VIETNAM

VIETNAM 40 YEARS AFTER
DIMITRA STASINOPOULOU

VIETNAM (Việt Nam)
On 30 April 1975, Ho Chi Minh City - which was then
called Saigon and was the capital of South Vietnam -
was captured by communist troops from the North,
and the war ended. Three million Vietnamese, and
58,000 US soldiers died in this war. It was the first
to be lost by a modern global superpower. I visited
the country in April 2015, starting from Sa Pa, the
northern part, close to the Chinese border, and then
continued to Ha Long Bay and Hanoi, the capital.
The central area followed, with the ancient towns of
Hue and Hoi An, and continued to the south to Ho
Chi Minh City (Saigon) and the Mekong Delta.
Today, 40 years after the American war in Vietnam
ended in ignominious defeat, the traces of that
terrible conflict are disappearing. Traveling through
Vietnam in April 2015, I was struck by the transformation
of what was once an impoverished, wardevastated
peasant society into a modern nation.
Its cities and towns are bustling with life and energy.
Vast numbers of motorbikes surge through their
streets, including 4.2 million in Hanoi and 7 million
in Ho Chi Minh City. A thriving commercial culture
has emerged, based not only on many small shops,
but on an influx of giant Western, Japanese, and
other corporations. Although Vietnam is officially
a Communist nation, about 40% of the economy
is capitalist, and the government is making great
efforts to encourage private foreign investment.
Indeed, over the past decade, Vietnam has enjoyed
one of the highest economic growth rates in the
world. Not only have manufacturing and tourism
expanded dramatically, but Vietnam has become
an agricultural powerhouse. Today it is the world’s
second largest exporter of rice, and one of the
world’s leading exporters of coffee, pepper, rubber,
and other agricultural commodities. Another factor
distancing the country from what the Vietnamese
call “the American War” is the rapid increase in Vietnam’s
population. Only 41 million in 1975, it now
tops 90 million, with most of it under the age of 30
- too young to have any direct experience with the
conflict.
Vietnam has also made a remarkable recovery in
world affairs. It now has diplomatic relations with
189 countries, and enjoys good relations with all
the major nations.
Nevertheless, the people of Vietnam paid a very
heavy price for their independence from foreign
domination. Some 3 million of them died in the
American war, and another 300,000 are still classified
as MIAs. In addition, many, many Vietnamese
were wounded or crippled in the conflict. Perhaps
the most striking long-term damage resulted from
the U.S. military’s use of Agent Orange (dioxin) as a
defoliant. Vietnamese officials estimate that, today,
some 4 million of their people suffer the terrible
effects of this chemical, which not only destroys
the bodies of those exposed to it, but has led to
horrible birth defects and developmental disabilities
into the second and third generations. Much
of Vietnam’s land remains contaminated by Agent
Orange, as well as by unexploded ordnance. Indeed,
since the end of the American war in 1975, the landmines,
shells, and bombs that continue to litter the
nation’s soil have wounded or killed over 105,000
Vietnamese many of them children.
During the immediate postwar years, Vietnam’s
ruin was exacerbated by additional factors. These
included a U.S. government embargo on trade with
Vietnam, U.S. government efforts to isolate Vietnam
diplomatically, and a 1979 Chinese military invasion
of Vietnam employing 600,000 troops. Although
the Vietnamese managed to expel the Chinese -
just as they had previously routed the French and
the Americans - China continued border skirmishes
with Vietnam until 1988. In addition, during the first
postwar decade, the ruling Vietnamese Communist
Party pursued a hardline, repressive policy that
undermined what was left of the economy and
alienated much of the population. Misery and starvation
were widespread.
Nevertheless, starting in the mid-1980s, the country
made a remarkable comeback. This recovery was
facilitated by Communist Party reformers who loosened
the reins of power, encouraged foreign investment,
and worked at developing a friendlier relationship
with other nations, especially the United
States. In 1995, the U.S. and Vietnamese governments
resumed diplomatic relations. Although
these changes did not provide a panacea for the
nation’s ills -- for example, the U.S. State Department
informed the new U.S. ambassador that he must
never mention Agent Orange - Vietnam’s circumstances,
and particularly its relationship with the
United States, gradually improved. U.S.-Vietnamese
trade expanded substantially, reaching $35 billion
in 2014. Thousands of Vietnamese students participated
in educational exchanges. In recent years, the
U.S. government even began funding programs to
help clean up Agent Orange contamination and

unexploded ordnance.
Although, in part, this U.S.-Vietnamese détente
resulted from the growing flexibility of officials
in both nations, recently it has also reflected the
apprehension of both governments about the
increasingly assertive posture of China in Asian
affairs. Worried about China’s unilateral occupation
of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea
during 2014, both governments began to resist it
- the United States through its “Pacific pivot” and
Vietnam through an ever closer relationship with
the United States to “balance” China. Although both
nations officially support the settlement of the
conflict over the disputed islands through diplomacy
centered on the ten countries that comprise
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, officials
in Vietnam, increasingly nervous about China’s
ambitions, appear to welcome the growth of a more
powerful U.S. military presence in the region.
This shift from warring enemies to cooperative partners
over the past 40 years should lead to solemn
reflection. In the Vietnam War, the U.S. government
laid waste to a poor peasant nation in an effort to
prevent the triumph of a Communist revolution
that U.S. policymakers insisted would release a Red
tide that would sweep through Asia and imperil the
United States. And yet, when America’s counterrevolutionary
effort collapsed, this dire prediction
was proved false. Instead, an independent nation
emerged that could - and did - work amicably with
the U.S. government. This development highlights
the unnecessary nature -- indeed, the tragedy -- of
America’s vastly destructive war in Vietnam. It also
underscores the deeper folly of relying on war to
cope with international issues.
HISTORY OF VIETNAM
Vietnam (Việt Nam), officially the Socialist Republic
of Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia. Its neighboring
countries are China to the north, Laos and
Cambodia to the west.
Vietnam’s history is one of war, colonization and
rebellion. Astonishingly exotic and utterly compelling,
it is a country of breathtaking natural beauty
with a unique heritage.
Occupied by China no fewer than four times, the
Vietnamese managed to fight off the invaders just
as often. At various points during these thousand
years of imperial dynasties, Vietnam was ravaged
and divided by civil wars and repeatedly attacked
by the Songs, Mongols, Yuans, Chams, Mings,
Dutch, Qings, French and the Americans. The victories
mostly belonged to the Vietnamese but, even
during the periods in history when Vietnam was
independent, it was mostly a tributary state to
China, until the French colonization. Vietnam’s last
emperors were the Nguyễn Dynasty, who ruled from
their capital at Huế from 1802 to 1945, although
France exploited the succession crisis after the fall
of Tự Đức to de facto colonize Vietnam after 1884.
Both the Chinese occupation and French colonization
have left a lasting impact on Vietnamese
culture, with Confucianism forming the basis of
Vietnamese social etiquette, and the French leaving
a lasting imprint on Vietnamese cuisine.
After a brief Japanese occupation in World War II,
the Communist Việt Minh under the leadership of
Hồ Chí Minh continued the insurgency against the
French, with the last Emperor Bảo Đại abdicating in
1945 and a proclamation of independence following
soon after. The majority of French had left by 1945,
but in 1946 they returned to continue the fight until
their decisive defeat at Điện Biên Phủ in 1954. The
Geneva Conference partitioned the country into
two at the 17th parallel of latitude, with a Communist-led
North and Ngô Đình Diệm declaring himself
President of the Republic of Vietnam in the South.
Fighting between South Vietnam and the North
Vietnamese-backed Việt Cộng escalated into what
became known as the Vietnam War - although the
Vietnamese officially refer to it as the American War.
US economic and military aid to South Vietnam
grew through the 1960s in an attempt to bolster
the Southern Vietnam government, escalating into
the dispatch of half a million American troops in
1966. What was supposed to be a quick and decisive
action soon degenerated into a quagmire and
US armed forces were only withdrawn following a
cease-fire agreement in 1973. Two years later, on 30
April 1975, a North Vietnamese tank drove into the
South’s Presidential Palace in Ho Chi Minh City and
the war ended with the conquest of South Vietnam.
An estimated 800,000 to 3 million Vietnamese and
over 55 thousand Americans had been killed.
The Vietnam War was only one of many that the
Vietnamese have fought and won, but it was the
most brutal in its history.
Over two thirds of the current population was born
after 1975.

CHINA
MYANMAR
LAOS
Sapa
Halong Bay
Hanoi
PEOPLE
Most people in Vietnam are ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh),
though there is a sizeable ethnic Chinese community
in Ho Chi Minh City, most who are descended from
migrants from Guangdong province and are hence
bilingual in Cantonese or other Chinese dialects
and Vietnamese. There are also numerous other
ethnic groups who occupy the mountainous parts
of the country, such as the Hmong, Muong and Yao
people. There is also a minority ethnic group in the
lowlands near the border with Cambodia known as
the Khmer Krom.
Buddhism, mostly of the Mahayana school, is the
single largest religion in Vietnam, with over 85%
of Vietnamese people identifying themselves as
Buddhist. Catholicism is the second largest religion,
followed by the local Cao Dài religion. Other Christian
denominations, Islam, and local religions also
share small followings throughout the southern
and central areas.
CULTURE
Due to its long history as a tributary state of China,
as well as several periods of Chinese occupations,
Vietnamese culture is heavily influenced by that
of Southern China, with Confucianism forming
the basis of Vietnamese society. The Vietnamese
language also contains many loan words from
Chinese, though the two languages are unrelated.
Buddhism remains the single largest religion in
Vietnam, though like in China but unlike in the rest
of northern Southeast Asia, the dominant school of
Buddhism in Vietnam is the Mahayana School.
Nevertheless, Vietnamese culture remains distinct
from Chinese culture, as it has also absorbed cultural
elements from neighboring Hindu civilizations
such as the Champa and the Khmer empires. The
French colonization has also left a lasting impact
on Vietnamese society, with baguettes and coffee
remaining popular among locals.
BIBLIOGRAPHY / REFERENCES:
Lawrence Wittner - Professor of History emeritus at
SUNY/Albany.
Wikipedia
Wikitravel
Lonely Planet
Rough Guides
THAILAND
CAMBODIA
Mekong
Delta
Hue
Hoi An
Ho Chi Minh
(Saigon)
SOUTH CHINA SEA
MAP OF VIETNAM

BAC HA
BAC HA
NORTHERN VIETNAM

BAC HA & SA PA
Sa Pa District is in Lào Cai Province, northwest
Vietnam, 380km northwest of Hanoi, close to the
border with China. The Hoàng Liên Son range of
mountains dominates the district, which is at the
eastern extremity of the Himalayas. This range
includes Vietnam’s highest mountain, Fan Si Pan, at
a height of 3143m above sea level. The town of Sa
Pa lies at an elevation of about 1500m. Sa Pa is a
quiet mountain town and home to a great diversity
of ethnic minority peoples. The total population of
36,000 consists mostly of minority groups. Besides
the Kinh (Viet) people (15 percent) there are mainly
five ethnic groups in Sa Pa: Hmong 52%, Dao 25%,
Tay five%, Giay 2%, a small number of Xa Pho and
some others. Approximately 7,000 live in Sa Pa, the
other 36,000 being scattered in small communes
throughout the district. Most of the ethnic minority
people work their land on sloping terraces since
the vast majority of the land is mountainous. Their
staple foods are rice and corn. The unique climate
in Sa Pa has a major influence on the ethnic minorities
who live in the area. With sub-tropical summers,
temperate winters and 160 days of mist annually,
the influence on agricultural yields and healthrelated
issues is significant. The geographical location
of the area makes it a truly unique place for
many interesting plants and animals, allowing it to
support many inhabitants. Many very rare or even
endemic species have been recorded in the region.
The scenery of the Sa Pa region in large part reflects
the relationship between the minority people and
nature. This is seen especially in the paddy fields
carpeting the rolling lower slopes of the mountains.
The impressive physical landscape has resulted from
the work of the elements over thousands of years,
wearing away the underlying rock. On a clear day,
the imposing peak of Fan Si Pan comes into view.
The last major peak in the Himalayan chain, Fan
Si Pan offers a real challenge to even the keenest
walker, the opportunity of staggering views and a
rare glimpse of some of the last remaining primary
rain forest in Vietnam. Geology, climate and human
activity have combined to produce a range of very
distinct habitats around Sa Pa. Especially important
is Sa Pa’s geographic position, at the convergence of
the world’s 14 distinct biographic areas, producing
an assemblage of plant and animal species unique
in the world.
Established as a hill station by the French in 1922,
Sa Pa today is the tourism center of the northwest.
It was only when the French debarked in highland
Tonkin in the late 1880s that Sa Pa began to appear
on the national map. In the following decade, the
future site of Sa Pa town started to see military
parties, as well as missionaries from the Société
des Missions Etrangères de Paris visit. In 1894-96
the border between China and Tonkin was formally
agreed upon and the Sa Pa area was placed under
French authority. The first permanent French civilian
resident arrived in Sa Pa in 1909. With its attractive
continental climate, health authorities believed the
site had potential. By 1912 a military sanatorium for
ailing officers had been erected along with a fullyfledged
military garrison.
At the end of the Second World War a long period
of hostilities began in Tonkin that was to last until
1954. In the process, nearly all of the 200 colonial
buildings around Sa Pa were destroyed, either by
Việt Minh sympathizers in the late 1940s, or, in the
early 1950s by French air raids. The vast majority
of the Viet population fled for their lives, and the
former township entered a prolonged sleep. In the
early 1960s, thanks to the New Economic Zones
migration scheme set up by the new Socialist
regime, new inhabitants from the lowlands started
to migrate to the region. The short 1979 occupation
of the northern border region by Chinese troops,
had little impact on Sa Pa town, but did force the
lowland Vietnamese population out for a month.
THE COLORFUL ETHNIC MARKETS OF SA PA
Almost every day of the week, somewhere in the area
around Sa Pa, the local hill tribes will be gathering
for their weekly market. As well as providing the
opportunity to buy and sell anything from vegetables
to buffalo, these are also important social occasions.
Those who live in the region’s more isolated
villages have the chance to meet friends and family,
exchange news, eat and even indulge in some of the
locally brewed spirits. There are 24 ethnic groups
that live in Sa Pa and surrounding areas, each with
its own language, culture and traditions. Some of
the minority groups live in remote villages which
can only be accessible by days of walking, but can
be encountered at one of the local weekly markets
Bac Ha Sunday market. Bac Ha is a highland town
which is about more than 100km away from Sa
Pa. The town hosts two famous weekend markets
-Bac Ha market on Sunday and Can Cau market on
Saturday. The hill tribes scattered around a large
chunk of mountains walk dozen miles to attend to
the largest markets. Bac Ha market is the biggest,
most commercialized market, where spices, cattle,
vegetables, farm tools, food and especially wines.
The northern hill tribes are “notorious” for their large
consumption of home-made wines. The wines are
usually brew from corn, cassava and cat apple.
Can Cau Market Sunday Market. One of Vietnam’s
most interesting markets, the small but unique
gathering at Can Cau takes place every Saturday.
The market setting is located among scenic mountains.
Groups such as the Flower H’mong, Black Zao,
Tay and Phu La come from near and far to trade and
socialize with each other and with their neighbors
from across the Chinese border. The Flower H’mong
in particular are known for their elaborate costumes,
which ensure the market is always a riot of color.

SAPA
SA PA
NORTHERN VIETNAM

HALONG BAY
HALONG BAY
NORTHERN VIETNAM

HA LONG BAY
Hạ Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and
popular travel destination located in the Gulf of
Tonkin, within Quang Ninh Province, in the northeast
of Vietnam, 165 km from the capital of Hanoi.
The bay features thousands of limestone karsts
and isles in various shapes and sizes. Hạ Long
Bay has an area of around 1,553 km2, including
1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone.
The limestone in this bay has gone through 500
million years of formation in different conditions
and environments.
The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken
20 million years under the impact of the tropical
wet climate. The outstanding value of the place
is centered in the drowned limestone karst landforms,
displaying spectacular pillars with a variety
of coastal erosional features such as arches and
caves which form a majestic natural scenery.
The repeated regression and transgression of the
sea on the limestone karst over geological time
has produced a mature landscape of clusters of
conical peaks and isolated towers which were
modified by sea invasion, adding an extra element
to the process of lateral undercutting of the limestone
towers and islands.
The name Hạ Long is derived from the Sino-Vietnamese
meaning “descending dragon”. According
to local legend, when Vietnam had just started to
develop into a country, they had to fight against
invaders. To assist the Vietnamese in defending
their country, the gods sent a family of dragons
as protectors, who began spitting out jewels and
jade. These jewels turned into the islands and
islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a
great wall against the invaders.
In a magical way, numerous rock mountains
abruptly appeared on the sea, ahead of invaders’
ships; the forward ships struck the rocks and each
other. After winning the battle, the dragons were
interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth, and
then decided to live in this bay Historical research
surveys have shown the presence of prehistorical
human beings in this area tens of thousands years
ago.
The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nhụ
culture around 18,000–7000 BC, the Cái Bèo
culture 7000–5000 BC and the Hạ Long culture
5,000–3,500 years ago. Hạ Long Bay also marked
important events in the history of Vietnam with
many artifacts found in Bài Thơ Mount, Đầu Gỗ
Cave and Bãi Cháy. 500 years ago, Nguven Trai
praised the beauty of Hạ Long Bay in his verses in
which he called it “rock wonder in the sky”.
Prior to the 19th century this name Ha Long Bay
was not recorded in any document or archive, old
histories often referred it by the names of An Bang,
Luc Thuy or Van Don.
Not until the late-19th century did the name of Ha
Long Bay appear on a French maritime chart. The
Hai Phong News, a French newspaper of the time,
had an article, Dragon appears on Ha Long Bay,
reporting the following story: In 1898 a sub-lieutenant
named Lagredin, skipper of the Avalanse,
reported seeing a huge sea snake in Ha Long Bay.
This was also witnessed by many of the crew. Thus
emerged the European image of the Asian dragon.
The bay consists of a dense cluster of some 1,600
limestone monolithic islands each topped with
thick jungle vegetation, rising spectacularly from
the ocean. Several of the islands are hollow, with
enormous caves. Hang Dầu Gỗ (Wooden stakes
cave) is the largest grotto in the Hạ Long area.
French tourists visited in the late 19th century, and
named the cave Grotte des Merveilles. Its three
large chambers contain large numerous stalactites
and stalagmites.
There are two bigger islands, Tuần Châu and Cát
Bà, which have permanent inhabitants, as well
a number of beautiful beaches. A community of
around 1,600 people live on Hạ Long Bay in four
fishing villages. They live on floating houses and
are sustained through fishing and marine aquaculture
(cultivating marine biota), plying the shallow
waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different
kinds of mollusks. Over the ages, Vietnamese fishermen
with too much time on their hands began
to see shapes in the stone massifs atop many of the
islands, and named the islands accordingly - Turtle
Island, Human Head Island, Chicken Island and
so on.
History shows that Hạ Long Bay was the setting for
local naval battles against Vietnam’s coastal neighbors.
On three occasions, in the labyrinth of channels
in Bạch Đằng River near the islands, the Vietnamese
army stopped the Chinese from landing.
In 1288, General Trần Hưng Đạo stopped Mongol
ships from sailing up the nearby Bạch Đằng River
by placing steel-tipped wooden stakes at high
tide, sinking the Mongol Kublai Khan’s fleet.
During the Vietnam War, many of the channels
between the islands were heavily mined by the
United States Navy, some of which pose a threat
to shipping to this day.
Cruising on Ha Long Bay, passing thousands of
evocatively shaped islets, is a magical experience.

HANOI
HANOI
NORTHERN VIETNAM

HA NOI, THE CAPITAL
Ha noi (Vietnamese: Hà Nội), the capital of Vietnam,
and also its second largest city. It is a fascinating
blend of East and West, combining traditional Sino
Vietnamese motifs with French flair. It is largely
unscathed from the decades of war, and is now
going through a building boom, making it a rapidly
developing city in Southeast Asia. Consistently
ranked among the world’s top 10 destinations, the
city and its surrounding region get more tourists
every day.
Invading forces from every direction agree: Hanoi
makes a fine capital. It has held that title for more
than a thousand years, through several invasions,
occupations, restorations, and name changes. The
Chinese conquered the imperial city of Thang-Long
in 1408 and renamed it Tống Bình. Le Loi repelled
the invaders in 1428 and ascended the throne,
becoming known as Lê Thái Tổ; for his efforts, a slew
of legends about his heroic exploits, many centered
on the Hoan Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter.
The Nguyen Dynasty gave the city its modern name
of Ha Noi in 1831, but they had transferred power
to Hue by then; it remained there until 1887, when
the French made Saigon and then Hanoi the capital
of all French Indochina. It changed hands again in
1954, when it was ceded to Ho Chi Minh and the
Viet Minh after almost a decade of fighting, and it
became the capital of North Vietnam; Saigon was
the rival in South Vietnam. Upon reunification in
1976, it assumed that title for the entire country.
The first institution of learning in Vietnam, Quoc Tu
Giam, was founded here in the 11th century. Nine
hundred years later, the first western-style universities
in Vietnam were also founded in Hanoi. The city
is one of the leading centers of scientific study and
research in the country. Hanoi retains much of its
older charm of bygone eras, despite the battles that
have raged over it; conflict had the side effect of
making it largely oblivious to modern architecture
and as a result, few buildings in the city center are
higher than five stories. The Old Quarter is second
only to Hoi An for uninterrupted stretches of colonial
and pre-colonial architecture, well-preserved on
dense warrens of narrow, wonderfully atmospheric
streets. Though considerably quieter than big sister
Saigon, Hanoi still retains a vibrant atmosphere.
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex: is an important
place of pilgrimage for many Vietnamese. A trafficfree
area of botanical gardens, monuments, memorials
and pagodas, it’s usually crowded with groups
of Vietnamese who come from far and wide to pay
their respects to ‘Uncle Ho’. Within the complex are
Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, Ho Chi Minh’s Stilt House
and the Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh Museum
and the One Pillar Pagoda. The city down south may
have his name, but only Hanoi has the man himself,
entombed in distinctly Lenin-esque fashion against
his wishes, but that’s how it goes in the grand Ba
Dinh Square. In the tradition of Lenin, Stalin and Mao,
Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum is a monumental marble
edifice. Contrary to his desire for a simple cremation,
the mausoleum was constructed from materials
gathered from all over Vietnam between 1973
and 1975. Set deep in the bowels of the building in
a glass sarcophagus is the frail, pale body of Ho Chi
Minh.
Museum of Ethnology - Bao Tang Dan Toc Hoc. It
covers mainly the culture and ritual practices of the
various ethnic groups in the whole of Vietnam - one
of the key attractions of the museum is the open-air
exhibition, which has houses of some ethnic groups,
which even comes with inhabitants in costumes.
Temple of Literature - Văn Miếu. Founded in 1070
by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong, the Temple of Literature
is dedicated to Confucius (Khong Tu). Inside there
a pond known as the ‘Well of Heavenly Clarity’, a
low-slung pagoda and statues of Confucius and his
disciples. A rare example of well-preserved traditional
Vietnamese architecture, the complex honors
Vietnam’s finest scholars and men of literary accomplishment.
It is the site of Vietnam’s first university,
established here in 1076, when entrance was
only granted to those of noble birth. After 1442, a
more egalitarian approach was adopted and gifted
students from all over the nation headed to Hanoi
to study the principles of Confucianism, literature
and poetry. In 1484 Emperor Ly Thanh Tong ordered
that stelae be erected to record the names, places
of birth and achievements of exceptional scholars:
82 of 116 stelae remain standing. Paths lead from
the imposing tiered gateway on P Quoc Tu Giam
through formal gardens to the Khue Van pavilion,
constructed in 1802.
Hoan Kiem Lake. A pleasant park in the center of the
town, within easy walking distance from anywhere
in the Old Quarter. It’s the locals’ favorite leisure
spot, and a great place to watch people practicing
tai chi in the morning or to sit and read in the afternoon.
Hoan Kiem means “returned sword”, and the
name comes from a legend in which King Le Loi
was given a magical sword by the gods, which he
used to drive out the invading Chinese. Later, while
boating on the lake, he encountered a giant turtle,
which grabbed the sword and carried it down to its
depths, returning it to the gods from whom it had
come. Rumor has it the giant turtles still inhabit the
lake. A mummified specimen is on display at the
Ngoc Son Temple. The ramshackle Thap Rua on an
islet near the southern end, is topped with a red star
and is often used as an emblem of Hanoi.
Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Live musicians
accompany folk legends from Vietnamese history,
told with wooden men, women and dragons,
dancing and splashing on the face of the water.

HUE
CENTRAL COAST
HUE

HUE
Located on the bank of Song Huong or Perfume
River; Hue, the capital of Thua Thien Hue province
in Central Vietnam, is 700 km southern of Hanoi,
1100km northern of Ho Chi Minh City and only a
few miles from the sea. Not until 1945 was Hue the
national capital, the political, cultural and religious
center of Vietnam under the control of Nguyen
Dynasty. Most well-known for its historic values;
Hue had been recognized as one of the World
Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The city represents the
outstanding demonstration of the power of the
vanished Vietnamese feudal empire, including a
complex of monuments, tombs and pagodas.
Hue is intimately connected to the imperial
Nguyễn Dynasty, based in Hue, who ruled from
1802 to 1945, when the Emperor Bao Dai abdicated
in favor of Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary government.
The Perfume River winds its way through
the Capital City, the Imperial City, the Forbidden
Purple City and the Inner City, giving this unique
feudal capital a setting of great natural beauty. The
citadel was badly knocked about during fighting
between the French and the Viet Minh in 1947,
and again in 1968 during the Tet Offensive, when
it was shelled by the Viet Cong and then bombed
by the Americans. As a result, some areas are now
only empty fields, bits of walls and an explanatory
plaque. Other buildings are intact, though, and a
few are in sparkling condition.
The other great attractions in Hue are the Tombs
of the Emperors, which are located along the
Perfume River south of the city. They mostly date
from the late 19th or early 20th centuries, when
the Emperors had been reduced to figureheads
under French colonial rule and had little else to do
than build themselves elaborate tombs.
The plan of the new capital was in accordance with
ancient oriental philosophy and respected the
physical conditions of the site. The Ngu Binh Mountain
(known as the Royal Screen) and the Perfume
River, which runs through the city, give this unique
feudal capital an entire setting of great natural
beauty, as well defining its symbolic importance.
The site was chosen for a combination of natural
features – hills representing a protective screen in
front of the monuments or taking the role of “a blue
dragon” to the left and “a white tiger” to the right
– which shield the main entrance and prevent the
entry of malevolent spirits. Within this landscape,
the main features of the city are laid out. The structures
of the Complex of Hue Monuments are carefully
placed within the natural setting of the site
and aligned cosmologically with the Five Cardinal
Points (center, west, east, north, south), the Five
Elements (earth, metal, wood, water, fire), and the
Five Colors (yellow, white, blue, black, red).
The land on which Hué now stands belonged to
the Kingdom of Champa until 1306, when the
territory north of Da Nang was exchanged for the
hand of a Vietnamese princess under the terms
of a peace treaty. The first Vietnamese to settle in
the region established their administrative center
near present-day Hué at a place called Hoa Chan,
and then in 1558 Lord Nguyen Hoang arrived from
Hanoi as governor of the district, at the same time
establishing the rule of the Nguyen lords over
southern Vietnam which was to last for the next
two hundred years.
In the late seventeenth century the lords moved
the citadel to its present location where it developed
into a major town and cultural center. – Phu
Xuan, which briefly became the capital under the
Tay Son emperor Quang Trung (1788–1801).
However, it was the next ruler of Vietnam who
literally put Hué on the map – Emperor Gia Long,
founder of the Nguyen Dynasty. From 1802, he
sought to unify the country by moving the capital,
lock, stock and dynastic altars, from Thang Long
(Hanoi) to the renamed city of Hué. Gia Long owed
his throne to French military support, but his Imperial
City was very much a Chinese concept, centered
on a Forbidden City reserved for the sovereign,
with separate administrative and civilian quarters.
The Nguyen emperors were Confucian, conservative
rulers, generally suspicious of all Westerners
yet unable to withstand the power of France. In
1884 the French were granted land northwest of
Hué citadel, and they then seized the city entirely
in 1885, leaving the emperors as nominal rulers.
Under the Nguyen, Hué became a famous center
of the arts, scholarship and Buddhist learning, but
their extravagant building projects and luxurious
lifestyle demanded crippling taxes.
Hué ceased to be the capital of Vietnam when
Emperor Bao Dai abdicated in 1945; two years later
a huge fire destroyed many of the city’s wooden
temples and palaces. From the early twentieth
century the city had been engulfed in social and
political unrest led by an anti-colonial educated
elite, which simmered away until the 1960s.
Tensions finally boiled over in May 1963 when
troops fired on thousands of Buddhist nationalists
demonstrating against the strongly Catholic
regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The protests
escalated into a wave of self-immolations by monks
and nuns until government forces moved against
the pagodas at the end of the year, rounding up
the Buddhist clergy and supposed activists in the
face of massive public demonstrations.

HOI AN
CENTRAL COAST
HOI AN

HOI AN
Hoi An is a beautiful city in Vietnam, just south of
Da Nang. The Old Town is listed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. Located in Viet Nam’s central Quang
Nam Province, on the north bank near the mouth of
the Thu Bon River, is an exceptionally well-preserved
example of a small-scale trading port active the 15th
to 19th centuries which traded widely, both with the
countries of Southeast and East Asia and with the
rest of the world. Its decline in the later 19th century
ensured that it has retained its traditional urban
tissue to a remarkable degree. The town reflects a
fusion of indigenous and foreign cultures - principally
Chinese and Japanese with later European
influences - that combined to produce this unique
survival.
Once known as Faifo, with more than 2,000 years
history, was the principal port of the Cham Kingdom,
which controlled the strategic spice trade with Indonesia
from the 7th to the 10th century and was a
major international port in the 16th and 17th centuries
- and the foreign influences are discernible to
this day. The culture & heritage is mostly from the
Cham people whose kingdom originally stretched
from Hue South to Phan Thiet - the Champa’s
most likely originally from Java. The original Cham
political capital was Tra Kieu, the commercial capital
was Hoi An and the spiritual capital was My Son. The
Cham people were Hindu, and by the 10th century
the influence of Arab traders to Hoi An resulted in
some converting to become Muslims. The second
major influence was from the Chinese, firstly from
traders but especially the escaping Ming Dynasty
armies who, after settling in Hoi An for some years,
moved further south and created Saigon as a major
trading port. The third and last major influence of
culture & heritage was from the Vietnamese and
is fairly recent and only came after the Cham lost
control of this area.
While the serious shipping business has long since
moved to Da Nang, the heart of the city is still the
Old Town, full of winding lanes and Chinese-styled
shop houses, which is particularly atmospheric in
the evening as the sun goes down. The architecture
has been largely preserved, which is unusual in
Vietnam, and renovation has proceeded slowly and
carefully - it’s mercifully absent of towering concrete
blocks and karaoke parlors. The Riverside is the main
landmark of Hoi An. It is where both traditional and
modern boats drop their anchors and where local
housewives go every morning to shop at the wet
market. The whole town is reintroducing the use of
gorgeous and colorful hand-crafted lanterns and
on special nights of the month, hundreds of them
hang on verandas and windows as they did over
300 years ago.
Japanese covered bridge: This beautiful little
bridge is emblematic of Hoi An. A bridge was first
constructed here in the 1590s by the Japanese
community to link them with the Chinese quarters.
Over the centuries the ornamentation has remained
relatively faithful to the original Japanese design.
The French flattened out the roadway for cars, but
the original arched shape was restored in 1986. The
structure is very solidly constructed because of the
threat of earthquakes. The entrances to the bridge
are guarded by weathered statues: a pair of monkeys
on one side, a pair of dogs on the other. According
to one story, many of Japan’s emperors were born in
the years of the dog and monkey. Another tale says
that construction of the bridge started in the year of
the monkey and was finished in the year of the dog.
Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation:
Originally a traditional assembly hall, this structure
was later transformed into a temple for the worship
of Thien Hau, a deity from Fujian province. The greentiled
triple gateway dates from 1975. The mural on
the right-hand wall depicts Thien Hau, her way lit by
lantern light as she crosses a stormy sea to rescue a
foundering ship. Opposite is a mural of the heads
of the six Fujian families who fled from China to Hoi
An in the 17th century. The penultimate chamber
contains a statue of Thien Hau. To either side of the
entrance stand red-skinned Thuan Phong Nhi and
green-skinned Thien Ly Nhan, deities who alert
Thien Hau when sailors are in distress. In the last
chamber, the central altar contains seated figures of
the heads of the six Fujian families.
Chinese fishing nets, are fixed land installations.
Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal
nets of 20 meters or more across. Each structure is
at least 10 meters high and comprises a cantilever
with an outstretched net suspended over the sea
and large stones suspended from ropes as counterweights
at the other end. Each installation is operated
by a team of up to six fishermen. The system
is sufficiently balanced that the weight of a man
walking along the main beam is sufficient to cause
the net to descend into the sea. The net is left for a
short time, possibly just a few minutes, before it is
raised by pulling on ropes.
Rocks, each 30cm or so in diameter, are suspended
from ropes of different lengths. As the net is raised,
some of the rocks one-by-one come to rest on a
platform thereby keeping everything in balance.
Each installation has a limited operating depth.
Consequently, an individual net cannot be continually
operated in tidal waters. Different installations
will be operated depending on the state of the tide.
It is believed that the nets may have been introduced
by the Chinese explorer Zheng He, a mariner,
diplomat, fleet admiral and court eunuch during
China’s early Ming dynasty (13th c).

HO CHI MINH
(SAIGON)
SOUTHERN VIETNAM
HO CHI MINH
(SAIGON)

HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON)
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly named and still also referred
to as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam. It was once
known as Prey Nokor, an important Khmer seaport prior to
annexation by the Vietnamese in the 17th century. Under
the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony
of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of
South Vietnam 1955–75. On 2 July 1976, Saigon was officially
renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after revolutionary leader
Hồ Chí Minh. The metropolitan area, is populated by more
than 10 million people, making it the most populous metropolitan
area in Vietnam. The city’s population is expected
to grow to 13.9 million by 2025.
Ho Chi Minh City began as a small fishing village likely
known as Prey Nokor, “Forest City”. The area that the city
now occupies was originally swampland and was inhabited
by Khmer people for centuries before the arrival of the
Vietnamese. In Khmer folklore, southern Vietnam was given
to the Vietnamese government as a dowry for the marriage
of a Vietnamese princess to a Khmer prince in order to stop
constant invasions and pillaging of Khmer villages. Beginning
in the early 17th century, colonization of the area by
Vietnamese settlers gradually isolated the Khmer of the
Mekong Delta from their brethren in Cambodia proper and
resulted in their becoming a minority in the delta. In 1623,
King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia allowed Vietnamese
refugees fleeing the civil war in Vietnam, to settle in the
area of Prey Nokor and in time it became known as Saigon.
In 1698, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was sent
by the Nguyễn rulers of Huế by sea to establish Vietnamese
administrative structures in the area, thus detaching the
area from Cambodia, which was not strong enough to intervene.
Conquered by France and Spain in 1859, the city was
influenced by the French during their colonial occupation
of Vietnam, and a number of classical Western-style buildings
and French villas in the city reflect this. Saigon had, in
1929, a population of 123,890, including 12,100 French.
The Viet Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam
in 1945, after a combined occupation by Vichy France and
Japan, and before the Communist revolution in China. They
were led by Ho Chi Minh. The Viet Minh-held sections of
Vietnam were more concentrated in rural areas. During this
time, the U.S. supported France in regaining its control over
the country, with effective control spanning mostly in the
Southern half and parts of the Red River Delta region like
Hanoi, Haiphong and Thái Bình.]Former Emperor Bảo Đại
made Saigon the capital of the State of Vietnam in 1949,
with himself as head of state. In 1954, the Geneva Agreement
partitioned Vietnam along the 17th parallel (Bến Hải
River), with the communist Việt Minh, under Ho Chi Minh,
gaining control of the northern half of the country, while
the Saigon government continued to govern the State
of Vietnam, which continued in the southern half of the
country and the southern half gaining independence
from France. South Vietnam was a capitalist and anticommunist
state, which fought against the communist
North Vietnamese and their allies during the Vietnam War,
with the assistance of the United States and other countries.
The partition in 1954 caused mass migration from
the north into Saigon and American influence meant the
city experienced another bump in urban development.
As the conflict deepened, Saigon swelled with troops and
refugees.
Some of the most iconic images of the war came from the
streets of Saigon during this tumultuous time, appearing
in newspapers, magazines and television, sets around the
world: a monk’s self-immolation to protest the persecution
of Buddhists by South Vietnam president Ngo Dinh Diem,
a nonchalant general the moment before he executes a
Viet Cong soldier, Americans scaling a ladder to reach a
helicopter for a rooftop evacuation at 22 Gia Long Street,
and a tank breaching the gates of Independence Palace
on 30 April 1975, signaling the fall of Saigon and South
Vietnam, the end of the Vietnam War.
At the conclusion of the Vietnam War on 30 April 1975,
the city came under the control of the Vietnamese
People’s Army. In 1976, upon the establishment of the
unified communist Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the city
of Saigon was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City in honor of
the late Communist leader Hồ Chí Minh. The former name
Saigon is still widely used by many Vietnamese, especially
in informal contexts. After the “Fall of Saigon,” which the
victors called the “Liberation of Saigon,” many Saigon
residents fled to the U.S. and elsewhere, creating a Vietnamese
diaspora. Today, Ho Chi Minh City is the largest
city in Vietnam, having eight million inhabitants, and is
the nation’s economic hub, accounting for 20% of national
GDP.
Notre Dame Cathedral: Built in the late 1880s by French
colonists, is one of the few remaining strongholds of
Catholicism in the largely Buddhist Vietnam. Measuring
almost 60m in height, the cathedral’s distinctive neo-
Romanesque features include the all-red brick façade
(which were imported from Marseille), stained glass
windows and two bell towers containing six bronze bells
that still ring to this day.
The Central Post Office is a beautifully preserved remnant
of French colonial times and perhaps the grandest post
office in all of Southeast Asia. The building was designed
by Gustave Eiffel – the renowned engineer who also
designed the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower and
features arched windows and wooden shutters.
The War Remnants Museum paints a vivid and often
disturbing picture of the country’s 20th-century struggles.
It offers a shocking reminder of the long and brutal
Vietnam War, with many graphic photographs and American
military equipment on display. One of the most
talked-about exhibits are the ‘tiger cages’ in which the
South Vietnamese government kept their political prisoners.
These small cages are only 2.7m x 1.5m x 3m each
and were sometimes used to keep up to 14 prisoners in.
There is also a guillotine used by the French and the South
Vietnamese to execute prisoners from opposing political
groups. Brought to Vietnam by the French; the guillotine
was last used in 1960.

MEKONG DELTA
SOUTHERN VIETNAM
MEKONG

MEKONG DELTA
Southern Vietnam covers the Mekong Delta, the
extreme southern end of the Mekong River, and the
area around Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
A comma-shaped flatland stretching from Ho Chi
Minh’s city limits southwest to the Gulf of Thailand,
the delta is Vietnam’s rice bowl, an agricultural
miracle that pumps out more than a third of the
country’s annual food crop from just ten percent
of its total land mass. Rice may be the delta’s staple
crop, but coconut palms, fruit orchards and sugarcane
groves also thrive in its nutrient-rich soil, and
the sight of conical-hatted farmers tending their
land is one of Vietnam’s most enduring images. To
the Vietnamese, the region is known as Cuu Long,
“Nine Dragons”, a reference to the nine tributaries of
the Mekong River, which dovetail across plains.
As all deltas, it receives the bounty of the siltation
from the upper Mekong, and as such is a very rich
and lush area, covered with rice fields. It produces
about half of the total of Vietnam’s agricultural
output (in fact the delta produces more rice than
Korea and Japan altogether), and is the place for
timeless sceneries of farmers planting or harvesting
rice. The Mekong splits in Cambodia into two main
rivers, then in Vietnam into a more complex system,
creating a maze of small canals, rivers and arroyos
interspersed with villages and floating markets.
Life in the Mekong Delta revolves much around the
river, and all the villages are often accessible by river
as well as by road. The region encompasses a large
portion of southwestern Vietnam of 39,000 square
kilometers. The size of the area covered by water
depends on the season and it has been dubbed
as a “biological treasure trove”. Over 1,000 animal
species were recorded between 1997 and 2007 and
new species of plants, fish, lizards, and mammals has
been discovered in previously unexplored areas.
The Mekong Delta was likely inhabited long since
prehistory; the empires of Funan and Chenla maintained
a presence there for centuries. Archaeological
discoveries show that the area was an important
part of the Funan kingdom, bustling with trading
ports and canals as early as in the first century AD
and extensive human settlement in the region may
have gone back as far as the 4th century BC.
The region was known as Khmer Krom (lower
Khmer, or lower Cambodia) to the Khmer Empire,
which likely maintained settlements there centuries
before its rise in the 11th and 12th centuries. The
kingdom of Champa, though mainly based along
the coast of modern Central Vietnam, is known to
have expanded west into the Mekong Delta, seizing
control of Prey Nokor (the precursor to modern-day
Ho Chi Minh City) by the end of the 13th century.
Beginning in the 1620s, Khmer king Chey Chettha II
allowed the Vietnamese to settle in the area, and to
set up a custom houses at Prey Nokor, which they
colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn. The increasing
waves of Vietnamese settlers which followed overwhelmed
the Khmer kingdom—weakened as it was
due to war with Thailand—and slowly Vietnamized
the area.
During the late 17th century, a Chinese anti-Qing
general, began to expand Vietnamese and Chinese
settlements deeper into Khmer lands, and in 1691,
Prey Nokor was occupied by the Vietnamese. In
1698, Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, was
sent by the rulers of Southern Vietnam of Huế by
sea to establish Vietnamese administrative structures
in the area. This act formally detached the
Mekong Delta from Cambodia, placing the region
firmly under Vietnamese administrative control.
Cambodia was cut off from access to the South
China Sea, and trade through the area was possible
only with Vietnamese permission. In 1802 Nguyễn
Ánh crowned himself emperor Gia Long and unified
all the territories comprising modern Vietnam,
including the Mekong Delta.
Upon the conclusion of the Cochinchina Campaign
in the 1860s, the area became Cochinchina, France’s
first colony in Vietnam, and later, part of French Indochina.
Beginning during the French colonial period,
the French patrolled and fought on the waterways
of the Mekong Delta region with their Divisions
navales d’assaut (Dinassaut), a tactic which lasted
throughout the First Indochina War, and was later
employed by the US Navy Mobile Riverine Force.
During the Vietnam War—also referred to as the
Second Indochina War—the Delta region saw
savage fighting between Viet Cong (NLF) guerrillas
and units of the United States Navy’s swift boats
and hovercrafts (PACVs). Throughout these wars
the Mekong Delta saw its share of bloodshed with
fighting taking place on the banks and in the water.
Following independence from France, the Mekong
Delta was part of the Republic of Vietnam and eventually
the country of Vietnam. In the 1970s, the Khmer
Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to
reconquer the Delta region. This campaign precipitated
the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and
subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge.
Floating markets. All the evergreen islands among
the Mekong Delta bring about large networks
of meandering river, crisscrossed with countless
arroyos and remaining unknown to many people.
Here one can observe the typical Mekong Delta
rural life.
The Cai Rang floating market, in the back canals of
the Mekong Delta, is filled with small boats darting
through the water, as vendors buy and sell their
wares.

VIETNAM, APRIL 2015