Cold War-era maps show the connections that Vietnam had with the socialist world. After the 1949 victory of the Chinese communists under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Việt Minh gained an important ally. Starting in May 1951, supplies from the USSR also began to cross the North Vietnam-China border. Between 1952 and 1954, the Việt Minh received over 100 tonnes of medical supplies and equipment from China and the USSR. The map below shows “Dissident Activities in Indochina” from November 1950. It was produced by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1951 and included in the Pentagon Papers. The Việt Minh were active in the lands bordering China including a region called the Việt Bắc.
Now consider the following map published by the CIA in 1967. While this map presents a topographic view of Northern Vietnam, thus using the language of scientific objectivity, there were at least two important choices to note. First, it reproduces older Sinosphere and regional geographies by linking Northern Vietnam to its northern neighbor. This decision was not accidental, of course, and like earlier regional maps had a military motivation. Starting in 1965, the United States had sent its military to the Republic of Vietnam and began what is known in America as the Vietnam War. During this war, communist China and North Korea sent aid and advisors to North Vietnam. Second, this map notes the population centers of Hanoi and Thai Nguyen and shows them linked by a railroad. Both Hanoi, the capital, and Thai Nguyen, the location of a steel plant, were targets of incessant American bombing.
In this way, the shape of this map was the result of the victories of the Chinese, the North Korean, and the Vietnamese communist parties.
By the 1970s, the National Liberation Front, and its ally the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, could imagine themselves as a world leader of socialist countries. As Che Guevara (1928-1967) said, “what a luminous, near future would be visible to us if two, three, or many Vietnams flourished throughout the world….”
Ramani za enzi ya Vita Baridi zinaonyesha uhusiano ambao Vietnam ilikuwa nao na ulimwengu wa kisoshalisti. Baada ya ushindi wa Kikomunisti wa China chini ya uongozi wa Mao Zedong na kuanzishwa kwa Jamhuri ya Watu wa China (PRC) mnamo 1949, Viet Minh alipata mshirika muhimu. Kuanzia Mei 1951, vifaa kutoka USSR pia vilianza kuvuka mpaka wa Vietnam Kaskazini na China. Kati ya mwaka 1952 na 1954, jeshi la Vietnam lilipokea zaidi ya tani 100 za vifaa vya matibabu kutoka China na Urusi. Ramani hapa chini inaonyesha "Shughuli za Wapinzani katika Indochina" kutoka Novemba 1950. Taarifa hiyo ilitolewa na shirika la ujasusi la Marekani la CIA mwaka 1951 na kuingizwa katika hati za Pentagon. Viet Minh walikuwa wakifanya kazi katika nchi zinazopakana na China ikiwa ni pamoja na mkoa ulioitwa Viet Bắc. Sasa fikiria ramani ifuatayo iliyochapishwa na CIA mwaka 1967. Ingawa ramani hii inatoa mtazamo wa topographic ya Vietnam ya Kaskazini, hivyo kutumia lugha ya kihalisi kisayansi, kulikuwa na angalau uchaguzi mbili muhimu ya kumbuka. Kwanza, inazalisha Sinosphere ya zamani na jiografia za kikanda kwa kuunganisha Vietnam Kaskazini na jirani yake ya kaskazini. Uamuzi huu haukuwa wa bahati mbaya, bila shaka, na kama ramani za zamani za kikanda zilikuwa na nia ya kijeshi. "Kuanzia mwaka 1965, Marekani ilituma jeshi lake katika Jamhuri ya Vietnam na kuanza kile kinachojulikana nchini Marekani kama ""Vita vya Vietnam.""" Wakati wa vita hivyo, China ya Kikomunisti na Korea Kaskazini zilituma msaada na washauri kwa Vietnam Kaskazini. Pili, ramani hii inaonyesha vituo vya watu wa Hanoi na Thai Nguyen na inaonyesha zimeunganishwa na reli. Hanoi, mji mkuu, na Thai Nguyen, mahali pa kiwanda cha chuma, zilikuwa shabaha za mabomu ya Marekani yasiyo na kikomo. Kwa njia hii, umbo la ramani hii lilikuwa matokeo ya ushindi wa chama cha kikomunisti cha China, Korea Kaskazini, na Vietnam. Katika miaka ya 1970, chama cha National Liberation Front (NLF) na chama chake cha Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRC) vilikuwa vikijitambulisha kuwa viongozi wa nchi za kisoshalisti duniani. Kama Che Guevara (1928-1967) alivyosema, <unk>ni wakati ujao mzuri sana, wa karibu ungeonekana kwetu ikiwa Vietnam mbili, tatu, au nyingi zingefanikiwa ulimwenguni kote....<unk>