The universal meaning of Vietnam

A heroic struggle for independence and socialism

“No liberation movement, no people that has struggled for its independence, has had to carry out a struggle as long and heroic as the people of Vietnam”—Fidel Castro, September 12, 1973.

     The first human populations arrived in Vietnam nearly 500,000 years ago.  Food cultivation arrived via diffusion from China around 12,000 B.C.E.  By the third century B.C.E., the ancient state of Van Lang reached its fullest development on an economic foundation of fishing, agriculture, cattle breeding, and cloth manufacturing. 

      Van Lang was conquered by Nam Cuong, an empire located in Southern China and Northern Vietnam.  The Chinese conquerors established Au Lac, a slave-based civilization dedicated to the exploitation of copper mines and the manufacturing of copper products.  Thus began ten centuries of Chinese domination of Vietnam, under which emerged a feudal economy and a class of Vietnamese landholders.  The period was characterized by struggles against Chinese domination, in which bo…