Organization: Vietnam Insight
Editor: Chan Tran
Address: PO Box 7826, San Jose, CA 95150, USA
Phone: (408) 226-2261
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 21:39:59 PST
              USENET." <VIETNET@USCVM.BITNET>
From:         Vietnam Insight <vinsight@NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      VI: New Year Memories

                        Happy New Year Wish

                        YEAR OF THE ROOSTER

            May it bring you lots of luck, great health,
                     prosperity, and happiness.

                           ************


Editorial

*******************
New Year Memories
*******************

Greeting Tet (Vietnam's New Year Celebration by the lunar calender) of
1993 brings back memories of two occasions that have been engrained in
the Vietnamese people's minds and souls: the 1789 and 1968 Tets.

The deeply remembered events surrounding these two New Year
celebrations - over two centuries apart - stand in stark contrast in
both nature and consequences.

In 1789, also the Year of the Rooster, the Vietnamese celebrated their
greatest victory against foreign aggression, which has remained the
nation's pride till this day. Emperor Quang Trung launched a surprise
assault against the occupying Chinese forces during the Tet festival.
Within 5 days, he broke up both spiritually and physically the 300,000
strong Chinese army with a force of only one third as large, chasing the
aggressors across the northern border in awe and total defeat. To the
Vietnamese people, Emperor Quang Trung is the nation's greatest hero, and
his victory is still the greatest pride in Vietnam's history (Even the
Vietnamese Communists have to acknowledge this fact despite their
efforts to alter Vietnam's history to their advantage).

After regaining the country's independence, Emperor Quang Trung implemented
revolutionary policies in modernizing Vietnam.  Among his plans to push
forth Vietnam's progress and development were a conciliatory but strong
stance toward China to prevent further conflict, reforms of the economy,
taxation and education systems, restructuring of the ruling system to
emphasize social impartiality and justice, and encouraging initiative
and contributions from talented people with an open-mind - a rare
quality among rulers back then.

During his short reign of 4 years after regaining national independence
and stabilizing the country from domestic power struggles, Vietnam's
literature was enriched; Vietnamese vernacular writing developed; scores
of talents emerged; medical research expanded and Vietnam began to
flourish. But most importantly, the Emperor had successfully
reestablished a spirit of unity, hope, and confidence among the people
after nearly 30 years of oppression under the corrupt and degenerate Le
Dynasty and the Trinh-Nguyen Civil War, whose power struggle and rule by
hatred and division had torn the country apart.

Unfortunately, natural causes claimed the benign and talented king's
life in 1801; he was only 40 years old. Had the King not gone so early,
Vietnam might have been a strong country years ago, able to avoid the
many catastrophes later on. Also, Vietnam's history would not have the
abhorrent Tet offensive of 1968 written into it.

As the war escalated between the North and South Vietnam, and despite
North Vietnam's insistence that it had no part in the aggression, the
North launched an all-out assault against all major cities in South
Vietnam during the 1968 Tet cease fire. Within 7 days, it spread horrors
across the South: killing indiscriminately 5,800 civilians and civil
servants in Hue alone with 2,800 being summarily murdered or buried
alive; and driving 600,000 people away from their homes in the
countryside to seek safety in urban areas.  Adding to the horrible
picture was the sacrifice of a confirmed 37,000 communist casualties,
3083 among the South and Allies, and thousands of other unverifiable
deaths and injuries.

The event tells not only how ugly the war was, but also and more
importantly how callous the leaders of the North were in achieving their
goals, disregarding en-mass the lives of their own troops. The event also
proved loud and clear the communist brutal policy against innocent
people. While atrocities were reported to be committed by both sides of
the conflict and this ugliness is unavoidable in any war, the South's
brutality committed against its enemy never rivaled that of the North:
hatred and brute force were the North's central policy and were
systematically carried out as opposed to the South's sporadic and
individual misdeeds (Even Le Minh, the Communist Commander who lead the
attack on Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive, admitted in the 1988 Tet
special issue of the Perfume River Magazine that the massive killing
spree in Hue was regrettable).

The assault was a complete military defeat for the North, as it suffered
ten times more casualties than the South and Allies, without being able
to hold on to a single city in the South.  Communist atrocities, which
sent chill to people around the world also disillusioned communist
sympathizers and supporters in the South, defeating the North utterly in
its psychological warfare. The North, however, won a political victory
in the United States: reinforcing the anti-war movement, leading to the
withdrawal of the U.S. forces in 1972 and the eventual communist victory
over the South in April of 1975.

The Vietnamese have tried hard to uphold the glorious chapters of their
history and erase the many dark ones as demonstrated throughout the
country's 4000 year existence. The dark memories of the 1968 Tet
offensive will soon be overshadowed by a glorious Tet celebration when
the Vietnamese regain their dignity and rights to live happily in
freedom and peace.


--
Vietnam Insight (vinsight@netcom.com)
Chan Tran, editor