Title: Colonized people stated their equal humanity early, delegitimizing Western invasions
US consuls in Viet Nam overlooked the invasion violence
Real Reason for the US-Viet Nam War
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1st & 3rd Saturdays each month, by 9 a.m. East Coast US time. These editions focus on the real reason for the 1954–75 US-Viet Nam War.
2d & 4th Saturdays each month, by 9 a.m. East Coast US time. These editions focus on unrebutted facts about US racism, shown in The 1619 Project book ( 2021). This relates to understanding racism in the early US colonial activity in Viet Nam.[i]
Prior issues may be viewed at https://briandroesch.substack.com/
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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
During the period 1870s–1954, some US companies conducted colonial commerce in Viet Nam, enabled by brutal French rule, despite pleas to stop colonial invasions. During 1927–28, people from colonized countries worldwide met in Brussels. They formed a League Against Imperialism, saying:[ii]
We are part of the human race, and therefore we are part of universal ideas of freedom and humanity.
Even as they asserted that easy-to-understand principle, US Consul Harris N. Cookingham—in Viet Nam—sent a December 30, 1927 report on the political situation. Circulated in the US State Department, it reported that the French felt that “a relatively small but not inaudible group of Indo-Chinese. . . .” were the only ones capable of working in government. Even those few were demanding relief that the French refused to give.[iii]
Page 1 of Consul’s Political Report, December 30, 1927.
United States. Department of State. Consul Harris N. Cookingham (December 30, 1927) “Report on the Political Situation in French Indo-China, 1925–27. United States. Department of State. (1971). Records of the Department of State relating to internal affairs of France, 1919–1929. (National Archives micro-film publications: M560). Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, Reel 150, Frame 0135 (p. 1 of report, above), Frame 0139 (p. 5 of report, below).
Page 5 of Consul’s Political Report, December 30, 1927.
See citation above.
Cookingham’s report shows that US government simply didn’t respond to matters like the 1927–28 plea of colonized people. Although discussing the political situation, he omitted that millions of Viet Nam’s people were being subjected to decades of malnutrition, torture, and murder. Using such force, the French exported most of Viet Nam’s rice after harvests. The absence of the rice, a major staple, caused widespread malnutrition. The French also exported much of Viet Nam’s other exportable products.
Another of Consul Cookingham’s reports in 1927 contained the following map. It depicted roads and railroads for exports. The map shows some of this transportation network ran near rubber plantations north of Sai Gon. This includes areas such as Tay Ninh and Thu Dau Mot (in the blurry cluster of names on the right side of this old map copy).
Map of Roads & Railroads. United States. Department of State. Consul Harris N. Cookingham (July 25, 1927), “RUBBER CULTURE IN COCHIN-CHINA French Indo-China”. United States. Department of State. (1971). Records of the Department of State relating to internal affairs of France, 1919–1929, Reel 152, Frame 0421.
In places like Tay Ninh and Thu Dau Mot, many US soldiers later gave their lives (1954–75 war). Not knowing of the early US colonial activity, the US soldiers did not know that the US government had participated in the very colonial exploitation against which the Viet people were fighting. These Viet people were an important part of the widespread movement that had asserted since 1927–28:
We are part of the human race, and therefore we are part of universal ideas of freedom and humanity.
[i] 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.
[ii] Meeting. Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations : a people's history of the third world. New Press, pp. 16–30. Quote at meeting. Prashad, V. (2020). Washington bullets. New York: Monthly Review Press, p. 34.
[iii] Denied requests for reforms. Duiker, W. (1995). Sacred War : Nationalism and revolution in a divided Vietnam. NY: McGraw-Hill, pp. 27–30.