VIETNAM:

A VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

TOM HAYDEN

Most visitors to North Vietnam return A REVOLUTION WHICH CLAIMS deeply impressed with the society they have ONLY TO SPEAK FOR ITSELF seen. The Vietnamese revolutionaries seem epic in their achievements, legendary already Stories - hundreds of them - of Vietnam­ in their moral stature. “ Our struggle has a ese heroism, portray the Vietnamese as such sacred significance in the revolutionary extraordinary people that a problem of cred­ world” , an official Hanoi spokesman said in ibility arises. American travellers returning winter 1973. They invoke an optimistic phil­ from Hanoi find the Vietnamese hard to ex­ osophy about human possibilities which plain even to their friends, and perhaps even­ many Westerners would label impossibly tually to themselves. Some listeners begin to romantic. think that the traveller from Hanoi is so em­ otionally moved by the Vietnamese (or the US-spawned destruction they have viewed) to no longer have balance of mind. There­ An abridged version of an article by a United fore, the traveller’s opinions often are dis­ States anti-war activist, first printed by the missed or taken lightly by others with anti­ Indochina Peace Campaign, California. war views.

27 Credibility is a historic problem with re­ nations, the future of revolutionary move­ gard to the stance American radicals have ments, guerrilla warfare, the role of “ small taken towards revolution abroad. Political nations” in the world of Great Powers. It radicals have over-identified sometimes with will help answer how powerful the “ spirit the direction of another country, whether of the people” can be in the face of unpar­ the Soviet Union in the 1930s or China in alleled technological power. the 1960s, in such a way that their word and integrity are no longer credible. They All these issues are universal in scope are not only discredited as a result, but hav­ and will be defined by this revolution ing over-identified with another country’s which claims only to speak for itself. revolution, they become disillusioned when the star of that country is tarnished by int­ HOW DO VIETNAMESE VIEW ernal conflict or contradictory turns of AMERICA? policy. In some periods this has led to even more depression on the left than that caused The Vietnamese view of human nature by the policies of the American government, and the revolutionary process determined and thousands of people have burned out as what they think of American society. Many radicals in the process. Americans are struck by the seeming simp­ licity, even naivete, in what the Vietnamese One must approach the question of Viet­ say about America. Again and again the nam carefully not to repeat these patterns Vietnamese make a distinction between the of the past. “ American people” and the American gov­ ernment. They do not consider the Americ­ It becomes difficult to entertain the idea an people their enemy, but rather the bear­ that the Vietnamese are exemplary because ers of a progressive tradition of democracy one doesn’t want to imply that their instit­ and national independence which the Am­ utions should be imported to the United erican government is violating.. States, nor should one’s future, personally or politically, be tied to what may happen After all, they understand Americans in another country. But fortunately, Vietnam well enough to fight them, they are ac­ is one country that makes few claims to have quainted with racism of both the American the answer to anyone’s problems but their and French varieties, they have encountered own. They do not issue Red Books, nor pub­ Americans of all classes on the battlefield lish a Little Lenin Library in every language, killing Vietnamese, they have experienced nor do they encourage the growth of polit­ betrayals on the part of their allies in the ical parties following their line in other coun­ West. Their views come from experience. tries. So when they say something about the American people and American government, In fact, although the Vietnamese have their it would be short-sighted to conclude that theories and theoreticians, much of their work they are wrong on so fundamental a ques­ remains in the Vietnamese language. Their tion. leadership never puts forward the notion that they have the “ correct line” for other count­ But what do they mean? This is a myst­ ries. This may be because, while fighting a ery that must and will be unravelled, per­ war requiring international support, the Viet­ haps not for many years. Already, however, namese do not want to antagonise their var­ theories are appearing. For instance, it is ious allies. But it is more than a forced mod­ becoming fashionable and, I think, mislead­ esty; it is conscious and deep. ing, to believe that the answer to the myst­ ery lies essentially in Vietnamese culture. The revolution of these “ common peo­ In this view, the 4000 year tradition of ple” (as they style themselves) is the most Vietnam has produced a unique set of values important at present in the world, and prob­ which sustain the Vietnamese resistance to­ ably will affect much of our history in this day. The collective labor in building the century. It will affect the future of small dykes, the constant struggles against foreign

28 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW MARCH-APRIL 1975. invaders, the Confucian tradition of seeking change, but one perfectly designed to ratify order under legitimate authority (“ the man­ the status quo. date of heaven” ) are described as the factors which make Vietnam "special” . These histor­ UNIVERSAL THEMES IN VIETNAMESE ical roots are vital to understand, but they CULTURE can permit a too convenient explanation for the American failure in Vietnam which goes It is also true that they did not have to like this: since the Vietnamese are unique, go entirely outside these cultural traditions it has been impossible for any American to find a basis for revolution. There were strategies to work there. This can mean that progressive aspects of Buddhism and Confuc­ American strategies will work elsewhere, ianism which served to justify resistance. that the Vietnam war experience is not likely But this is possible in any culture, including to be duplicated and that there is little of ours. The progressive themes the Vietnamese universal portent to learn from Vietnam. found in their tradition were universal. The Confucian scholar and Buddhist monk had to reconcile fidelity to the state versus fidel­ A STREAM OF REACTIONARY ity to the nation, charity in the hereafter TRADITION with oppression in the present. Out of these contradictions grew desires to change society As an antidote to this thinking, it should for the better. In Confucian doctrine, for be pointed out that the Vietnamese have example, was an idea of human nature that had to struggle against a reactionary stream proved to be a liberating tool, one that should of culture and tradition. They are not simply not be foreign to people in any country. It inheritors of a revolutionary way of life. For was the idea that the great majority of people example, we should note that Buddhism and are potentially good, the question of their Confucianism contain extremely conservat­ self-improvement depending only on the lev­ ive tendencies, lest we accept the notions el of education they receive about the world that Buddhist monks always have immolated as it really is. They are surrounded by forces themselves in protest or that Ho Chi Minh that keep information from them. At the was simply a latter-day Confucian elder. root is a concept of virtue which appears in Vietnamese writing down through the cent­ Buddhism rested historically on the idea, uries. People can become virtuous by desir­ not unfamiliar to Americans, that suffering ing to be so, by learning to be so, by sacrif­ and oppression in the present will be over­ icing to be so. You shall know the truth, and come in the hereafter. Buddhism projects the the truth shall make you free. transcendence of misery, If you are poor, you Vietnamese of many political backgrounds have always been that way and you should have shared this view down through the twen­ accept Buddha’s grace, pass on into another tieth century. In the 1920s for instance, a text­ life and be re-incarnated, for in a later time book on Confucian doctrine by a scholar who you may be more fortunate. That fatalism would later be Vietnamese prime minister of the Buddhist philosophy was convenient under the occupying Japanese, included this to many an emperor, just as similar religious opinion: attitudes prop up authoritarian rule today. “ The overwhelming majority of people The same was true of Confucian teach­ become good or bad according to the ing: the Vietnamese revolutionaries were education and customs they acquire. confronted with a doctrine which, as it was These average people, all of them, can transmitted, fixed people in their places. The be educated. This applies to every sort Confucian code, which became state doct­ of person, in every position of society, rine during the feudal period, included the from every race and every country. principles that a man’s first duty was to the Everyone can be educated to be good. emperor, a woman's to her husband, a The aim of Confucianism is to educate child’s to the family. This was hardly a phil­ people so they become human and osophy designed to promote unrest or devoted.”

29 When Ho was in prison in the 1940s, he “ Buddhism taught us charity, and comm­ paralleled this doctrine in many of the poems unism has given us a vehicle for bringing sent to his comrades in Vietnam. One of charity from the ethical stage to that of them was called “ Midnight", written about reality where people can actually prac­ the sleeping prisoners in his cell: tise it."

“ Faces all have an honest look in sleep. HUMAN WILL AND Only when they wake up does good or MATERIAL FORCES evil show in them. Good and evil are not qualities born The Vietnamese never have adopted the in man, mechanical notion that progress is inevitable. More often than not they derive from For all their rich tradition of struggle, they our education.’’ least of all claim that triumph is due to cult­ ural circumstance. They reject the fatalism MARXISM-LENINISM: of the Buddha and the inevitability theories THE REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON of certain marxists. Instead they have stress­ ed virtue, sacrifice, personal endeavour. Not The Vietnamese revolution was not made only is this drawn from their tradition, but simply by selective interpretation from Con- in marxist terms it means relying more on fucian doctrine, however: marxism-leninism had the “ subjective” rather than the “ objective” , to be introduced as a revolutionary weapon. more on the element of human will than The marxism-side of this doctrine essentially that of material forces. divides society into two blocs, a small ruling class and a great mass of the powerless who are The Vietnamese revolution was one of not responsible for what is done in their soc­ the first to appear in the under-developed iety’s name, and who have to be educated to nations of Asia, where European marxists of their true situation. To the Confucian doctrine the early twentieth century least expected it. of innate goodness is added a new class attit­ Many communists expected socialism to ude: the rulers are not expected to be or be­ first appear in countries like Germany with come “ enlightened” but presumed to be ex­ a relatively advanced level of technology. ploitative. The Leninist theme is that the The sharing of resources and development situation can be changed, virtue asserted in of communal social relationships were not the world, through a dedicated organisation thought possible until the economy had of people who will awaken the consciousness transcended “ primitive accumulation” and of everyone. Through struggle, example and scarcity. But in Vietnam, China and other education the true nature of oppression will countries the reverse has happened: of nec­ be exposed. In revolution people will not essity, people have formed “ communist” only raise their standard of living but uplift social relationships before seizing state pow­ their behaviour as a whole. They will be er and transforming the economy. They are born again, morally improved. used to enduring hardships and making The language of marxism-leninism may great sacrifices together, sharing their meagre pose a problem for Americans concerned to resources like brothers and sisters. Seemingly avoid foreign models, but no more so than “ romantic" revolutionary relationships prove it would be for Ho and his Vietnamese com­ to be the only method of winning, and so rades. A doctrine coming out of Europe they naturally provide a basis for the Vietnam­ would be at least as foreign to them as to ese outlook on how revolution is conducted. ourselves. But Ho found in this doctrine Especially required is a faith that difficult what he called a “ light” which would clear objective conditions can be overcome through the way forward for Vietnam, and so it was will and solidarity. Thus “ favourable object­ incorporated into the Vietnamese experience. ive conditions " are created, not simply given.

Explaining this integration of national Of course, the Vietnamese do not divorce tradition and outside ideology, a Vietnamese these factors. They believe that “ objective minister told me in 1965 - conditions” are favourable to them partly due 30 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW MARCH-APRIL 1975. to socialist revolutions of this century. In had to break out of their roles as transmitt­ their estimate, the socialist countries, while ers of a precious ruling class culture. They lacking the technological level of the capitalist were caught up in studying the fine details ones, still have changed the world power bal­ of the master language, exchanging verses ance in favour of more revolution. Strength, with each other, engaging in diplomatic in­ according to Nguyen Khach Vien, lies in “ not trigues, fighting to stay on top of the comp­ just the output of steel” but is ideological etitive heap, while 90 per cent of the people and political at its root: lived in misery. In fact their "official lang­ uage” was so effete and stylised that it was "The socialist countries have an object­ impossible to employ in speaking to ordinary ive impact on the evolution of the people. world, because they have changed the relationships of production, and their The mandarins, if they were true patriots, very existence gives favourable cond­ had to decide that the vast majority of the itions to further liberation movements. people were not the dirt they were condit­ The “ subjective” attitude of socialist ioned to assume. Intellectuals had to change countries is very important too, but from thinking they were the quintessence of even where something is wrong and the Vietnamese culture to realising they were “ subjective” is not revolutionary, even nothing but educated slaves unless they linked where there are internal difficulties, themselves with the people who were poor, we conclude our strength is greater barefoot and never had been to Court. The in­ than the capitalist camp, although we tellectuals had to return to their original must fight on harder. roots in the villages. It required changing their lives. In the anti-French resistance, it This requires the perfect use of the “ sub­ is told that the Vietminh had to carry certain jective” , a matter of timing, strategy, organ­ upper-class Vietnamese gentlemen-turned rev­ isation, summarising experience. In another olutionaries into the jungle because they were of Ho’s prison poems it is compared with too delicately conditioned to walk. There "Learning to Play Chess” : with the guerrillas they would learn how to walk on their own. “ Eyes must look far ahead, and thoughts be deeply pondered. The call for personal, in fact romantic, Be bold and unremitting in attack. decision was characteristic. A famous poem Give the wrong command, and two char­ of the 15th century by Nguyen Trai, an intell­ iots are rendered useless. ectual who became a great military strategist, Come the right moment, a pawn can included these lines: give you victory.” “ Although we have been at times strong, When analysis is finished, therefore, and Although we have been at times weak, the right moment chosen, everything still dep­ At no times have we lacked heroes.” ends on human will, initiative, readiness to take the necessary action. This has required Even in the military field, Americans are a struggle against the whole conservative side likely to assume that Vietnamese are more of Vietnamese culture, a struggle American “ natural” fighters than Westerners. It is true intellectuals should find familiar. It meant that people’s war traditions go back to the challenging the mandarin elite (the bureau- 13th century in Vietnam. But what Americ­ cratic-scholar class of the Confucian state) ans do not know is that this tradition had to who were applying their doctrines for the ben­ be learned through overcoming great obstac­ efit of the few rather than the many. It meant les. The Vietnamese traditionally fear death telling the mandarins they were not living up without proper burial, for example. They to their own ideals, integrity, and standard of fear the night and the jungle because of an virtue. For a mandarin it meant changing from inheritance of superstitions. They have over­ loyalty to the Royal Court to faith in people come fear of superior and unknown technol­ who were considered unlettered. Intellectuals ogy through the centuries, down even to the 31 present time. In 1966, Pham Van Dong ack­ We found that even here people accepted nowledged to us: the idea of a distinction between the Amer­ ican people and the government. They must "I was very anxious and concerned have been impressed, after talking so much about what would happen when two of this distinction, to find “ democratic Am­ hundred thousand American troops ericans” arriving in their villages so soon aft­ came.... It is more difficult to fight er the bombing. But they showed no impat­ against the United States aggressors ience, no hostility. We met a barefoot old but the liberation movement in South lady, 73 years old, standing by a caved-in Vietnam has become stronger than we house, where she still slept on a small pile expected. I personally could not have of blankets a few feet away from her pig. expected i t .... The strength of the What do you think of Americans, she was people is endless. Even the children asked. Amused, slight puzzlement showed are ready. This too has made me think on her face and, looking at the ground, she hard...... ’’ answered politely: “ All I saw were planes in the sky, but I knew they were Americans”. Their stress on consciousness and will leads She hadn’t grasped the proper way to ex­ the Vietnamese to certain views of the poten­ press the distinctions but she wished us tial of the American people, and to attempt well. to morally arouse world opinion. They often tell visitors that, in their position, any people would feel and react in the same way. A POTENTIAL FOR DECENCY

Early in 1966, they decided to call a War Do these attitudes come easily or natur­ Crimes Tribunal in Europe. They were the ally? By no means. "We cry very much, but first to raise the issue, going to Jean-Paul we have learned to keep our pain to our­ Sartre and Bertrand Russell as individuals selves” , said one cadre after taking me through they considered representative of a moral hospital wards. consciousness in the West. Meanwhile in North Vietnam wherever something is bombed, when someone is injured or killed, there is always a Not only do the Vietnamese expect others War Crimes Commission representative there to see and condemn war crimes in their coun­ to record in exact detail what happened. They try, they try to empathise with acts of sacrif­ do this partly because they do not fear know­ ice made in their behalf by foreign friends, ing about suffering. They want to know exact­ for this, too, demonstrates, the existence of ly what has happened so they can conquer international conscience. The clearest illust­ fear. But they also collect the information ration is in their memorialising of Norman because they believe there is such a thing as Morrison, the American Quaker who burned a court of international public opinion, a himself to death on the steps of the Pentagon world conscience, to which these facts can in 1965. Many more Vietnamese know about be taken. They believe that if anyone in the Norman Morrison than Americans do. They world knew about these facts, they would not only know about him, they study him. judge them to be war crimes. They want to know all they can about his life. Small children in schools discuss him. The leading poets write about him. One song MEETING THE “ GOOD” AMERICANS concludes:

In early November 1972,1 visited a co­ "The flame which burned you will clear operative in the remote Viet-Bac region, 100 and lighten life, kilometres north of Hanoi, approximately 18 And many new generations of people days after it was bombed, and where the peo­ will find the horizon. ple had never before seen any Americans. Then a day will come when the American Even our interpreters wondered what the re­ people will rise, action would be to our presence. For life.”

32 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW MARCH-APRIL 1975. What was to many Americans a “ psych­ waging a successful resistance. In facing this otic” act was a profound act of sacrifice and problem they lay great emphasis on the rap­ internationalism to the Vietnamese. They id improvement of their scientific technique, certainly don’t want or expect thousands of level of technology, management and admin­ Americans to burn themselves in protest, istrative skills, but also, once again, on the but in Morrison’s seemingly isolated act they asset of human consciousness. As our jeep can see a potential for decency in all Amer­ was bouncing down a rugged road in the icans, a set of troubles and contradictions countryside, I asked a Communist Party that cause pangs of conscience. Nothing cadre how he thought about the problems could be more Vietnamese in fact, than the of coping with materialist values once lines left behind by Morrison when he died: Vietnam was on the road of “ modern dev­ elopment". Twenty years from now, he “ Life is mightier than the book that replied, they dream of a Vietnam where reports it. people have not only their material needs The most important thing in the world met but, he said, tapping his head for em­ is that our faith becomes living phasis, “ a happy mental and spiritual life” . experience.” This, he added, is a cause of concern to them. Supposing there are some countries, A COMMON RESOURCE he said, which have taken the revisionist or OF PRECIOUS MORAL POWER materialist path:

Whether it is Nguyen Thai Binh’s* actions or that of Nguyen Van Troi, Hieu’s peach tree “ Well, we don’t have to march in their or Norman Morrison’s sacrifice, the Vietnam­ ruts. We already are searching for new ese see a common resource of precious moral paths, for instance in education, in love power that they try to encourage. One spokes­ of each other. We try to promote the man explained it this way in 1967: spirit of collective mastery instead of egoism. It’s difficult but possible because "It is a common tendency to judge actions mankind is always aspiring to improve. by their practical effect. We don't judge Even those wno have been directed to­ things simply that way. It may be out of ward the bad, it's not fatal, they can romanticism. History is full of romantic be directed toward the good...... " people who rise up. They know their act­ ion will be futile but their need is to ex­ EVEN POWS CAN CHANGE press indignation. Their attitude towards American prison­ “ When you organise a movement, you ers also stems from their convictions about must try to succeed. But where individ­ human nature. Perhaps the Pentagon’s great­ uals are concerned, as when a student est propaganda success of the war lay in the stands before a gun, the probability is wide public acceptance of the torture claims that he will be killed and he may know by returning American POWs in March, 1973. nothing will happen. But he must show To the extent that any of the stories are true, the rulers he opposes them, and he must it would mean an understandable failure by set an example for others. The history the Vietnamese to live up to their own code of our struggle is that no patriotic action when faced with Americans personally res­ is futile.” ponsible for death and destruction. What would Americans do by comparison, one re- The human spirit is important not only in urned POW asked, with Vietnamese pilots the revolutionary process but in the develop­ caught bombing Pittsburgh? In fact, there ment of society after state power is won. It were a few stories of Vietnamese guards act­ is a permanently important factor in the ually being upset by occasions of brutality; Vietnamese view of their future. They say one, told by an extremely hawkish Amer­ that overcoming under-development and ican officer, James Mulligan, described the poverty may be an even greater problem than guards as “ ashamed":

33 “ They were always saying how they patriots, looking for a philosophy abroad had a 4500 year-old history of humane that could be incorporated into Vietnamese treatment of their enemies, and said nationalism. His generation first studied Jap­ that the policy of leniency was just an because Japan was the first Asian country misapplied in our cases.” to defeat an occidental one (Russia) in a test of arms in 1905. He spent 30 years out­ But history is likely to show that the Am­ side Vietnam as a nationalist, even incorp­ erican POWs were the best treated in any orating what he could from the United States. American war (including our own civil war He wrote articles about lynching in the South where, for example, 12,000 Union prisoners but he ultimately took the preamble from starved to death in Andersonville in 1864). our Declaration of Independence for his One pilot, Norris Charles, told of a Vietnam­ Declaration in 1945. From French political ese guard nicknamed“ Thank you Uncle Ho” circles he first learned about a party, an whose philosophy Charles felt was typical organisation, and about revolutionary strat­ of the Vietnamese: egy for national liberation movements. From the Soviet Union he learned more about “ They just feed you, clothe you, shelter strategy and method, and studied the world you, and take care of your medical needs, situation during the rich period of the Com­ and they try to give you games to play intern. In China he served as an interpreter and stuff to read. You’ve been there seven and learned much about revolutionary war­ years and they really don’t have anything fare. He did not come back to Vietnam to against you. They feel that humans are lead a nationalist movement for nearly 30 b^icaUyjjood^ you know,L^djhatonce years, an unparalleled experience among they know the truth will then maybe successful revolutionary nationalists. Thus reaction. And they don’t care if you Vietnam is very internationalist. react or not, but they feel they should (treat you that way) because they are In this epoch of change when the “ wret­ a very humane people.” ched of the earth” are becoming masters of their own destiny, it is possible to say that the Vietnamese experience will make a uni­ THEIR MESSAGE SHOULD versal contribution on the level of values GIVE US HOPE and principles. During the Christmas bomb­ ing of 1972, they did not compare Hanoi Vietnamese culture, history and national to Hiroshima or Guernica but called their identity should not be mystified or seen as capital the “ city of human dignity” . Just as foreign because the kind of nationalism they in other historical epochs, certain peoples exemplify is cosmopolitan and international have defended human values for the sake of in many respects. They are open to thinking the world and future generations, and earned and trends in the world, even from the culture the later appreciation of humanity, the of their invaders. They are not xenophobic. Vietnamese people today are the main def­ Before the Chinese invaders withdrew, the enders of human dignity and explorers of Vietnamese had taken in what they consid­ the human potential in the world. The ered valuable in Chinese culture. They kept winds of liberation and cultural change come some language, some philosophy, some myths no longer from Rome or London, as we in but they remained Vietnamese. They rejected the West are accustomed to believe, but in what would have rejected them. They did this century from Vietnam and the Third that with the French as well. Ho Chi Minh World. left Vietnam early in this century, as was customary for alienated and radical young Their simple message should give us hope..

34 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW MARCH-APRIL 1975.