Biggest protest since 1954 over Hanoi old nunciature demolition

Viet Catholic News Agency ^ | 22/09/2008 | VietCatholic News

[ThanhPhero]

In what is believed to be the biggest public protest since 1954, over 10,000 people have gathered in Hanoi to protest the demolition by the Vietnamese government...

[ThanhPhero]

This is actually a good sign. They will probably lose this one but the government will be hesitant to do something like this again. The next one will be at least slower in coming. The government wants to get its way and at the same time doesn't want to disturb the USA too much. The US ambassador is surely very busy right now.

[ThanhPhero]

ping

[livius]

Very interesting. What made the government attempt to do this? I hadn’t heard of this and don’t know the background.

It’s great, in any case, that the Catholics of Vietnam are willing to show up and make themselves heard.

[Oratam]

Once again, Vietnamese Catholics are voting with their feet . . . well, sort of.

[Harold Shea]

I started to say something rough,glad I
didn`t

Best wishes and prayers

[visualops]

Thank you very much for the ping

[ThanhPhero]

It has been going on for the better part of a year. At one point the government backed off and said it was “studying the matter and there were no more massive demonstrations. Some thought the government would relent. When the heavy equipment showed up to begin the takedown the crowds showed up within the hour for the first ones.

[Yardstick]

Well, I used to work with a Vietnamese grad student and I wonder what he thinks of this. You want to talk about a guy who liked America. He was the most pro-American of all the foreign grad students by far. Well, maybe not by far when compared to the Indian students, but definitely by far when compared to, say, the Chinese.

When I first met him I had a near buzz haircut and was wearing a shirt with a big NAVY logo across the back. I was about 27 and had gone back to school to finish my EE degree, and he mistook me for ex military. Even after he realized I wasn't, for whatever reason he still saw me as kind of a military guy. Maybe Vietnamese have a default association between American guys of a certain age and the image of American soldiers.

Whatever the case, he definitely didn't hold my ersatz militariness against me. In fact I always had the impression that it elevated me in his judgement. In fact I would say he regarded me as almost heroic. I totally, 100% didn't deserve to be regarded this way, and in fact it made me feel a little strange, but at the same time I appreciated his appreciation since it was a reflection of his appreciation for those who really did (and do) deserve it, and for the country in general.

I am of course generalizing from a sample of one person here, but if my sample is anything like representative, then there is a very real feeling of goodwill towards the US in Vietnam, and even towards our military effort there back in the day. Which is highly ironic given how the Left wants us to think that we we did was monstrous and that by extension we should naturally be despised by the people of Vietnam. As usual, it seems the Left is wrong.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Bump Dat!,,,Good things to come...

[BIGLOOK]

Thanks Thanh Phero.

The Lao Dong may have a problen....or it may be the other way around.

[DakotaRed]

But, John ‘F’in Kerry (who once served in Viet Nam) said everything was great in Viet Nam Today.

[ThanhPhero]

The Vietnamese people love and idolize Americans. That includes old VC and NVA. The worst mistake a returning vet makes is to try to apologize for the war. For those who were on the other side the reactions are varied. Many, considering it from a Buddhist point of view, will tell the vet that it was fate that there was a war and fate that they were on opposite sides of it and fate that now there is no war and please don't bring it back. Some old VC and NVA will say things like, you should not have left. We could not face you on the battlefield. Why did you leave us with these thugs? or, I was recruited from my village to fight foreigners; I did not know who they were, only that they were invaders like the Chinese. After Reunification I found out who the Americans are. It is sad that the Americans left.

They are like the Koreans in that they are born traders and small businessmen. During the starving times before the Reds relaxed their rigid strangling of the economy they all wanted to go to America where money grows on trees. When the Reds gave up on collectivizing agriculture and turned the farmers over to the market and their bellies no longer ruled their thoughts the sentiment changed to wanting to go to America where one can work his butt off and keep what he earns without having to donate it to all the bureaucrats and bo dois (police/soldiers/commissars). They all say they are waiting for the old men in Ha Noi to die.

[ThanhPhero]

Things are far better than they were 20 years ago or even 5 years ago. But they still have that heavy Red weight suspended over them from Ha Noi. And were it not for Kerry and his friends they may not have had to bear the starving time of 75 through most of the 80s.

[Yardstick]

Very interesting and heartening. Thanks again for the ping.

[Rembrandt]

“The government wants to get its way and at the same time doesn’t want to disturb the USA too much.”

I’d guess the gummint’s bigger concern nowadays is the Viet Kieu and the money they send back to VN most of which goes into the economy (like the wetbacks in the U.S. remitting to Mexico.)

The U.S. is getting bashed so often now that I doubt the VietComs are that worried about causing distress to GWB.

BTW, Chu Gary is now Bac Gary but with a new screen name - Rembrandt.

[ThanhPhero]

Viet Nam also wants to be in the American sphere of protection. It is reciprocal. Bac Sam likes having the Vietnamese army as a disincentive to Chinese adventuring in SEA.

[MaineConservative]

psst... Vietnam, could we trade you? We can have the Nunciature in exchange for the Obamas, John F. Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Albert Gore jr and Barney Frank...wait, I think that is a bad deal, for you.... we'll throw in Harry Reid, the Clintons, Helen Thomas and the DBM, also.

Would you like the trade?