W.Minh Tuan
We had fought the Americans to the point that they had to de-escalate the war, had to sign the Paris Agreement in 1973, and had achieved the prestige of “a small nation that defeated the largest and most powerful empire in the world”.
That was very glorious.
However, the Paris Agreement was not implemented, and led to the Liberation Day of April 30, 1975.
This article only raises one assumption, that if the Paris Agreement in 1973 had been implemented, that is, would have maintained two Vietnams: the free, capitalist Republic of Vietnam in the South, and the socialist Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North, then what would the situation in Vietnam be like today?
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The Paris Agreement on peace in Vietnam was signed in Paris, France, on January 27, 1973, between four parties: 1-The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North), 2-The Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (South, by Lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho, architect Huynh Tan Phat), 3-The Government of the Republic of Vietnam (South, by Mr. Nguyen Van Thieu), 4-and the US Government.
According to the content of this Agreement:
Article 9: Clause a: “The right to self-determination of the people of South Vietnam is sacred, inviolable, and must be respected by all countries”.
Article 11: “Immediately after the ceasefire, the two southern parties will:
-Implement national reconciliation and harmony, eliminate hatred, commit all acts of revenge and discrimination against individuals or organizations that have cooperated with one side or the other;
– Implement national harmony and reconciliation, ensuring the people’s democratic freedoms: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of organization, freedom of assembly, freedom of political activities, freedom of movement, freedom of residence, freedom of doing business, the right to private property, and the right to freedom of business”.
Article 15: “The unification of the North and the South will be carried out step by step by peaceful means, on the basis of discussion and agreement between the North and the South of Vietnam, neither side is allowed to force or annex the other side,,,”.
However, this Agreement was not implemented, and led to “the liberation day of the South on April 30, 1975”.
If there was some magical dream, after waking up one night, we suddenly saw that there were still 2 Vietnams, united with each other, loving each other, holding hands to build the future, what would that be like?
First, not losing the Paracel Islands.
We can see right away that if the Paris Agreement had been implemented, our great friend from the North would not have been able to occupy our Paracel Islands.
We already know that on January 19, 1974, the Chinese Navy attacked and occupied the Paracel Islands controlled by the Saigon army. The great friend from the North chose the right time, when the Americans had withdrawn, and the Saigon army was struggling to defend against the “liberation army”, and was about to lose. This was a “once in a lifetime opportunity”, if we did not occupy the Paracel Islands now, then after Vietnam had unified and grown stronger, we would never have been able to occupy them.
Let us imagine if the Paris Agreement had been respected, the two regions of the North and South ò Vietnam did not fight to each other, would the great friend have occupied the Paracel Islands?
The clear and resolute answer is “Impossible”.
Because the Saigon army at that time was very strong. The total number of weapons that the Americans left for the Saigon army at that time was more than the amount that the US helped Israel at that time.
At that time, the world assessed the Saigon army as the 4th strongest in the world, only after the US, Russia, and China.
And although the US army withdrew according to the Paris Agreement, the 7th Fleet and the US Air Force still supported the Saigon army.
And especially, if the two regions of the South and the North ò Vietnam respected the Paris Agreement, they would become brothers and would protect each other. At that time, the Great Friend who occupied Hoang Sa that did not belong to the Saigon Government, but to the whole of Vietnam, to the whole Vietnamese people with 4000 years of civilization, always heroically fighting against the enemy from the North.
Hoang Sa today, only has Chinese ships.
With the combined strength of the two regions of the South and the North Vietnam, plus the support of the Americans, can the Great Friend occupy our Hang Sa archipelago?
Impossible.
With the tradition of Hai Ba Trung, Ba Trieu, Ly Thuong Kiet, Tran Hung Dao, Le Loi, Quang Trung,,, how could the Great Friend have robbed our Hoang Sa archipelago?
It can be said that our Vietnamese people, throughout the glorious history of more than 4000 years, have never lost so much land and been humiliated like that.
Although our country was invaded and protected by the Great Friend from the North, our people later fought bravely and won independence and regained our territory.
But now, we have lost our seas and islands, and every year the Great Friend still orders a ban on fishing right in our own waters, fishermen are always beaten, robbed, killed,,,.
And our Party is still very gentle, still upholding the “16 golden words”.
Don’t just blame the old Saigon Government for letting the Hoang Sa archipelago be lost.
Because more than a year later, in 1975, they also lost the whole country to the Government of the Our communists in the North Vietnam.
South Vietnam- their country was lost to the North, let alone that small, distant archipelago.
The loss of the Paracel Islands was the fault of our entire Vietnamese people, of every single Vietnamese person, and of the top leaders who wanted to have the glory recorded in history books about “the liberation day of April 30”.
Our entire Vietnamese people at that time, and I too, even though I was still very young, on April 30, 1975, rushed into the streets, cheering the victory day, cheering the liberation day, cheering the glory of “a small nation, but defeated a big enemy like America”.
But we did not know that right behind us, was the humiliation of losing our sea and islands, a humiliation unprecedented in 4000 years of history.
And at that time, no one knew, no one could have guessed that two bloody border wars with Polpot and with China that lasted 10 years were waiting for us.
“The hero who defeated the world’s most powerful American empire” lost the islands to the Great Friend? Ha ha ha.
Not only that, in 1988, we also lost Gac Ma Island in the Truong Sa archipelago. 64 navy soldiers followed the stupid order of the commander, to hold hands, stand in a row to protect the island, without carrying weapons. The Great Friend’s soldiers did not pay attention to that useless heroic act. They opened fire, and our soldiers were just targets for them, and all fell, heroically sacrificed, but in vain.
This was the fault of the commander.
This was the fault of the Politburo, who directed that “we must restrain ourselves, not let ourselves be provoked,,,”.
The Great Friend loved that stupid and cowardly instruction.
But actually at that time we Vietnam can not do different way, can not resist a Big brother, because we were so weak, we have not much weapons, just weapon left from Saigon regime, and from Soviet provided before.
Our ancestors also restrained themselves, not letting themselves be provoked by the Northern enemy, but our ancestors were never so stupid and cowardly.
During the Ly Dynasty, in 1074, General Ly Thuong Kiet dared to take the initiative to send troops to attack the North, destroying the logistical bases in Ung Chau, to slow down the invasion plot of the Great Friend.
What about today? Our Party always uses the slogan “16 golden words, lips open then teeth are cold,,,” to cover up its cowardly actions.
Is it to defeat the strongest enemy in the world but now so cowardly?
The Americans invaded Vietnam, but they did not take any land from Vietnam.
The Great Friend from the North, “lips open and teeth are cold”, “both comrades and brothers”, but waiting for the moment when the brother was careless, immediately sent troops to occupy the islands of the brother.
Which enemy is more worth dealing with?
Should we be brothers with the Americans, or with the Great Friend “lips open and teeth are cold”?
And the humiliation of losing the islands will continue, will continue until we regain the Hoang Sa archipelago.
Because if we cannot take back the Hoang Sa archipelago, every year, our Big Friend will still issue an order to ban fishing, beat, rob, and kill our fishermen, and continue to plot to implement the “cow tongue map”, plot to occupy our Truong Sa archipelago.
If our Big Friend can implement the “cow tongue map”, our East Sea will only be a village pond.
Our Truong Sa archipelago is not yet at peace.
Don’t lull yourself into thinking that we have an extremely good relationship, “16 golden words” with our Big Friend.
Sooner or later, our Big Friend will take action to occupy the remaining Truong Sa archipelago, or at least, a few of the most important islands in the Truong Sa archipelago. Their strategy to advance to the sea will fail if they cannot occupy the Truong Sa archipelago.
They are developing aircraft carriers, submarines, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, unmanned aircraft, drone, etc., not just to protect their Hainan island.
Second, there was no war on the Southwest border with Pol Pot.
Right after the “Liberation Day of April 30, 1975”, on May 4, 1975, only 4 days after the “Liberation Day”, Pol Pot sent the Khmer Rouge to raid Phu Quoc Island. And 6 days later, the Pol Pot army attacked Tho Chu Island, massacring all 500 civilians on the island.
The Southwest border war began.
If the Paris Agreement on peace in Vietnam had been respected, the Republic of Vietnam Government had not been overthrown, then the Pol Pot army in Cambodia would not have been able to seize power in Cambodia, and would not have been able to cause the Southwest border war.
We Vietnam have spent 10 years of war with Pol Pot, have shed so much blood and money, have supported the Hun Sen Government, but all of it was meaningless.
Cambodia now belongs to our Northern great friend.
And from now until hundreds of years later, and perhaps even longer, we will always have to deal with the two pincers of our Northern Great Friend, attacking from the Northern border down, and from the Southwestern border up.
We could not have imagined that the glorious day of April 30th had unintentionally created for our Great Friend a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to both occupy our Hoang Sa archipelago, and take control of Cambodia to create a two-pincer situation to restrain our Vietnamese people.
In our history of more than 1,000 years of independence, since General Ngo Quyen defeated the Southern Han army on the Bach Dang River in 939, gaining independence for our people, until now 21th century, this is the first time, our Great Friend has created a two-pincer situation to restrain our small Vietnamese people.
First, our Great Friend absorbed the Polpot’s boots, which our Party subjectively did not know, because our Party always believed in our great friend “Lips open and teeth are cold”.
When the Khmer Rouge attacked our southwestern border in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, our Party was shocked to find that all the weapons, ammunition, clothes, shoes, hats,,, of the Khmer Rouge were “Made in China”.
Who was Polpot?
He used to be a friend of our Party Vietnam.
Many of Polpot’s commanding officers had studied in Vietnam, speaking Vietnamese fluently like the wind blows.
Then, it was those people, after April 30, 1975, who commanded the Khmer Rouge to suddenly attack our southwestern border provinces, massacring our people with hoes, knives, sticks, bayonets, grenades,,,.
The price of “Liberation Day April 30” was too high.
The Southwestern border war lasted for more than 10 years, and did not really end until 1989. Although we won, 10 years of war had drained our people of so much blood and money. We had just ended two 30-year wars – 9 years with the French, and 21 years of the North and South fighting each other, and fighting the Americans – the Vietnamese people should have been able to rest and enjoy peace, but they had to rush into a new war with the Pol Pot army.
And that’s not all.
Although our war was just, both fighting against the Pol Pot invaders and helping the Cambodian people overthrow the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime, the whole world boycotted and isolated Vietnam, because the world thought we invaded Cambodia.
We were embargoed by the Americans, and the whole free world followed suit.
From 1975 to the 1990s, the whole country of Vietnam fell into a serious economic and political crisis. The whole country ate bo bo, queued, had ration cards, and had hyperinflation.
In 1986, when our country began Doi Moi, inflation reached over 700%.
That was the period of “selling a cow to buy a frog”. The day before, a cow was sold, the next day, the money from selling the cow was only enough to buy a frog, because of hyperinflation at that time.
In 1989, when our army withdrew from Cambodia, the world gradually normalized relations with us. And in fact, Vietnam’s international diplomatic relations with the world were only completely normalized after 1995, after US President Bill Clinton decided to normalize relations with Vietnam.
But now, although the war with Cambodia has ended, and the Hunsen government has good relations with us, the Vietnam-Cambodia relationship is hiding unforeseen irregularities.
The government of Mr. Hunsen and his son is still a complicated matter for Vietnam, and if Mr. Hunsen and his son leave, the Vietnam-Cambodia relationship will be even more complicated.
And the Great Friend in the North has, is, and will continue to use Cambodia as a pincer to sabotage, cause instability, and trouble for us.
The Great Friend has, is, and will sit comfortably, occasionally pulling the strings for that Southern vanguard soldier to cause trouble for us.
All of those complications originated from that glorious April 30th.
Third, no war on the Northern border with the Great Friend.
From the Southwestern border war with the Polpot army, we were forced to have another war on the Northern border with the Great Friend who is “cold on the lips leads to the cold on the teeth”.
We know that on December 23, 1978, our army launched a counterattack against Pol Pot’s army along the entire southwestern border, and pursued the Khmer Rouge into Cambodia. After only 3 weeks, our army defeated the entire Khmer Rouge army of about 15 divisions, helping the Cambodian people overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regime.
That is why, on February 17, 1979, China sent more than 600,000 troops to attack all 6 northern border provinces of ours Vietnam, with the aim of forcing us Vietnam to withdraw our troops from Cambodia to deal with China, and thus save the Pol Pot regime.
China’s calculation failed, because we did not withdraw our troops from Cambodia, we only used local troops, guerrillas, and 1 regular division to fight against 20 Chinese divisions. And after only 3 weeks, China had to withdraw its troops.
Although we defeated the Chinese army in 1979, the northern border war continued to drag on for 10 years, and broke out fiercely in 1984, 1985, and lasted until 1989, after we withdrew all our troops from Cambodia.
So after the liberation day of April 30, when we thought that our people would enjoy peace after 30 years of brutal war, we were forced into two more bloody wars, lasting another 10 years.
And that’s not all.
Fourth, millions of people left the country.
After April 30, millions of people left the country, causing the extremely painful “boat people” and “overseas Vietnamese refugees”, hundreds of thousands of people died at sea on their way to freedom.
And that’s not all.
The country was unified, but the people’s hearts were not unified.
The socialist bloc collapsed, the Soviet Union collapsed.
Marxist-Leninist doctrine is shaken.
And the two examples are extremely clear: the two socialist countries of East Germany and North Korea.
The two market economies of West Germany and South Korea are both extremely rich and powerful. So East Germany had to merge with West Germany peacefully.
As for the pitiful North Korea, thanks to its nuclear weapons, it is still exist for some more time, until the end of the young handsome guy.
What does the story of the two Germanys and the two Koreas say?
It says that the doctrine of the three bearded men Marx, Engels, and Lenin has collapsed. And even Germany, the homeland of the two bearded men Marx and Engels, did not care about the crazy doctrine of their two citizens.
And Russia, the stronghold of Socialism, the homeland of the great Lenin, has also abandoned that crazy doctrine of Mr. Lenin.
So why, we are so far away in this Southeast Asian country, with no ties or roots to those three bearded men, but why do we have to blindly cling to the crazy doctrine of those three bearded men?
Some people also say that it is because “Mr. Minh Rau” brought that strange doctrine into our country Vietnam.
Vietnamese people are humorous, so they call Uncle Ho Chi Minh “Minh Rau” because Uncle Ho has a thin beard under his chin.
That means the four bearded men are the source of disaster for the freedom-loving world?
Actually, say so is not fair.
Because the doctrine of the three gentlemen Marx, Engels, Lenin is not only rampant in our country. It has been rampant in the former Soviet Union, in East Germany, in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and even in our Great Friend in the North.
Therefore, if Uncle Ho and many other gentle Vietnamese people, in the early stages, were mistaken about that Marxist-Leninist doctrine, it would not be strange.
However, the strange thing is, now, the world has opened their eyes, they have abandoned that nonsense doctrine, so why does our Party still cling to that strange doctrine?
Vietnamese people are famous for being intelligent, quick-witted, and talented, so why are we Vietnamese still so ignorant?
Whose fault is it?
Our Uncle Ho Chi Minh actually used that Max-Lenin’s doctrine only as a means to gain independence and build the country.
Uncle Ho’s goal was for our people to be prosperous and happy, for our children to be educated, and for our country to stand shoulder to shoulder with the world powers.
Uncle Ho’s goal was “if the people do not enjoy happiness and freedom, then independence is meaningless”.
If Uncle Ho had lived to see the signing of the Paris Agreement in 1973, it is very likely that Uncle Ho would have implemented the Paris Agreement, without advocating “using violence to liberate the South”.
Because Uncle Ho had advocated the abolition of the Communist Party in 1945, had made a democratic Constitution in 1946, without a single word mentioning socialism, Uncle Ho wrote the Declaration of Independence without a single word mentioning communism or socialism, and Uncle Ho also dared to accept an independent Vietnam within the French Union,,, then perhaps Uncle Ho would have made a smart choice, beneficial to the country, beneficial to the Vietnamese people, which is to implement the Paris Agreement, and unify the country by peaceful means later???
It is very possible.
But that is just a guess.
However, the fifth real thing, if there was no April 30, the South would have developed like South Korea, even like Japan, or even more. And the North Vietnam would have been like poor North Korea, Cuba today.
We know that in 1975, despite the fierce war, the living standards of the people of South Vietnam were still higher than those of South Korea and Singapore. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew also admitted that, and said that the number 1 in Asia should have been the Vietnamese, not the Japanese.
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew once said that he understood the Japanese and the Vietnamese very well, he understood that the Japanese had their rigidity and conservatism, and the Vietnamese had their intelligence, agility, resourcefulness, and were more receptive to innovation and creativity than the Japanese.
And what about now?
Yes, of course, our country Vietnam has been in Doi Moi for more than 40 years, and has had many outstanding successes.
But let’s take a look, are you really satisfied? Corruption is terrible, never before have half of the Politburo members been caught up in corruption and were disciplined, sacked out.
Never before has the country had two Presidents disciplined for corruption.
Never before has the country had a National Assembly Chairman disciplined for corruption.
Never before have police generals been arrested and tried as much as now for corruption.
But that is only “dear safe comrades who have not been discovered”.
How many corrupted comrades have not been discovered?
And nowadays, real estate sharks can buy public land at dirt cheap prices, build houses and sell them to people at high market prices, make money, get rich, and become billionaires overnight. Is it possible that the fruits of the revolution, the fruits of April 30, are now in the hands of real estate sharks?
Comrade General Secretary Do Muoi once said “the leak starts from the roof”, meaning that we must fix it from the root, fix it from the training and appointment of cadres, fix it from the party building work, fix it from the rot and decay that causes corruption, not just arrest and handle it from the tip.
And the country has “developed remarkably”, but why do Vietnamese people still leave the country like that? Some flee to England, some flee to Europe, some hide and overstay in Japan,,,?
No, we Vietnamese are still naive. If we blame our party for not having a long-term vision, not seeing the unpredictable consequences of only “Liberating the South”, but not seeing the loss of the Paracel Islands, the annual ban on fishing in our own sea, the southern border war, the northern border war, the long-term worries of our Cambodian friend in the South, under the orders of our Big Friend in the North,,,.
If we blame our party like that, it is not right.
Because we Vietnamese people, our entire Vietnamese nation, do not have enough wisdom, cunning, or crafty, slick, artful, tricky, like our Big Friend in the North.
We could never have imagined that our great friend from the North, who had helped us so much in the “war against the Americans to save the country,” would immediately send troops to occupy our Hoang Sa archipelago, incite Pol Pot to wage war in the South, and now make the cow tongue map, issue an annual ban on fishing, and incite our friend from the South to cause trouble.
That naivety belongs to all of our Vietnamese people, to me, to you, to all of us, the descendants of Lac Hong.
We are too kind, and too naive.
No, we still have to shout long live to celebrate liberation day.
No.
If it weren’t for that April 30th, it is very possible that I, on a moonless and starless day, would have found a way to swim across the Ben Hai River, to run to the South bank, following the call of freedom.
No.
April 30th was great.///