the South front the US imperialists
frenziedly used navy and air forces to bomb the North to stop them from supplying for the South On
August 5, 1964, the US made up "the North Bay event" and began their destructive war in North Vietnam
in February 1965. But People ini the North shot down hundreds of US aircrafts and set fire to hundreds
of US warships. Finally, America had to stop booming the North. In 1969, Nixon performed the strategy
of "practical warning", and applied "Vietnamization the war" in the North and "Indochinizing war" in
Indochina. In order to implement this policy, Nixon gradually retreated American forces but enhanced
puppet military in all aspects. However, Southern revolutionary forces were much stronger. In March
1972, the Southern Liberation Army carried out the strategic attack to three most important strategic
areas: Quang Tri, Tay Nguyen, and Southeastern Vietnam, which disordered the puppet troops' strategic
arrangements and drove “Vietnam Zing the war” to the edge of failure. Facing such losses, the US
bombed the North again on a much larger scale. However, péople in North Vietnam won the "Air Dien
Bien Phu" battle within 12 days in late 1972 forcing the US to sign the Paris Convention dated Jan. 27,
1973. But the US violated the agreement and supported Nguyen Van Thieu to invade the liberated zone,
evoking a Wallike hill in the South. In spring 1975, the General Attack and Uprising led to victory after-
almost 2-months, The became independent and unified. Above all, it was the victory of the political
independent strategy of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The strategy in which the two strategic tasks
were simultaneously carried out mobilized forces of the whole nation. Thus the tremendous strength of
the Vietnamese Revolution originated. The great strength of people and the VC originated from the
traditional patriotism of the Vietnamese people and the revolutionary heroism. The victory derived from
the effective contribution of the North. The solidarity among people of the three Indochinese countries
who shared the same goal and enemy was also an important cause for the victory. Thanks to the material
and spiritual support from the world, especially the aid of the USSR, China, other-socialist countries,
and the national liberation movements of those who loved peace and democracy all over the world
including the advanced American inhabitants.
11. What were regrettable for the Dai Viet in socioeconomic developmeny? Indispensibility or accident? lOMoAR cPSD| 58097008