Can Vietnam be pacified?

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33121, 11 January 1973, Page 9

Can Vietnam be pacified?

<By

WILLIAM L. RYAN,

'. Associated Press special correspondent, through N .Z.l'.A.)

SAIGON. Jan. 9.

Should there be. two separate and sovereign Vietnams. North and South, or one unified nation? Can Vietnam be pacified? Has it ever been?

The questions of sovereignty and unity—the core of the long war—are also keys to the possibilities of peace.

Vietnam has been divided [more than it has been unified [in its long history. As for pacification—a word that has become all too familiar to Americans—it has been a [problem in Vietnam, off and [on, for 2000 years.

[ In fact, the ancient Chinese named central Vietnam “Annam.” meaning “Pacified South.” It was not; it still is not.

The number of years that I the Vietnamese have been ruled by foreign monarchs is greater than the number they have been independent; and the years in which they have been unified have been relatively few. Wheri Vietnam was all one, it was by a good deal less than unanimous choice.

There are so many different people involved, and different cultures. North and South. Vietnam’s geography made it inevitable that the area would be crossed and recrossed by traders and invaders. conquered and reconquered, divided and reunified. The Northerners had a heritage of drive and knowhow from the Chinese. This tended to make them the more dominant. The

Southerners derived much of [their culture from India. [ The Vietnamese of Bac Bo —the area also known as Tonkin —were descendants of wanderers from China centuries before the Christian era. By 248 8.C., a kingdom called Au Lac established itself in the Red River delta, its capital being just outside what is now Hanoi. Mostly, this was a vassal State of China, and in 111 8.C.. China’s Han dynasty annexed it. That is when all the [trouble began.

Revolts—many and tierce—began with one in 39 A.D., led by Trung Trac and Trung [Nhi, sisters in a noble family. [lt succeeded briefly. When [the Chinese put it down, the [sisters hurled themselves into a river and died. Vietnamese today worship the Trung sisters as goddesses.

! Rebellions occurred fre;quently until 929. when Ngo jQlyen drove out the Chinese and established a kingdom called Dai Co Viet, later Dai Viet. Vietnam thereafter would be independent for 900 years, resisting even the invading Mongols of the mighty Kublai Khan from China. Successive Chinese attempts to conquer were beaten back with tactics not unlike those of the late Ho Chi Minh employed against the French in the twentieth century — guerrilla war, attrition, booby traps, ambush — until the enemy was exhausted. The great hero of these wars was Le Loi. His victory, completed in 1428. established a longiasting dynasty. The strength of the kingdom was in Tonkin, and: Vietnam seldom was unified!

whole. North to South. From, time to time the North would send forces south against the Champa Kingdom, finally driving the Chains into the jungles—and oblivion. The Northerners progressively colonised Trung Bo (Annam) and Nam Bo in the south. Eventually, the Nguyen i family dominated it all, and; in 1802 a member of the family became Gia Long. I Emperor of Annam. establish-[ ing authority over all Tonkin.. Annam, and Cochin China. A short time before, the King of Hue had made a big mistake by giving France a base on his coast in exchange for help against a rival. From that beginning, France, by the 1860 s, controlled all Vietnam and the rest of Indo-China — Laos and Cambodia as well. That was unification of a sort, too, but mostly an unwelcome sort. Again, as in; ancient times. rebellions [ were frequent and pacification unattainable. The Second World War

interrupted the story. When; the Japanese were defeated.; and France tried to reestablish authority. Ho Chi Minh reverted to the strategy; of his ancestors — guerrilla! warfare, but with an overlay; of modem embellishments.; Like the occupiers of the! past, the French were worn, [down, exhausted, defeated, j Now the problem words [confront the Americans:, pacification and reunifies-; [tion. the answers seem as Ibaffiingly elusive as ever.