Mastodawn

#Revolutionaries behind the 1908 Hanoi Poison Plot detained at the Hoa Lo Prison by the French colonists in 1941.

13 of them had their heads chopped off instantly and displayed in public. The French later used the photo for an #Indochina #propaganda postcard.

Whilst the second world war was raging across the world, in Vietnam the #VietMinh #Liberation Movement, led by famed revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, was taking birth. #HoChiMinh had one dream. An independent Vietnam free of foreign rule.

The first year after the war had Japan, and then Britain keen to get their hands on Vietnam. But they were soon replaced by Vietnam’s old colonial rulers: the French.

For nine long years, thereafter, from 1946 to 1954 the First Indochina War ripped across the country. Spilling blood, lives, and peace. On one side were the French. More adamant to stay. More aggressive in their rule. They were helped by the US who provided advisers, funding, and weapons from behind the scenes.
Anti-communist Vietnamese loyalists aided the French rulers’ legitimacy. On the other side was Ho Chi Minh and his revolutionaries.

Things eventually came to a head in 1954 with the Geneva Conference and creation of the 17th Parallel, a Demilitarized Zone [DMZ] on 17 degrees latitude north.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #historicalPhotos

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

#Vietnam fought a very long time for #freedom & #sovereignty from #ForeignOccupation / #ForeignRule / #ForeignPuppets.

#ForeignInvaders created strong lines of #Vietnamese #revolutionaries.

Long live Vietnam 🇻🇳 🙏

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

The #UN failed our peoples in Vietnam - just like they've failed everywhere else because the UN protects capitalist imperial interests over #sovereignty of nations & it's never really had much enforcement teeth.

One of the outcomes of the DMZ was Ngo Dinh Diem’s regime in South Vietnam. Prime Minister of South Vietnam when the DMZ was drawn, in 1955 he proclaimed the country Republic of Vietnam and made himself its President. All with the help of the USA.

The latter’s intelligence had revealed 80 percent of Vietnamese were in favour of Ho Chi Minh. Which translated to a communist regime should General Elections take place. Pro-US, autocratic, Catholic, and anti-Buddhist, Diem ensured the UN-mandated elections never happened.

He also liked the good life. His Independence Palace in #Saigon came with a night-club and private helipad on the top floor, and bunkers deep in the bowels of the earth under the building.

Meanwhile, a stratum of Vietnamese society who were unhappy with Diem’s rule, and were pro-Ho Chi Minh, decided to go underground in 1961. Literally. Known as the #NationalLiberationFront, the guerilla force functioned from subterranean tunnels and jungle cover. They were determined to overthrow South Vietnam’s Diem government and unify Vietnam under #communism. The US called them #VietCong.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #GenevaAccords #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #Guerillas #VietnamLiberation #USpol

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

The Pro-US, autocratic, Catholic, and anti-Buddhist, traitor Diem who stopped the UN-mandated elections was responsible for violent crackdowns on Buddhists & had military attack temples, arrest/beat/kill monks & raid/target supporters of Buddhism.

Our family was targeted multiple times. My patriarch Grandpa owned the largest incense factory in Saigon & donated a lot of supplies to temples. Our family's house/compound was beside factory. Diem’s domestic terrorists raided factory & our family's home multiple times during Diem’s evil regime rule. My Grandpa was beaten several times by his thugs.

Diem’s hatred & targeting of Buddhists led to monks protesting with self immolations in public. The world saw images of some of those desperate protests. Our peoples were trying to get the world to see & understand what was happening in Vietnam. The grave injustices & the atrocious treatment by an evil foreign puppet.

Diem was a capitalist colonial puppet/traitor to Vietnam. He was hated by almost everyone in Vietnam back then.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolution #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #geopolitics #USPuppet #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #BuddhistCrackdown #SaigonSurvivors

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

Some folks don't understand why I had no faith in UN helping Palestinians or Lebanese or Syrians stop the terrorism by Israel invaders. The above is why. If Vietnam had waited for UN to do the right thing - I'd likely had never been born because my family would have all been slaughtered. I support resistance fighters/revolutionaries who fight for liberation & sovereignty of their peoples. Those are the brave warriors who fought so people like my family could live.

Maybe more folks will start to understand why war survivors of foreign occupation/invaders do not trust/have faith in the UN.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #GenevaAccords #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #Guerillas #VietnamLiberation #UselessUN

@PhoenixSerenity yup, governments only do good things because of outside pressure

otherwise they consolidate wealth and power at the top of society

many civil rights leaders are forgotten to history, though we live in the fruits of their victories

history records some rich white guy who was pissing his pants at the time

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@normjess Yeah. BS 'peace talks' - while bombs are dropping.

@PhoenixSerenity "COP20 exists to pacify the masses not change the actions of the rich"

11 year old quote, I forget who said it, but still relevant

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@normjess It's whitewashed/greenwashed global trade show & it has not stopped rampant ecocide. Total farce.

Neil Moffatt Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity @normjess As I have said elsewhere the faux 'Board of peace' contained a typo : 'Bored of peace' ...

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@NicelyManifest @normjess Yes. Trump forgot the comma. No, more war. -> is what he meant.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

Xa Loi Pagoda in #Saigon was a hub of opposition to the Diem #USPuppet government. In 1963, Diem had his domestic terrorists attack the monastery. They arrested 1,400 monks, nuns & patriarch.

In 1963, faced with a coup, Diem tried to escape from the tunnels under one of his houses [now the Ho Chi Minh City Museum] to the perceived safety of Cha Tam Church in Cholon. Here he was captured and assassinated.

The #coup was staged by the #USA, the same USA who had brought him to power.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #GenevaAccords #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #Guerillas #VietnamLiberation #BuddhistCrackdown #Buddhists

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

#USInvaders were guided by the #DominoTheory - if Vietnam fell to communism, so would Laos, Cambodia & all of southeast Asia. The Gulf of #Tonkin changed things a lot.

According to the USA, Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the USS Maddox moored in the Gulf. Immediately, a resolution was passed to officially engage in war. President LB Johnson, the ‘heart of the war,’ sent 500,000 US troops to South Vietnam in 1965 to fight against North Vietnam in the north and the Viet Cong in the south. He called it Operation Rolling Thunder. The campaign would rain 864,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam over the next three-and-a-half years, killing 52,000 North Vietnamese.

In the 2003 #documentary - #TheFogOfWar - the #USgovernment admitted that they had fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism #USALies #NeverTrustUSA #Communism

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

The US never learned from its past mistakes in South East Asia. It's using same #DominoTheory in their attacks on #MiddleEast under false guise of stopping the #Muslim threat from spreading.
They're still fabricating attacks & using propaganda to try to fool people.

Do not buy more lies from #TerroristUSA.

#USpol #geopolitics #BoycottUSA #SanctionUSA #USWarCrimes #TootSEA #ASEAN #SouthEastAsia #WarSurvivorsForPeace #StopWar

Brother Soul Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity Agreed!!

Brother

Dr. Eric J. Fielding, PhD Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity The Trump administration is not even lying with any consistency about the Iran War. The Secretary of “War” is celebrating violence as a goal

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@EricFielding Yup. Decades of no accountability for past international war crimes & now having a mask off fascist PedorapistPOTUS certainly helps accelerate US warmongering madness.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

My big Auntie lived/worked in the tunnels for years, after quitting her nursing job & leaving our family for a decade. She worked mainly in the resistance army comms & also on their medical team. She was part of the organizational team that planned the #TetOffensive

North Vietnam & Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive in 1968 took South Vietnamese & #USATerrorists by surprise. Launched on Vietnam’s lunar new year holiday, it was one of the biggest military campaigns in the war.

Cu Chi Tunnels near Saigon was integral. The 121-kilometre-long network of subterranean tunnels, a larger network that cut across most of Vietnam, were Viet Cong’s lifeline.

Hidden under camouflaged booby traps, the tunnels provided our resistance fighters with supply/comms routes, living quarters & storage for food/weapons. Air and water were scarce, insects, scorpions, and rodents aplenty, it didn't deter them.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

So, excuse me if I don't feel much sympathy for folks in Western places who invade Global South to terrorize POC in our homelands & deployed for shorter than a decade, with visits home/back with family & able to receive care packages from home. Those of us who were under siege by foreign Western invaders never got to see/talk to some our family members for over a decade. Many of us had to bury many family & friends murdered by your terrorist invaders. Some of us weren't even able to bury all of our loved ones because their bodies were blown to smithereens by your government’s terrorist invaders.

Refuse to fight dirty illegal wars on foreign sovereign lands. You have a choice to not serve your terrorist governments. People you terrorize, don't forget.

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

@PhoenixSerenity the obvious metaphor is apparent and one that is never learnt xxx

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

Of all the illegal, never tested before on humans weaponry used by the US, the deadliest was #AgentOrange. It's a #toxic chemical herbicide/defoliant. #USTerrorists called their AOcampaign 1962-1971, #OperationRanchHand. Their purpose was to clear Vietnam’s forest cover & farms which hid/fed #VietCong resistance forces.

80 million litres were sprayed over 26,000 villages across 3.06 million hectares. Operation Ranch Hand not only defoliated vegetation & crops, but pushed numerous animal species to extinction & caused skin rashes, cancer & birth-defects down multiple generations(we're in our 4th generation of victims) in Vietnamese/Laotian/Cambodian peoples - all were exposed to the toxic sprays.

The US told their own military, who were foolish enough to trust their criminal government, that AO was safe to handle. Many US military personnel still live with lifelong effects from handling/being in close contact with AO. Unlike us, the civilian invasion survivors - US military people actually got help. We were ignored, repeatedly by the evil US government. The US government kept telling us there's no proof that their use of Agent Orange had serious bad human effects. Yet, they admitted it had effect on their military personnel. We aren't humans to US government then, nor now. They're still denying AO effects on Vietnamese folks & never paid reparations for it!

This is only part of what #TerroristUSA did to our peoples!

Evil USA used us as a fucking war munitions lab. The exact same way Zionazis used Gaza as a testing lab.

WAKE THE FUCK UP. USA NEVER STOPPED TERRORISM WAR CRIMES!

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

Agent Orange after effects are still killing & disabling my matriarch family in Vietnam to this day. I do not fucking forgive #TerroristUSA. They are not sorry for the war crimes on our peoples.

Court Cantrell does not comply Mar 9

@PhoenixSerenity For what it's worth (not much, I know), I am sorry. This nation is atrociously guilty, and I hate what has been done and continues to be done in the name of all of us who want this terror to end. I am so deeply sorry.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

@courtcan I am thankful for US folks who are against more military shit & against their government disrespecting sovereignty of other nations. I am thankful for US folks who don't put military up on pedestals too.

Conmeobietbay Mar 9

@PhoenixSerenity
Sadly, too many Vietnamese people are too eager to forgive. The prevalent attititude is utter apathy and a smug kind of nationalism for the peace we're enjoying after victories against imperial powers. At worst, a non-insignificant portion of the population want to enrich themselves and their nations by employing unconditional economic and military cooperation with Israel and US despite all of these atrocities commited by them. Nationalism is a curse.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

@wanderingmeomeo Many Vietnamese still in Vietnam will fake forgiveness for business purposes.

I'm not built to fake shit very well for too long. I'm also not a capitalist willing to sell my soul for more bucks.

Plus - young Viets weren't affected much & they don't want to learn more about how their parents survived to give birth to them. It is a darn shame.

Conmeobietbay Mar 9

@PhoenixSerenity
Dont get me wrong though, there has been a resurgence of anti-imperial leftism among young people, especially in feminists and LGBT communities. They are far from mainstream, sadly.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

@wanderingmeomeo I'm aware - it's happening here too. I speak out to their ignorant less life experienced faces.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

My Mom lost 9 family members in one week after a massive #AgentOrange spray attack over our matriarch village.

I will challenge every single person in US who still thinks their soldiers in Vietnam were ever heroes. They are ALL terrorist invaders to people like me/my family. They never should have been in Vietnam at all!

How many of you US military family folks have ever buried 9 family members killed by foreign invaders in a single week?

#AsianMastodon #Vietnam #VietnameseSovereignty #VietnamRevolutionaries #LongLiveVietnam #WarSurvivorsForPeace #VietnamHistory #ForeignInvaders #VietnamRevolution #geopolitics #WWII #GlobalSouth #SouthEastAsia #ASEAN #WorldHistory #LearnHistory #Courage #ResistanceFighters #USpol #USTerrorism

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

I won't even get started on the stillborn babies & deformed kids in our village. I want US folks to start fully absorbing what your government did to our peoples & stop telling us you have military heroes. What your government/your terrorists did to my family was not heroic. It was pure TERRORISM

Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝Mar 9

@PhoenixSerenity

It's what the US has done in every historical era, going all the way back to the smallpox-infected blankets before the US even was a nation-state.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 9

@richpuchalsky I know. Too well. I need more US citizens to stop fucking putting ANY military on pedestals..to start!

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity wow. Thank you for sharing about your auntie. My father was only a high school student and was in Sài Gòn at the time. He was out celebrating when the Tet offensive began. He said he heard some gunfire and then quickly went home and didn't really witness anything else other than that.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh I think in light of US recent warmongering actions, it's important to share the similarities with US terrorist invasion on Vietnam. People are forced into resistance due to US terrorism & no respect for sovereignty of other nations.

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity No doubt. And quite frankly, the US got away with so much in Vietnam. It's quite shocking how little people know about those crimes.

And all of our lives in the Asian diaspora are still affected by it 50 years later.

Its quite frustrating and anger inducing to see how the US is still doing this war loop. And they get away with it.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh The US did a lot of propaganda & US citizens are easily fooled by Hollywood media. That & racism played huge parts in their collective ignorance. It's not much different with Canadians or other Western nations, in terms of buying US propaganda BS.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh My Dad, Mom & big Auntie shared a lot about their experiences with me. Dad was a university grad student activist organizer. He was beaten & arrested multiple times by USpuppet domestic terrorists for protesting & organizing direct actions. He was freed from jail by Viet Cong resistance in 1971.

I am definitely my Father's daughter. The revolutionary genes are strong in my family.

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity Those must be some amazing stories. I have great respect for them. They are heroes.

I guess my dad was on the "other side." He was conscripted into the war for the South Vietnamese side. Later he was put through re-education camp after the war and fled shortly after and ended up in Canada. Which is where I was born.

While me and him have had our differences, we can both agree that the US should have never entered Vietnam.

And they should stop doing this kind of thing.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh I've forgiven most Viet folks who were on "the other side". Some of them have long repented.

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity That is good to hear. I think it's important.

My father only served 1 year since it was near the end of the war. So he actually is pretty open minded compared to his peers.

He grew up in central Vietnam where the fighting began. And he there was a river that divided his village essentially. And on the south side it said "Fight for freedom & democracy".

And the north side said "Nam Bắc Một Nhà." North South One House. And he always felt that was a much more powerful message.

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity My dad's father was a general for the South. But his brothers... So my grand uncles all served in the north.

So I guess my family roots have a foot in both sides.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh My grand-Uncle was born in Hanoi. He was in the North fighting for 9 years. He was one of the last to emerge from hiding out in the wilds because he didn't know when the war actually ended.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh Mom just reminded me that my Uncle Kieng had refused conscription & was put in prison for awhile (she doesn't remember for how long). She remembers supporting his wife/my Aunt & their kids/my cousins while he was imprisoned.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh
I don't really hold much ire towards folks who have seen through fog of war. Even the brightest person can be fooled at times.

I know that several Viets who were conscripted actually left their ranks in midst of war & joined Viet Cong.

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity Yeah. In the end, we are all victims of the same colonial power and there is so much pain on both sides.

So it's very frustrating to see what the US is doing today. It will take 50-100 years to undo any of it. Those scars are deep.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh I'm grateful that in 2026 - most US citizens have woken up & aren't easily buying into their government’s lies. It's something.

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity

In case anyone forgot what the US did to us in our old neighbourhood. Sigh.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@mintiefresh Please add this AltText (below) & I'll boost your post after you edit ✌️

Map of Southeast Asia showing the distribution of ordnance and bomb types in Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia, with dots representing bomb strikes. Coloured according to the type: 500 LB Gen Purp Bomb MK-82 Low Drag, 750 LB General Purpose Bomb, 1000 LB GPB M-65 A-1 & M129 Bomb. The map is overlaid on a political map of the region & includes legend, scale, compass rose and data sources.

mintiefresh 🇨🇦🇻🇳Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity Thank you. I've added it. 👍

🔶Mark Nicoll 3.5%🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳Mar 9

@mintiefresh @[email protected]
Why do I get the feeling those triangles over the sea are patches of more acurate data, not more intensive bombing!

cognitively accessible math Mar 8

@PhoenixSerenity And today unlike when I was younger, those aren't just words. The scorpions are real.

Ms. Que Banh Mar 8

@geonz Hopefully this thread - which I still am going to add more info on - will help more folks understand the mindsets of resistance forces, what they had to do to fight for our freedom/sovereignty from foreign invading devils & understand why people like me are built like we are. Not a single person joined resistance because they love violence/want to go to war. It was because of foreign invaders' terrorism & zero respect for our sovereignty. The invading terrorists created resistance forces.

@PhoenixSerenity @geonz I’ve tried a couple of times to make a coherent response to this and failed, so I’m just gonna thank you for posting this!

@PhoenixSerenity When and how were the tunnels built? That looks like solid rock in the photo? How did people find their way through them? How were they kept drained of water?

I know the Americans had "tunnel rat" units in an effort to clear the tunnels but I don't think they got too far.

Ms. Que Banh 3d ago

@mike805 They were hand-dug by shovels, hands & pure determination. The full system took over a decade to build. They had water systems with hoses & filtration units inside. The tunnels systems infrastructure alone would fill up more documentary films - many other resistance forces ended up learned from Vietnamese resistance army tunnel systems.

@PhoenixSerenity Including Hamas apparently. They have extensive tunnels which the Israelis have had great difficulty dealing with. They also run phone wires through the tunnels, and such communications cannot be intercepted from above due to the shielding effect of the ground.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@mike805 Yes, HAMAs & well over 200 other resistance armies around the globe. None of these resistance armies would exist if US wasn't terrorizing the globe since inception with impunity. Invader terrorists create the need for resistance armies. I can tell you for a fact that my big Auntie would've preferred to keep her ICU nurse job & be with her family, if we didn't face foreign invasion & foreign puppeteers. She's one of millions of Vietnamese who only joined resistance armies because we were being invaded & terrorized by more foreigners.

Ms. Que Banh 2d ago

@mike805 My big Auntie was in charge of a lot of VC comms. They used stolen wires from captured US terrorists after taking over their temporary bases. They got more wires from Russian allies at the time. My big Auntie learned to train some rats to carry wires through tightest areas by food enticement. It was the first time that rats were used in tactical defense work & to this day, no one has ever documented that portion of the war years.

@PhoenixSerenity Sounds like there is a movie to be made about that. There was a network wiring crew that had a trained rat to pull string through walls so they could pull wire. Neat idea.

You ought to record or write down her memoirs if she is alive.

The colonial apparatus built up by the British moved to the USA after WW1. It's the same beast, and the financial headquarters is still in London.

Nobody has figured out how to slay that monster yet.

@PhoenixSerenity There has been great progress in the 20th and 21st century in defeating colonialism and foreign occupation.

There has not been similar progress in defeating internal repression. Freedom-loving people do not have a repeatable process to remove a bad domestic government, so a lot of countries that successfully threw out colonizers are stuck with repressive domestic governments.

That part needs to be figured out.