The Nationalist Movement in Indo-China

The Nationalist Movement in Indo-China

           

            Introduction

®        Indo- China is a peninsula which lie in south- east Asia.

®        Indo-China comprises the modern countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

            Why the name Indo-China?

            The name has its origins as a combination of the names of “India” and “China”, referring to the location of the territory between those two countries, The countries of mainland Southeast Asia received cultural influence from both India and China to varying degrees. Some cultures, such as those of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand are influenced mainly by India with a smaller influence from China. Others, such as Vietnam, are more heavily influenced by Chinese culture 

           

            Early History of Vietnam

®        Its early history shows many different groups of people living in this area under the shadow of the powerful empire of China.

®        Even when an independent country was established in what is now northern and central Vietnam, its rulers continued to maintain the Chinese system of government as well as Chinese culture.

®        Vietnam was also linked to the maritime silk route that brought in goods, people and ideas. Other networks of trade connected it to the hinterlands where non-Vietnamese people such as the Khmer Cambodians lived.

®         In 1802 Nguyen Anh becomes emperor symbolizing the unification of the country under                the Nguyen dynasty.

The French Domination

®         French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858 and captured Saigon (Cochichina i.e South                 Vietnam in 1867).

®        Vietnam was a nominal Vassal (A person or country in a subordinate position to                           another: "a vassal state of the Chinese empire") of China.

®        When French attacked Annam (central Vietnam), Vietnamese called for Chinese                         military  aid. Franco-Chinese war began. In 1873 French soldiers were defeated by                     Black ForceChinese Guerrillas (so called   because of the colors of their                                       banners).Francis Garnier a   French officer who led an attack on ruling Nguyen dynasty             in Vietnam was killed.

®        French withdrew from the region.

®        Later in 1883 French again captured Tonkin and Annam in the absence of immediate                 Chinese help.

®        China did not helped as continued war for a vassal seemed too costly for China

            In 1887, Cambodia was also taken over. Laos was added in 1893.

            Thus French Indo-China was formed.

           

Why the French thought colonies necessary?

            1. Colonies were considered essential to supply natural resources and other essential goods to mother country.

            2. Like other Western nations, France also thought it was the mission of the ‘advanced’ European countries to bring the benefits of civilisation to backward peoples.

            3. To make profits.

           

Development of colonies

            (1) Rice cultivation for international market:

®        The French began by building canals and draining lands in the Mekong delta to increase  rice cultivation for international market.

®        The area under rice cultivation went up from 274,000 hectares in 1873 to 1.1 million hectares in 1900 and 2.2 million in 1930. Vietnam exported two-thirds of its rice production and by 1931 had become the third largest exporter of rice in the world.

            All done with forced labour.

           

            (2) Development of  infrastructure:

®        Projects  launched to help transport goods for trade, Construction of a trans-Indo-China rail network that would link the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and China was begun. It helped  to move military garrisons and control the entire region.  The final link with Yunan in China was completed by 1910.

®        The second line was also built, linking Vietnam to Siam (as Thailand was then called), via the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

            Paul Bernard

®        An eminent thinker, Paul Bernard, argued that the purpose of acquiring colonies was to make profits. If the economy was developed and the standard of living of the people improved, they would buy more goods. The market would consequently expand, leading to better profits for French business.

           

®        Barriers in economic growth of Vietnam

             1. high population levels,

            2. low agricultural productivity and

            3.  extensive indebtedness amongst the peasants.

            Solution

®        To reduce rural poverty and increase agricultural productivity it was necessary to carry out land reforms and increase industrialisation as the Japanese had done in the 1890s.

®        The colonial economy in Vietnam was, however, primarily based on rice cultivation and rubber plantations owned by the French and a small Vietnamese elite.

®        The French did little to industrialise the economy. In the rural areas landlordism spread and the standard of living declined.

           

Cvilizing Mission

®        French colonisation was also driven by the idea of a ‘civilising mission’. Like the British in India, the French claimed that they were bringing modern civilization to the Vietnamese.

®        So it became the duty of the Europeans to introduce these modern ideas to the colony even if this meant destroying local cultures, religions and traditions, because these were seen as outdated and prevented modern development.

The Dilemma of Colonial Education:

®        Education was seen as one way to civilise the ‘native’. But in order to educate them, the French had to resolve a dilemma.

®        This dilemma was about the extent to which the Vietnamese needed to be educated.

            Reasons for dilemma:

            1. Once educated, the Vietnamese may begin to question colonial domination.

             2. Moreover, French citizens living in Vietnam (called colons) began fearing that they might lose their jobs to the educated Vietnamese.

            Steps taken to solve dilemma:

®        The French systematically dismantled the traditional educational system and established French schools for the Vietnamese.

®        Some policymakers suggested that Vietnamese be taught in lower classes and French in the higher classes. The few who learnt French and acquired French culture were to be rewarded with French citizenship.

®        However, only the Vietnamese elite – comprising a small fraction of the population – could enroll in the schools, and only a few among those admitted ultimately passed the school-leaving examination.

            Reason:

®        This was largely because of a deliberate policy of failing students, particularly in the final year, so that they could not qualify for the better-paid jobs. Usually, as many as two-thirds of the students failed. In 1925, in a population of 17 million, there were less than 400 who passed the examination.

®        School textbooks glorified the French and justified colonial rule. The Vietnamese were represented as primitive and backward, capable of manual labour but not of intellectual reflection; they could work in the fields but not rule themselves; they were ‘skilled copyists’ but not creative.

Tonkin Free School

®        The Tonkin Free School was started in 1907 to provide a Western style education. This education included classes in science, hygiene and French (these classes were held in the evening and had to be paid for separately).

®        It was not enough to learn science and Western ideas: to be modern the Vietnamese had to also look modern.

®        The school encouraged the adoption of Western styles such as having a short haircut. For the Vietnamese this meant a major break with their own identity since they traditionally kept long hair.

Resistance in Schools:

            (1) Teachers and students did not blindly follow the curriculum. As the numbers of Vietnamese teachers increased in the lower classes, it became difficult to control what was actually taught. While teaching, Vietnamese teachers quietly modified the text and criticised what was stated.

            (2) Elsewhere, students fought against the colonial government’s efforts to prevent the Vietnamese from qualifying for white-collar jobs. By the 1920s, students were forming various political parties, such as the Party of Young Annan, and publishing nationalist journals such as the Annanese Student. Schools thus became an important place for political and cultural battles.

            (3) Incident of Saigon Native Girls School: In 1926 a major protest erupted in the Saigon   Native Girls School. A Vietnamese girl sitting in one of the front seats was asked to       move to the back of the class and allow a local French student to occupy the front        bench. She refused. The principal, also a colon (French people in the colonies), expelled      her. When angry students protested, they too were expelled, leading to a further spread    of open protests. Seeing the situation getting out of control, the government forced the          school to take the students back.

 Hygiene, Disease and Everyday Resistance

®        In 1903, the modern part of Hanoi which was constructed by French was struck by bubonic plague.

®        The French part of Hanoi was built as a beautiful and clean city with wide avenues and a well-laid-out sewer system, while the ‘native quarter’ was not provided with any modern facilities.

®        The refuse from the old city drained straight out into the river or, during heavy rains or floods, overflowed into the streets. Thus what was installed to create a hygienic environment in the French city became the cause of the plague. The large sewers in the modern part of the city, a symbol of modernity, were an ideal and protected breeding ground for rats. The sewers also served as a great transport system, allowing the rats to move around the city without any problem. And rats began to enter the well-cared-for homes of the French through the sewage pipes.

The Rat Hunt

®        To stem this invasion, a rat hunt was started.

®        Bounty given to Vietnamese when a tail was given as proof that a rat had been killed

®        Vietnamese discovered innovative ways to profit from this situation. So the rat-catchers took to just clipping the tails and releasing the rats, so that the process could be repeated, over and over again. Some people, in fact, began raising rats to earn a bounty.

®        Defeated by the resistance of the weak, the French were forced to scrap the bounty programme. None of this prevented the bubonic plague, which swept through the area in 1903 and in subsequent years. In a way, the rat menace marks the limits of French power and the contradictions in their ‘civilising mission’. And the actions of the rat-catchers tell us of the numerous small ways in which colonialism was fought in everyday life.

Religion and Anti-colonialism

®        Vietnam’s religious beliefs were a mixture of Buddhism, Confucianism (A system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius a Chinese philosopher. In Confucianism man is the center of the universe: man cannot live alone, but with other human beings. For human beings, the ultimate goal is individual happiness. The necessary condition to achieve happiness is through peace) and local practices.

®        Christianity, introduced by French missionaries, they started Vietnamese to convert into Christianity.

            Resistance:

            Scholars Revolt 1868: An early movement against French control and the spread of Christianity was the Scholars Revolt in 1868. This revolt was led by officials at the imperial court angered by the spread of Catholicism and French power.  In Ngu An and Ha Tien provinces over a thousand Catholics were killed. The French crushed the movement but this uprising served to inspire other patriots to rise up against them.

            Hoa Hao Movement:  It began in 1939 and gained great popularity in the fertile Mekong delta area The founder of Hoa Hao was a man called Huynh Phu So. He performed miracles and helped the poor. His criticism against useless expenditure had a wide appeal. He also opposed the sale of child brides, gambling and the use of alcohol and opium.

            The French declared him mad, called him the Mad Bonze, (Bonze- Japanese or Chinese Buddhist religious teacher) and put him in a mental asylum. Interestingly, the doctor who had to prove him insane became his follower, and finally in 1941, even the French doctors declared that he was sane. The French authorities exiled him to Laos and sent many of his followers to concentration camps.

The vision of modernization

            Two visions (Vision- the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom)

            (1) Phan Boi Chau:

®        Educated in the Confucian tradition, Phan Boi Chau (1867-1940) was one such nationalist. He became a major figure in the anti-colonial resistance from the time he formed the Revolutionary Society (Duy Tan Hoi) in 1903, with Prince Cuong De as the head. Phan Boi Chau met the Chinese reformer Liang Qichao (1873-1929) in Yokohama in 1905. Phan’s most influential book ‘The History of the Loss of Vietnam ‘ was written under the strong influence and advice of Qichao.

®        He wanted resistance against the French with the help of monarchy.

           

            (2) Phan Chu Trinh:

®        Phan Chu Trinh strongly differed with Phan Boi Chau (1871-1926). He was intensely hostile to the monarchy and opposed to the idea of resisting the French with the help of the court. His desire was to establish a democratic republic. He accepted the French revolutionary ideal of liberty but charged the French for not abiding by the ideal. He demanded that the French set up legal and educational institutions, and develop agriculture and industries.

Influence of Japan and China

            (1) Go-East Movement:

            In the first decade of the twentieth century a ‘go east movement’ became popular. In 1907-08 some 300 Vietnamese students went to Japan to acquire modern education. For many of them the primary objective was to drive out the French from Vietnam, overthrow the puppet emperor and re-establish the Nguyen dynasty that had been deposed by the French. These nationalists looked for foreign arms and help. They appealed to the Japanese as fellow Asians. Japan had modernised itself and had resisted colonisation by the West. Besides, its victory over Russia in 1907 proved its military capabilities. Vietnamese students established a branch of the Restoration Society in Tokyo but after 1908, the Japanese Ministry of Interior clamped down on them. Many, including Phan Boi Chau, were deported and forced to seek exile in China and Thailand.

           

            (2)  Developments in China:

             In 1911, the long established monarchy in China was overthrown by a popular movement under Sun Yat-sen, and a Republic was set up. Inspired by these developments, Vietnamese students organised the Association for the Restoration of Vietnam (Viet-Nam Quan Phuc Hoi). Now the nature of the anti-French independence movement changed. The objective was no longer to set up a constitutional monarchy but a democratic republic.

The Communist Movement and Vietnamese Nationalism

            The Great Depression of the 1930s had a profound impact on Vietnam. The prices of rubber and rice fell, leading to rising rural debts, unemployment and rural uprisings, such as in the provinces of Ngu An and Ha Tinh. These provinces were among the poorest, had an old radical tradition, and have been called the ‘electrical fuses’ of Vietnam – when the system was under pressure they were the first to blow. The French put these uprisings down with great severity, even using planes to bomb demonstrators.

            In February 1930, Ho Chi Minh brought together competing nationalist groups to establish the Vietnamese Communist (Vietnam Cong San Dang) Party, later renamed the Indo-Chinese Communist Party. He was inspired by the militant demonstrations of the European communist parties.

           

            In 1940 Japan occupied Vietnam, as part of its imperial drive to control Southeast Asia. So nationalists now had to fight against the Japanese as well as the French. The League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh), which came to be known as the Vietminh, fought the Japanese occupation and recaptured Hanoi in September 1945. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was formed and Ho Chi Minh became Chairman.

Partition of Vietnam

            The new republic faced a number of challenges. The French tried to regain control by using the emperor, Bao Dai, as their puppet. Faced with the French offensive, the Vietminh were forced to retreat to the hills. After eight years of fighting, the French were defeated in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.

            The Supreme French Commander of the French armies, General Henry Navarre had declared confidently in 1953 that they would soon be victorious. But on 7 May 1954, the Vietminh annihilated and captured more than 16,000 soldiers of the French Expeditionary Corps. The entire commanding staff, including a general, 16 colonels and 1,749 officers, were taken prisoner.

            Result:

            In the peace negotiations in Geneva that followed the French defeat, the Vietnamese were persuaded to accept the division of the country. North and south were split: Ho Chi Minh and the communists took power in the north while Bao Dai’s regime was put in power in the south.

             The Bao Dai regime was soon overthrown by a coup led by Ngo Dinh Diem.

            Diem built a repressive and authoritarian government. Anyone who opposed him was called a communist and was jailed and killed. Diem retained Ordinance 10, a French law that permitted Christianity but outlawed Buddhism. His dictatorial rule came to be opposed by a broad opposition united under the banner of the National Liberation Front (NLF). With the help of the Ho Chi Minh government in the north, the NLF fought for the unification of the country.

The Entry of the US into the War

            Reason:

            The alliance between Ho Chi Minh and NLF was watched with fear by US. United States was worried that communist will gain power in Indo-China.

           

            US entry into the war marked a new phase that proved costly to the Vietnamese as well as to the Americans. From 1965 to 1972, over 3,403,100 US services personnel served in Vietnam (7,484 were women). Even though the US had advanced technology and good medical supplies, casualties were high. About 47,244 died in battle and 303,704 were wounded. (Of those wounded, 23,014 were listed by the Veterans Administration to be 100 per cent disabled.) This phase of struggle with the US was brutal. Thousands of US troops arrived equipped with heavy weapons and tanks and backed by the most powerful bombers of the time – B52s. The wide spread attacks and use of chemical weapons- Napalm, Agent Orange, and Phosphorous bombs destroyed many villages and decimated jungles. Civilians died in large numbers.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

            The story of the Ho Chi Minh trail is one way of understanding the nature of the war that the Vietnamese fought against the US. It symbolises how the Vietnamese used their limited resources to great advantage. The trail, an immense network of footpaths and roads, was used to transport men and materials from the north to the south. The trail was improved from the late 1950s, and from 1967 about 20,000 North Vietnamese troops came south each month on this trail. The trail had support bases and hospitals along the way. In some parts supplies were transported in trucks, but mostly they were carried by porters, who were mainly women. These porters carried about 25 kilos on their backs, or about 70 kilos on their bicycles. Most of the trail was outside Vietnam in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia with branch lines extending into South Vietnam. The US regularly bombed this trail trying to disrupt supplies, but efforts to destroy this important supply line by intensive bombing failed because they were rebuilt very quickly.

Effect on US

            Many were critical of the US government for getting involved in a war that they saw as indefensible.

           

            Role of Media: The US media and films played a major role in both supporting as well as criticising the war. Hollywood made films in support of the war, such as John Wayne’s Green Berets (1968). John Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) reflected the moral confusion that the war had caused in the US.

           

            Policy Blunder by US: The war grew out of a fear among US policy-planners that the victory of the Ho Chi Minh government would start a domino effect – communist governments would be established in other countries in the area. They underestimated the power of nationalism to move people to action, inspire them to sacrifice their home and family, live under horrific conditions, and fight for independence. They underestimated the power of a small country to fight the most technologically advanced country in the world.

The Nation and Its Heroes: 

            Heroes of Past Times:

             Rebel women of the past were similarly celebrated. In 1913, the nationalist Phan Boi Chau wrote a play based on the lives of the Trung sisters who had fought against Chinese domination in 39-43 CE. In this play he depicted these sisters as patriots fighting to save the Vietnamese nation from the Chinese. The actual reasons for the revolt are a matter of debate among scholars, but after Phan’s play the Trung sisters came to be idealised and glorified. They were depicted in paintings, plays and novels as representing the indomitable will and the intense patriotism of the Vietnamese. We are told that they gathered a force of over 30,000, resisted the Chinese for two years, and when ultimately defeated, they committed suicide, instead of surrendering to the enemy.

           

            Other women rebels of the past were part of the popular nationalist lore. One of the most venerated was Trieu Au who lived in the third century CE. Orphaned in childhood, she lived with her brother. On growing up she left home, went into the jungles, organised a large army and resisted Chinese rule. Finally, when her army was crushed, she drowned herself. She became a sacred figure, not just a martyr who fought for the honour of the country. Nationalists popularised her image to inspire people to action.

            Women as Warriors

            In the 1960s, photographs in magazines and journals showed women as brave fighters. There were pictures of women militia shooting down planes. They were portrayed as young, brave and dedicated. Stories were written to show how happy they felt when they joined the army and could carry a rifle. Some stories spoke of their incredible bravery in single-handedly killing the enemy – Nguyen Thi Xuan, for instance, was reputed to have shot down a jet with just twenty bullets.

           

            Women were represented not only as warriors but also as workers: they were shown with a rifle in one hand and a hammer in the other. Whether young or old, women began to be depicted as selflessly working and fighting to save the country. As casualties in the war increased in the 1960s, women were urged to join the struggle in larger numbers. Many women responded and joined the resistance movement. They helped in nursing the wounded, constructing underground rooms and tunnels and fighting the enemy.

           

            Along the Ho Chi Minh trail young volunteers kept open 2,195 km of strategic roads and guarded 2,500 key points. They built six airstrips, neutralized tens of thousands of bombs, transported tens of thousands of kilograms of cargo, weapons and food and shot down fifteen planes. Between 1965 and 1975, of the 17,000 youth who worked on the trail, 70 to 80 per cent were women. One military historian argues that there were 1.5 million women in the regular army, the militia, the local forces and professional teams.

           

End of US Occupation

            The prolongation of the war created strong reactions even within the US. It was clear that the US had failed to achieve its objectives: the Vietnamese resistance had not been crushed; the support of the Vietnamese people for US action had not been won. In the meantime, thousands of young US soldiers had lost their lives, and countless Vietnamese civilians had been killed.

           

            This was a war that has been called the first television war. Battle scenes were shown on the daily news programmes. Many became disillusioned with what the US was doing and writers such as Mary McCarthy, and actors like Jane Fonda even visited North Vietnam and praised their heroic defence of the country. The scholar Noam Chomsky called the war ‘the greatest threat to peace, to national self-determination, and to international cooperation’.

           

            The widespread questioning of government policy strengthened moves to negotiate an end to the war. A peace settlement was signed in Paris in January 1974. This ended conflict with the US but fighting between the Saigon regime and the NLF continued. The NLF occupied the presidential palace in Saigon on 30 April 1975 and unified Vietnam.