David Lan Pham

Vietnam, the East Sea and Southeast Asia

The coast of Vietnam stretching from Quang Yen to Ha Tien is 3,000 km long. The Vietnamese call the South China Sea the East Sea. It is a portion of the West Pacific Ocean. The Gulf of Thailand is in the Southwestern part of Vietnam. It is a part of the Indian Ocean.

Vietnam links the Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean.

In 1405 Emperor Ming Chen Zu ordered admiral Cheng Ho (1371 - 1433), a Muslim eunuch from Yunnan, to command a fleet to explore Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia. From 1405 to 1433 Cheng Ho (Zheng He) made six voyages, departing from Nanking (Nanjing). The Chinese fleet went down to the South China Sea (East Sea), crossed the strait of Malacca and reached the Red Sea. After these voyages the Chinese set foot on Malaysia, Indonesia, India and the Arabian peninsula before the Portuguese.

In the 16th century the Portuguese crossed the strait of Malacca to link the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea to arrive in China, Taiwan and Japan.

In the 19th century the British used the South China Sea to attack China in the Opium War. The treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) was signed in 1842. China ceded Hongkong to the British. In 1858 the French used the South China Sea to attack Da Nang. From there the French battle ship went to the South to attack Saigon in 1859. During the World War II the Japanese troops occupied the Spratly Islands. They controlled the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. In continental Southeast Asia they occupied Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Burma. Thailand became their allied.

Under French rule the Paracels Islands belonged to Vietnam. After World War II the Republic of China claimed its sovereignty over the Paracels Islands but the Conference of San Francisco recognized the sovereignty of Vietnam over these islands (1951). At that time the national government headed by Bao Dai was two years old. The first Vietnam War was not over. In 1954 Vietnam was partitioned. The Paracels and Spratly Islands belonged to the Republic of Vietnam. The Paracels Islands were under the administration of Quang Nam province, and the Spratly Islands were under the administration of Phuoc Tuy province.

In 1949 the Kuomintang troops were totally defeated by the Chinese Communists. Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong) founded the People's Republic of China. In 1950 Mao recognized the resistance government led by Ho Chi Minh. China lost its political influence in Vietnam after the signing of the treaty of 1884 in which the Hue Court recognized French protectorate in Tonkin and Annam. Mao Tse-tung tried to re-establish Chinese influence in Viet Nam by helping the Viet Minh with Chinese military and political advisors, weapons, food and medicine. Some Viet Minh militants were trained in China. Some wounded militants were hospitalized there.

Ho Chi Minh was trained twice in Moscow in 1924 and 1934. However Stalin did not recognize Ho Chi Minh's government in 1945. He did not bring aid to the resistance led by Ho chi Minh from 1946 to 1950. He turned his deaf ear to Ho Chi Minh asking for his support to the adhesion of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to UNO. Stalin recognized Ho Chi Minh's resistance government only after Mao Tse-tung did in early 1950.

Chinese influence on the Viet Minh was clearer than that of the Soviet Union because:

1.- China is Vietnam's neighboring country.
2.-The Chinese know the Vietnamese better than the White Soviets.
3.- Chinese aid to the Viet Minh was abundant and effective (military and political advisors, weapons, food, medicine etc.)
4.- Vietnam has been deeply influenced by Chinese culture.

The Chinese Communists helped the Viet Minh defeat the French troops in Dien Bien Phu. After that, they turned the victory dim when Chou Enlai (Zhou Enlai) pressured Ho Chi Minh to accept Vietnam's partition to avoid the involvement of the United States in the war. In the event of American involvement in the Vietnam War there would be Sino-American confrontation i. e a second Korean War in Southeast Asia.

In 1956 President Ngo Dinh Diem refused to organize the general election. In 1957 the Southern-born Communists carried out guerre de sabotage in South Vietnam. The Hanoi government needed Chinese aid to reunify the country by force.

The South Vietnamese government built a meteorological station and started exploiting phosphates on the Paracels Islands. In 1956 the Chinese Communists occupied one of 30 islands of the Paracels Islands. They claimed sovereignty over 30 islands. Needing Chinese aid to implement the people's war in South Vietnam, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam did not hesitate to write a letter to Chinese Prime Minister Chou Enlai to agree to Chinese sovereignty over the Paracels Islands.

The People's Republic of China is the world most populous country. As soon as it was born it coped with the UN Forces under General Mac Arthur in Korea. Its navy was almost negligible. The Chinese Communists could not control Taiwan due to the presence of the American Seventh Fleet.

After World War II the United States was an economic and military superpower. The United States had military bases in Okinawa, the Philippines, Thailand and is troops in South Korea after the signing of the Panmunjom treaty (1953). In 1965 it had airfields and naval bases in South Viet Nam. Taiwan, South Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia after the fall of Sukarno (1967) were American Allied. SEATO had no army. Although loose, it was a political fence preventing Chinese Communist expansion to Southeast Asia.

After 1954 the French troops withdrew from North Vietnam which was under the Communist regime headed by Ho chi Minh. Viet Minh succeeded in defeating the French troops thanks to Chinese advisors and military aid. They expelled an enemy to welcome two foreign advisors: one from the People's Republic of China, another from the Soviet Union. Dang Lao Dong (Workers' Party) was led by General Secretary Truong Chinh, who was strongly backed by the Chinese Communists. His pseudonym proved that he was inspired by the Van Ly Truong Chinh (Long March) launched by Mao Tse-tung in 1934.

Taking advantage of the failed land reform à la Maoiste in 1955, 1956 Ho Chi Minh removed Truong Chinh from his most powerful rank in Dang Lao Dong. He did not confront Truong Chinh but he let General Vo Nguyen Giap criticize the Chinese­backed General Secretary of the party bitterly. Arriving in Hanoi from South Vietnam, Le Duan became First Secretary of Dang Lao Dong. Truong Chinh apologized to the Fatherland Front.

Ho Chi Minh did not offend Peking (Beijing). Truong Chinh was the 3rd important person in the Politburo of Dang Lao Dong.

Dang Lao Dong was the resurrection of Dang Cong San Dong Duong (Indochinese Communist Party) which was dissolved in November, 1945 to please the Chinese Generals of the Kuomintang army in Hanoi. It was born in 1951 in the war zone while the Chinese Communist military and political advisors were very influential. The Viet Minh received 90% of aid from the People's Republic of China.

Ho Chi Minh remained loyal to the Soviet Union. The pictures of Lenin and Stalin were displayed in his office in the war zone. The new name of the party Dang Lao Dong showed his Soviet political tendency. Lenin and Stalin used to insist that the Communist party is the party of the working class. Ho Chi Minh opposed Maoism silently with this party new name. Ho Chi Minh's personal prestige strengthened his position as President of the Democratic Republic of Viet nam and Chairman of Dang Lao Dong. In 1957 the rumor of the coup was heard in Hanoi when Ho Chi Minh went abroad. No one dared to lead the coup.

Ho Chi Minh did not agree to Khrushchev's revisionism and de-Stalinization. He was consistent to consider the Soviet Union ‘the bastion of socialism'. He was always neutral in the Sino-Soviet dispute.

Ho Chi Minh did not like Maoism although he had spent many years of political activities in China. In 1925 he was sent by Moscow to Canton (Kwang Chou - Guangzhou) to serve Borodin as an interpreter. He founded Viet Nam Thanh Nien Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi (Viet Nam Revolutionary Youth Association), the precursor of the Vietnam Communist Party) in Canton in 1925. The Viet Nam Communist Party was founded in Hong Kong in 1930. Ho Chi Minh was imprisoned in China twice (1931 and 1942). He bore many Chinese names such as Ly Thuy (Lee Suie), Vuong Son Nhi (Wen Shan Wee), Tong Van So (Song Wen Shu), Ho Quang (Hu Kwang), Ho Chi Minh (Hu Chi Ming). In 1938 he came to Yenan from Moscow. Ho was trained by the Soviet Union. He did not share Khrushchev's peaceful co-existence with the West and de-Stalinization but he was always loyal to the Soviet Union.

In order to implement the anti My - Diem (American - Diem) war in South Vietnam Ho needed aid from the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. Khrushchev did not like the people's war in South Vietnam for it could lead to the big war in the region. The wrestling between the Sinophiles and the Russophiles persisted in North Vietnam. General Nguyen Chi Thanh, a Sinophile, was sent to South Vietnam to direct the Central Office for South Vietnam (Trung Uong Cuc Mien Nam). In 1967 he died. Pham Hung, a Russophile, replaced Nguyen Chi Thanh as the Head of the Central Office for South Vietnam.

In 1967 the Soviet Union offered Ho Chi Minh the Order of Lenin on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Ho Chi Minh refused to receive it politely. His pretext was that the Americans stepped up the war against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and that he had no peace in mind to receive it. He promised to receive it when Vietnam was free. In reality, Ho did not want to offend Mao Tse-tung.

In 1967 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam prepared its own Lunar Calendar which was slightly different from the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Pham Van Dong kept praising the clearness of the Vietnamese language hinting at a latent hostility to the influence of Chinese culture.

The US Air Force intensified the bombing of North Vietnam. Hanoi was forced to turn to the Soviet Union to get more heavy weapons. Chinese influence decreased in the early 1970 i.e. after the Tet Offensive. In 1971 Le Duan went to Moscow which supplied North Vietnam with Soviet missiles and tanks. In the Easter Offensive the Soviet tanks appeared in Quang Tri, Kontum, Binh Long.

After the signing of the Paris agreement in 1973 the American troops withdrew from South Vietnam. Two years later the North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam by force. Vietnam was reunified. In 1976 Dang Lao Dong was changed to Dang Cong San Viet Nam (Viet Nam Communist Party) of which Le Duan was General Secretary. Le Duan was not only Russophile but also Sinophobe. He resisted Deng Xiaoping's Chinese expansionism. The Soviet warships replaced the American warships in Da Nang and Cam Ranh Bay. Le Duan was very confident when saying:

"The East Sea is not the Chinese lake."

The Sino- Vietnamese war erupted in 1979 and 1984 when Le Duan was alive. In 1986 he died. Nguyen Van Linh became General Secretary of the party. He exhorted renovation and openness, following Gorbachev's path. In 1988 the Chinese Communist troops exchanged fire with the Vietnamese seamen on the Spratly Islands. They occupied the islands on which the sovereignty was claimed by Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Fourteen years earlier the Chinese Communists occupied the Paracels Islands after defeating the South Vietnamese Navy.

The American influence in the West Pacific Ocean decreased visibly after the American warships left Da Nang and Cam Ranh Bay in 1975 and Subic Bay in 1992. In 1977 SEATO was dissolved and was replaced by ASEAN.

Vietnam was in an impasse after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It lost its international support and aid. The withdrawal of the Vietnamese bo doi (Communist troops) from Kampuchea helped it put an end to its diplomatic isolation. Vietnam tried to normalize diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and to make friends with the non-Communist countries in the world. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was the only Communist nation becoming a member of ASEAN. Vietnam needed ASEAN to live peacefully and harmoniously with the world community. ASEAN needed Vietnam as a stone wall to contain the deluge from the North. The Vietnamese people are believed to have some historic experiences during their resistance against the Chinese invaders. In the late 1980 Nguyen Van Linh had his burning desire of establishing diplomatic ties with the United States. He kept repeating:

"Let bygones be bygones."

In 1995 the United States and Vietnam established diplomatic relations. Chinese influence has been aggressive in Southeast Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991) and the American withdrawal from Subic Bay (1992).

The People's Republic of China has been an economic, industrial and military power with more than 1 billion inhabitants. It carried out Deng Xiaoping's Four Modernizations successfully. Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. So was Macao in 1999. The statehood of independent Taiwan was far from real due to mounting pressures and threats from the mainland. The People's Republic of China is interested in the development of its Navy to control the West Pacific Ocean. The reserve of petroleum on the continental shelves in the South China Sea (East Sea) stimulated Chinese imperialistic dreams.

The Paracels and Spratly Islands were annexed to the People's Republic of China under the common name: NANSHA (Nan: South; Sha: sand). Signing the treaty of 1999 Vietnam conceded some lands along the Sino-Vietnamese border, territorial waters and some limestone islands in Ha Long Bay (Gulf of Tonkin). In the past few years many Vietnamese fishermen were captured by Chinese for violating the ‘sea line'. The foreign commercial vessels face the same troubles in the South China Sea. The Chinese control the South China Sea after occupying the Paracels and Spratly Islands. They seem to say they are masters of the West Pacific Ocean. Their territorial and maritime ambitions are immense and limitless. They are not only regional but also global. Vietnam was under Chinese rule in more than one thousand years (111 BC - 938 AD). In appearance Vietnam was friendly with China. It was a political game played by a small country facing the big one. China was thinking of turning its neighboring country into a Chinese district or province. The Vietnamese people cannot forget that ‘Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom.'

Ho Chi Minh never sided with Mao Tse-tung in the Sino-Soviet dispute.

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was always friendly with India before and after the Sino-Indian War in 1962. Ho met Nehru in Brussels in 1928. During the anti­French resistance the Viet Minh had their permanent delegate in New Dehli.

Ho Chi Minh never praised Mao Tse-tung' s Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution while receiving Chinese aid in the two Vietnam Wars.

Vietnam did not deny its sovereignty on the Paracels and Spratly Islands officially. Recently a Commissar of Hoang Sa district (Paracels Islands) was nominated although they have been occupied by the Chinese Communists since 1974.

The Vietnamese ground troops were good warriors. Compared to the Chinese Navy, the Vietnamese Navy is too weak although, so far, China cannot build aircraft carriers. It will. It is a matter of time.

Russia sold submarines to Vietnam that planned to buy warships from Serbia. In 2006 Montenegro became a state. Serbia becomes a landlocked country. It sold its battleships to Egypt.

Vietnam's wish is to develop its Navy to protect its marine resources in the South China Sea (East Sea). Some of its officers of Navy received training from India. In April, 2009 some Vietnamese officers visited the American battleship in the Pacific Ocean.

Vietnam is a bridge linking continental Southeast Asia with insular Southeast Asia. The East Sea links the West Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia with Northeast Asia. If China are controlling the East Sea trades and economy of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, the United States and many other countries would be seriously affected. Vietnam must be conscious of its important role of protecting its territorial integrity, its marine resources and its people's survival. The Vietnamese Navy is still humble. Its experiences in naval battles are not abundant although our history was marked by some fluvial victories in the Bach Dang, Ham Tu, Chuong Duong, Van Kiep, Van Don battles in the 13th century. The ancestors of the Tran were fishermen in Nam Dinh. They had some maritime experiences the Mongolians lacked for their country is a landlocked one. It consists of deserts, steppes, and mountains. However these glorious victories were not a real Trafalgar.

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In the past Vietnam and the United States missed some opportunities to have diplomatic ties. Ho Chi Minh came to the United States in 1913. He was the first Vietnamese leader speaking English he learned when working in London. In 1919 he brought the Eight-Point Demand to the Big Three at the Versailles Conference. The Eight-Point Demand was inspired by Wilsonism based on the people's self­determination. In World War II he cooperated with OSS under the code name ‘Lucius'. The Viet Minh saved an American pilot whose aircraft was shot down by the Japanese near Saigon. Some OSS officers parachuted into Kim Lung, Tuyen Quang province. They gave Ho chi Minh some pistols and medicine. They trained the Viet Minh how to use weapons and how to fight. On September 2nd, 1945 many banners in English appeared in Ha Noi. Ho Chi Minh mentioned the American Declaration of Independence in the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence he read at Ba Dinh Square.

The French re-occupation of colonies in Indochina, the Cold War between the Free World and the Communist World headed by the Soviet Union, the victory of the Chinese Communists over the Kuomintang headed by Chiang Kai-shed separated the United States from Ho Chi Minh. The continual wars in Vietnam after World War II killed friendly relations between Ho Chi Minh and the Americans.

The Domino Theory aimed at stopping Communist expansion to Southeast Asian countries. North Vietnam played the key role at that time. This theory is justified in our time when China becomes an economic and military power. China is showing its military strength in the Pacific regions.

Vietnam was well known for its victories after the two Vietnam Wars. After the Dien Bien Phu victory was the country's partition. After the ‘liberation' of South Vietnam was the war between the donor and the taker and the loss of ancestral lands and territorial waters and islands to China. Many Chinese camouflaged workers and miners were sent to Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea. It is about an armless invasion the Westerners cannot figure out. In the East Sea there are many Chinese fishing boats equipped with rifles. They are real battleships.

The advantage of the People's Republic of China is to have more than 50 million Southeast Asians of Chinese descent. The Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine Communists were Maoists. India is not directly threatened by China but it is threatened by Maoism. In Nepal the monarchy collapsed under the pressure of the Maoist guerrillas (2008). Maoism has a pedal to go down South.

It is impossible for China to retake the lands the Qing conceded to Russia in the 19th century. It is not easy for it to touch some rocky islands in the Ryu Kyu Islands. The easy way is to go down South. Southeast Asia and the islands in the South Pacific Ocean are good for agriculture and rich in mineral resources.

The Westerners exploited the colonial people and all the resources in their colonies but they did not live there until their death.

The Chinese sent their people to resettle in their colonies and turned them into their provinces or districts. Manchuria, Inner Mongolia. Tibet, Sinkiang became Chinese provinces. Their cultures were Sinicized.

The Westerners conquered colonies militarily.

The Chinese conquered and pacified colonies militarily and culturally. They used their culture to serve their assimilation policy. Cultural weapons consist of religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism), polytheism (God of Finance, God of the Kitchen, God of the Land, Goddess in Heaven, Goddess of the South Sea etc.), books of Chinese stories, horoscopy, Feng Suei, polygamy, superstitious customs etc.

Buddhism came from Nepal. It was Sinicized before it was taught in Vietnam. Marxism was Sinicized to become Maoism.

The author of this writing taught history and geography. Frankly speaking the Vietnamese grassroots know Chinese history through the Chinese stories tellers and Kung Fu films better than their country's history. Buddhist sutras were translated by the Chinese priests and written in Chinese characters. Sometimes the translators phoneticized the Sanskrit words for not knowing how to translate them. Thich Ca Mau Ni were phoneticized from Sakya Muni that means ‘The Philosopher of the Sakya Kingdom'. All the Vietnamese Buddhists believe Thich Ca (Sakya) is the family name of Buddha. In the Vietnamese Buddhist temples there are many statues of Chinese heroes such as Kwan Kung, Chang Fei (Three Empires), Ch'in Chu Pao (Tang dynasty), and the picture of San-Tsang (Xuanzang), the Buddhist priest in the Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en.

The Chinese national pride and ethnic discrimination is immense. In the past centuries the Chinese called the minority peoples living in the South of the Yang Tse-­Kiang Valley ‘Nam Di' (Barbarous Southerners). The famous Chinese strategist Tchou Ko Liang (Zhuge Liang) (181 - 234) called won-ton soup (mi thanh) ‘canh man dau' (barbarous people's heads soup). In the 19th century the Chinese called the Europeans Bach Qui (White Barbarians). The leftist writer Kin Yung called the Japanese Dong Ta (Evil Easterners).

In 1971 the People's Republic of China became a member of UNO. It took the seat of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and was considered one of the Big Five. From the 1980s on, China seemed to control the diplomatic policy of the other nations in the world. It protested any countries which welcomed Taiwanese presidents and the Dalai Lama. It seemed to prevent any Japanese leaders from visiting Yasukuni Temple. It has had bossy and arrogant attitude toward the world economic and industrial powers. Would Vietnam contain a neighboring country, the most populous one in the world with prosperous economy and modern technology, by itself?

Vietnam must be clever and flexible to save itself. In the first Vietnam War facing France which is 12,000 km faraway from Vietnam and was economically ruined after World War II, the Viet Minh needed Chinese aid to win the war. Now facing a big neighboring country which knows Vietnam from A to Z, Vietnam must have a just choice and timely acts not to plunge the country into the darkest future. The collapse of Vietnam should lead to the loss of Southeast Asia to the GIANT in the perfidious and subtle conquest.

Vietnam is an independent country, a member of UNO and of the Security Council. It is surprising that Vietnam kept its long silence facing Chinese aggression in the East Sea.

The whole world is in economic recession and financial crisis. The United States is busy looking for solutions to restore its economy, to bring peace in the Middle East and stability in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to tame Iran and North Korea. It is the favorable moment for China to develop its influence in Asia, Africa and in some South American countries. In the early 1960s President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) foresaw the conquest of Africa by China. At least the first president of a newly independent country had a pragmatic choice instead of nurturing hatred to be attracted by the colorful picture of a dreamful society. At that time China was not yet a nuclear power. It did not have the right of veto in virtue of a member of the Big Five. China begins implementing Real Politik in the West Pacific Ocean before working it out in the Indian Ocean.

The author of this writing does not have his negative views when mentioning the above details. The problem we talk about has its global importance. It is not limited it the Vietnamese or Southeast Asian waters. The international problem must be solved by the world community in which Vietnam plays an important role.

Vietnam's future depends on its right decision and timely choice of Allied.

David Lan Pham, F.A.B.I.