Commentary: Vietnamese civilization is more than 4,000 year-old. Despite having been colonized by China for about a thousand years, Vietnamese have been able to preserve their unique characters. It is informative to have capture the traditional costumes through times and Vietnamese civilization and history.
Commentary: Unfortunately, wars have damaged the historical vestiges of Ancient Vietnam. Son Tay Citadel, one of the most fortified citadel of feudal of North Vietnam was destroyed to oblivion. One can only appreciate the architecture of the fort through the old pictures. Wars have taken toll of historical relics of Vietnam
If you follow Highway No. 32 from Hanoi to the west about 45km, you will arrive in Son Tay Town where there exists a 200 year-old citadel built with laterite, a unique construction material.
The remains of The Son Tay Ancient Citadel are located in the hub of Son Tay Town, Hanoi, which is in the area of two ancient villages: Thuan Nghe and Mai Trai. It was an ancient military rampart built with laterite.
The citadel had a style of Vauban architecture with a square shape, 400m in length and 5m in height. The citadel’s wall was 4m in width and there were many holes at the top of the wall for the soldiers to hide inside the citadel to shoot or attack their enemies using spears or broadswords. Continue reading
Commentary: As every year comes, April is considered by large number of Vietnamese as tragic month in their lives, a month of national mourning and sorrow because Vietnam became totally subjugated to the communist rule following the fall of Saigon in 1975. It is with pride a young Vietnamese-American knows how to appreciate the price of freedom happiness and cultural heritage.
Ms. Cung Hoang-Kim, a recent graduate of UT-Austin and Miss Texas Collegiate 2012 and the second National American Miss 2012-2013, had shared her deep appreciation of the sacrifices of the elders and the true value of freedom, self-reliance, and happiness. She felt blessed to be an American and Vietnamese American, while remaining attached to her cultural background and concerned with the fates of 90 million Vietnamese people.
A Lifetime Longhorn
Those were truly remarkable and heartfelt speeches. Who would have known that in this total free society that some young Vietnamese Americans still care for what is going on around the world? It is always wise to know the past in order to move forward to a better future.
Miss Texas Cung Hoàng Kim’s Speech on Commemoration of BLACK APRIL 30 (on 4/27/2013) in Austin, Texas.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are told to remember the Idea rather than The Man. Because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but years and years later, an idea can still change the world. You cannot contact an idea, touch it or hold it. Ideas do not bleed, do not feel pain, but they can live on…
38 years have passed since the fall of Saigon and still, we gather here today, commemorating the loss of our beautiful country. And yet, it is probably not so much about the loss of a country territory, but much more about the loss of human rights, freedom, morality, and the pursuit of happiness for the Vietnamese people.
As a 22-year-old college student, graduating from the University of Texas with honors, I’m a very proud Texan and most of all, a very proud Vietnamese American. However, I am very aware my family came to America as a political choice, refugees, and victims of the Vietnamese Communist regime, not for economic pursuits. Continue reading
Commentary: Vietnam was the biggest victim of the cold war when the communism and capitalism waged hot war in Vietnam from 1960-1975. Communist propaganda was good at misleading the world’s public opinion that American involvement as aggressors and occupying force of South Vietnam.
Would large contingency of 170,00 Chinese soldiers have been considered as an occupying force too? Between 1965 and 1971 more than 320,000 Chinese troops were deployed in North Vietnam. The peak year for this was 1967, when there were around 170,000 Chinese in the DRV. Their work on military installations naturally meant that Chinese troops were susceptible to heavy American bombing; an estimated 1,000 Chinese were killed in the North in the late 1960s. The communist side also sent military personnel to help Vietnamese communists to wage war. The Soviet Union sent 3,000 soldiers to participate in the war against Americans.
Therefore, it is an aberration to believe that Vietnam war instigated by Vietnamese communists was a war for independence against foreign occupation. The late General Secretary of Communist Party, Le Duan, admitted later that Vietnam fought and died for Soviet Union and China in order to spread the red revolution (“Ta vào Nam nổ súng là đánh cho Trung Quốc, đánh cho Liên Xô”.) It is a natural fact that the revered Uncle Ho Chi Minh and his lieutenants were trained first and foremost as comintern agents before taking the power in Vietnam.
General Secretary Le Duan greeted Fidel Castro after Quang Tri battle.
Ho Chi Minh…a man with different faces and names.
Ho Chi Minh in Russia when Trotsky was still a favorite figure.
Comrade Nguyễn Ái Quốc at Fourth Congress Of The Communist International
Commentary: On April 16, 2014, the father of osteopathic medicine, A.T. Still, M.D, D.O,(1828 -1917), was inducted in the Hall of Famous Missourians at the State Capitol. About 250 A.T.S.U. students, faculty and staff were at the unveiling of the bust of Dr. Still as Missouri honored this great man. This event is also a great way of celebrating the National Osteopathic Medicine Week.
Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones made a remark: “We see the global and lasting impact of his work. What was a radical idea at the very beginning had a new way of looking at the healing process when he first brought it fourth today is a try and true path to a better health and better life for millions of people in all 50 states and in more that 60 countries around the globe.”
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