Inside the VC and the NVA...

This book is just awesome. It is a wealth of information gathered by the documents and letters that were taken off of wounded, dead, captured, and those that surrendered (Chieu Hoi). Also, taken and printed were some of the RAND Corporation interviews with the captured VC/NVA.

So far, from what I have gathered (only a few chapters) is that the country was divided into three (3) distinct regional groupings; 1) Northeners, from the Red River Valley. 2) Centralists, from the southern part of North Vietnam and the northern regions of South Vietnam. And... 3) Southerners, from the Saigon and Mekong Delta areas of South Vietnam. This created friction on the small unit level that at times, got down right nasty. Each group dispised the other for one reason or another. More to come.

Continuing...

Then there were the "Autumn" people or "regroupees". As one VC assistant platoon leader, an "Autumn" person himself, explained: "They/we were Southeners who left for North Vietnam in the autumn of 1954, after the Geneva Agreement was signed." There was some strong resentfulness of the "Autumn" people after 1958 by the VC. These VC, actually "Viet Minh", who stayed in the South, complained about their (Autumn/regroupees) arrogance and perceived rapid promotions. They also believed that they had lived very comfortably in the North while they endured constant hardship and persecution in the South. According to one VC, the "Autumn people/regroupees" considered the VC their lackeys. "They are very arrogant, and I myself have been ordered by them to do this or that." It gets even worse from here.

One can only imagine that their were few things holding these fighters together. One, would be the Political Commissar. And two, their belief in a united Vietnam as told by Ho Chi Minh. More to come.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by MAB32

They also believed that they had lived very comfortably in the North while they endured constant hardship and persecution in the South.

Boy, someone was buying into their own propoganda about the socialist worker's paradise.

TR

[HOLLiS]

I would liked to have spoken better Viet-Namese. I worked with three KCS', one was local VC, the other two were from Hanoi. I spent a fair amount of time with Hoi, who was local VC. Ding and Trum were Bac Biet. I liked Ding but never spent much time with him. I really don't think they had any big illusions of the Socialist Worker Paradise.

Continuing...

A Senior-Lieutenant "Autumn" person himself stated that the Northeners often spoke disrespectfully of men like himself:

"The North Vietnamese cadres blame the South Vietnamese, the Southern fellas only know how to have fun!" Sometimes they used local slang to insult one another, "The Autumn people smell like shrimp sauce!." The Southerners were right back with, "Those Northeners stinkers are misery! They consider money to be everything. They are cowards like land crabs!" He continues with...

"The South Vietnamese consider the North flatterers, servile flatterers, always nodding to show their submission and never conceiving any idea of fighting for their own rights. The North considers the South as lacking Revolutionary ethics, never being satisfied with anything, having a weak standpoint, always fighting!" By the way, this intelligent and very perceptive individual, beat up his North Vietnamese battalion. That episode is in chapter 8. We will have to wait till then to find out why.

More to come...

Well after a bad snow storm, 12 inches of snow, two power outages, and sub-zero wind chills, I will now continue.

Continuing...

The life of a Vietnamese villager is quite interesting. It seems that the image of Vietnamese families, happily toiling over the same rice fields for thousands of years and suffering horrifically because this is the land of their ancestors and leaving would cause undue stress has been greatly exagerated. Throughout history, the Vietnamese have won wars and lost them to conqueres from just about everywhere. It seems that they never stayed in one place longer than a few dozen years or so. According to the RAND corporation, the Vietnamese person wasn't much into "family tree's". Only as far as the village gates, did most villagers world revolve upon. All he needed was to be found in the village and to get into trouble with the village chief or elders was a very serious affair. For example, to be told to leave by one's family or village chief was the worst kind of punishment. Corporal punishment was almost non-existant.

Life in a village was divided into regiments. Bewtween farming and family and the village chiefs, their wasn't too much else going on. However, what I did learn mostly from this chapter was that like his Western counterparts, he would take the path of least resistance and do anything to better his circumstances. For example, a Vietnamese farmer who would ask his American friend to buy him a watch at the local PX, then turn around and sell it on the "black market" for a large profit saw no wrong in doing this. He looked at it as taking advantage of the circumstances. There is no act of disloyalty or duplicity on his part. Now if he awoke in the middle of the night with a gun sticking in his ear, he generally did what he was told to do, regardless of his private political convictions or even who was holding the gun.

Religion and superstition played an important role in the life of a Vietnamese. Buddhism was the predominant religion in the village. Other religions that were common were: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Chinese ancestor worship, and Animism. Astrology also played a role in their lives as well. There is some question however, just how much of a role these played in his life. Like us, I don't think that your typical Vietnamese knew his religion any better than we know ours. Most of us would know the names of Santa's reindeer or the seven dwarfs more so that the Ten Commandments. Go figure.

I guess the bottom line is that your typical Vietnamese is an "opportunist" to some degree and lying, cheating, or stealing, was just another way of life.

More to come...