Today was a day of history and culture with a bit of political indoctrination thrown in for free. The history of Vietnam is interwoven with 1000 years of Chinese influence. Vietnam declared its independence from China near the end of the 10th Century, beginning a millennium of dynastic tradition which lasted until the French took over in the late 1800s. French rule, which was cruel and repressive, was opposed by Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh revolutionaries. They resisted Japanese occupation during WW II and when the war ended, Ho declared Vietnam’s independence. Thus began the war against the French which ended in 1954 with a Vietnamese victory at Dien Bien Phu and the UN’s temporary partition of the country. When the south’s Diem regime refused to hold the promised elections North and South Vietnam were created.
Ho Chi Minh continued to oppose the Diem regime and in 1960 the National Liberation Front, the communist revolutionary guerrillas known as the Viet Cong, began an armed conflict against the South. The conflict ultimately resulted in the Vietnam War, known as the American War here in Hanoi, which altered or ended the lives of a generation of Vietnamese and Americans.
Although Americans consider him to be a revolutionary to the Vietnamese Uncle Ho is the ultimate patriot, a combination George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. His remains lie in a sarcophagus at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex near the classy ambassadorial residence area, fittingly off Dien Bien Phu Street. But Uncle Ho wasn’t at home today. He is in Russia for his annual maintenance check. We did visit the Ho Chi Minh museum. It is filled with photos and other memorabilia of Ho’s patriotic life and symbolic art designed to make us imperialists repent. Despite being a devout communist many of his ideas could (and should) be seriously considered by world leaders today.
We spent the afternoon at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology where we learned about the daily life of Vietnam’s diverse tribal people. There are more than 50 ‘ethno-linguistic’ groups, which the French called Montagnards, including the Tay and Muong peoples. Examples of the different types of dwellings are scattered around the grounds where bridal parties pose for wedding photos.
