From: ttran@cv3000.Prime.COM (T. Tran)
Subject: [POL] CALL FOR A DIALOGUE
Originator: anh@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Organization: SCV Relay
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 09:33:53 GMT



                       A CALL FOR A GENUINE DIALOGUE



One thing stands out in reading various postings on SCV is that everyone truly
wishes to see the development of a Prosperous, Free, Democratic Vietnam. But
there seems to be no consensus as how to achieve it.

Briefly, people express supports for two or three major approaches:

1/ Overthrow the current Communist regime in VN, establishes a NEW
   non-communist government. This is to be done with the active support
   of the U.S governement.

2/ Demand/Pressure the Communist Party to dissolve itself, create a new 
   Democratic Alliance to take over. This is to be done with the help of
   pressure applied by the U.S government.

3/ Insist on isolating the Communist government of VN, boycott it until
   it's overthrown or becomes self-destruct. This is to be done with
   full support from the U.S government.

 
I have serious problems with these three approaches, not because there is
anything wrong with their "high-minded" intentions, but because they simply
do not work. Not only that, they may end up hurting the very people that we
profess to care about, the Vietnamese who live in VN.

I'll try to explain where I'm coming from, hoping for a genuine exchanges of
ideas of all who care for the future of VN. I sincerely hope that those who
contribute will condemn all "ad hominem" attacks. We're, after all, perfectly
free to maintain our positions, wrongly or rightly. And if it's a "Free,
Democratic" VN that we're working for, shouldn't we practice it among ourselves
first ? If we cannot maintain a civil, rational discourse in an environment
like this, this "land of the free and home of the brave", how can we expect to 
create what we don't have somewhere else ?
 

I'll discuss the following topics:

1/ Who are we ?

2/ The Challenges of History
   We can choose to believe in our own myths, but history has a record.
   If we insist on imposing our myths on others, we cannot expect to convince
   anyone, except those who are predisposed to our own illusions.

3/ Where do we go from here ?


1/ WHO ARE WE ? 


We're part of about 850K Vietnamese who live in the U.S, most as refugees
from the Communist government of VN. Most of us grew up in South VN, living
through the regimes of Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu. Both these regimes,
although outwardly professed to be sovereign governments, were, however, the
creations of the U.S government, controlled and manipulated by U.S strategic
interest, which was to build a bulwark against international communism,
regardless how much it cost the people of Vietnam.

   This sounds very much like "Communist" propaganda. I grew up in South VN,
and was used to believe in the myth of a "sovereign" SVN -- lock, stock and 
barrel. Unfortunately, for those who review the history of VN in the 1858-1975 
period, that was a fiction, unpalatable as it might be.  


2/ THE CHALLENGES OF HISTORY


   For those who question this, please read the wealth of books in the US
on the origins of the VN War, the secret deliberations of the US National
Security Council, Sihanook's autobiography, etc. 

   The best concise history of this period for me was Huynh Kim Khanh's 
"Vietnamese Communism, 1925-1945", published by Cornell University Press. 

   For those who still believe in the causes of the old SVN, let's review
together a few facts:

   - The Diem government inherited the entire security and admistrative 
apparatus of the former French colonial administration. All former resistance 
activists, whether communist or not, were searched out for imprisonment 
and neutralization. 

   - With the US as the superpower protector, the Diem government refused to 
carry out the provisions of the Geneva Agreement that required a national
election to be held in 1956 for the US knew that in such an election, Ho
Chi Minh would certainly win. (Had the election taken place, there would 
have been NO VN War, NO division of North/South VN, and NO boat people !). 
 
   - Nguyen van Thieu himself, as were most of the upper echelons of the VN
army in its early days, was trained by the French, as part of the colonial army
to terrorize and control the Vietnamese population. The colloquial term in those
days was "ddi li'nh cho Ta^y."

   All of these, of course, DO NOT excuse the failures of the Communist Party
after 1975 in creating such MASSIVE resentments / fear /and loss of any hope
for the future that precipated the exodus of Vietnamese from VN. It took 11 
years, until 1986, for the Communist Party to officially acknowledge the grave
mistakes it had made. 

   But at the same time, it gives us, those Vietnamese from South VN, no right 
to claim the self-righteous mantle of Vietnamese independence. On the
contrary, if we try to look at the events of the last 100 years objectively,
we've to acknowledge that despite our professed intentions, we might have been
a party to the wrong side of history. That certainly calls for a measure of
humility. 

   We can dream of an independent SVN under the protection of the U.S, but 
let's not be surprised if the Communists take a dim view of such illusion.
Based upon the history of the creation of SVN, we certainly cannot blame them
for being somewhat skeptical, if not downright incredulous.  

  If we look at VNese history, filled with epic stories of victory against 
powerful foreign invaders, from the Trung Sisters, General Ly Thuong Kiet,
General Ngo Quyen, General Tran Hung Dao, Quang Trung, etc., we have to admit 
that there was only one time our forefather invited foreign troops into VN.
It was Le Chieu Thong, the infamous traitor to his people. 

  Well, history has a way of repeating itself. It was General Giap who led the
battle that expelled the French from VN, forever and ever, regaining the nation's
honors that had been sullied by a century of French exploitation. And you know
who invited the American troops into SVN ! (Had President Kennedy not been
assasinated, history might have been different !). 

  And again, it was the Communists that taught China a lesson. (I remembered 
the myth I was taught in SVN that North VN was just a satellite of China
and Russia. What a satellite !)

  For those who dream of overthrowing the government of VN with the help of
the U.S or China, have we become so oblivious to the lessons of history that 
we want to subject the people of VN once more to the yoke of foreign manipulation ? 
It was not because of cowardice that millions of Americans stood up to 
agitate against the War in Vietnam. They understood the real reasons behind 
the war, and wanted no part of it (cf. "The Pentagon Papers"). Let's not 
subject the people of VN once again to more misery and unspeakable horror,
in the name of naivete and misplaced self-righteousness.

  What moral right should a nation have when it had knowingly supported the 
French colonial government to continue its plunder and rape of the Vietnamese 
people ?

  What moral right should a nation have when it had dropped more bombs on
a small country like VN than three times of all the bombs dropped in World War
II ?  In the entire history of the Vietnamese people, has any Vietnamese
committed any crime against the American people ? Has anny Vietnamese
destroyed American farms, massacred American civilians, or attempted to
control its destiny ?

  What moral right should a nation have when its own governemnt had deceived
its own people (cf. President Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin incident) in order to 
manufacture a pretext to intervene in the affairs of another sovereign country 
in the name of an aggrieved party ?

  What moral right should a nation have when it had consistently supported
or helped put into power the worst violators of human rights (the Shah of
Iran, the Somosa of Nicaragua, the Batista of Cuba, the Pinoche of Chile,
the Marcos of the Philippines, the apartheid regime of South Africa, etc.) ?

  And how do we look in the eyes of Vietnamese history, when we keep
invoking the mighty power of our foreign master to browbeat the Vietnamese
into submission ? If we have grievances with the Communists, then by all
means pick a fight with them, endeavour to create changes in VN, but as
Vietnamese among Vietnamese, not calling on some alien power in the manner
of Le Chieu Thong, "co~ng ra('n ca('n ga` nha`".


3/ WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE ?

 
  As Vietnamese American, we have a great opportunity to influence American
policy in a more humanistic direction, but with due respect to Vietnam as a
sovereign country. As a community, we have tremendous potential to be a force
both for good and evil. The 1945-1975 period had been a painful journey for
all of us, which was and still remains a source of great personal tragedy and
unrelenting anguish. 

  But we cannot hope to effectively CONTRIBUTE to the rebuilding of Vietnam,
to HELP in preserving and bringing to full power the best of its ancient
cultural heritage without a factual understanding of history, regardless
how painful it might be to us personally. 

  As Vietnamese American, it would be our right, just as the right of other
ethnic groups, to maintain and develop a close relationship with the country
of our origin. But we have to acknowledge that with the march of time, the
destiny of Vietnam lies with the Vietnamese in Vietnam, not with us. To think
that we, a motley band of oversea Vietnamese, will have the superior wisdom
to set the path for sixty million Vietnamese inside Vietnam, I think, is an
arrogant attitude of the highest order, bordering on lunacy. Vietnam has 
existed for thousands of years when it has faced and managed to render powerless 
all the colonial superpowers of the world. So, thank you very much, for all 
your concerns and solicitous guidance on how they should decide their destiny,
especially when most of your guidance is unabashedly based on the benevolent
intention of a foreign power, whose foreign policy in the areas has been proved
to be far from a spectacular success. 


  In summary, I think as Vietnamese, we have every right to contribute to the
creation of a Prosperous, Free, and Democratic Vietnam. There are many aspects
of Communism that have to be fought and discarded. But we should work towards
that goal with full awareness of the dimension of history. We should acknowledge
those who have sacrificed everything they have to maintain the independence
of the country. Dialogue can only begin when we give up certain illusions
about ourselves and others. It requires a change of perspective, which is
always painful, for it's much more comfortable to hold on to our illusions
and self-righteousness. 


  For to be absolutely secure in the righteousness of our cause, and the total
immorality of others, we do not have to make any changes and face any unpleasant
facts. We, however, will also lose the opportunity to find a common ground
with others, a ground that is based on the shared facts of history, the heritage
of the eternal struggle of human beings in the search for a life of dignity
and meaning, free from the dictates of others, regardless of how powerful and
tempting their offers of "collaboration" may be.   


I'll leave you with the two excerpts from Huynh Kim Khanh's study:


     Between the "obstinate minority [that] places itself above the
     law, using criminal means such as murder, assasination, and 
     rebellion," and the country, there was only a matter of violence.
     But "since violence of France is always impartial and vigilant:
     it will strike hard, and also strike at the right place." (p. 97)

In the words enclosed in quotes "nha` Dda.i Tri' Thu+'c" Pham Quynh was
referring to the revolt of Nguyen Thai Hoc at Yen Bai. He placed his
faith totally in the benevolent intention of his French master and warned
all Vietnamese patriots against rebelling against France. Fortunately
for the history of Vietnam, only those of his ilk listened.
 

And the following belonged to Nguyen Van Vinh, another intellectual 
giant in the literature I was taught in South Vietnam:

     "Among the many possible approaches, our people today should follow
      only one ideology: the Franco-Vietnamese ideology. Since we are 
      so fortunate to have Great France as our master, let us try to hang
      on to our French master. Let us concentrate on our livelihood and
      our studies. Those scoundrels who encourage stupid things, if
      arrested, should be put into a wicker basket and rolled into the
      river (bo? ro. la(n so^ng)."                              (p. 41)


For the sake of the next generation, let's not use the opportunity to have
a great education in this wonderful country of ours -- the U.S.A -- to become
the Pham Quynh's and Nguyen van Vinh's of the 1990's.


T. Tran