The Hidden Power of Pro-US Faction In Vietnam

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n my latest article “What Is Wrong With Vietnam Today?”, I had underestimated the power of the pro-US faction in Vietnam. After observing and investigating in recent months, I found out they are in fact much more powerful than I thought. Despite the fact that the pro-China faction are very powerful because they are the corrupt officials in the Vietnamese Government, the pro-US faction was very powerful due to four main reasons in my own opinions:

1.They have the approval of [some] Vietnamese.
2. Sinophobia.
3. They try to whitewash the US crime in Vietnam.
4. Pro-US or pro-First World Countries media in and outside Vietnam.

The Pro-China faction is same as the pro-US , they are just pro-money. The pro-money people will do anything, even selling their own country, to line their pockets with as much as they can through bribes and other forms of prostitution.

Before analyzing the three reasons for the pro-US faction, I want to be “fair” with both factions so I will go on the pro-China crowd first.

The Pro-China faction is very dangerous to Vietnam right now because they are willing to let Chinese government officials go inside Vietnam to do anything with Vietnam materials without keeping their eyes on China, and the Chinese companies didn’t even hire or train Vietnamese locals to work for them, they use Chinese workers instead. However, pro-China actions can be limited or pushed back by the Vietnamese rather easily if Vietnamese notice their action due to anti-China sentiment. In conclusion, the pro-China faction can be very dangerous but it can be limited and subject to pressure if the Vietnamese people notice its activities.

Now, let's begin analyzing the pro-US faction.

1. They have the approval of Vietnamese.

Since the Barack Obama Presidency, the relationship between Vietnam and US begin has gradually become warmer.

Vietnamese relatives and friends, who live in the US or Western nations, had contacted their relatives and friends to talk about how great the US or First World are, especially under Obama. Corruption in Vietnam, which has increased and gone rampant right now, had a terribly bad affect on some Vietnamese, making them more receptive to the story of how great the First World is from their relatives and friends. Many Vietnamese today concluded that US or First World government system truly care for their own people, and that Vietnam today is beyond salvation. In addition, Vietnamese TV system has shown the Vietnamese audience many Hollywood propaganda movies, and they have—as most uninformed people do—believe the movie without any critical thinking.

During 2016-2017, I tried to convince some of my friends and relatives that Vietnamese overseas are not representative of what truly happened in the US or First World in general because they are small minority compared to the US or First World locals, and the locals of the First World are suffering due to the [extraordinary] corruption of the government. However, they don’t even listen and reply that I talk nonsense. I even told them about the Rotherham rape, PizzaGate, Boeing 737, etc, and they would call me paranoid, a drama queen, or that Vietnam is currently worse than the incidents I mentioned.

Next, Vietnam is very Pro-US in the ASEAN. It is true that since the 2013, the Vietnamese economy had improved thanks to US influence. However, the economic improvement, from my understanding of this phenomenon, is just a short term goal, not long term, and the corruption is still rampant and getting more worse in Vietnam right now.

There is a story that is still very popular in Vietnam right now (and I believe it is real from my understanding on history), and that is that Ho Chi Minh was originally pro-US and he tried to convince the US to support Vietnam before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. I finally found only one and rare article (at least right now) talking about how Ho Chi Minh admired the US. I will quote some part of the article “The little-known story of Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh’s admiration for the US” for you guys:

“The initial US intelligence assessment of Ho Chi Minh was that he was more nationalist than communist and was an acceptable partner. So, the US provided him with weapons and training teams to help teach his Viet Minh guerrillas how to fight.

Ho Chi Minh’s admiration for the US is most clearly seen in the language he wrote in Vietnam’s own declaration of independence, which he issued on Sept. 2, 1945, just as the Japanese empire was crumbling in defeat. The first line of that declaration is a direct quote from the American version: “All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It’s likely this was partly sincere, and partly a play for US help in decolonization, based on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s anti-colonial rhetoric.

This has all led some writers to speculate counterfactually, that the US missed an opportunity to “flip” Ho Chi Minh, and thus could somehow have avoided the Vietnam War. Most historians think that’s a step too far. Ho Chi Minh was a committed communist from the 1920s. He was persecuted for it and yet stuck to his guns. And however much he may have liked America’s anti-colonial history, he could never have been a sincere partner for the US. The anti-communist forces in South Vietnam were much more natural partners for the US.

That’s not to say he ended his admiration and emulation of America’s Founding Fathers. Ho Chi Minh and his top general, Vo Nguyen Giap, modeled their war to some extent on George Washington’s fight against the British: wear down the enemy, avoid catastrophic defeat, keep the army in being and simply make it too expensive for your superior enemy to continue the war.”

The story about how Ho Chi Minh admired the US is one of the indirect reasons for pro-US mindset in Vietnam today. However, I think that does not mean Ho Chi Minh was a US shill; he was and remains a great Vietnamese hero, as anyone with an iota of historical sense knows. 

Since the May 2019, the Vietnamese must submit their social media information to receive a US Visa, and the Vietnamese from top to bottom don’t even care how dangerous it is, you guys can go to the link “https://www.ustraveldocs.com/vn/vn-gen-faq.asp” and read question 25. By the way, this is the picture I take when I check the DS-160 online filling form to confirm the information:

In conclusion, the pro-US current can get away with their corruption thanks to the approval of the US by many Vietnamese.

2. Sinophobia.

Sinophobia is not just a simple phobic attitude but also the sign of distrust of the Vietnam government due the actions of the pro-China faction. Before the 2010s, the Vietnamese had only anti-China government sentiment; not anti-Chinese today. Few weeks ago, I just found out that there are two Vietnamese anti-China government films, Đất Mẹ (Motherland), and Người Bạn Ấy (That Friend) which were made during the 1980s, got banned by the Vietnam Government after 1980s to normalize the relationship between Vietnam and China during 1990s, and somehow reappeared again on Youtube recently.

Đất Mẹ (Motherland)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fImSVK2ojPI

Người Bạn Ấy (That Friend)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9YgPL5jKO0

I will sum up the main points of the two Vietnamese propaganda movies:
• that China's Government or Chinese Elites are trechearous at heart, and that Chinese commoners/soldiers are similar to the Vietnamese, they are not evil, and they were the victims of Chinese Government propaganda. Ergo, the Vietnamese should hate Chinese Government, and should sympathize for how Chinese soldiers suffer. Let took a look some anti-China Government poster during between 1979 and 1980s:

You guys can click the link above to see how the poster describe China Government brainwashed or forced their own people died for them. By the way, the word “Hiện Đại Hóa” in the rocket mean “Modernization”. In conclusion, Vietnamese is anti-China Government before 2010s.

Today, the anti-China government has evolved into a Sinophobic posture in many nasty ways, like demonizing Chinese in general. Let's take a look some posters:

(Credit: https://phunutoday.vn/biem-hoa-da-kich-hanh-dong-ngang-nguoc-cua-tq-tren-bien-dong-d49457.html )

(Credit: https://news.zing.vn/xem-gian-khoan-981-qua-biem-hoa-post431339.html)

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The Manchu Chinese said: “Our People Don’t Have Invasion Genes” and the black flags represent the time or era when China invaded Vietnam.

(Credit: ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril )

The anti-Chinese posters were approved by the Vietnamese today because the posters used the truth to manipulate the Vietnamese to hate all China from top to bottom, and the Vietnamese didn’t even recognize that the posters above were exactly the same as Yellow Peril posters:

More horribly, Vietnamese today will react in some crazy way when they hear the word “China”. You guys still remember the violent anti-China protests in 2014 that killed 21 Chinese because the oil rig Hai Yang Shi You 981 standoff The Anti-China Protest in 2014 had improved ties between Vietnam and US. That is the evidence on how dangerous Sinophobia is in Vietnam.

Last year, the anti-China on ‘99-year concessions in planned special economic zones’ had proved how dangerous the Sinophobia is. Allow me to give you guys a short explanation, the 99-year special economic zones is not only for China but also for any foreign countries like US, British, Japan, Korea, etc. who bid the highest price on the zones. When I noticed the protest, I thought something like: “Yeah right, if US wants to use the special economic zones, you guys will agree immediately without thinking.” By the way, they even protest with the American flag (as do the Hong Kong protesters):

Incongruously using American flags (as in Hong Kong) Vietnamese protesters shout slogans against a proposal to grant Chinese companies lengthy land leases during a demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018. Hard to believe that of all people the Vietnamese would forget so soon how evil the US empire is. (AFP PHOTO / Kao NGUYEN)

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In conclusion, Sinophobia in Vietnam today is really good news for the pro-US faction.

3. They try to whitewash the US crime in Vietnam.

The Pro-US faction tries to whitewash US war crimes in Vietnam in my unthinkable way. For example, in 2015, Hoa Nơi Chiến Trường (Flower At Battlefield) use the photoshop image to whitewash US war crime like that below:

(Credit: https://billbalo.com/hoa-noi-chien-truong/)

(Credit: https://www.tin247.com/du_luan_day_song_phan_doi_trien_lam_hoa_noi_chien_truong-20-23435446.html)

In 2016, VTV24 whitewashed agent orange by saying that: “Chiếc máy bay số hiệu UH-1D từ Đại đội không quân 336 đang rải chất diệt cỏ trong vùng rừng của châu thổ sông Mê Kong. 26/07/1969”, which, roughly translated: “UH-1D aircraft from 336 Air Force Company is spraying herbicides in the forests of the Mekong Delta. 07/26/1969”. They misled the public about Agent Orange by calling the orange poison “herbicides” !!!!

There are bunch of so-called history revisionists who try to convince the Vietnamese to accept the name “Republic Of Vietnam” for the [puppet] South Vietnamese Government instead of the name we still used for the SVN Gov, which is “Ngụy” (Ngụy mean Fake). This is unacceptable to many Vietnamese, including me, who truly understand Vietnamese history, especially the older ones, because the SVN was literally the puppet of US since the death of Ngo Dinh Diem. I, including the other sane Vietnamese, will not accept the name “Republic of Vietnam”, and I still call the SVN government “Fake.”

There are more incidents about whitewashing US crimes in Vietnam that are happening so quietly that few really notice.

In conclusion, the Vietnamese pro-US faction tries hard to whitewash the US crimes from Vietnam history books.

4. Pro-US or pro-First World Countries medias in and outside Vietnam.

Unlike China, Vietnam does not have a  Great Firewall. Vietnam does not ban Youtube, and the Vietnamese can access many US propaganda channels, like China Uncensored, Trung Quốc Không Kiểm Duyệt (Vietnamese Dubbed Version of China Uncensored), RAF, CNN, BBC, etc. and any propaganda sources on the internet with VPN. The Vietnamese can trust the propaganda channels so easily because (like most ordinary people in a professional propaganda environment) they lack critical thinking skills, have a low opinion on their own country due to corruption of Vietnam, and have a favorable bias viewpoint on first world countries from their friends or relatives who currently live in the first world.

Vietnam medias today are extremely pro-US, and they do propaganda of their own volition, or through bribes. 

For example, last week, the online news Zing.vn did propaganda against the Donbass in “Putin, Zelensky gặp nhau ở Paris để giải quyết xung đột Ukraine” (Roughly translated by me: Putin, Zelensky meet in Paris to solve the conflict in Ukraine). They wrote like this:

“Mục tiêu của cuộc gặp bao gồm thống nhất giải tán lực lượng phiến quân bất hợp pháp, rút lực lượng chiến đấu nước ngoài khỏi Donetsk và Lugansk, và Ukraine giành lại quyền kiểm soát biên giới với Nga, theo một nguồn tin từ văn phòng tổng thống Pháp.”

Roughly translated by me:

“The goal of the meeting include dispersing the illegal rebels, withdrawing the foreign forces from Donetsk and Lugansk, and Ukraine will assume the right to control the border with Russia, according to the information from the office of the French President.”

Zing.vn called Donbass militants ILLEGAL like calling them ISIS (If I understand right).

Also abominable is the movie that was shown in Vietnam about 10 days and banned after people noticed the dash line in South China Sea.

(Credit: https://www.businessinsider.com/abominable-dreamworks-movie-vietnam-ban-south-china-sea-map-2019-10)

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Vietnamese media just blame China only and they don’t blame the US. From the movie, I suspect that US trolled both Vietnam and China to provoke the two countries to kill each other.

Moreover, most of Vietnamese media, especially VnExpress, usually post Sinophobic reports on Chinese activity in the South China Sea, without being skeptical or critical. Vietnamese media today will do anything to favor the US, including demonizing the Chinese in general to make money. For example, Vietnamese media outlets usually play propaganda on the Hong Kong "protests" depicting them as an example of how evil the mainland Chinese are, and that the Vietnamese should learn from the Hong Kong protesters how to protect their own country from “evil Chinese.”

In conclusion, the Vietnamese are currently being brainwashed by US propaganda by media in and outside the country.

From that, I conclude that the Pro-US faction in Vietnam is really powerful and dangerous in a “hidden” way. I hope my report will help you guys understand better the [existence & effects] of the pro-US faction, and I hope you guys can give me some feedback. I will try my best to answer your questions to the limit of my abilities.