An April 30th with dark cloud

Every April 30th, two worlds exist between Vietnamese people. In Vietnam, where the communists gained unified power since 1975, the communists declared the day as "Liberation of the South" and made it a national holiday to observe. The regime also spends millions of dollars each year to celebrate and to demonstrate the might of the communists and how life in Vietnam has changed under the rule of the Communist Party. Some Vietnamese diasporas, mostly in former Comecon or in East Asia, do celebrate alongside their compatriots in Vietnam.

Then, there is another world. Every year, the same day since 1975, Vietnamese gather, not to welcome, but to mourn the loss of the Republic of Vietnam, or South Vietnam, to the hand of the communist North. They have observed the fall of Saigon, first in 1976 and this has become a common practice of Vietnamese diasporas living in Western Europe, North America and Australasia - where the loyalty with the yellow flag and three red stripes remains strong. Maybe some Vietnamese communities in former Comecon and East Asia feel the same way. The Vietnamese Communist Party has long objected to this observation, they see it as an insult and has several times lobbied, unsuccessfully, convincing the Western nations to not allow these people to mourn the fall of South Vietnam. The United States, though having better relations with Vietnam than before, is critical of the communist government's human rights record. So are the majority of EU, Australia, New Zealand. Some American states even banned displaying the communist red flag with a yellow star in the middle.

However, April 30th 2021 is different. Because it is filled with a lot of dark clouds. Because this day will not be the same again.

On January 6th 2021, following the call of Trump to reject the election outcome that saw Joe Biden, the eventual 46th President of the United States, beat Trump by a wide margin, many Vietnamese Americans joined the street, marching to Washington D.C.'s Capitol Hill alongside Nazi, Confederate and White supremacist groups with the flag of South Vietnam relevantly appeared, and later violently attacked the Capitol trying to denounce the result. It coincided with the widespread call of many Vietnamese in Western Europe and Australia, where the pro-Trump sentiment exists strongly as well due to common cultural connection with the United States.

Typically, Vietnamese are conservative people, but these people who marched to the Hill are even more radicalised. But it has a background. As I mentioned before, nearly 50% Vietnamese supported Trump in the 2020 election, the largest among all Asian Americans. They were refugees, once, fleeing Vietnam from 1975 to 1996. They understood very well the pain under communist rule, but the Vietnamese Americans have made a wrecked decision, by allying with the Republican Party that has turned into a xenophobic party. The Vietnamese Americans, as well as most Vietnamese loyal to fallen South Vietnam abroad, view the Republicans as the only hope and fed with news about Democrats being communists/socialists and previous Democratic Presidents like Obama compared to a donkey by the Vietnamese themselves. Racism, xenophobia, paranoia and Hitlerite ideology became ingrained into the Vietnamese democratic movement. Conservative platforms dominate the scheme of Vietnamese diaspora's life, further disassociating themselves from reality, even though attempts to correct it was launched in 2020 by some progressive Vietnamese population. Thus the failed Trump coup.

Many countries that hosted Vietnamese boat refugees like Australia, or Canada, for example, do send some officials to commemorate the fall of Saigon and to demonstrate solidarity with South Vietnam, which had been taken unified into the communist totalitarian regime based in Hanoi. Same with the United States. Yet, the failed Trump coup d'etat in January 2021 changed everything. For many, seeing the Asian people carrying the flag of fallen South Vietnam, shouting the name of Trump, demanding executions of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, was, still unacceptable. Because they know that Donald Trump didn't fight in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and Trump is a lover of totalitarian governments.

And so, this April 30th is surely very dark. On a day that Vietnamese abroad should raise their hand to recount the tragic end of Vietnam War, instead, it'll be the day to be spilt in the dirt. Democrats won't forget the Vietnamese support for the Trump coup, and definitely won't leave it easily. Other countries will view Vietnamese with greater suspicion because their Trump links are so relevant.

A coup.

A coup that should not happen at first. A coup that everyone has to stand denouncing. Vietnamese people gave the reverse. This unleashed a massive wave of anger toward the Vietnamese. Democratic officials viewed the action as a national dishonour. The flag of South Vietnam was connected to the coup supporters, Nazis, domestic terrorists. The wave of anti-Asian hate crime was unleashed as a result of Vietnamese involvement in the Trump coup, with Vietnamese themselves suffered altogether. Sad, but true.

A day of remembrance, grief for democracy, once; now a day to question: do Vietnamese abroad understand where they're standing?

I can't speak for the other Vietnamese, because this is my personal opinion.