From: ttran@cv3000.Prime.COM (T. Tran)
Subject: DIALOGUE/An Epilogue
Originator: anh@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Organization: SCV Relay
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 20:19:08 GMT

[  Quite a few responses to my CALL FOR A DIALOGUE, instead of taking   ]
[  issues with my analysis of the situation of SVN, focus entirely on   ]
[  the evils of the other side. Let me try to address that aspect of    ]
[  it in the folowing posting to help shed some light on the issues     ]
[  under discussion.                                                    ] 

 

There is NO DOUBT that the VNese communists wiped out all oppositions
in NVN and then SVN after 1975. It was the kind of policy that came
straight from the nature of Communist doctrines. 

It's not my intention to defend Communism in VN: Lord knows anyone who 
looks at what happened in Eastern Europe can say with certainty that as 
far as a revolutionary ideology for the Third World, communism is quickly
disappearing into the dust bin of history. 
(But that is not to say the issues RAISED by the spreading of movements
 for national independence earlier have been resolved.)

My intention in calling for a dialogue is for us to all review what 
happened on OUR side, why was it that we lost. For unless we come to
an understanding of that period of our history, we will not be able to
start on a new journey. There was an old saying , "Know thyself ...". 

As for all the EVILS of communisms, we can devote as much ink to them
as we care to, but it won't explain why we lost. 

Fate is always a possible answer, "Va^.n khu+' anh hu`ng a^?m ha^.n dda",
but it's, for me, too much of an easy way out.

I fully understand the bitterness and hatred of communism from those of 
us who had lived through the post-1975, witnessed and sufferred the
indignity and persecution of "the victors", of those SVNese soldiers who
had to survive, if just barely, the treatment meted out to them in the
"reeducation camps". Who among all of us, Vietnamese in this country,
had not been personally touched by tragedies that befell ourselves, our
loved ones, or our close friends and neighbors ?

As I've said elsewhere:

*>> The point that I am trying to make is this:
*>>
*>> - The war is over, and we have lost.
*>>   Let's face up to the facts, understand WHY we lost, not the why's
*>>   based upon all the fictions that had been dinned into our heads in
*>>   SVN, but the why's based on a realistic, factual understanding of
*>>   history, regardless of how painful and unsettling it might be.
*>>   (See Jeffrey Race's journey of discovery above.)

*>> - Only by doing that that we have the right information to come up
*>>   with the right solution for the future of Vietnam.
*>>   Otherwise we will keep ourselves forever buried in a sea of
*>>   bitterness and recriminations, trying to REFIGTH THE WAR WITH ALL
*>>   THE TOOLS AND ATTITUDES THAT CAUSED US TO LOSE THE WAR IN THE FIRST
*>>   PLACE !

There are 70 million VNese in VN. Most of them are barely able to eke
out an existence. I don't believe any of them want to refight the war,
esp. another war involved foreign intervention under whatever disguise.

I believe most of them want a government that will allow freer associations
and activities of all kinds.

I believe most of them want the government to respect the Buddhist church,
the genuine Buddhist church, those who throughout the entire history of 
VN, from the Ngo, Le, Ly, Tran dynasties to the present time, have always
identified themselves with the welfare of the people and the fate of the 
nation. The fact that they are now either in prison or relegated to the
bottom rung of society, IS A TESTIMONY TO THAT GREAT and ILLUSTRIOUS
TRADITION, not one time ever violated in two thousand years of VNese 
recorded history. 

And most of all I believe that they all want a better life: they don't want 
to be strangled economically and diplomatically by the superpowers of the
world, who, in the entire history of VN, have never paid much attention to
the interests of the VNese people.

If we can agree on an analysis of the past, and a goal for the future,
then maybe we can discuss the best ways to achieve the dream of every
VNese, whatever labels they may call themselves -- AN INDEPENDENT, PROSPEROUS,
FREE, AND DEMOCRATIC VIETNAM. 

May the death of over five million VNese on the battlefields and in prisons
in the last hundred years guide us, provide us with the wisdom to settle
our differences, to have trust in the sincerity and seriousness of each
other's intention, and work together for the future of VN.

For the sake of the Vietnamese people, whose misfortune it was to inhabit
a land that every power in the world desired to subjugate.
For the sake of the Vietnamese ancient culture, that very culture that
has bound every Vietnamese together for over four thousand years, allowing
VN to exist and prosper as an independent nation with an incredibly rich 
and moving treasure of literature, arts, and history.
NOT for the sake of any ideology, any self-interest group, or any foreign agenda.


For all temporal powers will come to dust, regardless of how machiavellian
and powerful. It's, in the end, only the flower of a culture -- the care
and loving for each other, the struggle for what is just and right -- that
is ultimately important, that will ultimately last. History will neither 
record nor remember those who by circumstances achieve power at a moment,
but forget to use it for the benefit of the whole people -- those who
have always born the worst in war and received the least in peace. 


T. Tran
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