The Lessons of the Vietnam War

Teaching about the Culture of Vietnam

The following lessons are taken from the Teacher Trainer Handbook: Professional Development Workshops. The objective is to sensitive students to cultural differences. Understanding such differences gives students insights into the failure of U.S. policy in Vietnam. It also provides students with a perspective which challenges their ethnocentrism in viewing their own culture and the contemporary world.

Students will learn about Vietnamese culture (both mainland and highland), village life, language, religion, food and core values or "views of life." Special attention is paid to views concerning "love and marriage" and "veneration of ancestors."

The People

Life in Vietnam centers around the family and the village. Perhaps the best-known saying of the Vietnamese is that "the rule of the emperor stops at the village gates."

Houses are made from the graceful bamboo groves that surround the village and give shade during the hot siesta time. Thatch and palm leaves for the roof and walls come from the nearby marsh. Food is grown in the fields surrounding the village or caught in the nearby rivers and canals. Only a few necessities like salt and cotton cloth come from outside the village.

Year after year, life follows the rhythms of the seasons of planting and harvesting. The ancestors, the source of one's life, had planted and reaped on this land. Their grains stand in the rice fields and their spirits continue to watch over the family. Individual death does not mark an end. Here past and present merge; between the people and the land, the living and their ancestors, exists a natural harmony.

Traditionally, few Vietnamese traveled far beyond their own village. And few "outsiders" came into the village. The ones who did were usually tax collectors or traders-to exploit the villagers, as they learned from bitter experience.

Life in the village revolves around the growing of rice. Each family member' s role is clearly defined. The young men plow the fields at the beginning of the rainy season and young women plant the young rice shoots that have sprouted in the tiny seedbeds. As they plant, the women sing centuries-old rice-planting songs. (When labor was short during the war in the north, a slightly more efficient method of planting was developed-so new songs with a faster rhythm had to be written.) The children care for the buffalo and make sure they don't eat the rice plants. And often the children are sent to the irrigation ditches to catch a few fish for dinner. The grandparents take care of the babies. In the evening, the family gathers to preserve food and listen to the grandparents tell stories of when they were children.

At harvest time, the whole family goes to the field. The yellow stalks of rice are cut with sickles and tied into bundles. Then the bundles are brought to a hard threshing floor and beaten to knock the grain off the stalks and the grain is carefully stored in large earthenware jugs to be eaten after the hulls have been milled off at the rice mill.

Each village, enclosed behind its tall bamboo hedge, is a separate entity, with its own population, customs, even its own deity enshrined in the communal house. One's place and duties are exactly defined, even in the language. People do not address strangers with the same words they would use for a close friend, or a grandparent with the same terms as a brother or sister.

Sometimes the linguistic difference between English and Vietnamese can cause problems. The Vietnamese literal equivalent of the English word "yes" is "da" (pronounced za in northern or ya, in southern Vietnamese dialects). But in general "da" means "I hear you talking," not necessarily "I agree with you."

For Americans who try to speak Vietnamese, there is another pitfall: the tones (rising tone, treble tone, falling treble tone, falling tone, flat tone and quick stop tone). Mixing up these tones can completely change the meaning of what you are saying. An American politician decided to shout "Long live Vietnam" to a crowd of over 100,000 Vietnamese students and civil servants who had been ordered to the Saigon square to listen to him. Mr. McNamara however, mixed up the tones and pronunciation and shouted out to the laughing cheering students "the Southern Duck wants to lie down"!

Activities

1. Can you find examples in English where a little change in pronunciation will completely change the meaning?
2. English is considered a difficult language to learn for non-English speakers. Why do you think that is?
3. Read the story of the Bridge Party, chapter V in E. M. Forster' s A Passage to India, where Mrs. Turton, wife of a British official introduces Mrs. Moore, a newcomer, to a group of Indian women. How important do you think such "mistakes" are in terms of international understanding? How do you think the Indian woman felt?

Views of Life

Because of the tremendous value put on family and village ties, traditionally few people left their villages. This meant losing touch with one's family, one's past and one's ancestors. The family is the basic unit of society and everything a Vietnamese person does is seen in light of how it affects their family. Harmony in all relationships is highly valued. Education and wisdom are more important than physical prowess or bravery.

The following chart gives some examples of how most Vietnamese view life. Space is left on the right-hand side for you to summarize attitudes and life-views in the U.S. After finishing the chart, consider how differences in life-view might affect the lives of Vietnamese who now live in the U.S. How might these differences have affected how Vietnamese viewed U.S. soldiers during the war? And how did they affect how U.S. soldiers viewed the Vietnamese?

VIETNAM	UNITED STATES
Tremendous respect for grandparents, parents, older siblings and the elderly; veneration of the ancestors.
Extended family of grandparents, parents, and children often live together.
Family and community rights take precedence over individual rights. Tremendous loyalty to family and community.
Family duties take priority and may cause a person to be late or miss school or work.
Children, especially in rural areas, are highly desired and seen as economic assets and insurance against want in old age.
Parental approval extremely important in the marriage decision.
Great respect for education. A student will not contradict a teacher or look straight into the teacher' s eyes.
Humility and modesty are important qualities. Compliments given to oneself should be denied or downgraded.
Privacy is not highly valued. Several people may share the same room without conflict.
Physical expressions of affection in public between males and females are considered in very poor taste.
Harmony with nature is more important than mastering it through technology. Thus, adapting to surroundings is more important than changing the surroundings.
Interpersonal harmony is more important than "working out the problem" by confrontation. Arguments and disagreements are considered in bad taste.

Veneration of the Ancestors

Nguyen Du, 19th Century

Where are they now, those lost souls?
Somewhere they hide, maybe among the trees
Maybe along the streams or among the clouds
Maybe in the grass or in the bushes
Or they wander aimlessly by the roadside inns or under bridges
Or they seek shelter in temples and pagodas
Perhaps they haunt markets or river banks
Or the barren lands, the knolls or the bamboo groves
Misery was their lot in lifetime
In the cold their corpses are now withering
Year after year exposed to wind and rain
On the cold ground they lie, sighing at dawn,
When the cock crows, they flee
Only to grope their way again when night comes.

There is complete respect, indeed veneration, for grandparents. No one would question the wisdom of grandparents or their right to make family decisions.

When they die, the grandparents are buried near the family home. Vietnamese believe it is important to be close to the graves of their ancestors so they can tend the graves and offer prayers, food and flowers so their dead relatives can rest in peace. People who die far from home without a family to tend their graves are viewed with great pity. They become unfortunate "wandering souls."

Everyone in Vietnam, whether Catholic, Buddhist, Protestant, Cao Dai or Hoa Hao, worships their ancestors. Every home has an altar where incense is burned and offerings of food and flowers are placed beside the photographs or name-stories of deceased grandparents.

The majority of Vietnamese have traditionally been Buddhist (in socialist Vietnam, religion is now de-emphasized). About 10 percent of the people are Catholic (during the war, religion became a major issue since the small Catholic minority almost completely controlled the Saigon government). Two other religions which are found only in Vietnam are important off-shoots of Buddhism. These are the Cao Dai who worship not only Buddha, but also Confucius, Jesus and even Victor Hugo (because of his compassion for the unfortunate) and the Hoa Hao, a Buddhist sect which is found in the far south of Vietnam.

Worship of ancestors is perhaps the oldest of religions. Closely related is Confucianism, which stresses obedience to parents. Confucius taught that one should be loyal to the king, to one's parents, to one's spouse, and righteous toward all. No one in a Vietnamese family would dare to offend or provoke the ancestors. In traditional Vietnam, the ancestors' tombs are cared for by the descendants who try by all means to remain in their native villages generation after generation. In their homes, the ancestors' altars occupy the place of honor. Weddings and New Year's celebrations are performed in front of the altar. Because the ancestors are ever-present among the descendants, they are consulted on any major matter by prayer and they give advice via dreams.

Activities

1. Using an encyclopedia or a book on world religions, fill in the following chart with information on the world's major religions (feel free to add other religions). What traits seem to be common to all these religions? What are the differences?
2. Create an altar with photos of grandparents, incense sticks, fruit and flowers in your classroom. Ask a student whose ancestors came from Vietnam or China for suggestions.

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