Mid Theme Visit: Country Links - UK and Vietnam

 

Mid-Theme Visit: Country Links

The United Kingdom and Vietnam

Hello, and in this country links article, east and west really do collide. This collision revolves around the huge differences of ideas of what makes the most ideal state in the 20th century – communism v. capitalism. We are all familiar with the mighty Soviet Union, and other countries around the world it influenced. One of these countries, was Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, just below China. On that note, Vietnam’s situation leading up to this link was as follows -

Ideological Drama

Vietnam, at the end of the Second World War, in 1945, under future president Ho Chi Minh, which the big Vietnamese city is named after, declared independence from France. The French had first taken control in 1877, forming the colonial group, French Indochina. This included Cambodia, and, significantly, selected parts of China, as they valued the potential of these regions for rubber and rice production. However, gradually, once Vietnam gained independence, after short turmoil in 1946, a political crack started emerging between the northern and southern portions of the region.

Relating to this, ironically, including small parts of China in French Indochina with Vietnam may have been detrimental to France in the very long term. This is because upon China’s political conversion to communism in 1949, as instrumented by Chairman Mao Zedong, after the Agricultural Revolution, the Chinese offered advice to Vietnam on economic matters. This may have been eased by their former political joining, as France caused. The north was attracted to this idea, whereas the south, wished to keep a western style of government.

This disagreement eventually resulted in the two separating in 1954, forming North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. But tensions were so high that the following year, the north launched attacks against the south in 1955, kickstarting the Vietnam War.

Western Intervention

The west even joined this war themselves, in the 1960s. This was because their capitalist, and expansionist ambitions were threatened by the possibility of a region they still economically valued shutting itself off to the world. This is where the United Kingdom comes in. In 1961, The UK formed the British Advisory Administrative Mission, based in Ho Chi Minh City, in what was then Saigon, aiding the South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem. However, Diem was assassinated in 1963.

 This was a setback, but, the UK turned their focus to aiding the United States of America, under the president, Lyndon B. Johnson. He publicly established that the north was aggressive against the south, and needed protection. The UK aided this effort, by offering Americans in Vietnam expertise and machinery necessary to tackle North Vietnam.

Despite these efforts, North Vietnam succeeded in winning in 1975, unifying the country as a communist state. This could have been helped by North Vietnamese troops, the Vietcong, presenting kindness to the south, which was the opposite to what their ancestors suffered, as practically slaves to western colonists before.

Therefore, even though, the west, including the UK ultimately lost, being deprived of Southeast Asian revenue, it is still important here to remember that the link between the UK and Vietnam is military, as the UK helped an invasion against a part of Vietnam.


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