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Salient. Victoria University students' Newspaper. Volume Number 39, Issue 7. April 12 [1976]

Vietnam — Recontruction Begins

page 10

Vietnam — Recontruction Begins

If we count cars and fridges, stereos and motorways, then Viet Nam is a poor country, very poor. Yet, next to this, the spirit, vitality and organisation of the people of Viet Nam make it a very wealthy country indeed.

I arrived in Hanoi just seven months after the final victory of the liberation forces over the Saigon regime. Although I stayed only one week, it was sufficient time to gain an overwhelming impression of a society richer and at the same time poorer than our own.

The physical contrasts are very apparent from the outset. Most of the people of Hanoi use push-bikes. The Hanoi version of the rush hour involves a great sea of bicycle-mounted Vietnamese cramming both sides of the often very narrow avenues and streets. The few jeeps honk their passage through the reluctantly dividing mass, as do the even fewer cars, usually carrying foreign visitors or diplomats.

Clothing styles have remained traditional despite a long history of contact with the western world. An interpreter in Haiphong proudly pointed out how the women were still wearing the costumes that Vietnamese women have worn for ages; the triangular hat and the silken black pantaloons

Water Buffalo Against B52s

It is in agriculture that the lack of technology is most evident. Water buffalo are still pulling wooden ploughs in the paddy fields, while water is often shifted from one irrigation channel to another by the time-honoured means of primitive scoops, suspended on lines and swung by hand.

And yet the people had just defeated the most sophisticated technological world had ever seen

I realised once and irrevocably that such a people could never be defeated when I was taken to visit Ho Chi Minhs' mauseleum. Every morning thousands of people line in front of the mauseleum and file quietly up the marble steps to where lies the imbalmed body of Ho Chi Minh.

The amazing adoration of those people show to this great leaders quite overwhelming. Cynics may scoff and make comment about the professional filers-past who perform for the benefit for foreign visitors; but there was absolutely nothing contrived about the grief these people still feel at the loss of their Uncle Ho.

I arrived in the land of Ho Chi Minh on the third of December aboard an Aeroflot flight from Vientiane in Laos where I had spent the last three days. After flying over the mountainous terrain of Laos I found the tight paddy fields of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam a sudden transition to one of the most intensively farmed parts of the world.

From the air especially, the flood plain of the Red River showed much greener than the fields of Northern Thailand or Laos. Yet the appearance could have been deceptive for the harvest in the latter two countries had not yet been gathered, while in Viet Nam the ploughing and much planting was already taking place of the vegetable crop that would fill the fields before the next rice cropt was due to begin its season at Tet, the lunar year, at the end of January.

Seeing the Sights of Hanoi

My first afternoon was spent in Hanoi touring the city to see the sights with the two interpreters assigned to me, Mme Suu, and one of my own age, Nguyen Kim Anh. Hanoi has four lakes, many of them with parks surrounding them and we visited the Thang Nhat (Unification) park right in the centre of town.

Hanoi is a very clean city, much cleaner than the rubbish piles of Vientiane or the dusty, garish billboards of Bangkok with the huge Westernised features of the local film stars promising the most in exotic and exotic delight. Along the roads and above them are the red banners with socialist and patriotic slogans.

The most frequent were the famous dictum of Ho Chi Minh's that nothing is more precious than independence and freedom, celebrations of the victory in the South, the thirtieth anniversary of the proclaimation of the DRV and the principle of the leadership of the Lao Dong (the Viet Nam Worker's Party).

The next day I expected to be largely an exercise in sightseeing, Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, a static display in the art museum, a pagoda and the circus in the evening. I did not reckon with the pervasivness of politics in the DRV.

The mausoleum would probably have been frowned upon by Ho Chi Minh. It is an elaborate structure of elegant marble and rare timbers solely designed as the last resting place for the greatest of all Vietnamese patriots. Foreign visitors gain the non-socialist privilege of being able to jump the queue and join it at the main doors. Ho Chi Min's body lies with hands folded across the chest; red tinged light illuminates gently his serene face as he sleeps, his task complete. At his head two flags symbolise the two passions of his life: the crossed hammer and sickle of Marxist-Leninism and the single central star of the Vietnamese national flag.

Religion Part of New Society

Religion is not vilified in the DRV. Buddism was the predominant faith in pre-colonial times and the French established a significant enclave of Catholics, many of whom took to the South when the French were defeated, preferring to live under American tutelage.

The icons in an art museum I visited still attracted people who regarded them as good luck charms. At a pagoda we visited, this same attitude was prevalent. The meanings of the various symbols were explained to me and I was encouraged to take photographs of the interior.

Though the pagoda and grounds were well cared for, and I was informed that such foreign dignitaries as Prince Norodom Sihanouk frequently visited and stayed, there was a total lack of the sort of reverence expressed in churches or board meetings in our society. The pagodas mostly appeared to serve not as pipes for the opiates of the masses, but rather as the places where, in former times the privileged offspring of the Vietnamese wealthy elite could receive an education to help them preserve their position in society.

That evening it was a visit to the circus. In Hanoi there is a permanent circus tent and every night an audience fills it to capacity to see the things that happen in circuses every where; jugglers, acrobats, liontamers and, of course, clowns. How different these people really are, tears rolling down their faces at the antics of the clowns, to the picture of the rampaging inhuman fanatics created by the twisted paranoia of the American generals.

On the following day I had the first of my meetings with the Viet Nam National Union of Students. The student movement in Viet Nam had always been an important element in the opposition to the French colonialists and the American imperialists, right from the first days of protest marches in Saigon and Hue against both these forces in 1950. The students movement in those days also realised that success lay in incorporation with the political leadership and the other sectors of the Vietnamese population who were exploited by the colonialist power.

Student Class Nature Changed

Under socialism in the DRV, there have been inevitable changes in the class nature of the student population. In 1955 the majority of the students were middle class but now all of them are from worker or peasant families. The capitalists and the landlord class people are now part of the worker or peasant mass and the only grouping classified by the Vietnamese themselves as being apart from the workers and the peasants are the intelligentsia, such as doctors and teachers.

Such change in the class nature of the student body is due not only to the transformation of the class nature of society but to special assistance given to the children of workers by the students' Union.

During the bombing of the DRV the schools and universities were removed from the cities to the countryside. Entire university towns were created in the rural areas. Not only was it ensured that studies were not interrupted but there was a special effort to organise cultural and sporting activities and create a student community as close as possible to normal. Study and practice were combined to deal with the requirements of the wartime situation.

Between April and September of 1972 the US attacked 10 high schools killing 84 students and wounding 67. Anti-aircraft brigades were formed, a number of planes were brought down and their pilots captured. All students undertook military training for one month of the year and this practice is continued even though the period is reduced. Many of the students wanted to join the army to fight for the fatherland but were denied permission to do so until 1971 when a certain number were released from their studies. Many of these students gained the award of 'Heroes of the Army'. One such civil engineering 'Hero' was a student who specialised in the heavy roading for tanks. He was wounded in the arm and he begged for the arm to be amputated in order that he could fight on. Even when he was wounded again he continued in the attack.

The Viet Nam National Union for Students was founded in 1954 and today every student is eligible to be a member and joins because of the considerable number of benefits offered. A Congress is held every year in each school and the head of the school attends the Congress to answer the demands of the students as well as telling the students what he or she expects of them.

The Head will request such things as better care of the furniture while the students will make requests for better food or different books. One of the functions of the Council is to elect the schools Executive Committee of the Party whose duty is to foster the political development of the school while leaving the more everyday tasks of administration to the school Management Board, the student union or the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union.

Most people in the DRV between the ages of 15 and 18 are members of a Ho Chi Minh Youth Union. Those still at school participate in the activities of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union of the school. With the increased standards of education and the higher proportion of working class children in the schools, the proportion of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Unions has correspondingly increased. The Youth Union has activities outside the education context and therefore the Students Union does not need to cover anywhere near as broad a scope as it does in New Zealand.

This method of dealing with disciplinary matters provides an example of how the students are an integral part of the decision making process The Disciplinary Board comprises members of the Lao Dong, the Youth Union and the Student Union. This Board examines the case presented by the Management Board of the school and hear explanations.

Cartoon of a soldier climbing aboard a plane and later tourists disembarking from a plane

page 11

Students in South Viet Nam

In the South there were 13 universities administered by the Thieu Regime with 100,000 students or at least that was the official number because many of the students did not exist other than as names under which to draw allowances. When liberation came, many of the universities in the North were transferred to the South in order to provide education for students there.

Despite the 'ivory tower' nature of the universities in the South, the student there had often been very active. Campaigns had been raised against the US involvement in the war, against the press ganging of students into the army, and against corruption Many were imprisoned by President Thieu as a consequence, some for as many as ten years.

The tasks carried out by the students in the newly liberated South were important to avery the possibility of breakdown of essential services just after liberation. They included jobs such a traffic control, hygiene work, assistance in the resettlement projects, with work in political development being considered a high priority.

With the impending reunification of Viet Nam, the Students Union for Liberation in the South will likewise become one with the Viet Nam Nation of Students in the North.

Comments on the South

My most interesting meeting in Hanoi was with Nguyen Khai Vien, the editor of 'Viet Nam Courier', an English language publication on events in Viet Nam.

'Vien explained to me the massive task of construction on the DRV there was for instance only 100 km of railway line in the North when the French were driven out in 1954. Vien considered that the industrial development in Viet Nam achieved by the French was at the level of Europe industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The second industrial revolution of post war Europe had not been heard of in Viet Nam when the French left. The preliminary basis of the development took place between 1955 and '65 but the U.S. imperialists destroyed the results achieved from the end of that period until 1968 and then again during the twelve day bombing of 1972 destroyed most of what had been constructed in the interim.

Natural Disasters Cause Devastation

The natural disasters to which agriculturally based Viet Nam was subject, also created many problems. From May through to September the monsoon rains can cause floods and yet immediately they cease drought often dries the land and shrivels the crops. To cope with this problem 4,000 km of dykes and dams with an average weight of 10 m had been constructed. Maintainance was a massive engineering task.

In 1971, the floods had been so bad that people were able to wash their hands in the Red river while on top of the dykes. The level of the water in the Red river had been 7 km above street level in Hanoi. If Richard Nixon's 1972 scheme for bombing the dykes had been a year earlier, the Vietnamese would have lost millions of their numbers.

I recalled the slogan of the anti-Kennedy pro-Nixon lobby in another context: 'Nobody drowned at Watergate.' But then Americans have always been told to put a different value on American lives.

Typhoons also took their toll, such as in 1968 when the effects were worse than 3,352 raids and again in 1973 when a typhoon wiped out ¼ of the harvest.

There is a lack of arable land in the DRV, only two million acres of arable land to feed 24 million people. In Vien's uncomplicated logic, to collectivise is the only way to prevent infrequent widescale starvation for it is only on collective that modem machinery could be utilised efficiently.

The tasks from now until 1980 emphasise reconstruction of the destroyed power plants, bridges and housing. The destruction of all these was extensive. Hong Gai had been completely razed, Haiphong had been 30% destroyed and yet the population growth had continued at 3% per year. Vien seemed amused at the fertility of the Vietnamese.

The problems in the South are even greater. Between 1965 and '74 some 10 million people had left the countryside for the urban centres, some because they were rounded up by the Saigon regime under Operation Phoenix, some just fled the war.

This migration had massive recruitment into Thieu's army and it had also caused huge problems of unemployment and half a million prostitues, of unemployment and half a million prostitutes. Vien estimated that there were 3-4,000 orphans of mixed blood in the South and a total of 100,000 drug addicts.

Expectations High in all Sectors

In agriculture the plans have been made and expectations are high. In previous times 1.5 million tons of rice were exported per year from the South. With a small application of modern technology together with peace, rice produce is expected to rise to provide enough for both North and South in two or three years. The rich agricultural potential of the South, especially in the Central Highlands, could provide rubber, tea, coffee and paper for export.

It was expected that normalisation of life in the South would take five years, and by 1986 the stage of the 1st European industrial revolution would have been reached and by the year 2000 a modern industrial socialist state. I could not help but be amazed by the massive nature of this task and the enthusiastic confidence that Vien displayed in the achieving of the goals.

The next day we set off for Haiphong along the intensively bombed road that had been the lifeline for Viet Nam's capital to the coast through the war years. All along the road were the pushbikes, crowding the intensively occupied and farmed rural flat lands. The paddy fields ran right up to the side of the road - there was no wasted ground whatsoever. Anti aircraft guns just outside Hanoi still pointed at the sky above.

The bridges we crossed on that way showed all the signs of war, craters all about and twisted steel rusting in piles upstream and downstream of the most recently constructed and surviving specimen. These bridges carried both road and rail traffic under the same path, cars and other vehicles bumped over the rail sleepers to the other side.

Haiphong - Growing Industrial City

Haiphong seemed to me a rawer city than Hanoi. There was less of the quaint old French architecture and more of the busy and growing-industrial city. The growth was akin to that of a trees new shoots from a severed yet still very much living stump. We stood on a bridge over the river and looked out over the city to the houses built since the destruction of the 1972 bombing. Only by following a pattern of comparatively new thatch on the houses in Haiphong could I establish the area once destroyed so completely that a foreign journalist had described it as being like the surface of the moon.

Don Carson, NZUSA Vice-President, wrote on his return from a visit to Vietnam as the guest of the Vietnamese National Union of Students.

Don Carson, NZUSA Vice-President, wrote on his return from a visit to Vietnam as the guest of the Vietnamese National Union of Students.

The bridge itself was a rather amazing creation; or rather creation. More than ten times thee American planes had severed the jugular vein of Haiphong's industry and on each occasion the Vietnamese engineers had, within five or six days built the bridge again so it could take the heavy industrial traffic.

The docks at Haiphong also bore the unmistakable signs of intense bombardment, the railway lines had been twisted back into shape many times. Everything once again built and rebuilt.

I visited a hospital in Haiphong, a contribution to Viet Nam from Czechoslovakia. In twenty years North Viet Nam has eradicated malaria, smallpox, polio and trachoma, at least in epidemic proportions and they have controlled TB and leprosy, a remarkable achievement for a country in a war time situation.

Late that day we drove back to Hanoi. It was night as we left Haiphong for the capital and yet the job of increasing production was still going on, even at that late hour. On occasions, the road ahead would seem to be alight and we would come across a lorry far too short to accommodate its load of reinforcing wire so that much of it was dragging on the road behind, setting up an eerie shower of sparks on the roadway.

My visit was now almost at an end and I had few more places to see or people to meet. Kham Thiem street, so utterly blitzed during the Christmas bombing of 1972, now indistinguishable from the other streets of Hanoi but for a mute reminding monument erected where a house once stood.

I also went to the Polytechnic university and was told once more of the difficulties and struggles of the students at the university during the war years, the battle for produciton, the Marxist-Leninist emphasis in education and the application of scientific discoveries to the concrete conditions of life in Viet Nam.

All too quickly, it was time to leave Viet Nam, and the tour of a number of foreigners was ending too. The physical situation as a whole had been almost as I had expected it and my ideas were not drastically transformed during my stay. What I am left with though is an overwhelming impression of the generosity and happiness of the people, truck after truck on the bridge over the Red river was piloted by a beaming eupeptic driver.

I left Viet Nam on the twelfth of December bound for a connecting flight out of Laos, which had transformed quite markedly in the week I had been there and thence onward to another disciplined society, Singapore. Singapore with the discipline imposed by a tyrannical headmaster as different from the Vietnamese self-imposed discipline which is analogous to that of the diet and exercise regime of the athlete in training. This is the last contrast I make, perhaps the most important of all.