Vietnamese declaration of independence and Mao Tse Tung imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers
The document on Vietnamese declaration of independence entails speeches and articles aired in Vietnam just after the Second World War. It touches on the patriotic Vietnamese population that collaborated with the allies to oust the Japanese forces who had occupied their country after the defeat of the French forces. The French are portrayed as masters who claim personal equity amongst all people but have oppressed the Vietnamese people for over eighty colonization years. This shows that the French have been in that country since mid-19th century. They seem to have divided the Vietnamese into three, north, central and South Vietnam. The people view this as a way to weaken them and their unity hence the use of a divide and rule policy. The population seems to be portrayed to be poorly educated, poor agricultural and communal developments and ruthless crack downs on nationalists.
Mao Tse Tung, a Chinese communist revolutionary leader widely criticized the theme of imperialism. He attributed it to the United States whom he claimed it wanted to make the world a communist free one. He disagrees with USSR’s Khrushcov’s policy which claimed that the USA had cooled down and would not confront the communist. He advocated for Leninist policies that meant that imperialism meant more imperialism. He views USA’s president Kennedy as an advance of imperialism into newly independent countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and also into capitalist nations round the world such as Japan. To assert Mao’s complaints, he points out on the heavy USA losses in the Korean and Vietnam wars. USA’s realization that it cannot win a war against a communist force have resulted into imperialistic wars and invasions around the world especially in weak and newly independent nations. Mao seeks to learn the nature of USA’s imperialism, estimate the strength of USA’s imperialism, and how to deal with such imperialism.
David, analyses the aspects of nations declaring their independence mostly from colonizers. He views the American declaration of independence in 1776 as the primary source of this act. This major act in 1776, after the American war of independence from the British colonizers, led to many leaders emulating this act. To add to his assertion on the basis of independence declaration, he also highlights the Haitian declaration of independence in 1804 under the leadership of Toussaint l overture after twelve years of the independence war, outdoing almost all European powers of those days. So, the Vietnamese declaration of independence was just emulating a previous act that had occurred in history. The speech also resembles the speeches that were written during previous declaration of independence that were meant to empower members the citizens.
Here, Robert analyzes the attitude and the speeches of Mao, the Chinese revolutionary leader. Mao is rigid and strictly fights against imperialism imposed by the USA. As most of the USSR’s leaders viewed the USA to have become silent and a better nation to carry out business with, Mao was skeptical and emphasized on the USA’s pretense and the failure of the USSR to realize that its collapse is imminent. So, Robert views the use and following of Vladimir’s Lenin impressions of who and what imperialism mean to the world, by Mao as a primary source of history. Mao uses it effectively, in addition, with better management principles of China, hence saving it from imperialism and later years collapse as evidenced later with the Soviet Union.
The article on the Vietnamese declaration of independence affirms the patriotism held by the Vietnamese people. They rebuke the French as their colonizers hence show hatred for foreign domination meaning that they are self-motivated and work in unity to build their nation. This article compares how the French colonizers had built more prisons than schools meaning that the society was not supposed to be enlightened to avoid any uprisings. Also, many prisons acted to humiliate and instill fear amongst the people. The existence of many prisons also showed that there were many prisoners, most of whom were in prison for nationalistic purposes. Writing on the existence of blood streams, due to massacring of the Vietnamese people meant that they are determined people until they got what they want. This was also characterized during the Second World War against the invading Japanese forces and against the USA’s forces later after the world war.
Mao Tse Tung’s critics on imperialism portrays the hatred for it especially among the larger determined communist societies. This shows a Chinese population that gallantly supports communism and its governance, as opposed to imperial capitalism. Vladimir Lenin claims that imperialism only works to claim further imperialism and its resistance is inevitable. The communist society’s view that most world societies are under a threat of USA’s imperialism, but Mao asserts that the world is not the one that is afraid of imperialism but the USA is.
In understanding Mao’s document, the concept of political propaganda was the main agenda. Mao being a great orator, had to use his skills to convince his newly conquered Chinese state that the greatest enemy of development and their country was The USA, their imperialist policy, and their supported nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek. Also, using of his oratory skills he thought he could adequately rally most world nations behind the communists and isolate the USA and their imperialism strategy hence creation of a capitalism and imperialism free world.
On the Vietnams declaration of independence, the virtue of self-rule and determination of people’s destiny remains as a sole decision of such individuals. The idea was pioneered by the Americans after their war of independence and portrayed a great show of will and determination to rule oneself. Their statement that all people are equal and statements from the French revolution that all men are born free encouraged the Vietnamese to join the allies in a bid to push the Japanese invaders out of their land. Specifically, the French expression that all men are born free and with equal rights, gave them a better standing ground in their quest for independence. The French colonizers in their country never followed the same equality principle that they had fought for in their country but mistreated the Vietnamese.
References
Armitage, D. (2009). The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. New York: Harvard University Press.
Payne, R. (2008). Mao Tse-Tung Ruler of Red China. New York: Read Books.
