Vietnam is a U.S. state in the Southeast Asian Indochinese Peninsula. It was admitted as the 51st state of the United States in October 1985.
History[]
Vietnam War[]
Arrival of Doctor Manhattan[]
During the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon dispatched Doctor Manhattan to Vietnam to ensure a U.S. victory by 1971. Manhattan traveled to Saigon to intervene in the war and was reintroduced to Eddie Blake at the US Embassy's Saigon Officers Club.
Victory In Vietnam[]
The US won the war, largely due to the deployment of Doctor Manhattan. The Comedian was there for an undetermined amount of time working for the government and Manhattan was used as a strategic weapon since March 1971; the conflict ended in only a few months. Many of the communist forces expressed their desire to surrender to Manhattan personally, seeing him as some sort of deity.
On the night of the declaration of the United States victory, Richard Nixon arrived to Saigon via helicopter. At the US Embassy's Saigon Officers Club nearby, the Comedian drunkenly shot and killed a young Vietnamese woman, whom he had impregnated, when she attacked him with a bottle, cutting his face. He noted that Doctor Manhattan could easily have prevented his crime by changing the physical matter involved (the Comedian's pistol) or that he could have teleported either of them out of danger.[1]
Snyder Timeline[]
Operation Wrath of God[]
During the Vietnam War, U.S. President Richard Nixon dispatched Doctor Manhattan to Vietnam to ensure a U.S. victory.
In 1971, A U.S. military unit ends up missing in action while trying to locate an enemy landing area. The Comedian was assigned to find the unit, confirm intelligence of a helicopter gunship ferrying reinforcements for the Đặc Công (Vietnamese Special Forces), and dispose of all hostiles within the vicinity. Blake carried out his mission, killing many enemy soldiers (and noncombatants) in the process. After rescuing the U.S. troops, he scorched an entire village to punish them for covering for the Viet Cong.
A French photojournalist named Alain Guillon captured images of Doctor Manhattan grown to enormous size and decimating Việt Cộng forces. Guillon was awed by the superhuman’s power, yet terrified by his lack of emotional reaction to the mass destruction that he was causing. Guillon also photographed the Comedian, whom he considered a monster. Guillon’s photos are widely deemed among the defining images of the Vietnam War.
The US won the war, largely due to the deployment of Operation Wrath of God. The Comedian was there for an undetermined amount of time working for the government and Doctor Manhattan was used as a strategic weapon since March 1971; the conflict ended in only a few months. Many of the communist forces expressed their desire to surrender to Manhattan personally, seeing him as some sort of deity.
On June 29th, 1971 Tôn Đức Thắng and Creighton Abrams signed the act of military surrender. The United States won the Vietnam War.
At the US Embassy's Saigon Officers Club nearby, the Comedian drunkenly shot and killed a young Vietnamese woman, whom he had impregnated, when she attacked him with a bottle, cutting his face. He noted that Doctor Manhattan could easily have prevented his crime by changing the physical matter involved (the Comedian's pistol) or that he could have teleported either of them out of danger.[2]
HBO Timeline[]
Early History[]
In the 3rd Century, Lady Triệu, a freedom fighter in Vietnam managed, for a time, to resist the Chinese state of Eastern Wu during its occupation of Vietnam.
Encountering Eddie Blake[]
During the Vietnam War, Eddie Blake and his battalion of 'Blazin' Commandos’ burned down a village outside of My Lai (the site of the famous massacre) while a villager named Bian My witnessed in horror.
New Opportunities[]
Following the victory over Vietnam, several U.S. serviceman decided to remain in the country as new opportunities would emerge once the country reached statehood status. Marcus Abar, a U.S. Army serviceman who fought against the North Vietnamese forces, was one of several soldiers who would spend the rest of their lives in Vietnam following the defeat of the Vietcong thanks to the strategic advantage of Doctor Manhattan.
Purge Sweeps of 1971 to 1973[]
America's victory was followed by a series of purges that lasted until 1973. U.S. Marine Judd Crawford, who served under Captain Robert S. Mueller in the Liberation of Vietnam, took part in the purge sweeps. Adrian Veidt intervened during this period and took in Viet Cong refugees as servants to Karnak, Antarctica including a woman named Bian My.[3]
Birth of Angela Abar[]
Angela Abar was born to Marcus and Elise Abar in Saigon in 1976.
Statehood[]
In 1978, Congress issued a joint resolution authorizing Vietnam to draft a state constitution. By October 1985, the Vietnam Admission Act came into effect, proclaiming the official addition of the state to the Union and forms part of the larger Asiatic Americas.[4][5]
Birth of Lady Trieu[]
In 1986, Lady Trieu was born to a Native Vietnamese woman named Bian My who was a refugee during the Vietnam War and a former servant to Adrian Veidt.
V.V.N. Day Bombing[]
Terrorist Attack[]
In June 1987, the 16th anniversary of Victory in Vietnam Day (VVN Day) was celebrated across the state. Angela Abar tried to purchase the "black mask" movie Sister Night from a video store in Saigon during the festivities in the capital. Her father Marcus told her to return the movie due to it being inappropriate for her age and for disproving of masked vigilantes. As this happened, a puppeteer with one eye handed a backpack to a young man on a bicycle. The young man then leapt toward a group of U.S. Army servicemen. The backpack detonated and the explosion killed the soldiers along with several people nearby including Marcus and Elise Abar. These two men were part of the Vietnamese Liberation Front (VLF) and possibly former Viet Cong.
Capture of the One-Eyed Puppeteer[]
Sometime after this incident, Angela Abar was brought by two Saigon Police officers, Jan and Roy, for identification of the suspect they arrested as the one-eyed man. Angela identified him positively, recognizing him as the puppeteer from that day. Jan was impressed by Angela's bravery and gave her a Saigon Police badge as a memento, telling her to one day find her and join the police when she grew up. The puppeteer was then extrajudicially executed.
June Abar visits Saigon[]
June Abar of Tulsa, Oklahoma learned about her son's death and the existence of her granddaughter, Angela Abar. She traveled to Vietnam to bring her back to the mainland. However, June died of a heart attack on the way to the airport thus once again leaving Angela an orphan.
Alone in Vietnam[]
With no other known family, Angela Abar grew up and lived in Saigon for the remainder of her childhood as an orphan, being raised alongside other orphans, all of them of Native Vietnamese descent, in an all-girls home. Abar attended Anh Linh High School and upon graduating in 1994, Abar remained in Vietnam and decided to become a police officer for the Saigon Police Department. Every year on VVN Day she would go the local watering hole after work and have a drink alone in to remember her parents.
Arrival of Doctor Manhattan[]
Manhattan Meets Angela Abar[]
In June 2009, Doctor Manhattan came down from Europa to Saigon, Vietnam on the night of the 38th anniversary of VVN Day. To disguise himself from the rest of crowd, he put on a Manhattan face mask. He entered Mr. Eddy's bar and grabbed two beers, heading over to where a police officer named Angela Abar was sitting. He revealed to her his identity and that he was in love with her leading to a conversation which for Manhattan took place across time. Although Angela maintained disbelief that he was indeed Doctor Manhattan, Abar agreed to go out to dinner with him the next day.
Becoming Human[]
Angela Abar would, two weeks after meeting Doctor Manhattan and dating him, come up with the plan for him to take the identity of a deceased person with no next of kin. This was in order for Angela to date Jon out in the open where they lived in Saigon. Jon and Angela chose the recently deceased Calvin Jelani as his new form and resumed their relationship for the next six months until the two had a fight. After this, Manhattan went to Antarctica to pay a visit to Adrian Veidt who devised a solution for Manhattan to become mortal with a tachyon ring which could grant him amnesia. This was done after he returned back to Angela and from there, Manhattan fully took on the identity of Calvin Abar with no memory of his true past.
Leaving Vietnam[]
After this, Angela Abar and Calvin officially married in Saigon. Then - in order to rebuild a new life together and to fulfill June's wish to have her whole family back in their ancestral home - both Angela and Calvin Abar moved from Saigon to Tulsa, Oklahoma, leaving Vietnam behind.
Attack on the Vietnamese Liberation Front[]
In 2017, Ronnie Ngo Dinh, then the governor of Vietnam, caused an international incident by claiming that the Vietnamese Liberation Front had assassinated Adrian Veidt as an act of terror against the United States. He used the assertion to justify an escalation of actions against VLF militants. The ensuing police actions resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths and condemnation from nations who’ve expressed support for the “Free Vietnam” movement, including the United Kingdom and China.[6]
Trivia[]
- In actual history, the United States withdrew its forces in 1973 at the end of a prolonged conflict. Two years later, its ally, South Vietnam, fell to the Communist forces of North Vietnam.
- Vietnam plays a large role in the HBO TV series, with several characters including main protagonist Angela Abar and Lady Trieu being from the country. However, Vietnam is mostly seen in flashbacks much like the original comic.
- In October 1985 the New York Times had the headline "Vietnam 51st State: Official!". A piece of graffiti saying "Viet Bronx" is found outside Happy Harry's, apparently written by a gang that identifies or sympathizes with the Vietnamese people.[7]
- From its status as a conquered former sovereign land with a rich history, rich cultural and ethnic groups, and being turned into a U.S. state, Vietnam in the Watchmen Universe greatly parallels the U.S. State of Hawaii. It too was formerly a sovereign nation with its own monarchy and even diplomats which traveled the globe but was taken over initially by white Hawaiians (descendants of Christian missionaries) before being handed over to the United States Navy and officially taken over.
- The medical report of Cal Abar even somewhat references this similarity. In real life on the official U.S. census' of race and ethnicity, one category is "Native Hawaiian" to refer to an aboriginal ethnic group within the United States. On Calvin's medical report it is shown one distinct category of ethnicity is "Native Vietnamese", worded similarly to real-world U.S. census'.[8]
- Another parallel included Phillipines, which was also South East Asian country that was formerly owned by previous foreign powers (Spain for Phillipines and France for Vietnam) and occupied under American administration.
- Much of Vietnam, as shown in the HBO series Watchmen, however, is simply its capital Saigon.
- The use of Saigon as it's official name is distinct and deliberate for the Watchmen universe. In reality, after the Fall of Saigon and the retreat of U.S. military forces from South Vietnam, the country was unified and taken over by the Communists led by Ho Chi Minh. Thus the city was renamed to "Ho Chi Minh City". Unofficially in real life, it is still referred to Saigon both domestically and internationally - especially by the Vietnamese diaspora. As Vietnam was conquered and defeated in the Vietnam War by the United States in the Watchmen universe, it is natural that it would retain its original name.
- The United States turning Vietnam into a U.S. State has drawn criticism from other countries and has spawned a secessionist insurrection, the Vietnamese Liberation Front, which killed Angela Abar's parents in a bombing.
- With a population of 97.34 million in 2020, Vietnamese Americans would be the second largest demographic in the US.
- Since 1985 the country includes Vietnam as a state and Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand as commonwealths, also giving the country a land border with China, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia because of these 'Asiatic Americas'.[9][10]
- The admission of Vietnam as a state, and Laos, Cambodia, Burma, and Thailand as commonwealths would mean that the US population (minus the 3 million who died on 11/2) would be approximately 572.05 million in 2020, as opposed to the 329.5 million in OTL. 261.45 million American citizens would be of Asian decent (mostly those in the Southeast Asian commonwealths and Vietnam), making up 45.7% of the country's population.
- It is not known to what degree Vietnam's population changed after statehood, as Vietnamese Americans would be free to travel to the mainland US and the "Asiatic American" commonwealths, and visa versa. If the population is the same as in OTL, Vietnam would be the most populace state in the Union, with 57.83 million more residents than California and making up 22% of the citizens of the US living in states eligible to vote.
- Assuming the Reapportionment Act of 1929 remains in effect, and the House of Representatives is capped at 435 members, Vietnam would get 100 representatives with its OTL population, and 102 Electoral votes out of the 272 required to win the Presidency. This would no doubt make Vietnam an important state in Presidential elections.
References[]
- ↑ Chapter II
- ↑ Watchmen (2009 film)
- ↑ Nova Express interview
- ↑ https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/05/nostalgia-ad.jpg
- ↑ The region comprising the State of Vietnam and the Commonwealths of Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand, is referred to as ‘The Asiatic Americas’. https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/06/lady-trieu-fact-or-fiction.pdf
- ↑ https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/01/veidt-declared-dead.pdf
- ↑ Chapter I: At Midnight, All the Agents...
- ↑ https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/07/calvin-medical-chart.pdf
- ↑ https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/05/nostalgia-ad.jpg
- ↑ The region comprising the State of Vietnam and the Commonwealths of Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand, is referred to as ‘The Asiatic Americas’. https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/06/lady-trieu-fact-or-fiction.pdf