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Originally Posted by jviehe
I dont know. I wasnt there.
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I wasn't either, although I was alive at the time; however, it's not as if there isn't plenty of documentation. We're not talking about some period before the invention of writing when we have to do an archaeological dig.
I appreciate the admission that it's something you don't know a lot about. However, my suggestion is that this is something to be remedied rather than accepted. Go to the library and get a good book on the history of Vietnam. Or here, just start with the Wiki article:
Vietnam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The legendary Hồng Bàng Dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered by many Vietnamese as the first Vietnamese state, known as Văn Lang. In 257 BCE, the last Hùng king lost to Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt tribes with his Âu Việt tribes, forming Âu Lạc and proclaiming himself An Dương Vương. In 207 BCE, a Chinese general named Zhao Tuo defeated An Dương Vương and consolidated Âu Lạc into Nanyue. In 111 BCE, the Chinese Han Dynasty consolidated Nanyue into their empire.
For the next thousand years, Vietnam was mostly under Chinese rule.[1] Early independence movements such as those of the Trưng Sisters and of Lady Triệu were only briefly successful. It was independent as Vạn Xuân under the Anterior Ly Dynasty between 544 and 602. By the early 10th century, Vietnam had gained autonomy, but not independence, under the Khúc family.
Dynastic era
In 938 CE, a Vietnamese lord named Ngô Quyền defeated Chinese forces at the Bạch Đằng River and gained independence after 10 centuries under Chinese control. Renamed as Đại Việt, the nation went through a golden era during the Lý and Trần Dynasties. During the rule of the Trần Dynasty, Đại Việt repelled three Mongol invasions.[2] Buddhism flourished and became the state religion. Following the brief Hồ Dynasty, Vietnamese independence was momentarily interrupted by the Chinese Ming Dynasty, but was restored by Lê Lợi, the founder of the Lê Dynasty. Feudalism in Vietnam reached its zenith in the Lê Dynasty of the 15th century, especially during the reign of Emperor Lê Thánh Tông. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Vietnamese expanded southward in a process known as nam tiến (southward expansion). They eventually conquered the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire.[3][4]
Towards the end of the Lê Dynasty, civil strife engulfed much of Vietnam. First, the Chinese-supported Mạc Dynasty challenged the Lê Dynasty's power. After the Mạc Dynasty was defeated, the Lê Dynasty was reinstalled, but with no actual power. Power was divided between the Trịnh Lords in the North and the Nguyễn Lords in the South, who engaged in a civil war for more than a hundred years. During this time, the Nguyễn expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the Champa in the central highlands and the Khmer land in the Mekong. The civil war ended when the Tây Sơn brothers defeated both and established their new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyễn Lords led by Nguyen Anh with the help of the French. Nguyen Anh unified Vietnam, and established the Nguyễn Dynasty, ruling under the name Gia Long.
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So you see, Vietnam was an independent and unified nation from before 1000 CE, while South Vietnam was a temporary aberration that existed only between the years of 1954 and 1975, barely 20 years and always supported from outside the country. Most Vietnamese did not think of it as a separate, independent country, and most people worldwide regarded the war not as war between two countries (North and South Vietnam), but as a civil war in one country (Vietnam). In terms of the scope of history, that is the correct view.
You can also see that the Vietnamese have a strong sense of national identity and have always been very stubborn about demanding and fighting for their independence. They had done that against the Chinese a long time before they ever did it against the French or the Americans. So we were playing into an old, old pattern that the Vietnamese knew from their cultural history. It's been mentioned several times that they were willing to fight for 100 years to gain independence from the French, Japanese, French again, and Americans, but that's chump change compared to the thousand years they struggled against China. Would we have been willing to go on fighting the Vietnam War for 1000 years? No, I'm happy to say we're not NEARLY that insane.
(I have no idea what was wrong with the Chinese. But they lost, too.)