isthatu wrote:
Why not,didnt think the Vietnamese reds were any more matey with the russian reds than with the chi com?
Time to enlighten some backwater people from an offshore island: The Viet Nam official policy has been overwhelming positive about old Soviet and Putinist Russia (loathed Yelsin though). About 5 years ago, high school history books still depicted how the angelic Soviets liberated Poland and Baltic states in 1939 and 1940 (1945 is just ''
reliberated''). Only very recently has the same book mentioned Molotov-Ribbentrop and some 'mistakes' of Soviet leaders but in the end, there is always sumptuous praise for Soviet victory in the ww2 (And they were right to put Eastern Europe into a right course!) And possibly, there is no where else in the world (excluding Putin's bedroom) that the collapse of USSR has been so tremendously bemoaned!
For the curious, the cause of all these fuss is simple: For at least 40 years (since 1950), Viet Nam and the Soviet Union were close allies (all the more close since they were so far apart). Each proved itself useful in its particular way: Viet Nam bled itself to drain and humiliate USA while the SU provided crucial weaponry and advanced training. The period 1975-1989 was ironically the most cordial era in the relationship between the two heavily beleagued states when the Soviets were stuck in Afganistan while Viet Nam, after beating back China, were stuck in Cambodia. This illustration may shed a little light to this quaint relationship: The USSR embassy in Hanoi was the among the biggest complex in the city (possibly the biggest Soviet embassy in the communist block), while Viet Nam embassies in the Warsaw pact, if not that big (Viet Nam had few diplomats anyway), were located among the most prestigious locations (Soviet bosses dictated that). My ex-girlfriend's father Ding Xuan Lam, a long serving ambassador to Poland, after the collapse, was kindly asked to relinguish his grand home in Warsaw to make room for a new honoured guest. Guess who, a friggin' US ambassador!
Of course, time changes, most people in Viet Nam now have access to Internet and naturally try hard to follow the fad of drinking tea and watching Super Bowl. But Viet Nam leaders always desire a strong Putinist Russia for a decent strategic partnership (someone they can ‘really’ trust). And also they are suspicious of any ‘communist crimes’, particularly the ones digged up by Western media (since they are sure to be the one who get munched in the end). With all neutrality, I may say, official stance of Viet Nam is negative about this movie but I also doubt it will be suppressed as if it were a definitive ‘degenerative bourgeois funk’. Possibly the best thing to concern now should be how to find a good DVD dealer.
Ps. Sorry to be off topic but as Lenin says: “Educating the ignorant ignores any circumstances”. Who am I to argue back?
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