“Reclaim” is a specific process when marginalized groups take something that was used to malign/oppress them & change the power dynamics.

The first step to reclaiming is to know its history, invention, what it’s used for or against, and examine the implication of reclamation.

For Viet people grappling with your relationship w the SVN flag, I sympathize with you.

You might have family members who gave their lives for this flag, like my uncle.

You might have fam members who were detained for years under harsh & dehumanizing conditions, like my dad.

You might have family members who endured perilous conditions in their migration, like my cousins.

You might have family members who lived in abject poverty in post war VN, like my mom.

You might have been told “we lost our country,” and “we escaped from communism,” like me.

You might have family members whose best years and best memories were in Sài Gòn, Đà Lạt, or Đà Nẵng, former French & US bases. There was good music, good fashion, & good times.

You might carry your parents’ pain and anger at having lost this “thời vàng son” or “golden age.”

Your parents may have had to restart in the US having multiple jobs doing back-breaking work. My dad delivered papers at 4am then went to an assembly line factory. My mom did nails, cut hair, and tutored.

You might associate honoring your parents’ struggle w honoring the flag.

You might have had to adult earlier than you wanted to, like me, translating insurance docs & interpreting for my dad at social security office at 15.

You might have forged your identity as “child of refugee” and blame your hardship on “communism” or “authoritarianism” in VN.

You might think, “this country gave my family a second chance and gave me these opportunities I would not have. Sure it has flaws but I believe in democracy and I’m gonna work to make it better so everyone can have what I have.”

So you invest very hard in being American.

And that is very noble and understandable.

Who doesn’t hate authoritarianism. Who doesn’t love freedom and democracy and opportunities for a better life.

Except the US is not what we were told it is. And our homeland isn’t what we were told it is either.

I encourage you to do some deep digging into our history and learn about the conditions of VN under French colonization.

For ex, seizing land was the cornerstone of colonial economic exploitation. 25% of landowners owned 80% of farm land. Colonists owned 90+% rubber plantations

Two thirds of coal mined in VN was exported.

By 1930, 57% of rural population in Cochinchina (the south) was landless.

There were *better* conditions north of Cochinchina for peasants, with 800,000 in Annam (central) being landless and over a million in Tonkin (north).

ON TOP OF THIS, there were heavy taxes and exorbitant interest rates on loans.

The Vietnamese peasants were even forbidden from gathering salt or making their own alcohol, and had to buy them at French “authorized” outlets.

That’s why we have rượu đế, hidden in kans grass.

“By 1925 there were 5,000 European administrators ruling an Indochinese population of 30 million, roughly the same number used to administer British India, which had a population more than ten times as large.”

This is from the US library of Congress. You can fact check me.

Under these conditions, anti-colonial efforts arose.

And yet, after VN won, the US gave the French over $3 billion to help them regain colonial power.

The French also pressured Bảo Đại to agree to construct an anticommunist, pro-French government in Cochinchina/SVN.

Too much for me to tweet rn but you can read about the “Bảo Đại solution” in depth here: http://indochine.uqam.ca/en/historical-dictionary/107-bo-i-solution.html

It was a political move, using “anticommunism” and “Vietnamese independence” to justify the US aiding a colonial power.

That’s how South Viet Nam as a state was created.

And while virtually all nation states have their political reasons for coming into existence, including VN today, we have to ask ourselves, who created it, & who was it created for?

Was SVN created for the Vietnamese peasants?

Many of our families fought and lost their lives for SVN.

And if this is the flag of the SVN army, who were they fighting for?

Just some questions for you to start unpacking. I know it can be painful to dissect certain narratives, especially when they’re such a deep part of our beings.

It is possible to acknowledge our family’s struggles. AND, it’s also possible to question our indoctrination.

While we’re on the topic of reclaim, I’ve long reclaimed “third world.”

And my nostalgia today is listening to M.I.A.

Hi diasporic Viets. Thank you for reading & giving me feedback that this thread resonates w you. I'm glad that it can be useful for your own personal & political journey.

I know there's lots to take in and digest, Viet history, US history, etc. I hope you're taking good care.

I'll make some time to tweet about the details and events that lead to the creation of the state of South VN.

In the meanwhile, I recommend finding a community to process and organize with. Join the Viets Solidary & Action Network. Join our leftist dc if you're ready.

Divest from the mythology of America. Invest in Third World internationalism.

"The Third World awaits a resurrection... not as nostalgia but as a project that matches our contemporary dilemmas." - Vijay Prashad https://roarmag.org/essays/reviving-the-history-of-radical-black-asian-internationalism/