About Vietnam War

¶ … Vietnam focuses primarily on land ownership by the Vietnamese. The paper clearly demonstrates what issues were encountered on the subject of land from the time of French Colonialism to the ruling of Ngo Diem. The paper also highlights the class structure and economic policies installed by the French in Vietnam. Vietnam Even after the passing of three decades, the Vietnamese can still feel the affects of the foreign power upon them and their land. It is hard to believe that Vietnam was once a French Colony.

Many Vietnamese had fought against the French Colonialism in order to undo the harms the French had caused them. The French had ruled the country with the help of Annam Empire administration, consisting of mainly of civil servants. The class structure of the Vietnamese had been changed considerably. Wealth and income was unequally distributed among the Vietnamese. Hence, the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. The authorities were dogmatic.

Hostile domestic and international forces hid behind the pretence of human rights and democracy to threaten peace and order. The French had suppressed the Vietnamese right to freedom of expression. The farmers were deprived of their lands and properties. "Under French colonialism, Vietnamese land was stolen and given to French landowners and their Vietnamese cronies" (Irene Huangyi Lin, Vietnam: The War And The Country). During the French rule, trade between France and Vietnam increased immensely. Under the French colonialism, Vietnam was divided into three regions, namely, Tokin, Annam and Cochinchina.

The economic policies of the French differed from the town to the countryside and especially from the north to the south. Hence, there was no economic unification in the country. Under the economic policies, The industrial sector consisted of a handful of factories and mines. The agricultural economy resembled that of Bangladesh or Java, with high population densities on usable land, little capital, low yields per hectare, and extreme poverty.

Colonial Vietnam's education system had probably reached fewer people than any other colonial system in Southeast Asia; and, aside from successful campaigns against smallpox and cholera, the colonial health system had been similarly limited (John Bryant, Communism, Change And Demographic Change In North Vietnam). Hence, the land distribution was poor and the farmers often made use of insurance plantations. Families started to insist upon smaller families, as a result of poverty. North Vietnam's fertility decline evidently reflected changes in the demand for children.

The rapid mortality decline improved survival chances and made it easier to achieve, or harder to avoid, large families. Fertility fell fastest in the cities and lowland areas, where mortality also fell fastest" (John Bryant, Communism, Change And Demographic Change In North Vietnam). While the conditions in North Vietnam were deplorable, the South on the other prospered in the agricultural production. Large areas of land in the South were handed over to the French and Vietnamese collaborators. The plantation system in the South transformed Vietnam into a rice-exporting machine.

"While per capita rice consumption in Vietnam itself declined, taxes of every kind multiplied" (Vietnam: A Teacher's Guide). During the Vietnam wars the plantation and the agricultural land suffered gravely. As a result of chemicals crops were being destroyed in great amounts. Large areas of Southern Vietnam were designated as free fire zone where thousands of peasants were shot in the course of military operations. Domestic animals and crops were destroyed, villages burned down and large number of homeless people were raped killed and made homeless (Edwards S.

Herman, Back To Stone Age). Land ownership was always a problem in Vietnam. During the French rule, the French had illegally occupied the lands. Absentee landlords owned much of the land, especially in the Mekong Delta where the most valuable land was located, and the tenant farmers had little opportunity to own land of their own. Viet Minh made this a major issue, blaming the government in Saigon, and promising to change things after they won the war.

They often even had ceremonies in which they gave out printed land titles to the tenant farmers. Many of the farmers had doubts about how this would turn out, but when they accepted these deeds it gave them a stake in the Viet Minh (James Whittaker, Psychological Warfare In Vietnam). The Americans tried to convince the Southern Vietnamese government in Saigon to install workable programs in order to reform the lands. Unfortunately this met little success. Ngo Diem program regarding land ownership was based upon the.