Practical Violence In Vietnam

“Murderous and Decisive Struggle” (Fanon 39). “French imperialists … have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice” (Minh 1). Ho Chi Minh describes the effects of French colonization in a similarly to Frantz Fanon, who writes about practical and moral violence as a response to psychological and physical violence (Fanon). Practical violence has a clear purpose. As a means to an end it is undeniable, unstoppable and effective in recruiting a people to force change. Moral violence is a method of responding to unjustness. It allows the dehumanized to respond to subjugation, to unify and overcome division, and to build solidarity. In Algeria and Vietnam, practical
The establishment of Algeria as a settlement represented a dramatic difference between the two countries, largely due to the treatment of Algeria as a politically independent province of France, which caused the inflow of “French soldiers and … a population of over a million European settlers (Beauvoir 553). This sizeable inflow of foreigners lacking any connection to their new home created a dramatic conflict of interest and differences in opinion, as the pied-noirs fiercely opposed a separation from France. Algerian life was “divided into compartments, this world cut in two is inhabited by two different species” (Fanon 40). The stark contrast between the wishes of the French and those of the natives is indicative of the struggle, and inability, to align conflicting realities within Algeria. The lack of equal rights and growing tensions find expression in “bloodthirsty explosions – in tribal warfare, in feuds between septs, and in quarrels between individuals” (54). Fanon’s interpretation of moral violence as a means of coping identifiable violent outbursts he describes. It takes events such as the death of 12,000 in Phillippeville, and Lacoste’s instituting of urban and rural militias to bring out the emotional, moral response in angry waves of protest and revolution against the French. The nature of Algeria as a province resulted in an explosive, emotional conflict of interests between ethnic groups. Conversely, warfare and civil unrest seen in Vietnam was more methodical and calculated. While Vietnam suffered both physically and psychologically under French colonization, measures of violence against foreign influence were carefully considered and planned. An example of careful planning by Ho Chi Minh was the Tet Offensive, during which the Viet Cong attacked strategic cities and towns