Short Summary of Vietnam/Chinese history: Vietnam was home to some of the first agricultural communities, in which they started growing rice and making many different kinds of foods from it. Before modern religion, most of Vietnam's people were animists. That changed when Siddhartha was born and developed the Buddhist teachings. Vietnam was ruled by China for a very long time, and eventually the French came over and gave the people potatoes, and Jesus.
10/02/17 `What are the religious/spiritual beliefs of Vietnam?
It is mostly Buddhist, which is more of a way of life rather than a religion. They also practice Taoism, Confucianism, and Catholicism
Taoism: Tao means "the way" or "the path". A very poetic religion, using metaphors and saying to give a guideline of how one should live. Taoists believe every being in nature is struggling to keep a balance between Yin and Yang. There is no good action, all actions will have some of both sides. They believe one should allow nature to flow, sit and observe while nature's flow leans from good to bad and back to good. It's the way the world naturally fluctuates and this kind of variation is what keeps the world going.
Animism: The world's oldest belief system. Practiced by any indigenous group, it is a belief that every material object has a soul. The trees, the mountain, a stone, all of it has a soul. it is also believed that these material things are part of the overall omnipresent soul of the world. They worshiped spirits, believe spirits determine what happens. The idea of yin-yang came from animism. Centered around real and mythical creatures.
Notes 10/10/17
What is Confucianism? Confucianism is the idea that the ritualistic, day-to-day life of the average family is of most importance. Daughters honor and obey their mothers and so do sons to their fathers, a wife is to follow the orders of the husband and thus the father is the head of all.
Vietnam's Catholicism: The catholic church regularly sent missionaries to come "convert the savages" (savages is basically anyone who isn't catholic.) The Vietnamese rules allowed the Missionaries to come in. Within 100 years, their is thousands of Catholics in Vietnam and the Taoist/Confucius rulers of the time disagreed with Catholicism and spent time running down and even tearing down churches and killing any who don't obey. The french got salty ,and so the church came from France, invaded all of Vietnam and took over all of Vietnam. The newly ruling French favored the already catholic Vietnamese and gave them better jobs and opportunities. Now theirs maaaaad catholic churches and schools up there.
10/30/17: Why did America so strongly oppose communism?
We were against communism because its methods of coming to power are typically totalitarian in practice, and 90% of the time it is never pulled off and ends up being some kind of dictatorship. And America is all about opportunity, being able to rise up in power and wealth whether you start from the bottom or the top. Communism does not support America's idea of opportunity.