Growing up in the US, I always thought the Vietnamese flag was yellow with three horizontal red stripes. It wasn't until much later that I realized that that was actually the flag of Việt Nam Cộng Hoà, or the flag of the Republic of Vietnam. This flag is still widely used amongst Vietnamese people who fled the country after the Viet Minh won the war. The flag became symbolic of democracy and freedom.
The official flag though, is red with a star in the middle. The red represents the blood of the people, the yellow is the skin color of the people, and each point of the star represents a different class. The five classes are intellectuals, farmers, workers, business people, and military personnel. While what flag is used does not seem important to me, this is a huge contentious point for the older generation who lived through the war. To some people, this flag represents the loss of their country. I vaguely recall being chastise once by a friend's grandpa for wearing a t-shirt bearing the Viet Minh flag on it when I was a kid (it was a souvenir gift from a friend who went to Vietnam on vacation). This is something to think about when conversing with Vietnamese people either living in Vietnam or abroad. After all, the war was only approximately 40 years ago.
https://www.saigonbao.com/co-vang.htm
https://baotiengdan.com/2018/04/09/lich-su-la-co-vang/
http://www.dcvonline.net/2017/07/24/la-co-viet-nam-cong-hoa-van-tung-bay/
http://aocodosaovanghcm.com/y-nghia-va-lich-su-la-co-do-sao-vang.html
https://thoi-nay.com/tnm/y-nghia-la-co-vang-co-quoc-gia-viet-nam/
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