Vietnam people - what is this?

[Steve Thompson]

I don't know much at all about the Vietnam War and not too much about what led up to it. So, when I can across this article I didn't know what to make of it. Can anyone who's more familiar with Vietnam tell me what's up with this?

http://www.reformation.org/holoc23.html

I'm very familiar with WWII Croatia, but I don't think of Vietnam as "The Croatia of Asia" - is this article off-the-wall or am I ignorant?

 

[DexterJ]

As far as I know -
the elite in Vietnam was catholic whereas the masses where buddhist. I would assume this is due to the elite converting to catholicism when they were educated by the French. However, I wouldnt claim to be an expert on vietnam so will check this. I do know that the buddhist majority opposed the south government for enforcing their cathollicism on society.

 

[blackheart]

I'm Vietnamese, but I really haven't had a lot about religios discrimination, just that the Southern government was overly corrupt and everyone in general didn't like the Southern government. So I'm not sure about this, but there's more to it than religion.

 

[Sargon of Agade]

I heard that many of the people in South Vietnam were not ethnically Vietnamese, or Buddhist, but were Cambodian and practiced Hinduism, I am not sure where I heard/read this or if this is even correct but at the time I though was very interesting. The article to the best of my knowledge seems pretty accurate, but Vietnam is not one of my strong suites in terms of knowledge. Does anyone know if this article is full of hot air or correct or if what I heard about a large part of the southern vietnamese population is correct at all?

 

[Shaihulud]

The website is called "reformation.com". I would think protestant propaganda. Saying that Diem was pretty much a generally an all round corrupted, power hungry megalomaniac. Adding religious fundalmentalist is just another mark against his reign.

 

[blackheart]

I heard that many of the people in South Vietnam were not ethnically Vietnamese, or Buddhist, but were Cambodian and practiced Hinduism, I am not sure where I heard/read this or if this is even correct but at the time I though was very interesting. The article to the best of my knowledge seems pretty accurate, but Vietnam is not one of my strong suites in terms of knowledge. Does anyone know if this article is full of hot air or correct or if what I heard about a large part of the southern vietnamese population is correct at all?

The large portion of South Vietnam are South Vietnamese . I think there's about 5 Hindus in Vietnam. Cambodians are mostly Buddhist too. The article is full of hot air.

 

[YNCS]

Vietnam is a predominantly Buddhist nation. Although 70% to 80% of the population is nominally Buddhist, only a small minority are actively religious. Practicing the Mahayana form imported from China rather than the Indian-influenced Hinayana form practiced in the rest of Southeast Asia, the Buddhist clergy normally played no large role in Vietnamese society. In 1963, however, opposition to the dominant power of Roman Catholics surrounding President Ngo Dinh Diem led to increased politicization of Buddhist monks. Government suppression of the monks led to rioting in South Vietnamese cities and angered the Kennedy administration. Under the leadership of Thich Tri Quang, Buddhists began a series of demonstrations leading to the immolations of several monks in Saigon in June 1963. These incidents evoked worldwide criticism of the Diem government and contributed to its downfall in November.

In 1966, Buddhists revolted in Hue and Da Nang over Prime Minister Nguygen Cao Ky's failure to hold elections and the dismissal of General Nguygen Chanh Thi, who was aligned with Thich Tri Quang. After an unsuccessful attempt to put down the revolt by force, Ky reached a settlement with the Buddhist leaders.

One of the first acts of the North Vietnamese after their conquest of Saigon was to imprison Thich Tri Quang.

 

[Insane_Panda]

I'm Vietnamese, but I'm a northern commie . Actually, half of my family is northern and half southern. My grandfather worked with the French and had to flee the north during the 50's. I knew that there was some persecution of the Buddhists, but thanks to YNCS and that link im more informed now.

 

[Jeff Yu]

I heard that many of the people in South Vietnam were not ethnically Vietnamese, or Buddhist, but were Cambodian and practiced Hinduism, I am not sure where I heard/read this or if this is even correct but at the time I though was very interesting. all?

This might have been true several hundreds of years ago, but not anymore. Back then, South Vietnam was controlled by the Kingdom of Champa, who were ethnically Cham and practiced Hinduism. The kingdom was weakened by warfare with the Khmer Empire and with the Vietnamese, and through numerous wars and annexations, was swalled up by Dai Viet. Large numbers of Cham were either killed or expelled, though many assimilated into Vietnamese culture. As a result, modern-day Southern Vietnam is almost all ethnically Vietnamese.