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Dutch-Vietnamese relations go back as far as the beginning of the seventeenth century. For a long time, relations between the Dutch lion and the Vietnamese dragon have been fragile and even violent. Although the relations were not continuously bad, they remained distant rather than warm. Today Vietnam forms part of our national memory as the scene of one of the bloodiest wars of the twentieth century. Slowly, it now releases itself from its violent past. Almost twenty thousand Vietnamese Dutch have quite successfully integrated in Dutch society. In turn, Vietnam is a much loved holiday destination for many Dutch. Vietnam is no longer a symbol of war, but of spectacular economic growth. As a result the relations between the Netherlands and Vietnam will certainly change in the future. Sources never used before, like the VOC archives and the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the help of an international team of Vietnamese and Dutch historians have laid the foundation of this history of Dutch-Vietnamese relations. Lion and dragon shows that unknown is not always unloved, after all. |
