Thanks. The Second Indochina War was very much a war about where Vietnam was heading. The memories of the war remain deeply contested among the Vietnamese, in Vietnam and across the diaspora. Sad, sad war. We're just as f-cked up as anyone else; the American-centric narrative makes the Vietnamese invisible in their…

All Vietnamese people - from North, Central, and South - wanted Vietnam to be free. They were aware that Vietnam was an imperial country, and like the rest of Indochina, France used it for their own gain. But the people in the North, the Central, and the South had different experiences of colonialism. The South had a…

You may think of me terming you as "Westerner" as an insult, but everything you use prevalent - your overreliance on words such as totalitarian, squalor, and imperialism - says it all. So much of Vietnam's civilization - including the squalor is dependent upon land tenant arrangements, prevalent in the North and…

Have you ever read the oral narratives of those who were among the nearly 1 million who fled from the North to the South, and the personal freedoms they talked about that were granted to them in the South? Do you understand why my parents risked their lives and fled after living under Communist rule for 10 years.…

There were a lot of revolutionary groups - Communist and non-Communists. You're assuming that Viet Minh was the only revolutionary group.

It's a very broad and inaccurate assessment to say that wealth was tied with foreign interests. It's something Northerners who have never been to Saigon would say.

Pretty much.

You're spouting lines from the North with the whole foreign invader narrative. At the very least, admit to it, instead of pretending to be objective.

The North received aid from the Soviets during the Second Indochina War, which was right after the North's victory in the French-Indochina War. Not sure what you are talking about. The SVN government collapsed after the US withdrew support because they didn't have a contingency back-up plan.

Not all of the Vietnamese were super poor. The North and the Central were poor because of their shitty land, but the South was well-off; I have some Southern friends whose parents worked for French companies. The South was the place to be if you wanted to sell anything; it still is. Why do many Americans think…

Actually, the Republic of Vietnam existed for 20 years. And it was a dictatorship, but by comparison, life in the South was more free than the North, not only private enterprise (it wasn't collectivized like in the North), but artists (singers and poets) in the South had more leeway, whereas in the North everything…

That's the North Vietnamese viewpoint. They waged it as a resistance war against America. The people in the North appeared more cohesive because, as a Northern friend told me, she had no choice but to house soldiers and be part of the cause. The South was less cohesive but they were actually more free - they could…

My parents lost everything after the fall of Saigon. They lost the right to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They lost the right to dress the way they wanted. They barely had any food. It must be so easy to look at all this from a glib, first-world perspective.

It was a civil war with opposing Cold War powers supporting each side. You know nothing about my parents' country. Nothing.

Um, no. The North and the South was different as night and day - equivalent to North Korea and South Korea in terms of economic development. South Vietnam had great land and agriculture, whereas North Vietnam had shitty land. The South lost, and my parents had to suffer with food rations. That's why they fled Vietnam…

It was the NVA who ignored the neutrality of Cambodia, and supported the Khmer Rouge, first. Not everything revolves around the US, jesus.