50 Years: Vietnam’s lineage of resistance

April 30, 1975, witnessed the complete collapse of the brutal U.S. war on the Vietnamese people. The humiliation of the U.S. defeat was greeted with a tremendous outpouring of joy by millions and millions of people around the world who were happy for the Vietnamese people and who saw their own possibilities in this victory of a small, poor country that had endured centuries of colonization. Vietnam, devastated by years of war, bombing and all-out assaults on its population and environment, now enjoyed enormous worldwide prestige.

The 50th anniversary was marked by huge demonstrations of solidarity with Vietnam in many countries. It did not receive such notice in the U.S. While the media acknowledged Vietnam’s victory — it would have been hard to avoid mentioning it — the Vietnam war was treated largely as an historical afterthought, implying that the world’s attention had moved on.

But in tandem with the nearly contemporaneous Civil Rights Movement, this is far from the truth. These two grassroots movements profoundly shaped the political understanding and the development of resistance to repression and oppression in the U.S. 

Speakers mentioned that in the years since the 1975 victory, similar solidarity movements have been organized to resist Central American wars, end apartheid in South Africa, stop the war in Iraq, advance LGBTQIA2S+ rights, halt police brutality and racism, demand justice for Native Americans and win many community demands. Of course some battles were more successful than others.

A celebration called “All Power to the People: A Lineage of Resistance – 50 Years of Peace and Social Progress in Vietnam” was held in person and over Zoom in New York City on May 3. The program was a heartfelt celebration of the victory 50 years ago and the accomplishments of the Vietnamese since. 

At the same time the victory celebration was structured to encourage dialog between generations of political activists. It was notable that almost every speaker mentioned today’s paramount struggle — the resistance to the genocide in Gaza and the struggle for national liberation in Palestine — which is today’s Vietnam War movement. (vietnam50.us/celebration/program) A few speakers also acknowledged that the event was taking place on land stolen from the Lenape people.

Speakers from across the political movement

Claire Trẩn, a co-emcee, was born and raised in the Vietnamese community. Her generation relived the war through their families’ wartime remembrances. In school her social studies textbook devoted a single page to Vietnam, and that only to the war, disregarding the remarkable gains Vietnam was making in overcoming the legacy of devastation.

In the U.S. the Vietnamese immigrant community suffered from racism, marginalization and poverty.

During these same postwar years, in Vietnam the country became self-sufficient in food production by 1989, achieved a literacy rate of over 90% and enshrined protections for gender rights and national minorities’ languages in its constitution. Economic advances were made while keeping to the goal of achieving an equitable society and battling the corruption that was accompanying the increasing standard of living.

Bhairavi Desai, a co-chair of the event, was born in India and emigrated to the U.S. with parents who were deeply involved in anti-imperialist struggles. She is founder and executive director of the 28,000-member New York Taxi Workers Alliance. She spoke of the huge inspiration of Vietnam, the source of hope that people can fight back and win. To her it is of great importance that there is a movement in the U.S. of people who are trying to build a better life here.

Susan Schnall, president of Veterans for Peace, actively resisted the U.S. military from within while serving as a Navy nurse from 1967-69. After hearing of the horrors of the war from injured U.S. military personnel she treated, she was inspired to organize against the war while on active duty. 

As co-coordinator of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign, Schnall continues to press the U.S. to accept responsibility for the effects of its genocidal actions and works to mitigate the effects of chemical warfare. Asking, “When will they learn?” she points to ongoing U.S. complicity in Gaza.

Ed Ott, a retired executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, urged solidarity between workers in Vietnam and the U.S. who are facing the same capitalist exploiters in a rapidly shifting economic environment. 

It is almost suicidal,” Ott said, not to cooperate and work with the trade union movement in Vietnam, the seventh largest trading partner of the U.S. “We have so much to share with our Vietnamese colleagues, and we have so much to learn from our Vietnamese colleagues.”

Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, a Palestinian professor at San Francisco State University, spoke of the solidarity shown by Vietnam for Palestine from its victory, the heroism of the Vietnamese people and the inspiring optimism from seeing how they have rebuilt and reconstructed their society. Imperialists applied what they learned in fighting Vietnam against Algeria, Cuba and Palestine. But the peoples’ movement was the winning side and can defeat U.S. imperialism, as Vietnam did. People are working together to resist — “hegemony is not working; the system is nervous.” 

Abdulhadi called on people to refuse to normalize what is going on. She declared, “We are here for justice, we are here for humanity.”

Jae Trẩn, national coordinator of Viet Left Power, organizes working-class Viet people in the U.S. into multiracial movements where they can struggle together. They want to help Viet people understand conditions here and build solidarity and support. “Empire wants us to be afraid. … We come from a long line of resistance and resilience. … [I]f we all fight the same systems that bind us all, we can all benefit. … Solidarity is our responsibility to one another.”

Terrell Evans and Neffritte Larson from the December 12 Coalition shared messages of solidarity and inspiring quotes from Patrice Lumumba, Franz Fanon and Malcolm X.

Cultural  presentations

A beautiful, optimistic poem “Trời hửng” [“Good Days Coming”] by Ho Chi Minh was read in Vietnamese by Ngô Thanh Nhàn (Viet Left Power), with the English translation by Teline Thuỷ Tiên Trần (Mekong NYC). “After the Rain,” by John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, played in the background, illustrating the twin sources of inspiration of the movement against the Vietnam War in the U.S. — the struggles of the Vietnamese and of the African American people.

Solidarity panel

This celebration had a dual purpose — to celebrate the victory of the Vietnamese people and to provide a forum for activists from interconnected struggles to have an exchange. A solidarity panel was moderated by Juliet Ucelli who posed leading questions to five organizers who came from broad solidarity movements and whose experiences and wisdom embodied important lessons.

Cora Weiss was involved in 1969 in organizing a million people to come to Washington, D.C., to demand an end to the Vietnam War.  After the war she worked to organize Friendshipment to send essential food aid to a devastated Vietnam. Her message was that the chance was missed at that time to outlaw war altogether — this remains to be done.

JJ Johnson, as a member of the Ft Hood 3, was court martialed and jailed for resisting within the military. He spoke about the mutual influence of the anti-colonial liberation struggles in Africa and Southeast Asia and the struggles of African Americans in the U.S.

Radhamés Morales, originally from the Dominican Republic, organized for decades in New York’s Latine communities around Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Panama as well as community issues. He spoke on connections between Latin American struggles in the years after Vietnam’s victory and on the need for people to put aside their differences to work together in unity for the greater goal.

Nico Grace, a New School Gaza Encampments organizer, described lessons from the work of today’s students who are organizing solidarity encampments and other forms of support for the Palestinian struggle despite facing harsh repression from their universities.

He said, “When the younger generation starts to rise up, the ruling class gets scared.” The students are exposing the political cover the universities are giving the Israeli occupation and genocide in Gaza. An essential lesson learned from the antiwar Vietnam War movement is the necessity of maintaining revolutionary optimism and determination: despite repression, “We must continue to fight and resist.”

Teline Trẩn, works with Mekong NYC, a social justice organization active in the Viet community in the Bronx. After the end of the war in Southeast Asia, 1.3 million people from the region resettled in the U.S., mostly in lower income areas. The communities have needed to organize their own safety net to combat poor living conditions, intergenerational trauma and cultural alienation since they receive little aid from governments. Now members of the community are being subjected to anti-immigration attacks.

Cuba and Nicaragua express their solidarity

Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, Ambassador of Cuba to the United Nations, raised the solidarity Cuba gives to the world’s poorest countries and the solidarity it receives from around the world. He spoke of the unshakable bonds between Cuba and Vietnam and how Cuba has stood side by side with Vietnam showing solidarity, not just with words, but meaningful acts of support. 

Fidel Castro said, “For Vietnam, Cuba is willing to shed its own blood.” In 1973, despite the ongoing war Fidel was the first foreign leader to set foot in the liberated zones of South Vietnam. Cuba and Vietnam continue to share a common vision of a just world and today cooperate widely in agriculture, health, science, culture and diplomacy. During these 50 years of peace, Cuba and Vietnam have defended their common ideals together.

U.N. Ambassador Jaime Hermida Castillo from Nicaragua spoke about how Augusto Sandino’s guerrilla warfare tactics were studied by Ho Chi Minh. The Ambassador read a letter from Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, co-presidents of Nicaragua, declaring Nicaragua’s unwavering commitment to work together with Vietnam for peace and sustainable development.

A Vietnamese thank you

Đặng Hoàng Giang, Ambassador of Vietnam to the U.N., spoke of the remarkable progress made by Vietnam in overcoming the near total destruction resulting from “one of the longest and most brutal armed conflicts in the history of Vietnam and mankind.” He attributed their victory to the “resilient will, fervent patriotism, immense sacrifices of the Vietnamese people and the selfless support of the Soviet Union and the Socialist Bloc, but also the fruit of the global anti-war alliance and movement for national liberation. Among them were the American people, who stood for peace, democracy and social progress.” 

Today Vietnam ranks among the world’s top 20 countries in trade and foreign investment, and the people’s quality of life has vastly improved. The Ambassador raised the presence of unexploded bombs and mines as well as Agent Orange contamination that continue to kill, maim and sicken Vietnamese people.

Ambassador Đặng closed with a simple message for all who are involved in solidarity work with people’s struggles: “Thank you for standing on the side of justice when it mattered most. Thank you for not staying silent. Thank you for inspiring the belief that peace and humanity can transcend all borders.”

Paddy Colligan has represented Workers World Party in solidarity work with the Vietnamese people since their victory in 1975.