Vietnam: A Historical Contextualization
In the forty-three years between 1946 and 1989, Vietnam was involved in six
separate wars in which a total of approximately 3.8 million Vietnamese people died, over
10% ofthe total Vietnamese population. The most devastating and well-known of these
conflicts is commonly called "The Vietnam War" and sometimes "The Second hidochina
War". During the fifteen yeai's that the war lasted (1960-1975), up to 2.8 million North
and South Vietnamese were killed or injured, including many women and children. The
war was devastating to both the North and the South. After the United States military left
Vietnam in 1973, South and North Vietnam lived together in moderate peace until the
North Vietnamese Communists launched an attack in 1975 and captured Saigon, the
South Vietnamese capital. After the fall of Saigon, many South Vietnamese were forced
to flee the country. Throughout the war, as many as 700,000 Vietnamese refugees fled to
America. These new Vietnamese-Americans brought with them their unique culture and
history. Unfortunately, few people have heard their stories and the opportunity will not
always exist. Therefore, it is important to understand the perspective of Phuoc Tran and
all ofthe other remaining Vietnamese-Americans who experienced the war first-hand.
The area that is now Vietnam was composed of mostly unorganized, small
civilizations until the Chinese conquered Northern Vietnam around 200 B.C. Under the
Chinese, the system of growing rice took hold that still exists today. The Chinese
retained power over Vietnam (then called "Annam") luitil 938 A.D. with the collapse of
the Tang Dynasty in China. The chaos allowed the Vietnamese to revolt and retake
Vietnam for themselves. While this revolution was not the first of its kind, it was the first
successftil attempt. The newly independent Vietnam faced various coups in the