Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:00:01 -0500
From:         Max Becherer <becherer@SUNA0.CS.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Re: Vietnam Insight

    In defense of Vietnam Insight...

>While there are certainly no strictures against the practice, I certainly
>have to question the use of this medium for blatantly self-serving
>propaganda of the kind served up by "Vietnam Insight."  There is nothing
 ^^^^^^^^^^
     If Vietnam Insight were pro-Hanoi, would it still be "blatently
 self-serving propaganda" ?

>inherently "heroic" about dropping leaflets from airplanes with
>unsolicited messages calling on the population below to rise up against
>their government.  In this country (USA), the law expressly forbids this
 ^^^^^
     Excuse me, but you are operating on the mistaken assumption that the
 Hanoi regime is a legitimate government which has the right to rule the
 Vietnamese people.  The truth is, it is not "their" government, no more so
 than the junta in Burma is the Burmese people's government.  The Hanoi
 regime is a typical totalitarian police state. There is no right to protest,
 no freeedom of speech, no due process, no free elections, no accountability
 to the people.  People in Vietnam are imprisoned, tortured  or killed for
 not supporting Communist rule in Vietnam.  Read Orwell's 1984 for further
 details.

   Oh, by the way...
     If Ly Tong were an ANC member dropping leaflets in Pretoria, would you
 still be so critical ?  (Or an FMLN member in San Salvador, etc.)

>kind of behavior, although the CIA has frequently been found instigating
>uprisings elsewhere.
>
>However, one has to ask what "Vietnam Insight" actually stands for.  Cer-
>tainly the dictatorial regimes of Diem, Ky, Thieu and the other puppets of
>the U.S. government in Vietnam were among the worst human rights violators

      Yes, the South Vietnamese governments were corrupt and oppressive,
 these facts played a major role in their downfall.  Unfortunately, the
 current Communist regime is far, far worse than any of the South Vietnamese
 governments ever were.

>of the 20th century, murdering and torturing tens of thousands of civilians
>who opposed foreign intervention in their country.  It seems rather obvious
>that not many people, with the exception "Vietnam Insight," would be
>nostalgic for these exiled reactionaries.  History is replete with examples
>of "democratic" imposters, waiting their turn to reinstall the ancien regime
>and the caste system of the bygone "golden era."

      True, Vietnamese (VN Insight included) look on the old South VN
 leaders with a jaundiced eye.  But the lion's share of their scorn is
 for the Communists who are currently brutalizing Vietnam.

      Don't you have anything to say about Communist atrocities in Vietnam ?
 Atrocities which are going on as we speak ?  Or doesn't the suffering of the
 Vietnamese people today count for anything ?

      I have read most of Vietnam Insight's postings, as well as the printed
 version of the newsletter.  Vietnam Insight does NOT want a return to the
 corrupt regimes of the past.  Like all truly patriotic Vietnamese, they want
 freedom and democracy for their people and country.  These goals are
 incompatable with continued Communist rule in Vietnam.

>Anyone interested in airplane drops like the one described by "Vietnam
>Insight" propagandists should take a look at the CIA comic book, reproduced
>by Grove Press in NY, that was dropped on and intended to destabilize the
>Nicaraguan govt. several years ago.  The CIA publication is called "Freedom
>Fighters' Manual" and is little more than a primer on urban terrorism.
>I have no doubt that "Vietnam Insight" is inspired by if not funded by the
        ^^^^^^^^
>same camp.

      You have "no doubt" ?  And on what do you base this ridiculous
 accusation ?  Oh, I see... anyone who opposes Communism is a CIA Fascist.
 Just listen to yourself!  Making wild and unsubstantiated accusations like
 that, you sound just like a McCarthyist!

      Look, I don't know who you are, or what your agenda is.  I know you
 support the regime in Hanoi.  I'd like to know why, as any objective
 examination of the facts clearly shows there to be no grounds to support
 that regime.  It is nothing more than a brutal tin-horn dictatorship whose
 mandate to rule comes from the barrel of a gun. It is also a modern dinosaur
 whose days are numbered.


Refer comments, suggestions, flames to

                 Max Becherer    becherer@cs.uiuc.edu

       Nothing Evil lasts forever -- the Future belongs to the Free.
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