1970 was a strange time in both Germanys. They were both being ruled by those who had spent much time in exile. For East Germany that meant making large donations to the North’s war effort in Vietnam. This fit the former exiles view of Germany’s need to support internationalists movements that the exiles were a part of. It must have seemed strange to the average East German seeing Ho Chi Minh memorialized and have to pay extra for privilege. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Notice the presentation of Ho Chi Minh as a simple peasant leader. This was wrong. He was a world traveler who had received free to him training in France, the USA, China, and the Soviet Union. So the reality was he bore more of a strong resemblance to Germany’s long exile leaders than the peasants in the rice field.
Todays stamp is issue SP23, a semi postal 25 +5 Pfennig stamp issued by East Germany on September 2nd, 1970. It was a single stamp issue in memorial for Ho Chi Mihn, the Vietnamese leader. The 5 Pfennig extra was a donation to North Vietnam’s war effort. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.
East Germany had been helping the communist North as early as the 1950s. At first it was mostly scholarships for Vietnamese to study in East German Universities. When the war in South East Asia heated up so did East German aid. Germany did not sent combat troops but between 1966-1972 there were usually about 200 members of the East German military in North Vietnam acting as trainers. Where their presence was most felt was allowing the Stasi to organize the North Vietnamese secret police. This force still exists as North Vietnam won the war and the communists never lost power in Vietnam.
Oddly, the East German aid for the secret police sort of backfired. Communists in North Vietnam were divided among those who followed the Soviet Union and those that followed China. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the pro Soviet faction. The secret police were more a tool of the pro Chinese side in the days after the death of Ho Chi Minh in the purging of the pro Soviets.
East Germany was not done helping out Vietnam. In the 1980s there were as many as 59,000 guest workers in East Germany. They were paid 400 Marks a month, of which 50 Marks was paid to the government of Vietnam. After reunification, united Germany tried to get the Vietnamese guest workers to leave. They offered free travel and 3,000 Marks to go home. Most stayed however and their numbers actually rose from Vietnamese guest workers coming in from other eastern European countries.
There was another German involvement in Vietnam wars though it was earlier and on the other side. Many veterans of Germany’s World War II war effort served in the French Foreign Legion post war. Some were from German areas of France that would not be welcome at home post war and some just wanted to continue the struggle against the communists. 37,000 Germans fought with the French Foreign Legion in French Indo China up to the time of the French defeat there in 1954. No stamps for them of course, they were now in exile.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast an American General named Ridgeway. He tried to warn on the futility of getting involved in an Asian land war, but was not listened to. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.