Why was North Vietnam so bad?

Question

I understand why communism doesn't work but what else can you expect from so many people that are destitute and starving? Of course they're going to steal from the rich and South Vietnam made lots of money, was less populated. Was there any system that could've worked? There's a limit to how much poverty and overpopulation a nation can take before it falls to socialism. Vietnam's the size of Virginia.

Answer 1

Where did you get the impression that the Vietnamese people were "so bad?" From people who are denied their independence you can expect war. Of course the rich will do many things to protect their wealth, and not all of those things were good. There was a definite limit to how much the Vietnamese people benefitted under the French, and under the U.S. in the south of Vietnam. How could anyone ever believe that a nation as poor as Vietnam, and as small as Vietnam, could ever threaten the security of Asia and the Western world?

Answer 2

Hello,

Once communism got going in the 20's and 30's the whole world was scared of it. Millions died under Stalin and later Mao and with their motto, workers of the world unite the west wanted it blocked. Part of the reason for the intial successess of nazism and fascism were that many thought the new systems were a good bulwark against communism. OK, so there the mood is set.

Vietnam initially asked for American help to throw out their French colonial masters after the war but were refused. Vietnam guerillas fought the French who eventually left but got divided between the North and South; communist government in the North. Bear in mind there was the Korean war from 50 - 53. Also there was communist insurgency in Malaysia all backed by China and Russia. The picture that was painted was that of the domino scenario where if you line a bunch of dominos on end and push one, the whole row collapses. If one country even divided like Korea or Vietnam fall, all south East Asia would collapse and perhaps Australia as well. Therefore the North Vietnam was considered a threat and bad by the standards of those times. Hindsight they say is always 20/20 and now one can see that they wanted a unified nation, much like Ireland today.

During those times various progressive social leaders and clergy, much to there credit said that the way to stop the spread of communism in Asia and Latin America was to go in, treat the suffering people with compassion, make friends, listen to their gripes, feed them and treat them with dignity and communism would move nowhere. I'll have to review some history but I vaguely remember that the British tried these techniques in Malaysia, along with good counter insurgency tactics and were successful in that particular thaetre at stopping communism there.

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 3

North Vietnam was only bad if you look at it from the perspective of the USA. During World War one, Vietnam and Japan helped the Allies defeat the Germans. When negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles were happening, US President Woodrow Wilson told the Japanese and Vietnamese diplomats that they were 'five-foot yellow people' and told them to leave. The Vietnamese delegate was a Ho Chi Min.

So, after the Vietnamese were betrayed by the US because they were promised independence from France in return for helping the Allies during WWI, they suffered through some more rule by the French. During WWII, Vietnam was invaded by the Japanese. Vietnam liberated ITSELF (!) from the Japanese in 1942! They were the only country to do that. The Viet Minh (later the Viet Cong) ran the country until 1948. That year, they had an election and Ho Chi Min won. The problem was that Uncle Ho was Communist. He was really angry that the US and other democracies stabbed Vietnam in the back after WWI, so he turned to Communism because the Communists didn't care how tall or what color they were.

Following this, the US tried to prop the French up, but that didn't work. They didn't recognize the election results in Vietnam because Ho Chi Min was Communist, just like today when Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez in democratic elections and the US brands him a rogue leader. Democracy is only acceptable to the US if the right person, one who bows US interests at the expense of their own people, is elected into power.

After the French were expelled from Vietnam, the US moved in. They created puppet governments in South Vietnam while Ho Chi Min ran the democratically elected Communist government in North Vietnam. Since the US hated Ho Chi Min and Communism, they escalated their war in Vietnam.

After the US ran away from Vietnam in 1975, the Communists from the North took over. Vietnam then had the government they elected in 1948.

Vietnam turned Communist because they were mistreated by Democratic countries. Then, once they were Communist, the US wanted to invade them and force Democracy upon them. If President Wilson had not been an ugly racist, maybe Vietnam would have been Democratic all along. Vietnam was in poverty because it was not acceptable for Democratic countries to do business with them, because of the US. All the problems in Vietnam are squarely the fault of the US and their emperialistic views of themselves.

Answer 4

North Vietnam ....South Vietnam

All together now, under a limited socialism

Bad and Good are Not part of the equation.
The US cannot, will NEVER impose captalism and limited republicanism on nations who do not have some history of capitalism and democratic republican ideals ..self governing autonomous people.

Answer 5

North Vietnam murdered its own people to keep them from being free. I live in Virginia and love freedom.

Answer 6

errrrr

Vietnam didn't want to be divided into North and South. It was a civil war.... It wasn't that North Vietnam was broke and South Vietnam was rich...

We got involved in another countries civil war..

Answer 7

Vietnam was bad because......The French owned it.....ha,ha

Answer 8

The winners write history - that's really evident by your views.