Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag: Really?
Or "How The Vietnam War Just Won't Die Already".
I recently discovered that the flag of South Vietnam has been adopted as the "Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag" in three states, seven counties and eighty-five cities of the USA. I know that the Second Indochina War is a touchy subject, so I'll choose my words carefully. To me, this is a collosal case of sour grapes; overseas Vietnamese still rejecting the outcome of a war that finished decades ago. They are not unique in this respect (see the Cuban exiles, for instance), but that doesn't make their actions any less juvenile. More importantly, choosing the flag of South Vietnam to be the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag betrays a fundamental ignorance of history.
South Vietnam was worse than North Vietnam.
Before anyone jumps at me for being a Commie apologist, I am not attempting to whitewash the DRV. It is an authoritarian Communist state, albeit one in the mold of modern-day China. And in its heyday, it was far worse. But even then, it pales in comparison to South Vietnam. South Vietnam - as many people forget - was not a democracy before or during the Vietnam War. It was an autocratic state. While North Vietnam obviously purged some anti-Communist elements, South Vietnam - seeking not to be outdone - purged far more and in far greater quantity. While the North had stable government, the South had a series of coups and power struggles. The Vietnam War was not black-and-white; rather, it was black-and-gray, with South Vietnam most definitely in the black. More importantly, it was a French colony, and then a French puppet, and finally a French-backed satellite.
It is ridicilous to use the flag of a French-controlled dictatorship as the symbol of Vietnamese heritage and freedom.
And now, let me clear up a few misconceptions about the flag of Vietnam.
The five points of the yellow star do not represent the five colonies of French Indochina. Instead, the star represents unity and its points represent five groups: workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals and young people. This is common for Communist symbols. Similarly, attempts to link this to French colonialism also fail, since the flag of South Vietnam was introduced under France, anyway.
The red background of the flag references the famous red flag of the Paris Commune. Detractors say that, since it is a Communist flag, it cannot represent the Vietnamese. This ignores the fact that the South Vietnamese flag was originally used by the Vietnamese Emperor, and I doubt any modern-day Vietnamese want a return to the monarchy.
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Originally Posted by irelandeb
. 
ing stupid if they wish the South had won instead.
