Almost every day I get asked, "why do Viet people in the US support Tr/mp?"

There are plenty of think pieces & people offering their thoughts/theory/explanation as to why. I also have some of my own.

But the better question is, who is fueling their ideology?

Humans have our own reasons for doing anything, obvi, so we could point to the complex historical and ongoing relationship btwn Viet Nam and China, and how the Rep/blican party did this or that during and after the Amerikan War, or that there's a language barrier, etc.

Some questions I haven't seen asked are:

✦ Who gains what from the historical Viet-China tension?

✦ Who keeps fueling Viet Am's Sinophobia?

✦ Why are both dominant US political parties competing to be "tougher on China?"

✦ Who benefits from Viet-Am's anti-communism?

✦ What was the motivation behind the US's "pivot to Southeast Asia"?

✦ Where does Viet Nam play in that strategy, with its long ass coastline and proximity to China?

✦ What is the Southeast Asia Maritime Security Initiative and why did the U.S. earmark $425M for it?

These and other questions should reveal that the U.S. military industrial complex continues to profit off of anti-China and Sinophobia propaganda perpetuated by white western imperialism.

It's indisputable there are conflicts among nations & ethnic groups in East & Southeast Asia.

AND

The U.S. needs a perpetual enemy to justify its military presence around the world. It’s useful & important to have an enemy w/ a different form of government & ideology.

A lot of young Viet-Ams talk about the disinformation their parents are getting from F•x News and similar conservative sources, and they also unwittingly play into the anti-China and anti-commun/sm script that has a long history in the U.S. and internationally.

The US using Viet people as pawns and spreading disformation for political gains is nothing new. After the Geneva Accords in 1954, VN was split in half, and people were given the option to move freely for 300 days between the borders before they're sealed.

During this time, the US created "Operation Passage to Freedom" to 1) transport 310,000 people fr North to South, and 2) the propaganda effort to motivate people to migrate.

The goal was to boost the Catholic base & the population of the south before the reunification elections.

The C/A (obvi) ran the propaganda campaign to get a large amt of ppl to move south. NĐD told the US about the limited capacity of the south to receive people, and the US stepped in to bear the cost, bc it was "imperative to maximize the population," they told NĐD.

The US "employed a variety of stunts to encourage more northerners to move south. South Vietnamese soldiers in civilian clothing infiltrated the north, spreading rumors of impending doom. One story was that the commun/sts had a deal with Vietnam's traditional enemy China..."

"... allowing two commun/st Chinese divisions to invade the north. The story reported that the Chinese were raping and pillaging with the tacit approval of the commun/sts."

The US "hired counterfeiters to produce bogus Viet Minh leaflets on how to behave under commun/st rule, advising them to create a list of their material possessions so that the commun/sts would be able to confiscate them more easily, thereby fomenting peasant discontent."

The a$$hole in charge, Colonel Lansdale, distributed fake documents claiming they were issued by the Viet Minh, which promised to seize all private property. The day after these fake leatlets were distributed, the amount of people registering to move South tripled.

Another US-funded group, The Central Evacuation Committee in Haiphong, spread leaflets claiming that the cost of living in South Vietnam is 3x less, and lied that there would be welfare payments and free farmlands. None materialized, obvi.

However, the US *did* pay people to move South. Each person got $89 ($847 in 2020 USD), whereas the per capita income in Vietnam at the time was only $85 per year.

US media also helped fuel the propaganda. The migration was framed as the Catholics escaping from persecution by the barbaric Viet Minh. That it was an atrocity "the worst in history", going as far as accusing the Viet Minh for engaging in "child murder and cannibalism".

Accounts of the mass exodus in US media portrayed the US as a savior, aiding helpless Viet children and elderly and the faithful to escape the monstrosity of commun/sm and being carried to the "free world."

This thread is getting long so i'll make another thread for when Nixon sabotage the peace talks for Viet Nam to win the 1968 election.

So yes, Viet people in VN and the US being divided is real. Viet families being torn apart is real. Viet parents disowning their children over political disagreement is real. It's all v v v painful. And it makes sense we want to talk to our family and understand them better.

*and*

There is a limit to how much we can learn through personal stories.

It's important to make space, to empathize, and honor our elders' lived experiences.

But individualizing our understanding of history without a geopolitical power analysis won't set us free.

We will keep asking "why are my parents so conservative" forever.