Can the people of Vietnam and those of the diaspora patch things up?

VIETNAM is triumphantly celebrating the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and reunification of Vietnam (1975 to 2025) all through this year. But the event is remembered with deep anguish by the South Vietnamese diaspora scattered in Little Saigons across the globe.

The government of Vietnam describes reunification joyfully as the “Liberation of South Vietnam”, made possible after a long and hard-fought victory against the military power of the United States and its ally, the Republic of Vietnam (RVN). At the same time, many Vietnamese living outside their home country have stayed loyal to the former RVN, a state that now exists only in memory, and they remember the reunification with disappointment. The event stirs recollections of gain and loss, happiness and hopelessness, and forgiveness and resentment, and even an extraordinary partial apology from an American wartime leader.

For small countries, the moment of reunification carries a timely warning to develop self-reliance and not fall into a dependency trap like the RVN did. While the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) relied heavily on its Communist allies for crucial military and economic aid, it remained independent by preventing either Moscow or Beijing from imposing their foreign policy agenda. But it was quite a different approach that was adopted in the South. The RVN depended entirely on the United States for its survival. It was unthinkable to many South Vietnamese that their staunch ally would suspend aid (which it did in March 1973), and withdraw its military forces. Some Southerners called it a betrayal.