Lao Lor Week2 Post

Something that has been on my mind is the local identification of South Vietnam from North Vietnam. From ancient history we leaned that nationality was not existent, Indochina's boundaries were always contested by warring kingdoms, and there were many different groups of ethnic and religious people. Regardless of the geopolitics of French colonization, the first and second Indochina wars, the main question is how did the local people of South Vietnam perceive the north's attempts at unification? Did they view it as imperialism, justified, or were more concern about their daily survival? Did they view the south's government as a legitimate establishment?
It is evident in, "The American Involvement in Vietnam" reading that the south's government was riddled with corruption fueled by the United State's intervention. America's intentions were not to build a self-sustainning regime but only to keep communism away. This resulted in many regime turnovers and USA sanctioned assassination of Diem. After the north succeeded, many south Vietnamese left in fear of prosecution and didn't want to reside under a Communist government. Keeping this in mind, many from the south could see the north as an encroaching force.
So my main concern is to understand nationhood of different factions in Vietnam through the history of French and Vietnamese colonization.


http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=79dd0b3c4f993607dd12279e20a01ce5


This is an article about the controversial feelings and thoughts behind Ho Chi Minh and the Communist regime from Vietnamese Americans, these sentiments have roots in political history.