Truong Nhu Tang's War

1. During his early life, the author Truong Nhu Tang grew up in a family that came from wealth. His paternal grandfather, was an official in the French colonial administration while his maternal grandfather was one of the founders the Cao Dai religious sect. Tang’s father had been educated in French culture. As an adult his businesses included a rubber plantation in Thu Dau Mot and a printing house in Saigon; he also taught at a university for fun. Tang lived in a large three-story house in Saigon; his family also owned a home in the mountains and the beach. Tang was born second of six sons, all whom his father had plans for all. Tang was to be a pharmacist. In order for Tang to achieve his father's plan, his education consisted of the best

The Vietcong viewed the war as a fight for Vietnamese self-determination, independence and unification. Tang became a Vietcong when he returned home and could not stand for the repressive regime of Diem. As such, the NLF was born and represented the political party of the Vietcong. To achieve the objectives laid out by the NLF, they worked in three areas including political, military, psychology and diplomacy. All efforts towards the war were part of a whole; regardless if it was military or political, the events of the war “each had consequences far beyond its immediate apparent results (87).” Tang argues that psychology was the most important front and writes their agenda were “simple motives that were uncolored by ideological considerations (165)”, “our goal was to influence public opinion: domestically where a noncommunist government would give us added credibility with the south Vietnamese populace, internationally, where we would be able to compete with Saigon for formal recognition (and the potential support that would come with it); and in the United States, where we would enhance our claim of representing the southern people, giving the peace movement additional ammunition (146).” The Vietcong at first struggled to gain support in the urban areas so they decided to adapt. They moved out to the countryside where they befriended the people and persuaded them to accept the NLF as their government and allies. To gain support in the urban areas, they petitioned using

From the beginning the Vietcong did not want the United States involved with the war, and wanted to avoid troops in South Vietnam at all cost. When the NLF was drafting their first objectives, one of them included to “achieve withdrawal of American advisers and an end to American interference in the self-determination of the South Vietnamese people. (71)” Achieving self determination without American was crucial, when the self determination leaflets were published the headline read “American for Americans. South Vietnam for South Vietnamese (93).” To win the war against the American, psychology played a huge part, as such the Vietcong were well aware that the Americans would never recognize the NLF as a form of government; by doing so they would have proven that the U.S containment policy was a failure. Through out the war, the Vietcong used events such as Tet Offensive and transformed them into “psychological events” to “strengthen their military position.” Tangs states “The Americans seemed to never appreciate fully this strategic perspective which among ourselves we most often simply called Danh va dam, dam va danh (“fighting and talking, talking and fighting”) (87).” This really highlights the ignorance that Americans had about the Vietnamese people and their culture. While American troops tactics included destroying entire villages and ultimately hurting the civilian population, the Vietcong moved into the countryside, gained the trust of the country communities and