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#Vietnam

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that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t walk around with an #antifa flag all the time, doesn’t mean he was not working from an anticapitalist and antifascist stance.

on the contrary, he was keenly aware of the historical moment he was living in and saw #Vietnam as the pivot for American fascism’s flourish.

there is no Fred Hampton overtly calling for an all out war on fascism without MLK Jr explicitly making the connection with Jim Crow, colonialism and fascism…

Trump Halted an Agent Orange Cleanup. That Puts Hundreds of Thousands at Risk for Poisoning.

Diplomats in Vietnam warned Washington that halting USAID’s efforts to clean up the massive deposit of postwar pesticides would be a catastrophe for public health and relations with a key strategic partner in Asia.
propublica.org/article/trump-h

ProPublicaTrump Halted an Agent Orange Cleanup. That Puts Hundreds of Thousands at Risk for Poisoning.
More from ProPublica
#News#Trump#Vietnam

During the Vietnam War, Pierre Trudeau famously welcomed American draft dodgers and conscientious objectors to Canada. It created many (unique!) communities in this country that continue to be unique and valuable to this day.

Should Canada actively welcome American immigrants/refugees, or is it different this time?

Feel free to leave a reason why you voted, and as always, #pleaseboost

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Vietnam paves way for Musk's Starlink, seen as "olive branch" amid US tariff threats
reuters.com/technology/space/v

"Vietnam plans to adopt rules that would allow Elon Musk's #Starlink to provide satellite #internet services in the country...

a sudden shift in stance...

Attempts by #SpaceX to enter #Vietnam... were put on hold in late 2023 after... country declined to lift a ban on foreign control of satellite internet providers"

This is my first post of pictures from when I went to Vietnam in 2018. I have to say that this was one of my favorite countries that I have ever been to and it is a place that I would genuinely love to visit again.

I really like this photo as it was my first time ever one a motorcycle. In case you are not aware, Grab is a ride-sharing service. The first thing that I really noticed was how open and connected to the world you feel when traveling by motorcycle.

I absolutely loved traveling this way. Even though it has been years, I have still think about it from time to time. With that being said, I do not think I will ever get one myself due to safety concerns and the fact that the city I currently live in just means sitting in traffic, so I'll stick to my car for the time being.

I will admit that my adrenaline was pumping after the first few rides.

#vietnam #hochiminh #travel #motorcycle

I’m going to a photography workshop in November in Hanoi in northern Vietnam, and I’ve never really been to a country where I don’t speak or at least understand the language. I’m gonna take up the challenge to become semi fluent until then. Does someone here have experience with becoming fluent in a tonal language coming from English/french/german?

I am following the path laid out in “fluent forever” (focus on sound, pronunciation, don’t translate, SRS).

Further, any links about contemporary art, culture, tech scene in Hanoi (or Vietnam in general) much appreciated.

Nguyễn Quyền (1869–1941) was a #Vietnamese #scholar & #AntiColonial #revolutionary #activist who advocated independence from #French #colonial rule. He was a contemporary of Phan Bội Châu & Phan Chu Trinh & one of Tonkin Free School's founders.

"The more I read the more I become aware that the things we studied, our examination system, were wrong – indeed the real reasons for our having lost our country. From that point on I was determined to seize upon our country's literature and on modern learning to awaken our citizenry."

Quyen advocated the modernisation of Vietnam's #education system. Around 1903 or 1904, Quyen met Tang Bat Ho, who had returned from his travels abroad & talked extensively about the modernisation of Japan. In 1904 he met with Phan Bội Châu, but Quyen had little in common with Chau's ideology of using violence to achieve independence. Quyen went on the work with Lương Văn Can & Le Dai in setting up the Dong Kinh Thuc Nghia, which sought to strengthen the Vietnamese people & thereby the likelihood of independence through the training of a new, more modern generation of scholars.

In 1908, Quyen was arrested in a general crackdown by French authorities and sent to jail on Côn Lôn island. He died in the prison which was infamous for torturing political prisoners.

Ref: Marr, David G. (1970). Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925. Berkeley: University of California. ISBN 0-520-01813-3.

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10 January 1973, negotiations broke down when #Kissinger demanded the release of all #AmericanPOWs in North Vietnam once a peace agreement was signed, but offered no guarantees about #VietCong prisoners being held in South Vietnam.

Thọ stated: "I cannot accept your proposal. I completely reject it".
Thọ wanted the release of all prisoners once a peace agreement was signed, which led Kissinger to say this was an unreasonable demand. Thọ, who had been tortured as a young man by the French colonial police for advocating Vietnamese independence, shouted:
"You have never been a prisoner. You don't understand suffering. It's unfair".

Kissinger finally offered that the United States would use "maximum influence" to pressure the South Vietnamese government to release all Viet Cong prisoners within sixty days of a peace agreement being signed. On 23 January 1973, at 12:45 pm, Kissinger and Thọ signed the peace agreement.

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In his book “Our Vietnam: The War 1954–1975,” U.S. journalist A.J. Langguth says that despite Kissinger’s protestations for Tho to be quiet, during one session of the talks he shouted at Kissinger for over an hour:

“For more than ten years, America has used violence to beat down the Vietnamese people-napalm, B-52s. But you don’t draw any lessons from your failures. You continue the same policy. Ngu xuan! Ngu xuan! Ngu xuan!”

The translator refused to tell Kissinger what Ngu xuan meant (massively stupid) for fear of causing offence.

Luu Van Loi, who was with Tho at the conference as a member of the negotiating team, wasn’t happy with #Kissinger either. “Kissinger was dodgy; he always brought up irrelevant matters at the start of meetings, and only mentioned the important stuff out for discussion at night. He must have thought that the old Le Duc Tho was sleepy and tired. But he knew nothing about Tho! The longer the negotiation went, the more alert Tho got.”

Kissinger seemed to agree with Luu Van Loi when he expressed his astonishment: “Sometimes he talked for hours straight. I said, ‘I’ve heard this countless times,’ but Tho responded ‘You’ve heard it countless times but you haven’t remembered it, let me repeat…’”

Thọ told Kissinger at their first meeting that "Vietnamization" was doomed, dismissively saying in French: "Previously, with over one million U.S and Saigon troops, you have failed. Now how can you win if you let the South Vietnamese Army fight alone and if you only give them military support?"

In April 1970, Thọ broke off his meetings with Kissinger, saying that there was nothing to discuss. An attempt by Kissinger to talk to Thọ again in May 1970 was rejected with a note reading "The U.S. words of peace are just empty ones"

In July 1971, Kissinger taunted Thọ with news that President #Nixon would be visiting China soon to meet #MaoZedong, telling him that the days when the North Vietnamese could count of the supply of Chinese arms were coming to close. Thọ showed no emotion: "That is your affair. Our fighting is our preoccupation, and that will decide the outcome for our country. What you have told us will have no influence on our fighting".

2 May 1972, Thọ had his 13th meeting with Kissinger in Paris. The meeting was hostile; the North Vietnamese had just taken Quang Tri City in South Vietnam, which led Nixon to tell Kissinger "No nonsense. No niceness. No accommodations". During the meeting, Thọ mentioned that Senator William Fulbright was criticizing the Nixon administration, leading Kissinger to say: "Our domestic discussions are no concern of yours". Thọ snapped back: "I'm giving an example to prove that Americans share our views". When Kissinger asked Thọ why North Vietnam had not responded on a proposal he sent via the Soviet Union, Thọ replied: "We have on many occasions said that if you have any question, you should talk to directly to us, and we shall talk directly to you. We don't speak through a third person".

August 1972, Kissinger promised Thọ that he would pressure Nguyễn Văn Thiệu to resign if Thọ agreed to a peace deal before US presidential elections. Thọ told Kissinger that the timetable for Thiệu's departure was no longer an immediate concern & he wanted some $8 billion in reparations for the war damage. Kissinger told Thọ that he wanted to tell the world about their secret meetings since 1970 to give the impression that Nixon was making progress on peace in Vietnam, a suggestion Thọ rejected, saying it's not his job to assist Nixon's reelection campaign.

20 November 1972, Kissinger met Thọ again in Paris. Kissinger no longer aimed at secrecy & was followed by paparazzi as he went to a house owned by the French Communist Party where Thọ was waiting for him. Kissinger announced the Americans wanted major changes to the peace agreement made in October to accommodate Thiệu, which led Thọ to accuse him of negotiating in bad faith.
Thọ: "We have been deceived by the French, the Japanese and the Americans. But the deception has never been so flagrant as of now".

Putting more pressure, Nixon told Kissinger to break off talks if Thọ wouldn't agree to changes he wanted. Kissinger told Nixon: "While we have a moral case for bombing North Vietnam when it does not accept our terms, it seems to be really stretching the point to bomb North Vietnam when it has accepted our terms and when South Vietnam has not". December 1972, talks had broken & Nixon decided to resume bombing North Vietnam.
After the Christmas bombings of 1972, Thọ was in particularly savage mood towards Kissinger.

8 January 1973 in a house in the French town of Gif-sur-Yvette, Kissinger arrived to find nobody at the door to greet him. When Kissinger entered the conference room, nobody spoke to him. Sensing the hostile mood, Kissinger speaking in French said: "It was not my fault about the bombing". Before Kissinger could say anymore, Thọ exploded in rage, saying in French:
"Under the pretext of interrupted negotiations, you resumed the bombing of North Vietnam, just at the moment when I reached home. You have 'greeted' my arrival in a very courteous manner! You action, I can say, is flagrant and gross! You and no one else strained the honor of the United States"

"You've spent billions of dollars and many tons of bombs when we had a text ready to sign". Kissinger replied: "I have heard many adjectives in your comments. I propose that you should not use them". Thọ answered: "I have used those adjectives with a great deal of restraint already. The world opinion, the U.S. press and U.S. political personalities have used harsher words".

Continued thread

#French #colonial authorities imprisoned him from 1930-1936 & again from 1939-1944. The French imprisoned him a "tiger cage" cells in the prison on Poulo Condore (Côn Sơn Island) in the South China Sea. Poulo Condore was the harshest prison in all of French #Indochina. During his time in the "tiger cage", Thọ suffered from hunger, heat, torture & humiliation. He was a teenager & these prison experiences hardened him.

After his second release he returned to Hanoi in 1945 to help lead the #VietMinh, the #VietnameseIndependence organization, as well as a revived communist party called the #VietnamWorkersParty. He was senior Viet Minh official in southern Vietnam until the #GenevaAccords of 1954. From 1955 he was a member of the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers’ Party, or the Communist Party of Vietnam(renamed in 1976). During the Vietnam War (1955–75) Tho oversaw the #VietCong insurgency that began against the South Vietnamese government in the late 1950s. He carried out most of his duties during the war while in hiding in South Vietnam.

“The Nobel Committee made a big mistake,” he said in an interview with UPI a decade later. “This is a prize for peace. The thing here is, who is the one that has created peace? The ones who fought against the U.S. and established peace for the country are us, not the U.S. However, the Nobel Committee has put the invader and the invaded as equal – that is something I cannot accept, and that is the reason why I declined the prize.” When asked if he’d accept the prize now that the country is free, he replied, “Yes, but only if the prize is awarded to me only.”
tienphong.vn/uy-ban-giai-nobel

Lê Đức Thọ's "insolence" towards Western politics helped to gain his country control over Saigon, Vientiane & ousted a pro-Western government in Phnom Penh. Within Vietnam, Lê Đức Thọ is remembered as a revolutionary leader who played a pivotal role in the country’s struggle for independence & reunification. He is honored as a key figure in Vietnam’s history.

Despite his involvement in peace negotiations, Lê Đức Thọ remains a controversial figure, among those who view him as a symbol of the repressive communist regime in Vietnam. The communist government’s human rights abuses & suppression of dissent have led to criticism of his role in the post-war government.