VietNamNet - The Presidential Palace in Hanoi, where the late Ho Chi Minh used to live and work and the souvenirs he left behind are important cultural historical legacies.

Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh has said at the palace during a visit to pay homage to President Ho on the 35th anniversary of his death on September 2.

It was here that the late leader - before his death in 1969 - dreamed of a peaceful, unified, independent, democratic, wealthy and strong Vietnam and exhorted the Party and people to work towards building such a nation.

Mr Manh wrote in the visitors' book that the place Ho lived in and the documents and relics he left behind are the nation's "invaluable" heritage and have great significance for international friends.

Greeting the staff at the palace, he urged them to collect and preserve more souvenirs relating to the life and revolutionary activities of President Ho.

The site, he said, would forever be a school for Vietnamese to visit and study the late leader's life and droughts.

Assuring that every effort has been made to preserve "Uncle" Ho's cultural heritage, he promised that the younger generations would be educated in his moral and ideological legacies.

While still in war he once said that" Voilat! The youth of our great family in VietNam. Our Vietnam is one, our nation is one. You must remember, though the river may run dry and mountains erode, the nation will always be one"
Wow, in my whole life i never heard anything as encouraging as that quote. I also read that he is a great strategist of the time who have saved our country three times from the three instrution of the Japanese, French and the American. He also mastered the six languages which is France, English, Russian and the three different Chinese languages.

It is ashame in how my english teacher said that the Vietnamese only won against the American because of the territorial advantages. It is obviously that once a person like 'Ho Chi Minh' standing up for the country, nothing would defeat us.

americans are just sad that we are the only country ever to win against them in war, even with their freaken far more better technologies and bombs, and the lots of massacres they did in vietnam we still win over them, its not because of territorial advantages but because we have some really smart guerilla forces.

They make it look like they supposed to win by saying over 1 million died in vietnam but thats plus a whole mess of innocent civilians.. and we killed them only 56 thousand but recently we've found more dead american bodies there and its going to be about 60, thousand more bodies plus more which haven't been found.

My stupid history teacher say we won because we sent the whole country fighting them, but they had the americans plus a whole mess of bombs, plus the south vietnam and some other countries nearbys help and still loss.

lol they act as if they were the ones who killed all those 1.1 million enemy troops. When South Vietnam, South Korea and other U.N forces get no credit, and South Vietnam did 99% of the fighting BEFORE Americans officially joined and 100% after Americans left.

Your teacher also mentioned we fought them with our whole country? LOL they had South Vietnam backing them up.

Most of the enemies were Vietcong insurgents who were usually old men or teenagers wanting to free their country. North Vietnam didn't really take over until after the Tet Offensive and even then, they tried to save their tanks to launch an offensive against South Vietnam after the U.S left. North Vietnam didn't dare use their heavy weapons against the Americans and were saving them for the final assault on South Vietnam. lol

LOL
This one guy said that "the only reason the U.S. lost is becasue the politicians lost their nerve." What a bunch of $hit!

lol the U.S death rate in the Vietnam War was the same for the U.S in World War 2.

Also the U.S wounded rate was 300% times higher in the Vietnam War than it was in WW2.

The U.S thought they could go into Vietnam and be back in home by Christmas but they ended up fighting for a decade and lost more troops and wounded then they thought.

In 1995, the Vietnamese government revealed that in 20 years of civil war from 1954-1975, North Vietnam lost 1.1 millions soldiers. If it wasn't for the fact that more than a millions South Vietnamese soldiers on the side of the American who did most of the fighting for the American, does anyone really think that the American only lost 58,000 men and lasted up to 10 years in Vietnam that long? Lol.

Dat nuoc Viet Nam la mot, dan toc Viet Nam la mot, song co the can, nui co the mon, nhung chan ly ay cung khong the doi thay.

If the goverment want to keep legacy of Uncle Ho alive, step down as the goverment. They brainwashed Vietnamese with Marx-Lenin theories, but forgot to pratice them. What a bunch of lame @$$. Adn why are they still teaching marx-lenin, even though they obviously copying the chinese economic system a.k.a Capitalism?

America did not lose the Vietnam War. They withdrew. Your history is not that far off. The reasons(that I can think up off the top of my head) why the Americans "lost":
1. They used World War 2 tactics in the South East Asian environment.
2. They couldn't fight with their "full" strength. Bombings and such were only limited to a few areas.
3. Political divisons...that one should be self-explanatory
4. Morale
5. They couldn't distinguish friend from foe...to them it was like fighting the entire country.

I agree with you on #4. If American wanted to win Vietnam war back then it 's very easy. I believe within a week they could take over Ha Noi. It's the moral. However I disagree with you on #5, South Vietnamese Army & US troops were working very close together until US combat troops withrawal in 1972.

To know how many GIs were killed in VN, go visit Washington DC Vietnam War Memorial. They have every names of their lost soldiers on a granite wall.

No matter how patriotic I am, Vietnam cannot and will never win the U.S. in a large battle scale. The U.S. lost because they:

1. Cannot win the hearts of minds of the Vietnamese people, only the people of that country can do it for themselves.
2. It was an unpopular war in the American public, hence low morale.
3. They did not have a good exit plan to withdraw and end it peacefully.
4. They lost the faith of the war after the Tet offense in 1969. That was when they realized they could not win the war, and began to withdraw.
5. They have never fought a country that is so determined to fight against them before.
6. They did not have a good reason to fight in Vietnam.
7. They have not learned the new tactics of guerilla warfare.
8. Territory differences.
9. Slow troops mobilization to key points.
10. South Vietnam was corrupt.

The US withdrew not only because they didn't have the political will but Vietnam was getting in the way of Nixon's plan to open up to China.

They used South Vietnam in their Cold War chess game and then left us with the commies to rot after they decided it wasn't advantageous for them to fight the War anymore. This is also after they helped to despose Ngo Dinh Diem, one of South Vietnam's strongest President.

I'm still Pro-American by all means, but I am also very much aware of this nation's shortcoming. The US hasn't always been the best of ally to South Vietnam.

In the context of the Vietnam War is America's withdrawal really a defeat or is it more of a strategic and wise retreat from the American prespective.

No matter how patriotic I am, Vietnam cannot and will never win the U.S. in a large battle scale. The U.S. lost because they:

1. Cannot win the hearts of minds of the Vietnamese people, only the people of that country can do it for themselves.
you must say North Vietnamese people

2. It was an unpopular war in the American public, hence low morale.
Yes, I agree with this. You have to thank John Kerry and Jane Fonda for this.

3. They did not have a good exit plan to withdraw and end it peacefully.
US combat troops completely withdrew in 1972.

4. They lost the faith of the war after the Tet offense in 1969. That was when they realized they could not win the war, and began to withdraw.
Tet offensive was in 1968, not 1969. The Hue massacre had made South Vietnamese hated Viet Cong even more. More US troops arrived in 1969.

5. They have never fought a country that is so determined to fight against them before.
6. They did not have a good reason to fight in Vietnam.
If Reagan was US President at that time, Vietnam would be one free nation. Reagan's doctrine was to eliminated communism, not stop the spreading of communism like other US Presidents have done.

7. They have not learned the new tactics of guerilla warfare.
US troops employed good tactics to eliminate guerilla. Operation Phuong Hoang was most fear by Viet Cong. It exposed the lower level of VC guerilla operation.

8. Territory differences.
It's US Marines most love territories.

9. Slow troops mobilization to key points.
Even though Viet Cong had shot down lot of US Army helicopters, troops were mobilized by helicopters to the battlefield very quickly.

10. South Vietnam was corrupt.
Not really. However, right now we have the most corrupted gov't in VN.

Lol. History buff.

Exactly. I believe Nixon wanted the huge Chinese market. He had visited China in 1972. After that, US had decided to make the "strategic retreat" from VN. Nixon decision had benefit US economically. It was a good move. (But this is what I hate about US foreign policies. Every 4 years it changed.)

Today cheap Chinese goods flood US markets and the Chinese ended up with 1 trillion US dollars in their banks that they don't know what to do!!!

1. North Vietnamese people? The U.S. was trying to stop the spread of communism from the North, but at the same time, doing a huge massacre at My Lai. That little incidence broke the trust of the South Vietnamese to the Americans. They cannot win the hearts and minds of South Vietnamese no matter what! Different in culture and custums.

2. Okay, you agree.

3. The U.S. withdrew slowly until 1972, but was not a good exit plan. What was their reason to withdraw? Troubles at home and trading partners with china. That was a stab in the back at the South Vietnamese government. Or somewhat, they lost faith in the war.

4. 1968 or 1969, doesn't matter. What matters here is that the U.S. suffered more than they could imagine. The only reason they reinforced more troops was to raise the morale of the troops, but that didn't work out as planned.

5 & 6. Different timeline you're talking about.

7. They still failed at the horror of guerilla tactics.

8. Never had experience.

9. Terrain made it difficult to mass-mobilize and supply lines were cut often. The only way was air-supply by C-17s and Hueys.

10. Massive corrupt in the South government. More generals fled than continued fighting the North until the end. Only and handful of loyal generals fought till the end.

S. Vietnam was fricken corrupt. My family STRONGLY supported democracy, half of our lives were taken fighting for that. But our leaders were corrupt, and that's the truth. Ngo Dinh Diem, he persecuted Buddhists and took the Communist name to throw all dessidents in jail (meaning he threw people who had popular support into jail, whether they were Communist or not fearing that they might take over his position). This piont alone goes against what Democracy was about, i know it's during war and elections weren't able to come about, but taking the Communist title and throwing it around randomly is not fair. One of my dad's uncle had this happen to him, and we are STRONG democratic supporters, and that's why we're in Canada today and not in Vietnam. Diem also restricted Buddhists from celebrating Buddha's bday. Buddhists protested by burning themselves, and Diem's family would only say that they would gladly provide the oil. Diem put his family into all of the top positions, regardless of their talents.

S. Vietnam was indeed corrupt during many incidences within it's history. That's one of the biggest reasons why we lost, weak leadership, unable to please the hearts of the people.

You are extrapolating backwards man.
When Nixon visited China there was no market to speak of, China was mired in Cultural revolution and Deng XiaoPing was in house arrest.

Americans wanted to end the war in SEA but also wanted to withdraw with honour not defeat, also world peace was the main reason US and China had relations normalised.

The purpose of Nixon’s strategic China trip was to have China opening their border to US. It took 10 years to achieve this purpose.

In 1975, South government fell because lack of US Congress support. US had withdrew their troops and completed their Vietnamized Vietnamese War program in 1972.




Most South Vietnamese were thankful for US support against the Communists oppression. Just remember, the oppression has come from the North.

In any war, tragedies happened. I don’t blame US troops so much on the massacre of My Lai because of the soldiers’ inexperience and incompetent. But I have always mad when remember the systematic killing of thousands of South Vietnamese at Hue during Tet 1968 offensive by Viet Cong. It’s so cruel and inhuman.



In 1972, US troops had completed the withdrawal. Saigon gov’t fell in 1975.



I said “IF.”



No, Viet Cong guerilla had failed. From 1971 to 1975, there were no major terrorist attacks anywhere in Southern Vietnam. Before 1971, Viet Cong guerilla were very successful in employing terrorist tactics like blowing up hotels, placing mines on highways, ambushing supply convoys, etc… Instead of US troops, many Vietnamese were killed as the results.

I totally agree with you that Diem made a grave mistake when he began to persecute the Buddhists. Some say it is because of his Brother-in-Law, but whatever the case, he allowed it to go on. He later backtracked but it was too late. He should have focused less on religion and more on winning the war against the Communists. When you examine his entire record, however, under his leadership South Vietnam was winning the war, and he brought stability to the country. The Leaders after him Big Minh etc. couldn't live up to his image and they only held power for a short time. If he had lived, I think the outcome would have been different. Diem also opposed heavy US troops deployment into South Vietnam because he wanted to retain the sovereignty of South Vietnam and to make it so that the Communists cannot claim that it was an American vs. Vietnamese War. He wanted the war to be a Vietnamese vs. Viet Cong War.

If you look at the Korean War, South Korea's govt and president was also accused of being "dictatorial." Yet after the war ended, South Korea opened up and now they have a prosperous democracy.

Now look at Vietnam at the moment. Do you hear much about the plight of Buddhists and all religions under the Communist government. Did you know that two Buddhist burned themselves a couple of years ago to protest the oppression of the Communists. It didn't get much media attention because the state hushed it up. South Vietnam's govt wasn't perfect but it is definitely better than what we have right now.

I guess you haven't read the Top secret/exclusive eyes only now declassified documents of Nixon-Zhou talks then.

Read them then tell me what they were planning back in 72.