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People get so tangled up in the geopolitics of these types of conflicts, and forget that every person the war touched has a personal story. I’ve known quite a
by refurb 2y ago
People get so tangled up in the geopolitics of these types of conflicts, and forget that every person the war touched has a personal story.
I’ve known quite a few Vietnamese who lived through the conflict and their stories, no matter how lucky they were, the stories are incredible and hard to comprehend, no matter which side and whether they suffered horribly or made it out real relatively unscathed.
Whether fleeing at a moments notice from your country of birth, never knowing where you are going or whether you’ll ever return. Or even the stories of people seeing the end and planning in advance what they will need and how to make sure family is ok.
Then you think about the scale of it and that tens of millions of humans went through it and it’s impossible to comprehend the scale of it.
What is really remarkable is the resiliency of humans. You speak to people who went through it and realize many have the perspective of “you did what you had to do” and “its a part of my life that is over now”, but try and imagine how hard it must be to live in a country of relative peace and see all these people around you who have never, and will never, go through anything similar, and try and have it all make sense.
It’s also really fascinating talking to people who stayed in South Vietnam after. The entire system is reset. The police, the government, even where you get your food is swept away and rebuilt. I’ve noticed many people thrive on rumors as the government isn’t known for transparency. Days after the war order is restored and you hear rumors of what will come. Neighbors gossip, you do your best to prepare and wait.
- arrowsmith 2y ago> It’s also really fascinating talking to people who stayed in South Vietnam after. The entire system is reset. It took me a while to appreciate the significance of renaming Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City. I've lived in HCMC (although I'm not Vietnamese) and the renaming is actually controversial to this day, although most Vietnamese know better than to speak up about it. Basically, imagine if Russia conquered Ukraine and then renamed Kyiv to "Vladimir Putin City".
- lr1970 2y ago> Basically, imagine if Russia conquered Ukraine and then renamed Kyiv to "Vladimir Putin City". This is really a poor analogy. Kyiv is the birthplace of ancient Russia (Kyiv Rus) and for both Ukrainians and Russians it is like Jerusalem for Jews and Arabs. It is easier to imagine renaming Moscow into Zelensky City than Kyiv into Putin.
- LakesAndTrees 2y agoExcept Ukraine is a sovereign nation - much like Russia (which in today’s form does not hold any reasonable claim to Kyiv) - and renaming either nations capital city to satisfy some man’s thirst for legacy would be equally vulgar. The analogy holds pretty well, from where I’m standing.
- arrowsmith 2y agoIt’s a good analogy because to rename Ukraine’s capital city after its conqueror would be a gigantic “fuck you” to the people of Ukraine, rubbing salt into the fresh wounds of their conquest, which is exactly what North Vietnam did to the South. You’re just doing the typical HN thing of responding to an analogy by pointing out differences that are irrelevant to the point of the analogy.
- sandworm101 2y ago>> capital city after its conqueror would be a gigantic “fuck you” to the people As how most every port city in North America is named by whatever western explorer first put it on a map? From Botany Bay to Vancouver, Los Angeles and even Virginia USA, placenames are pulled from the culture of the conquerors. Only when one gets into the hinterlands do local names appear.
- woodruffw 2y agoManhattan?
- simplicio 2y agoEh? There's a ton of Native American place-names on the East Coast? Including at least three States.
- selectodude 2y agoWhat white man is Chicago named after?
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- skhr0680 2y agoHistorically, I think it's akin to when Russia conquered Russia and renamed St. Petersburg to Leningrad
- arrowsmith 2y agoStalingrad, Léopoldville, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Constantinople. Many such cases!
- LtWorf 2y ago> Constantinople I think it's not the same if you build a new city :)
- arrowsmith 2y agoDidn't he rename the existing city of Byzantium?
- bgnn 2y agoHe did not. He renamed it as New Rome. The name Constantinopolis came after him. It was often just referred as polis. The name Istanbul is derived from "eis tan polis" (to the city) used as a common phrase during Byzantian times. Turks kept using this old names as Konstantiniyye (Constantin's city in Arabic) Istanbul, both only referring to the walled part of the city till mid-20th century.
- refurb 2y ago> It took me a while to appreciate the significance of renaming Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City. The interesting thing is that locals continue to use "Saigon" in everyday conversation. It seems like the government decided that wasn't a fight worth having. Someone told me that several government agencies still use "Saigon" as well on logos and such. The interesting thing is that "Saigon" came from the French occupation. The Vietnamese ruling under the French renamed it "Sai Gon", and the French used "Saigon". Before the French arrived, it was called Gai Dinh.