Shows of Force by US in Viet Nam Colony Early
International News Bulletin (simulated, written 30 July, 2022)
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Publication: each Saturday by 9 a.m. East Coast US time. Editions alternate between: (1) the hidden 1870s–1954 US colonial period in Viet Nam, and (2) a common pattern of racism in that hidden, early US activity in Viet Nam and in US society.
Prior issues may be viewed at https://briandroesch.substack.com/
Cites for some facts are in Roesch, B. (2021). Corporate Tsunami in Countryside Paradise: 1875–1900 Origin of US War in Viet Nam, First Edition Revised. See briandroesch.com
Shows of Force by US in Viet Nam Colony Early
International News Bulletin (simulated, written 30 July, 2022)
June 1921. The destroyer USS Tracy made a port call this month, June 2021, in Sai Gon, Viet Nam. Earlier in 1921, the Tracy had transited the Suez Canal with division ships, and then joined the US Asiatic Squadron.[i]
Also in 1921, the destroyer USS Whipple stopped at Sai Gon.
These shows of US force in support of the French colony began after Viet Nam sent an emissary named Bui Vien to Washington, D.C. in 1873 and 1875. He brought offers by Viet Nam of peaceful trade on favorable terms, if the French invasion would stop.
Although US commercial ships were operating in Viet Nam in the 1870s, enabled by French force, Viet Nam admired the US for having fought to free its slaves, and for having fought to rid itself of British colonial control. Surely the US would listen to offers of fair trade, no colony needed. But instead, US leaders sent the emissary away both times. For, the French invasion was well underway to seizing all of Viet Nam. The US had entered Viet Nam to stay, enabled by the French invasion violence.
Thus, on May 13, 1876, after the emissary’s final visit, the iron-hulled, side-wheel gunboat U.S.S. Ashuelot sailed into Sai Gon harbor, a show of force in favor of France. The Ashuelot had joined the Asiatic Squadron at Hong Kong on January 15, 1867. It served continually in Asiatic waters into 1883.[ii]
U.S.S. Ashuelot, circa 1874. Mooney, J., & Naval Historical Center. (1991). Dictionary of American Naval fighting ships, Vol. A. Washington: Naval Historical Center, Dept. of the Navy : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O, pp. 425–27.
On its 1876 trip to Sai Gon, the Ashuelot was also investigating a delay in shipping an exhibit from the King of Siam (Thailand) to Philadelphia for the US Centennial Exposition. The delay, the Ashuelot’s captain determined, was caused by high-handed tactics of a US consul in Bangkok, Siam. The exhibit was from the young Thai monarch Rama IV, a son of the king who was later immortalized in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical comedy, The King And I. The Ashuelot returned to Bangkok, retrieved the exhibit, then transported it back to Sai Gon, then to Hong Kong. From there, it was shipped to the US for the exhibition.
In an interesting assignment in 1879, the Ashuelot transported former president Ulysses S Grant during discussions he had with China. The talks included a China-Japan controversy over control of the Ryukyu Islands.
As US President in the mid-1870s, Grant had learned of a matter that paralleled the French invasion murders in Viet Nam. He learned that former Confederate rebels against the US, restored to power to run the South, were committing widespread murders of African Americans recently freed from enslavement. Rather than using the power of the victorious Union and the US Army to stop the murders, he commented that white people had “the right to kill Negroes . . . without fear of punishment and without loss of caste or reputation.”[iii]
One purpose of the murders was to maintain economic advantages for whites, Sherilyn Ifill explains in On the Courthouse Lawn.[iv]
Like in the US, murder for economic gain was important to imperialism in Viet Nam. For, in imperial invasions, natives usually fought back. So, killing them was part of such invasions. Although Viet Nam natives and US African American citizens considered such killings to be murder, US leaders expected that in a perilous world, white US citizens should at least be grateful for US power.
For example, maintaining commercial supremacy in the Pacific was not easy. On February 17, 1883, a day after sailing from Amoy (Xiamen), China, the USS Ashuelot proceeded in predawn fog. The ship hit a rock. In the process of abandoning ship, eleven men died.[v]
[i] In 1921 USS Whipple destroyer to Far East, including Sai Gon. June 1921, the USS Tracy, a destroyer, transited the Suez Canal and then made stops in the Far East including French Indochina. https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whipple_(DD-217)
https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tracy_(DD-214).
[ii] Ashuelot at Sai Gon 1876, Grant. Mooney, J., & Naval Historical Center. (1991). Dictionary of American Naval fighting ships, Vol. A. Washington: Naval Historical Center, Dept. of the Navy : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O, pp. 425–27.
[iii] U.S. Grant on killing of African Americans. Hannah-Jones, N., Roper, Caitlin, Silverman, Ilena, Silverstein, Jake, & New York Times Company. (2021). The 1619 Project : A new origin story (First ed.). New York: One World. p. 261.
[iv] Killings in US to assert white supremacy. Ifill, On the Courthouse lawn, p. 16, Kindle location 534.
[v] Ashuelot sinking. Dictionary of American Naval fighting ships, Vol. A (1991), p. 427.