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What do Vietnamese citizen think about Vietnamese American?

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This question is for Vietnamese citizens but I see a lot of non-Vietnamese citizen ideas. And lot of controversy. This proves how they are divided.

I would like to give my 2c view here. It’s different than the other ones. You cannot see a communist reference or conspiracy theory in my post. All the texts I write next are verifiable. Then if you see that my post is not what you know before, please do not blame me. Blame life.

I will write 2 parts. One to reply to the question. And the second is for some points in other answers that I think we need to discuss:

My answer to the question

There are about 2.2m Vietnamese American ( Vietnamese Americans - Wikipedia ). It is like any other society, with many success and failures. In this domain, there’s nothing special to talk about.

Special things are:

1.a. A big silent mass

VA do not participate a lot in the US main political stream. There were only 3 state senators.

But some of the thousands of people created VA private political environments. Almost of them were ex-RVN staff or soldiers and their descendants. Sometimes I saw some clips of VA protest against Vietnamese gov. or some figure(s) that “make benefits for the communist”, I could count from dozens to hundreds of people. In the whole US, we can count then a few thousands.

And the rest, the absolute majority simply seems do not care about the VA political environment.

1.b . the active minority is extremely divided

This political environment attracts me a lot. It is extremely divided, not like in a democracy life but rather in a war time. The divided parts, even they are all in communist exile, accuse each other the hand of communist??? Some local communities have 2 or 3 “representative councils”. I know they have actually 3 “governments” with PR, PM, Ministers… without any other staff in VA community.

And they all shout out that they’ll regroup to fight for freedom for VN. I am really afraid when I imagine my VN had such a number of governments.

1.c. The active minority has a bad notion of democracy and history

Like I already wrote in 1.b, they attack each other and insult each other in extreme. I saw many political debates in the US but I never saw any accusation of one person to another as the worst enemy of the US, like the Nazis for example. But many active VA minorities accuse each other as the communist hand.

And many of them cannot accept the real-life events but live with the propaganda.

For example, the Geneva Agreement clearly said in the 6th annex that the 17th parallel would never be a nation border ( https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/KH-LA-VN_540720_GenevaAgreements.pdf , page 41). But many of them said that VN was divided into DRV and RVN “by Geneva accord” .

Or, the POTUS Eisenhower wrote that 80% of VNese would vote for HCM in the unification referendum in 1956 ( Eisenhower's Views on the Popularity of Ho Chi Minh ). Following this estimation, If we suppose that 100% NVNese people supported HCM (never), at least 60% of SVNese people would in the same line. In another word, the majority of SVNese supported communist force. So, by democratic rule, (majority of) SVNese people chose communist. But they, the politic active VA (and many anti-communist) still said that SVN did not.

Also, with its minority, the cancellation of the reunification referendum in 1956 showed that RVN was not a democracy at all like they announced.

In brief. The VA community in general is just like many others. Some people in that community, even living in the most democratic nation of the world in at least 45 years, do not have the correct notion of democracy and history.

2. About other answers saying the VC committed huge amounts of torture, rape…

Do you really know who were the VC, where was their zone of activity, how was the population structure of that zone and how could they hide from RVN/US hunter?

The VC were local farmers who took arms against the US/RVN alliance. Here is what Pentagon Papers said about VC ( The Pentagon Papers, Chapter 5, "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954-1960" )

In 1957 and 1958, a structured rebellion against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem began. While the North Vietnamese played an ill-defined part, most of those who took up arms were South Vietnamese , and the causes for which they fought were by no means contrived in North Vietnam

Their zones of activity were their village. And almost all of the village people were their relatives or their majority supporter as the POTUS Eisenhower once said. Then they were covered by those people.

How could they rape those people?

Maybe some collateral damage happened but considering the VC like the RVN army is totally absurd.

I regularly talk now with an ex-RVN captain who was in SRV reeducation camp for more than 5 years. No torture at all in his camp. And my neighbor surely does not get any favor from me if he lied then I really believe in him more than someone said VC tortured to some American. Sorry about that.

Another famous evidence for SRV forced labor camps no-torture is the case of Doctor Tran Dong A, a lieutenant major of RVN Airborne Division, one of two most hatred divisions of RVN beside the Marine because of their brutality. He had to stay 2 years in camps then tried to become a boat people right after he went out the camps. But he was arrested, released immediately.

Then he stayed. Even later, he officially participated in many international conferences abroad and received a lot of invitations to stay abroad, he chose to return to VN. He said “ the kids (VNese) need me ”. He even became a SRV congress man and communist party member. If he really had or eye witnessed the regime brutality in camps, I am sure that he did not do what he did - stay and success, gets respect from the whole inland VNese.

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I’m a vietnamese american (viet kieu) and from my perspective, the more older people that were around during the war have a lot of respect for vietnamese americans while younger vietnamese people don’t seem to care about that.

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I do not want to make this question harsh or intense. Hence, I will try to answer it without mentioning too much about War and other related issues.

First, we think you (Vietnamese American) are rich

When I was a little boy, I saw my friend’s family receive money sent from a relative in USA. I had never seen dollar before and my mum told me this sum was a lot, like a fortune.

Second, we think you are the most hard-working people I have ever known

It might be true of half-true, like I know how hard-working you are to survive (I have to say “survive” for first generation of Vietnamese immigrants to US) in America. I know some of you have to work 2–3 jobs to make end meet and support kids to go to school. You accept everything, jump into any chances to stay there and strive for a good life. I do not think many of them carried on an American dream when landing here, but America was their only choice. Working hard or you get nothing. I admire you for that, no matter what is the driving force behind.

Third, the 2nd generation is good-looking/pretty

Well, honestly I am really attracted by Asian American and Vietnamese American (I mean the 2nd generation, born and raised in US) in particular. The combination of Asian beauty with western style and bodies well-built up. They look totally attractive when it comes to appearance.

Forth, probably most of them do not like Vietnam

It is sad but probably true, at least to many cases I know. No one wants to leave their homeland and there must be a reason for it. My friend studying in USA told me that when they wanted to throw a party for the victory of U23 Vietnam, they were threatened by a group of Vietnamese American who did not allow them to hang the national flag.

It is purely sad because we don’t know who is accountable for these problems. They have their reasons, we have our own reasons and sometimes it is hard to reconcile.

But anyway, time will heal anything, I guess.

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They are the only people in the world who hate their country, their people, always speak badly of everything connected to Vietnam . Listen to Mr. Nguyen Cao Ky, the former Prime Minister of the South Vietnam government talking about them: these are clown.See it on video

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Vietnamese American in the eyes of people living in Vietnam:

- They are rich (In fact, most Vietnamese in the US live well, their income is many times higher than that of Vietnam, of course, but with the living space in the US it is normal)

- They are civilized and good (In fact, the contribution of the Vietnamese community to American society is very small, there are few great intellectuals in the fields of science and economics)

- Nail career is rich (In fact, nail is a service profession, if there is no job, there will be no income, if you want to be rich, you must have many nail shops)

- Have a very high democratic spirit (In fact, in some community groups, Vietnamese American are willing and punished when having opinions contrary to the opinion of the group leader or leader)

- Viet Kieu people are very confident and strong (In fact, Asians are the most stigmatized group in the US, and Vietnamese people have a saying "One thing is tolerated, nine good things" thus deepening this stigma)

- There are some very strong anti-Communists (actually most of them are old)

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I am Vietnamese citizen, born and grow up in the north. To me, I don’t really like to make friend and also try to not talk too much to Vietnamese Americans, due to some following reasons:

I think that most of V-A are from Republic of Vietnam, and they hate Vietnamese communist. I am not a communist and also dislike the communist party, but all my family members are communist and still be fooled by the party. In my point of view, I’m always afraid that I’d talk to some one bias and they probably call me Cộng con - son of communist - which makes me offensive, just by hearing my northern accent.

Many of their ancestors were boatpeople. And I never ever wanted to put me in an awkward situation to discuss about that. To me all those things were a disaster that Vietnamese government try to hide. I don’t want to face to it, not because I also want to hide it, but because it makes me ashamed by not being able to reveal it to every other Vietnamese.

They are normally stranger. I’d be open to make friend with any one if I have chance to. But to be open to anyone I don’t know just because their ancestors were Vietnamese is quite ridiculous. They are, to me, Americans, as all other Americans, with Vietnamese surname.

I don’t want to discriminate, yet the word Vietnamese-American (or Vietnamese-French or any other country) at the first sight would make me feel a little ashamed and uncomfortable. So I’d never begin a talk to any unless it is necessary or it is begun by the other.

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