From: davidto@fxgrp.fx.com (David M To)
Subject: Let us write for Vietnam
Organization: FXD/Telerate, Mountain View, CA
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 01:33:02 GMT




			Ha~y vie^'t cho Vie^.t Nam


Thu"a ca'c ba.n,

The two biggest obstacles to a Free and Democratic Vietnam is:

   1) Human rights and
   2) Political pluralism in Vietnam.

Increasingly all around me, I see and read too many articles, commentaries,
and editorials all complaining about the too slow pace of normalization, all 
favoring rapid normalization with Vietnam.  This view is exactly the view the 
Hanoi government wants to project onto the American way of thinking.  
The Hanoi regime successfully preached anti-war sentiment in the 60s and they 
are doing it again effectively in the 90s with the theme of anti-embargo.  

And I am realizing that our cries for human rights in Vietnam are not heard 
in all of the editorial pages of all the newspapers in America and the world.  
And I also see that in all of these pro-normalization articles, not one, 
discuss human rights tragedy in Vietnam.  

Dear friends,

Let us write for Vietnam.

I urge all of you to write to the editors of magazines or newspapers if you 
see any commentary or editorial which favor rapid normalization without
discussing the human rights tragedy in Vietnam.  Let the Americans see the 
other side of the normalization issue.  Let the Americans see the other
face of Hanoi.  Let the Americans hear our voices and in the process hear 
their own voices that we want human rights to be discussed in the road 
map to normalization.


Lets pick up our pen and lets our American friends not forget:

  - the current oppressive human rights record in Vietnam;

Lets pick up our pen and lets our American friends not forget:

  - that the current Vietnamese police network routinely jail conscience 
    prisoners: literature figures, religious figures, and all political 
    disidents;

Lets pick up our pen and lets our American friends not forget:

  - the plight of refugees fleeing the dictatative Hanoi regime and countless
    human being who lost their lives in their journey to freedom;

Lets pick up our pen and lets our American friends not forget:

  - thousands and thousand of South Vietnamese perished in "re-education camp", 
    a Vietnamese Goulag;


Should America normalize with a nation that has consistently gone back on 
her words?  Should America normalize with a nation that barbarically
confiscate all personal properties of its middle class citizen and forcefully 
relocate its citizen to barren lands during its Anti-bourgeois Revolution in 
78-79?  Will American investments be safe?  Should America normalize with a 
nation that consistently side with terrorist-condoning nations of Lybia, Iraq, 
North Korea and Syria?  Should America normalize with a nation that denies its 
own citizen basic human rights?

Ngu"o".c la.i nhu"~ng hu"'a he.n cu?a nhu"~ng ba`i vie^'t thu'c dda^?y
bi`nh thu"o"`ng hoa' quan he^. giu"~a Hoa Ky` va` Vie^.t Nam, mo^.t gia ddi`nh 
kho^ng the^? co' a^'m no, mo^.t dda^'t nu"o"'c kho^ng the^? co' thi.nh 
vu"o".ng, ne^'u ngu"o"`i da^n kho^ng co' nha^n quye^`n.  The refugee dilemma 
and humanitarian issues cannot be self-corrected if human rights are not 
available.  The American government and the American public may not be able to 
do anything about the current political monopoly in VN but the American people 
can and will refuse to normalize with a country which has no human rights.  
We want to see human rights be discussed in the road map to normalization.
Let us add another phase to the four-phase road map: let us add human rights
to 67 million citizens of Vietnam.

In the long run, normalization with Vietnam is inevitable and, indeed, desired.
However we want it on our terms: the terms of human rights.  Our cause is
not lost, we still have time.  But we must act decisively, we must act now.


Thu"a ca'c ba.n,

Ha~y ca^`m bu't le^n va` vie^'t cho Vie^.t Nam.