Jennifer Nguyen Bernal
Professor Valverde
ASA 150E
The reading of "The War after the War" by Nayan Chana explains how the North Vietnamese slowly claim Saigon, the fall of Saigon. When he described, many Vietnamese were rushing towards the American embassy with their papers and their money, reminding me of many stories that I heard in my community. As the communist held tight to Saigon, Americans have left with Vietnamese employees and friends that they could carry on their aircraft. He had lived through the war, and it felt surreal that the war was finally ending. I couldn't imagine living through a war that was a massive part of your life. The last battle of Vietnam was the Mayaguez incident, where America and Cambodia fought the previous fight. Even though the war has ended, Vietnam wanted to claim back their land, but China and Cambodia want their property also. These countries had a history with one another before the French and America came in. After the war, I thought the nations would want to recover from the war, but they just picked up things of where they left off. The Republic of Vietnam did not want to negotiate a border between the countries, leaving it unknown for them to claim. There were Cambodia refugee camps for refugees of the Vietnamese war. Vietnam only allowed Vietnamese refugees from the field to enter Vietnam, and other refugees left behind in the camps. These issues lead to tension in the Vietnamese's relation with China and Cambodia. However, Vietnam changed that; "On July 5, … Hanoi announced a four-point policy of establishing and developing "relations of friendship and cooperation in many fields" with Southeast Asian countries… for the sake of independence, peace, and genuine neutrality in SoutheastAsia" ( Chana 36). It's understandable that some
Countries like Singapore were skeptical about this policy, but China has been keeping an eye on China. When Americans pulled themselves out of Vietnam, China needed to face Vietnam, who challenges them for the north and south. However, China had its conflict to deal with the passing of Mao, and Zhou's left the World waiting on China's move.
When China realized that Vietnam had won, did they feel a shift in power since they don't have such power over Vietnam anymore?
No comments:
Post a Comment