iRead recap: Dr. William Brinker

Our second iRead program for the book Stealing Buddha’s Dinner was a presentation by Dr. William Brinker, Emeritus Professor of History from Tennessee Tech. Dr. Brinker spoke about the consequences of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam on the Vietnamese. He began with information on the history of Vietnam. It had been a French colony and the Japanese had a wide influence there during WWII. There were various political groups who disapproved of colonization and wanted Vietnam to be an independent country. One of these groups was led by Ho Chi Minh, a Communist, who gave a speech in Hanoi in August 1941 declaring independence, quoting from the US Declaration of Independence. These rebels took over territories and placed them under Communist rule. When the French pulled out of Vietnam in 1954, the country was divided into two as part of the Geneva Congress agreement, with the North conceded to Ho Chi Minh. This is when the author’s family moved to South Vietnam.

South Vietnam was given a chance to create its own stable government with support from the United States. At first the U.S. sent advisors and trainers to help the South resist the Communists, but soon the conflict escalated. By 1960, the U.S. had over 500,000 combat troops there. The U.S. began withdrawing in 1973, and withdrew all troops by 1975. The author’s family had been part of the South Vietnamese who had resisted the Communist take over. They had to leave or they would have been imprisoned or killed. Bic and her family were able to board a naval vessel to get out of Vietnam before the Viet Cong took over the South.

When the U.S. withdrew in 1975, they severed all relationships with Vietnam and would not have anything to do with them, as if they did not exist. It was not until 1994 that the Clinton Administration recognized the legitimacy of the Vietnam government.

At first the Ho Chi Minh government was based on Stalinism, but it was not successful. They soon dismantled this system of government and allowed for capitalism and private enterprise. Dr. Brinker visited the country in 1988 and commented that everything was working beautifully. The Vietnamese people he met expressed no animosity toward Americans. Dr. Collier, who visited Vietnam in 2009, also indicated that here was no resentment toward Americans during his visit.