The Sacred Willow

In preparation for this trip, I've been reading "The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family". It helped to understand both the history of the Vietnamese people and their current viewpoints based on this history. The original Vietnamese started in what is now North Vietnam and while they were separate from the Chinese they were heavily influenced by them. The family story begins with the Great Grandfather, who is studying the ways of Confucius, in order to become a Mandarin. A mandarin is in the government official, who serves the king, and his studies help him understand the importance of serving the people. In those days, government jobs were often poor paying, but very prestigious. The Grandfather too, became a mandarin. He was one of the last to earn his degree from the Temple of Knowledge (which we will visit in Hanoi). But he graduated during the century of French occupation, which meant while he served the king, they were under the dictates of the French authorities. Of course, the Vietnamese people hated being ruled by the French and thus there was always the tension of serving the French or rebelling against them. Ho Chi Minh began his rebellion against the French in the 1930's. Members of the family, served under Ho Chi Minh, even during the time they had to remain hidden in the mountains of the country.
During World War II, the Japanese took over Vietnam, but upon their defeat, the Vietnamese hoped to take back their country, until the French with American backing retook the country. However, this didn't stop Ho Chi Minh, he began the war of independence against the French, which eventually led to his winning North Vietnam in 1954 and a supposed vote of the people in 2 years for the people of South Vietnam to choose their government. The family had members on both sides of this war. Her sister was married to a communist and followed where he led. Since the author's father had been a civil servant for the French, they fled North Vietnam for South Vietnam, fearful of what the communist government would do to former officials.

The leaders of South Vietnam never let that vote occur, leading to the Vietnamese civil war. The United States had been involved with Vietnam since the end of World War II, and we got sucked into their civil war in 1963 based on the "domino theory" that all of South East Asia would become communist if Vietnam became such. According to the book, we chose the wrong side, because the emotions of the people were for 'independence', not another puppet government supported by a foreign power. We signed the peace accords in 1973, leaving the South Vietnamese government to fight the civil war on their own (but with still plenty of military supplies). They made a fatal error by retreating from central Vietnam, which left the rest of S. Vietnam worried that they too would be abandoned. This eventually led to the Vietcong taking over Saigon in 1975. Most members of the author's family that were in South Vietnam managed to escape on one of the last helicopter flights out of the Saigon before the fall. Of those, who remained many were 're-educated' in the camps, somehow surviving on meager rations.

The 1975 to 1986 period was a period of shortages, ration coupons and long lines as Communism and communal farming were practiced. In 1986, a market economy was started economically, while still being ruled by the Communists politically. This has allowed the country to flourish. We observed that the roads were good, people have scooters and color TVs, food is plentiful. In fact, Vietnam is a major exporter of rice and coffee today.

This book really provided some excellent perspective as we began our trip through Vietnam.