A lot of good stuff in this article, and a couple of things with which I would take issue. (A pause here for some personal background. I'm a Vietnam veteran, retired Vietnam specialist for DoD, and a direct participant in the evacuation of Saigon, having been flown out of TSN on 24 April.) First, French forces had been present in Vietnam since 1858, not 1887. That's just a matter of fact, not interpretation. You are correct in saying that the main goal of the Viet Minh/NLF/DRV was the independence and unification of Viet Nam. But their secondary goal was indeed to be part of a Communist world order. That was the life's work of Ho Chi Minh, and it is clear from the Party's efforts to establish a Communist economic order in both the DRV and later in South Vietnam that it was the ultimate goal of the Party as well. However, the Vietnamese, having paid so dear a price in blood for their independence, were not about to become anyone's puppet. The Vietnamese are also highly intelligent and relentlessly pragmatic. When the authorities realized how badly their efforts to plant Communism in Vietnam were failing, they changed over to a form of state-sponsored capitalism that has gradually moved in the capitalist direction. And they call that socialism, because, after all, socialism is whatever the Party says it is.
Impossible not to weep while trying to wrap one’s head around the
losses.
A lot of good stuff in this article, and a couple of things with which I would take issue. (A pause here for some personal background. I'm a Vietnam veteran, retired Vietnam specialist for DoD, and a direct participant in the evacuation of Saigon, having been flown out of TSN on 24 April.) First, French forces had been present in Vietnam since 1858, not 1887. That's just a matter of fact, not interpretation. You are correct in saying that the main goal of the Viet Minh/NLF/DRV was the independence and unification of Viet Nam. But their secondary goal was indeed to be part of a Communist world order. That was the life's work of Ho Chi Minh, and it is clear from the Party's efforts to establish a Communist economic order in both the DRV and later in South Vietnam that it was the ultimate goal of the Party as well. However, the Vietnamese, having paid so dear a price in blood for their independence, were not about to become anyone's puppet. The Vietnamese are also highly intelligent and relentlessly pragmatic. When the authorities realized how badly their efforts to plant Communism in Vietnam were failing, they changed over to a form of state-sponsored capitalism that has gradually moved in the capitalist direction. And they call that socialism, because, after all, socialism is whatever the Party says it is.