From: ltran@lsil.com (Linh T. Tran x4900)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: [POL] Ve^. U+o+?ng (part 3)
Date: 3 Oct 92 00:40:22 GMT
Reply-To: ltran@lsil.com
Organization: LSI Logic Corporation
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

(continuing part 2. Ve^. U+O+?ng now is in power, but the people hate him).

	I don't recall on how he was disgraced. I think he was commanding
	an Army, stationning at the border of Ta^`n, preparing for a campaign
	to invade a neighboring Kingdom. The King of Ta^`n (the one who promoted
	him was dead and replaced by a new one) was afraid that Ve^. U=O+?ng
	will rebel, so he ordered another Army to chase him. 

	But I remember the end. Ve^. U=O+?ng was chased by the King's men.
	He was tired and wanted to stay in an Inn for the night. The Inn keeper
	didn't want to let him stay, because he didn't have the required papers
	to stay overnight.

	Ve^. U=O+?ng was so tired that he stayed under a tree to rest when
	the King's men captured him. He was pulled apart by 5 buffs, the 
	capital punishments set up by him for rebels!

	The people dances in the streets for 3 days, rejoicing about his death.
-------------------------

	What do you think about that man?

	This may not be a historically exact fact about Ve^. U+o+?ng . As
	you know, the DDo^ng Cha^u Lie^.t Quo^'c Truye^.n is half History,
	half Fiction. But regardless of how the real man is (if he existed
	at all) but let us focus on teh man as described above. We could
	pull out some interesting things.

	He is an example of those who used the power to oppress people. Of
	course, he was not entirely responsible, since he had the blessing of
	the former Ta^`n's King. His policies did make Ta^`n a strong nation
	and indeed paved a way for Ta^`n Thu?y Hoa`ng later to unify China.
	But as Ta^`n Thu?y Hoa`ng, his reign doesn't last long.

	Looking back at Vietnamese History, one could also see a person
	ressemble Ve^. U+o+?ng in ambition, policies and political career:
	Ho^` Qui' Ly . Without judging too harshly Ho^` Qui' Ly, one could
	safely say that both Ho^` Qui' Ly and Ve^. U=O+?ng implemented 
	policies which doesn't aim at long lasting results, but wanted
	immediate results. Both of them went against the popular sentiments.
	
	The fate of them were different:
	- Ve^. U=O+?ng was executed;
	- Ho^` Qui' Ly was captured by the Minh and was exiled to Qua?ng Ta^y
		and died there.

	The fate of Ta^`n and Nam Vie^.t were also different:
	- Ta^`n was able to regain internal peace by reduce and abolished
		Ve^. U=O+?ng policies;
	- Nam Vie^.t was invaded by Minh.

	My point is:
	It is not the right way to implements harsh policies in order to achieve
	shortterm gain. This applied for a nation, a firm or a family.

-----------------------------------

	Now, look at the current Vietnamese Government. There is a parallelism
	we could make here between the story I told and the way Vietnam is
	governed.

	One could see clearly how the harsh policies of Ve^. U+O+?ng was 
	implemented in Vietnam. An article posted recently by chi. Bo^.i Khanh
	Bu`i (at Mentor Graphics), suggesting that the Communist Party is
	modeled after the Catholic Religion. I am not sure about that claim,
	but I saw that Ve^. U+o+?ng already used those long before, for the
	same purpose as the Communists does: seizing power at all costs. I think
	that the way the Communists govern Vietnam has nothing to do with
	any religion, but has to do with the evil desire to get power by
	force, and cling on to it.

	Worst than that, the current Vietnamese Government didn't make Vietnam
	advance forward in term of strength, as Ta^`n was under Ve^. U=O+?ng.
	It didn't have the insight that Ho^` Qui' Ly had in term of economic
	policies. It made Vietnam went backward compared to other nations.

	It took the death of Ve^. U+o+?ng to pull Ta^`n's back in the right
	path, since without doubt that if the popular supports wasn't there,
	Ta^`n would crumble from inside, despite of economic and military
	strengths. It took Vie^.t Nam 20 years of plunder by the Minh and a 10
	years war to unify the people's spirit under the same leadership
	(Le^). I wonder what it takes to get Vietnam back to the right track?

	If Ve^. U+o+?ng was more moderate, he may not died execited, but would
	still be praised as Qua?n Tro.ng was. If Ho^` Qui' Ly was more careful
	and a bit less ambitious, implementing policies that are of more long
	term, then Ho^` Qui' Ly would not suffer the disgraced of being
	defeated by the Chinese. If the Communist Party abandon the mono-party
	cling on power, then they might escape the anger of the population
	and ends up the way Chaucescu was.

	Would the party has changed to the point that it would be able to lead
	the people in the good path? It is to be seen. We have waited 17 years
	since the day it seems there was no excuse left for the communists.
	But all we get from them is: "wait for the old guards to die, the new
	generation will be better". How long should we wait? Vietnam cannot
	afford to have 20 more years for them to die all. 

	As recent as this month news, Vietnam still elect a militaire as chief
	of the nation, arguably the most important man. And who he is? A 
	still young general (in the fifties) who doesn't like the reforms.
	And his subordinate, DDoa`n Khue^, said that the military must be on
	guard against the Western Ideologies which infiltrated into the rang
	and files of the Army and the Party.

	I certainly don't hope that it will take a Chinese invasion, and a
	costly liberation War, as in 1417-27, as Le^ Lo+.i pushed the Minh
	out of Vietnam, to get Vietnam back on the right track.


--
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Linh Tran
ltran@lsil.com
of course, it is only my opinion.
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese