Lan Cao offers five myths
about the Vietnam War in the Washington Post.
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick say
their multi-part PBS documentary about the Vietnam War, which concluded this
past week, was intended to unpack a complex conflict and to embark upon the
process of healing and reconciliation. The series has catapulted the Vietnam
War back into the national consciousness. But despite thousands of books,
articles and films about this moment in our history, there remain many deeply
entrenched myths.
MYTH NO. 1
The Viet Cong was a scrappy
guerrilla force.
“Vastly superior in tools and
techniques, and militarily dominant over much of the world,” historian Ronald
Aronson described the hegemonic United States and the impudent rebels, “the
Goliath sought to impose on David a peace favourable to his vision of the
world.” Recode recently compared the Viet Cong to Uber: “young, scrappy and
hungry troops break rules and create new norms, shocking the enemy.”
In reality, the Viet Cong,
the pro-North force in South Vietnam, was armed by North Vietnam — which
planned, controlled and directed Viet Cong campaigns in the South — the Soviet
Union and China. According to the CIA, from 1954 to 1968, those communist
nations provided the North with $3.2 billion in military and economic aid,
mostly coming after 1964 as the war accelerated. Other sources suggest the
number was more than double that figure.
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