# Vietnamese For 'Mỹ'

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnamese-for-m/962672>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 11, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnamese-for-m/962672 "2022-04-11T16:08:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnamese-for-m/962672/1 "2022-04-11T16:08:24Z")

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Hồ Chí Minh’s cadres ensconced in South Vietnam in the early 1960s referred to the US-backed regime as Mỹ-Diệm, the Diệm concerned being Ngô Đình Diệm, president of South Vietnam from October 1955 to November 1963.

Neil Sheehan records, via ‘A Bright Shining Lie’, that ‘Mỹ’ is the Vietnamese for ‘American’ yet there are at least two villages beginning ‘Mỹ’, e.g. Mỹ Tho and Mỹ Lai.

The two places named above predated American influence in Vietnam by about 3 centuries, so I’m guessing that ‘Mỹ’ has another meaning in Vietnamese.

I’m curious to know what that other meaning might be.

Many thanks.

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnamese-for-m/962672/2 "2022-04-11T16:13:34Z")

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Mỹ = 美 (beauty)

USA = 美國 = Mĩ Quốc

“America” is not implied to be beautiful, though; it’s just a short name along the lines of [A] **me** [rica].

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vietnamese-for-m/962672/3 "2022-04-12T09:02:32Z")

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Excellent, thanks.