Nguyen Khanh: Quotes about people

Nguyen Khanh was South Vietnamese soldier. Explore interesting quotes on people.

Nguyen Khanh: 40 quotes0 likes

“The boat people, the boat people, in getting out what got in, getting out of South Vietnam, that so called communist paradise and that’s to show enough to the whole world that the communist regime doesn't work in South Vietnam. And maybe if we are in fight now inside in…in…South Vietnam, we will have certainly the support of the general, of the majority, of the population. We never had that thing before. But now, if there is some, something, you know, moving over there, I am almost sure that we have I am sure that we have, the support, the majority of the population.”

Political resentment in contemporary Vietnam
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

“Yeah, we, we uh, we had a march North, movement at that time, in July '64. I prepare at that time the psychology of the South Vietnamese people that maybe we need to go north to answer to the aggression from North Vietnam. You, you cannot defend yourself always to have a defensive plan, you know. Uh…what the…the…one of the uh military principle is you better defend yourself by having an offensive plan.”

Assumption of power and the prospect of a march north
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

“I feel very, very badly and uh I left Saigon…with some of my…soil of the you know Vietnam you know in my hand…I left uh seeing the soldier that I always command, you know, for two decades. Uh…behind. I feel that I missed to bring peace to my people. And I feel that uh maybe the only time that we can have that peace, you know, and have dignity of South Vietnam, the sovereignty, respected by every people and I feel very badly, of course.”

American escalation and forcing out of Nguyen Khanh
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

“I an a political asylum situation here. Legally, I cannot tell that I am making any politics action here. But I always want to be with my people over there. I want to go back to Vietnam, of course, if possible.”

Political resentment in contemporary Vietnam
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

“I put Huong, I put Duong Van Minh like uh…chief of state. I put Huong, I put Quat, Quat on the prime minister role. Anytime we feel that they do not answer, I mean, deal with the situation we change them. They are not a coup. Either Quat, either Huong, or Minh does not come in office with election with the power, with the population, you know. The people give him the mandate to be prime minister, or to be, to be uh chief state. The mandate it coming from the armed forces at that time before we have any constitution, you know, uh set up later on. So, when we change a government it's not a coup. We just change somebody what we just want to put in. That's all.”

Role of the Buddhists as political force in 1964-1965
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

“Now I had the power, I want to realize the goals of the Vietnamese revolution back in 1945. The goals were and still be right now is, they uh, independence, that means national sovereignty, the uh, freedom, and the happiness of the whole population. It was the national aim, strategically, but when I had the power the country was divided in two parts on the 17th parallel, we had insurgency in South Vietnam and I want to uh, how to said it, integrate the Front of Liberation, the non-communist people and the Front of Liberation with me and then uh…to fight the North Vietnamese if at that time, the North Vietnamese do not uh, did not want to have a peaceful solution in North Vietnam, in South Vietnam.”

Assumption of power and the prospect of a march north
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

“The French Colonial, you know…did not export too much their ideal of d—of democracy outside of the French frontier. Now, with the American people, you export too much your democracy and your…freedom, you know, all that, your way of life and you want to impose that uh in the country like Vietnam, it doesn — it doesn’t, it cannot work. But, in some way, we better adapt and not adopt what you have.”

Evaluation of democracy and the American presence in the South
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)

“Very much! China presents Vietnam with a very big problem. China is taking over Vietnam, from Cholon, where there are rich Chinese, to Haiphong. They are everywhere now with their product. My wife is from the North, people there resent China more than the South feared the Viet Cong. The Chinese are invaders — like any other foreigners — to fight. We must stop the Chinese. You know the dikes built on the Red River? If they break, what happens? A flood!”

2000s, A Bag of Earth, A Promise To Keep (2005)

“Look. What happened, that was just business. Personal betrayal I can understand. But never betrayal of one’s people you serve, or your country.”

2000s, A Bag of Earth, A Promise To Keep (2005)

“We, we respect very much what the American want to do uh…but, you know sometime the American way of life and the…uh American democracy maybe uh cannot work in a country like mine, you know, in South Vietnam. Uh…so, we, we can have the principle and adapt that in the country but we cannot adapt what you have here, you know, eh two houses, all that stuff, you know, and changing the president every four year. You have many people here who can be leader of the country. We have a few in Vietnam, a few who can uh you know uh lead the country because education, because the training, because all that uh, background that we must have, you know.”

Evaluation of democracy and the American presence in the South
1980s, Interview with Nguyen Khanh (1981)