Why People Ready To Die For Their Nation

Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader, who played the most important role in leading and inspiring Vietnamese civilians to fight for an united Vietnam, once said: “Our resistance will be long and painful, but whatever the sacrifices, however long the struggle, we shall fight to the end, until Vietnam is fully independent and reunified.” One might wonder about the strength and endurance from such a small and insignificant nation as Vietnam. Undergoing 1000 years of Chinese dominance, 80 years of French colonization and 20 years of division with a second Vietnam created in the South and supported by the US, since the US wanted to control the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia . The answer lies in the ideas about the rise of nationalism and national consciousness, in addition to the question arises “Why people were ready to die for their nation?” Benedict Anderson’s theory about nationalism in Imagined
Why people are ready to die for their nation? It is love for their nation that comes with self-sacrificing, patriotism and solidarity. There is something that one cannot choose about skin-color, gender, birth era, as well as nationality. As Anderson suggested, when those qualities cannot be chosen, they have with them “a halo of disinterestness” – which is a candid attitude. Their love for the nation is an instinct, tangibility, somewhat similar to the way people love their own fresh and blood. Where people are born determined patriotism, and therefore there is a close tie between the person and the nation, like the two soul mates are connected. Hadn’t it been for the self-sacrifice that each person had towards their community, 666,000 Vietnamese troops and 65,000 North Vietnamese civilians would never be ready to die to build a peaceful society for their imagined brothers in the South, whom they had never