VIETNAM has a checker history. Once the poor country, made up of a farmer, took America’s strength and brought the superpower to his knees. In addition, who has become known as the Vietnam War, he had to fight a series of wars to achieve his purpose of being independent and united, finally to receive reunion in 1975. In a conversation, Nayan Chanda, former Editor, Editor Remote east economic reviewIt is said why Vietnam is a major player in Southeast Asia. Edited excerpt.
What is the most striking feature about Vietnam and his people?
The most striking about Vietnam is patriotism of those who are firm to be independent. That pursuit of freedom may seem intact because they are living under Chinese rule, French rule and Japanese rule, but they want to live on their own terms. There is a famous song that the Vietnamese rebels marched against the Chinese rule: “We fight to keep our hair for a long time, we fight to keep our teeth black, Veer Southern country is its own master.” They have a traditional exercise to lame teeth, and are saying, “We’re not going to accept the practice imposed by China.”
When Ho Chi Minh appealed to Vietnamese that he would fight the French to unite the country to win independence, he was talking to very interested spirits. People understood what he is saying. In some ways, he was like Gandhi – he came from a mid -aristocrat family, spoke Chinese, and he could be a kind of junior mandarin, but he wanted to win independence. And he thought that winning freedom is to fight the French and learn about the enemy, what is the strength of the enemy. Like Gandhi, he traveled around the world with his mission to win independence. People understood that he is a leader who has no other ambition but to win the war. Therefore leadership is a factor, patriotism is another, and they have a long tradition of fighting against foreign invaders. This is unique, as Vietnam was ruled directly by China for 900 years. Even after Vietnamese finally thrown them, the Chinese returned from time to time to re-establish control. Vietnamese again fought and pushed them out. This continuous fight to win independence is in Vietnamese DNA.
Take the mythological story of Tung sisters, who rode elephants and fought the Chinese battle and died. There is a temple in Hanoi, which has an idol of these two women who ride elephants, which are worshiped by people. In fact, when Vietnamese scholar George McCenun Kahin visited Vietnam during the 1970s and asked him to see his religion, he was taken to the temple of Tung Sisters. Throughout Vietnam, you can see small woodkat prints of Tung sisters.
A long history of resistance, a deep sense of nationalism based on culture, language, customs and literature, is one that makes Vietnam really strong.
Ho Chi Minh took the Marxist-Leninist route to fight for freedom and bring North and South together. In the height of the Cold War, it also meant that the US was justified for military intervention to prevent the spread of communism. In your book, ‘Brother Anemi: The War of the War’, you argue that the situation on the ground was much more complicated, and that reunion resulted in more geophysical conspiracy.
Vietnamese nationalism at that time launched smack in other nationalism – nationalism of protest. So when Vietnamese said that he was fighting the French colonialism and joining the hands with Khms and Lao to fight the French, Cambodian did not accept it.
Cambodian said that he wanted freedom from French, but Vietnamese did not want help. The reason for this is that in the 19th century, the Vietnamese Guyen dynasty located in HU attacked Cambodia and imposed Vietnamese language and culture on its people, similarly Chinese did it in Vietnam.
This created a lot of resistance, and the Khmars fought with Vietnamese. Eventually, French intervened, and Cambodia’s French protection originally stopped Cambodia from handling by Vietnamese. Now, Lao nationalism was very weak because Laos has 40–50 ethnic minority groups. There is no consistent group like Khmer or Vietnamese. Therefore, nationalism was very weak. Vietnamese support was necessary to defeat French.
Laos accepted Vietnam as an elder brother and his leadership. When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Chinese were worried as they thought that after winning Vietnamese against a superpower, they would align against them with the Soviet Union. The Soviet-Chinese relationship was very poor since 1969, and therefore the Soviet Union was an easy way to score points against Chinese supporting Vietnam.
But Vietnamese were balanced by Chinese. Vietnamese knew that everyone wooed them because they were growing power, and they wanted support from economically developed countries. But they did not want to join an alliance with the Soviet Union as they later demanded a security agreement for some time. It was not until 1978 that Vietnam realized that he would have to intervene in Cambodia, and could not risk a Chinese attack without support from other countries.
In a way it is a parallel what Indira Gandhi did with the Soviet military agreement before going into the Bangladesh war. When this happened, the Chinese felt that it ended their situation. He said, “We always said that Vietnamese are puppets of Russians. Now look at them, you have proved it.” China organized a coalition of non-commercial countries, ASEAN countries, and Khmer Roose was brought to fight Vietnamese. Americans also joined, as they did not like Khmer Rouge, they did not want Vietnamese to take anywhere.
This struggle lasted until Vietnamese eventually returned from Cambodia in 1989. Meanwhile, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union and did not want to join Vietnamese matters.
Vietnamese felt that the time had changed, and he also signed an agreement with Chinese at the so -called Chengdu summit in 1990. The summit agreed with Chinese and Vietnamese participation on a coalition government in Cambodia. The agreement follows a pattern seen several times in the past when Vietnamese was fighting Chinese. He felt that Chinese, their neighbors, were very strong, and so they would have to deal. Chinese felt that they could not actually control Vietnam military, nor could they expect to gain power for Khmer Roose. Therefore, the kind of agreement was reached in the past was made in Chengdu.
Vietnam-China Bonomi coincided with the initiative to improve in both countries. But when their trade relations remain intact, irritability remains, and an example is the issue of the South China Sea. Can you briefly tell how Vietnam is handling the situation?
Vietnam has a long history to deal with constant problems. This clearly indicated to China that it does not accept Chinese claims that all the South China Sea islands are their. At the same time, Vietnam also knows that the two countries need each other. Vietnam will not fight China until it is pushed.
What is Vietnam related to America? What about China-Vietnam relations?
The US showed enough sophistication until the arrival of Donald Trump. This is because the Americans realized that Vietnamese were never going to cooperate with Chinese for any expansionist agenda. Vietnam’s contribution to maintain peace and security in this region is undisputed. But they are publicly condemned by China or publicly “we are a partner.” Without declaring an alliance, you can still prepare yourself to combat the Chinese effect.
Vietnamese are constructing their bases in the South China Sea and have strengthened them. Chinese do not like it. So it is again a kind of stand-off. Because Vietnamese are not going to give up, Chinese are trying a separate, gentlers strategy. China is providing financial assistance to Vietnam and allowing Chinese companies to invest, and does not force Vietnam to take favor.
Therefore, I think, in some ways, despite stress, China-Vietnam relations are the most stable. They understand each other.
You said that before Donald Trump, they were mature to understand the role of Vietnam in generalization of American relations. Can you expand on it?
Trump is not attending the reunion ceremony, a short -sighted, petty thing for the US. Especially given the fact that the US has cultivated Vietnam since 1995 to develop very good economic and military relations. The US has given Vietnam naval crafts. Vietnam has opened its ports for US Navy ships. All that happened without making too much noise. This cooperation goes on without much publicity. The US has shown sophistication in handling Vietnam. They have been very careful in nurturing relationships up to Mr. Trump.
Fifty years after the reunion, the Communist Party is still in power. They agree that the market socialism is the way ahead. Their reaction to Trump’s tariff – now in hold – has been practical. But has he not extended practicality to a point where he has really rejected the idea of socialism that has increased his national reunion?
I think the way they are running the economy, they are increasing the boundaries of party control. As long as the Communist Party remains the only power in -charge, everything else can be discussed.
Foreign companies investing in Vietnam have the right to return their earnings. They are given some incentives. American companies will not approve investment in any country if they do not have legal control over parts of the economy. Finally, the Communist Party feels that if the police and the army are under their control, everything else can be done.
In a way, the anti -corruption campaign launched by the previous general secretary is also an entry, without accepting that this reform process has created inequalities; And they have tried to address it through political control.
I think the General Secretary of Lam has taken a very difficult place against corruption. Because he understood that in each other, people would accept it if the party is not corrupt. Therefore, the price of political control and political control is integrity. He has been very difficult.
The Vietnam Communist Party adapted to the Times, showed flexibility, and is getting rich. So will you ask students of international relations not to recover with ideology, but look at history and how nations like Vietnam have developed?
The ideology is not an end in itself. It is a device that allows you to organize and install control. This is nothing based on personal power. In South East Asia, ideology is more acceptable than something based on personality power.