I was still attending school while the Vietnam War raged. As a teenager, I was aware of the war, but mainly due to seeing protests on the news. In history classes, we never talked about the war; it was still too fresh to be included in any textbooks. My brother was approaching draft age when the draft ended. My husband was drafted but chose to enlist voluntarily and served in Germany. As such, I have had a fascination with the war and what led up to it.

Apparently, I was not the only one because our tour guide, Bee, gave us a short history of events leading up to the war and also gave us information about life in Vietnam after reunification. This was because people in the tour group asked him about it, so I was not the only one interested. I have tried to summarize as best I can what Bee told us.

Vietnam was controlled by the French as part of Indochina (along with Laos and Cambodia) for nearly a hundred years. The Japanese took over from the French at the start of World War II. Following the war, control was returned to the French.

Ho Chi Minh left Vietnam in 1911 and traveled the world to learn about other political systems. He wrote to President Truman and wanted to meet with him, but Truman never responded. Lenin did, and Ho Chi Minh met with him and converted to Communism because of that meeting. When he returned to Vietnam in the late 1930’s, he began to convert others. During the war, he broke into store houses to get rice to feed the people (the Japanese were no better than the French in terms of how the Vietnamese people were treated). When the French returned in 1945, Ho Chi Minh took the opportunity to pressure the last king of Vietnam to resign. The king abdicated the throne and left Vietnam for good.

On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared independence for Vietnam and founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh and his allies drove the French out by 1954 in the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh (Ho’s group) were supported by Chinese Communists in their quest for independence.

Following the withdrawal of the French, the powers-that-be met in Geneva and split Vietnam into two parts, The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the north, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the Republic of Vietnam in the South. This agreement was supposed to last two years and an election was to be held in 1956 to determine who would lead the country forward. The election never happened. South Vietnam was worried that the communists would win the election. At this point, Ho Chi Minh created a plan to take over the south, helped by the USSR and China.

It was illegal to cross the border between north and south at the 17^th parallel, so Ho Chi Minh created the Ho Chi Minh trail to allow troops to get south, through Laos and Cambodia. A million troops entered South Vietnam this way. There were also many communist supports in South Vietnam, the National Liberation Front, more commonly known as the Viet Cong. They specialized in guerrilla warfare.

In 1965, leaders in the United States became concerned that communism would spread and so sent US troops. The war escalated until 1973 when troops were withdrawn. Nixon promised to do this but resigned before following through. President Ford ended US involvement in the war.

The communists took over on April 30, 1975, known as Reunification Day in Vietnam. After the war ended, the communist party tried to level the playing field in Vietnam. They took property away from the wealthy and sent officials to “Re-Education Camps”, aka jail. No business or commerce was allowed. Everyone worked for state-owned businesses. Vouchers were handed out for food and other necessities. People had to stand in line to use their vouchers. Bricks were used to reserve one’s place in line. To this day, Vietnamese still ask whether they used a brick when asking if a reservation has been made.

In 1986, the government changed their policies and started to allow small businesses. During the 90’s, all business was allowed. Though Vietnam is still a communist country, it is run more as a capitalist one. Only about 3% of the population are communist. Most Vietnamese are quite apolitical and are only concerned with making a living and providing for their families.