Beginning in 1960 I went all around South Vietnam making 1/25000 military maps for the U.S. and I have witnessed many times the so-called Communist terrorist activities. They did not strangle "children and women in the heart of the nights" as President Johnson would like to think, but only murdered people very selectively. Douglas Pike, a USIS employee, has a detailed description of the way they carry out the murder in his book Viet Cong (pp. 247-250), so I will not go into that here. What I am concerned with now is the fact that the Viet Cong follow the Vietnamese principles even in this repugnant activity; for this reason they gain positive support of many people.
Traditionally, the Vietnamese authority forms a structure in which the Emperor (Hoang De) sits on top. He was the Son of Heaven (Thien Tu) who carried with him the "mandate of heaven" (Thien Mang) and was the supreme agent of the emperor of Heaven and Earth (Thueng De). For this reason he declared himself responsible for all the misfortunes afflicting his nation, whether they be war, famine, or any other catastrophe, since these are "thien tai" (disasters from heaven). At such a time he had to pacify the "anger from the palace of heaven" (tran loi dinh) by confessing his unworthiness in edicts, sacrificing in solemn ceremony, ordering fasting for his court, etc. . . . Under the emperor, we see the mandarins who had to see to it that "all under heaven" (thien ha) were to live in peace and prosperity. In fact they were known as "phu mau chi dan" (parents of the people) besides being administrators, judges, and educators.
At the bottom, most interesting and most significant of all, were the scholars. They were again divided into two groups: the "nho si" and the "dung si," which mean students who concentrated on Chinese Classics and students who concentrated on "bravery" (fencing, etc. . . .). These scholars worked together to protect the people from arbitrary court magistrates and from arbitrary court magistrates and from the court. They were elected by the local people to help them to safeguard the tradition of "luat vua thua lang" (the laws of the king are inferior to the customs of the villages).
The mandarins and the court magistrates were mostly chosen through an examination system in which the candidates competed at three main levels. After the local examinations, successful candidates would be allowed to take the district examination, the regional examination, and the palace examination respectively. Candidates who passed all the exams would be called the tien si and would be appointed as high magistrates or court mandarins. Those who passed the exams on the lower levels would be appointed to less important jobs. There were many successful candidates who, instead of working for the court, went back to their respective villages and towns and formed an informal local elite group. This latter group was very important in that while it represented the local people and the communities in dealing with the court, it also helped the court to reach the people. Since the court realized that the "laws of the king were inferior to the customs of the villages," the wisest thing for it to do in order not to have its "mandate from Heaven" revoked was to use these scholars who could usually effectively adapt the requirements of the court to the traditions of the villages.
When the mandarins or the magistrates maneuvered themselves into
The U.S., in building houses [for uprooted Vietnamese], arouses more resentment than gratitude. Why should the people be thankful when their ancestors' land and houses are destroyed and burnt up, and they are forced to "stretch out their hands and beg" their very enemies? powerful positions and became arbitrary, the "dung si" would murder them in order to protect the people.
Diem destroyed this 500-year-old tradition of democratic election of village chiefs. He began making local appointments from Saigon, and the appointees--many of them outsiders who did not know the customs of the villages -- were therefore met with open hostility by the villagers. The successive regimes after him followed suit: village chiefs are sent out from the School of Administration in Saigon and other places and they are required to carry out such laws as law 004/65 of May 17, 1965 which demands jailing, death sentences, etc. "to all moves which weaken the rational anti-communist effort.... All plots of actions under the name of peace and neutrality." These village chiefs therefore are bound to get into conflict with the local people, and the Viet Cong would come along and carry out the traditional role of the "dung si" or what many Americans call "terrorism," and get the ppeole's support.
We have seen one of the many so-called "evil" doings of the Viet Cong. Let us examine in turn some of the "good" doing of the American side. Let us suppose that in military operations such as Cedar Falls, the "allied forces" take every civilian out of his or her village safely, raze the village down as they did since it may be Viet Cong headquarter, then provide a nice modern house for each inhabitant along with all sorts of American "goodies" after the operation. Let us assume that if all this were true then what will the Vietnamese think of it?
It is the tradition of the country that the people should never forgive those who "dem voi ve day ma to" (take the elephants back to stamp out the grave-yards of the ancestors). Figuratively, it means that they should never forgive those who invite foreigners back to destroy their fatherland (in Vietnamese it is called dat to, which means the land of the ancestors). (This is the reason why the Vietnamese have sacrificed almost anything to repulse foreign invaders from Vietnam: the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, and hopefully "you-know-who" someday. Especially it is clear to many who the foreign invaders are in the present conflict!).
Since most of the Vietnamese are ancestor-worshippers, whether they are Buddhists, Confucians, or Christians, they also take the above tradition literally. Once the grave-yards of their ancestors are destroyed, they would do anything to "revenge for the souls of the dead" or otherwise they and all their children after them will not be able to "raise their heads" (khong co the cat dau cat eo noi) which means that they will not be able to get anything anywhere in life. In fact, in the past, the destruction of another person's ancestral grave-yard was a capital crime. Now the one insult the Vietnamese find it hard to tolerate is any slighting remark to their parents and ancestors. Thus it is not strange that many would fight till death because of this.
In Vietnam there is also the custom of "banh ech di, banh quy lai" (If someone gives you a cookie, give him back a pudding). The Vietnamese are very proud, they do not want to be mendicants. The worst insult one could give a Vietnamese is to call him a beggar (do an may !). Even beggars themselves do not like to be called "beggar" as such. The U.S., in building houses such as we have described, arouses more resentment than gratitude. Why should the people be thankful when their ancestors' land and houses are destroyed and burnt up, and they are forced to "ngua tay an xin" (stretch out their hands open and beg) their very enemies? Almost every Vietnamese knows by heart a folk-song which means:
This house, this house is ours
Our ancestors have built it with much hardship
We must take care of it and keep it
For ten thousand years, along with our country.
I think you know much more than I do about what the Vietnamese call the "ban cung hoa de tri" (impoverish [the