News, 12-14/7/01
hyt...@my-deja.com
HANOI (Reuters, 13/7/01) - Hanoi has denounced a bill submitted to the U.S.
Congress seeking to promote human rights and democracy in Vietnam as "rude
interference" in its internal affairs that would harm bilateral relations.
The bill was submitted on June 28 by a bipartisan group led by New Jersey
Republican Representative Christopher Smith and including California Republican
Dana Rohrabacher and California Democrat Loretta Sanchez.
"These Congressmen are deliberately undermining constantly improved Vietnam-U.S.
ties," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said in a statement carried
in the official media on Friday.
Thanh called the submission of the bill "rude intervention" in Vietnam's
internal affairs and a distortion of the situation in a country in which rights
were guaranteed by the constitution.
"We believe that such draft a resolution is completely harmful to the
development of Vietnam-U.S. relations and will only harm the prestige of the
draft resolution initiators."
Thanh said constitutionally guaranteed rights in Vietnam included freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, freedom to demonstrate, freedom to assemble, and
freedom to follow or not to follow a religious belief.
Human rights groups say such freedoms are not in practice guaranteed.
Vietnam's rights record has been cited as a factor that could complicate
ratification of a historic trade agreement with the United States, although it
is still expected to be approved given broad bipartisan support in the U.S.
Congress.
This agreement is now awaiting approval in the U.S. Congress.
Ties between the United States and Vietnam have warmed steadily since the former
foes established diplomatic ties in 1995, but human rights remain a divisive
issue.
* Sixth company to list on Vietnam's stock exchange
HANOI, Vietnam (AP, 13/7/01) - Vietnam's Saigon Hotel Joint Stock Co. will debut
on the country's stock market on Monday, becoming the sixth company to list on
the fledgling exchange.
The hotel operator, in which the government holds a 40 percent stake, will list
1,766,300 shares, each with a par value of 10,000 dong (67 cents), the stock
exchange said Friday.
The stock will debut at 18,000 dong a share and will be allowed to trade within
a 40 percent band of that opening price during its first trading session, the
exchange said.
The company received a license to list in June and has since been waiting for
regulators to decide on a listing date. Officials at the State Securities
Commission were unable to explain the delay in its debut.
Vietnam launched its first postwar stock market in Ho Chi Minh City last July
but has so far listed only five companies and four bonds. Market officials have
said the lack of new listings is due to companies' reluctance to disclose all
the information required for a listing.
The state-controlled media has said that five new companies are likely to be
listed on the exchange this year, down from an earlier-planned 10.
Saigon Hotel has promised shareholders a full-year dividend of 9 percent of par
value in 2001, up from 8 percent last year.
* Ho Chi Minh Trail may get face-lift
HANOI, Vietnam (Reuters, 13/7/01) -- Authorities in central Vietnam have come up
with a plan to recreate the wartime look of parts of the legendary Ho Chi Minh
Trail for the benefit of tourists, officials said on Friday.
"We want to restore some parts of the trail with recreated military stations, so
people on jungle tours will be able to see how it looked in the war," Nguyen Duc
Chinh, deputy chairman of the People's Committee in Quang Tri province, told
Reuters.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the northern communists to move soldiers and
supplies south for the fight against United States-backed South Vietnam during
the Vietnam War.
It was massively bombed by U.S. aircraft and became a symbol of the
determination of the victorious communist side.
Chinh said the tourist zone would include a resort at a hot-stream at Dac Krong,
from which tourists could visit Khe Sanh, a former U.S. base that was the scene
of a prolonged and bloody siege in 1968.
Chinh said a pre-feasibility study to develop the zone had been completed and
the province was now looking for domestic and foreign financing. He said the
planners estimated the project would cost $4.7 million to develop.
Last year, Vietnam started building a second north-south highway which follows
part of the route of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Central provinces through which the trail runs were the hardest hit during the
war that ended in 1975, and they remain among Vietnam's poorest regions.
* North Korea Needs Rice--and Reminds Vietnam of War Support
Vietnam is hesitant to send rice aid to impoverished communist nation
by Tom Hargrove, PlanetRice Editor-in-Chief
July 13, 2001
HANOI--North Korea's No. 2 leader arrived in Hanoi on July 11 seeking to trade
military goods for rice for his famine-stricken country, the Associated Press
reported.
Kim Yong Nam, president of communist North Korea's national assembly, also
sought to bolster ties strained after Vietnam established diplomatic relations
with rival South Korea in 1992.
Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter (after Thailand), has huge
rice stockpiles. But Vietnam considers rice a strategic export item and even
controls its distribution to its own people during times of domestic disaster.
North Korea has been ravaged by natural disasters and famine since 1995 and aid
groups estimate up to 300,000 of its people have slipped into China to escape
food shortages, Reuters reported from Hanoi on July 9.
North Korea tells the world: We supported Vietnam during the Vietnam War
North Korea has officially confirmed for the first time that it sent jet pilots
to help North Vietnam fight U.S. forces during the war, which ended in 1975.
The Maoist nation said it also provided North Vietnam with weapons, ammunition
and 2 million uniforms, AP reported.
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh avoided specifically
confirming reports on North Korea's official radio that Pyongyang had sent
combat pilots, "numerous weapons and ammunition," and millions of uniforms to
help Vietnam's communists fight the United States during the Vietnam War.
But Phan told Reuters that, "Vietnam has always acknowledged and highly
appreciates the material and spiritual support of friendly countries during the
war against America to defend the country.
"The fact that some military personnel of friendly countries came to Vietnam
during the resistance war against America was in accordance with agreements
between the defense ministries of those countries and Vietnam's defense ministry
for the purpose of sharing experience and fact finding about the people's war in
Vietnam."
Phan said earlier that Vietnam is sympathetic to North Korea's current
difficulties, but whether it provides rice depends on Vietnam's "condition and
capability."
Thanh said Vietnam would do its best to encourage peace and stability on the
Korean peninsula at regional talks in Hanoi later this month which both North
and South Korea will attend.
"Vietnam always hopes for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and
supports the aspiration of the people of the Korean peninsula for peace and
unification of the country."
South Korea also participated in the Vietnam War, on the side of South Vietnam
and the United States. South Korea is now one of the largest foreign investors
in Vietnam.
WFP seeks 800,000 tons of rice
The World Food Program has asked governments to donate more than 800,000 metric
tons of food to feed 8 million people in North Korea who face starvation after
crop shortfalls caused by droughts and typhoons, PlanetRice reported on Nov. 30.
Japan has agreed in October to send 500,000 tons of rice to North Korea through
WFP.
Japan last sent large-scale rice aid to North Korea in 1995, when it shipped
500,000 tons of rice in two phases.
A crop and food assessment by the WFP and UN Food and Agriculture Organization
found that North Korea's rice production was down 31% this year and corn output
had fallen by 235,000 tons from 1999.
The United States has been by far the most generous contributor to WFP appeals
to help North Korea, providing 67% of the total in response to requests since
1995, PlanetRice has reported. South Korea is another major contributor.
The U.S. administration says its donations to North Korea over the years are not
related to political considerations.
But generally, the United States has responded more quickly and more generously
to WFP appeals for North Korea than it has for other countries, reflecting a
desire to improve relations with Pyongyang. Since 1995, the United States has
provided 1.2 million metric tons of food, worth $425 million, to the communist
country. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited North Korea in October,
hoping to obtain curbs on its missile program.
Potatoes are same as rice
Because of the rice deficit, North Korea has launched a national propaganda
campaign to persuade farmers and consumers to switch from rice, the country's
traditional staple, to potatoes.
The radical communist government is using the slogan "potatoes are the same as
rice." This year, North Korea planted 200,000 hectares of potatoes, which should
produce 4 million metric tons. That will double next year to 400,000 ha, or
one-sixth of the country's cultivable land.
To persuade people to eat potatoes, the media has launched a propaganda blitz on
how cheap and nutritious potatoes are, claiming more than 100 ways of preparing
them, including noodle production.
* North Korean head of state meets Vietnam supremo, heads on to Laos
HANOI, July 14 (AFP) - North Korean head of state Kim Yong-Nam headed on to Laos
Saturday after holding talks with Vietnamese number one Nong Duc Man on the
final day of a four-day fence-mending visit to an estranged communist ally.
Neither leader made any comment at a brief photocall ahead of their meeting and
no statement was immediately available from either side.
Ahead of Kim's visit, the first here by a top North Korean leader in some 40
years, the Vietnamese foreign ministry confirmed that it was considering the
possibility of providing desperately needed food aid for the famine-hit North.
But there was no immediate word on what decision had been taken.
However, in talks with Kim on Wednesday, President Tran Duc Luong did promise to
coordinate closely with Pyongyang ahead of a key regional forum of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations which Hanoi is to host later this month.
The US State Department says it is "possible" that Secretary of State Colin
Powell will meet North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun on the sidelines of
the forum which opens on July 25.
US and North Korean officials are still discussing President George W. Bush's
terms for a resumption of dialogue.
But the North's official media has indicated its strong opposition to Bush's
insistence that the talks be broadened to include discussions of North Korean
troop numbers, as well as its missile and nuclear programmes.
North Korea's relations with both Vietnam and its close ally Laos have long been
strained, even though they number among the world's last communist states.
Hanoi and Vientiane sided with Moscow in its bitter Cold War rift with
Pyongyang's main ally, Beijing.
But diplomats say Pyongyang is now desperate to consolidate a rappochement as it
prepares for key talks with Washington, which are seen as vital for its efforts
to rescue its ravaged economy.
The programme for Kim's visit was designed to focus on North Korea's close
wartime friendship with Vietnam, before relations soured.
On Thursday Kim paid his respects to North Korea's Vietnam War dead at a
cemetery in Bac Giang province, north of the capital, less than a week after
Pyongyang finally confirmed its intervention on the communist side.
And Luong expressed his "sincere thanks" to Kim for North Korea's "valuable
support and assistance to the Vietnamese people's struggle for national
independence."
Hanoi's own confirmation of Pyongyang's wartime role only came in April last
year, virtually a quarter of a century after the conflict ended, following a
similar visit to the 14 graves by Paek.
* Vietnam reviews development policies for restive highlands
HANOI, July 14 (AFP) - Vietnam opened a three-day conference Saturday to develop
a policy for the troubled central highlands following a wave of ethnic unrest in
the region this year.
The conference came as the United States called for authorities to address the
underlying causes of the unrest rather than focus on security issues.
Deputy Prime Ministers Nguyen Tan Dung and Nguyen Cong Tan presided over the
launch of the conference in the highland city of Buon Me Thuot, provincial
officials said.
The meeting is intended to thrash out a common development policy for the four
highland provinces following the violent protests among the region's indigenous
minorities in February and March.
The government's development policies for the region have so far focused almost
exclusively on large-scale clearance of its forests to grow plantation crops,
particularly coffee, rubber and pepper.
But a worldwide slump in commodity prices has forced many farmers to sell their
crops at a loss and provincial authorities in the region are now resigned to
ripping down many of the plantations painstakingly opened up over the past
decade.
The policy of developing the highlands for cash crop agriculture has also
accelerated the influx of ethnic Vietnamese settlers, which further marginalized
the indigenous minorities.
The authorities sent in the army to crush the protests in early February,
sparking an exodus of refugees to neighbouring Cambodia.
As recently as last week Police Minister Le Minh Huong toured the region "to
deal personally with certain security problems".
But on Wednesday US ambassador Pete Peterson called on the communist authorities
to focus less on security and more on the underlying grievances of the
highlanders.
He slammed the highland province of Gia Lai for a "misguided" response which
remained "totally focussed on the perceived threat to security rather than
attempting to find constructive solutions to identified local problems."
The US envoy was finally granted permission to tour the region July 5 to 9 after
five months of refusals, but found the authorities in Gia Lai "were not prepared
to provide us with free access either to officials or to ordinary people."
Peterson called on the central government in Hanoi to intervene, saying they
needed to do more to rein in wayward provincial authorities.
* Briefcase: Nike offers video of Vietnam factory
Reuters, 14/7/01 - Nike, which has come under fire for the conditions of its
overseas factories, is offering a 12-minute online video tour of its contracted
shoe facilities in Vietnam. A year in the making, the project is intended as an
educational experiment to show that "we're a very open company" and "don't have
anything to hide," said Vada Manager, a Nike spokesman. Labor rights
organizations have long-accused Nike and other companies such as Gap, and
Wal-Mart Stores of allowing their contracted factories overseas to mistreat
workers who make their products. Critics of the athletic shoe and clothing
company dismissed the video. "It seems more like a publicity stunt than a
genuine effort to make systematic changes across the board," said Jason Mark, a
spokesman for San Francisco-based Global Exchange, a labor-rights group. In May,
the organization issued a report that alleged hundreds of Nike-affiliated
factories pay substandard wages, prevent workers from forming unions and fail to
address health and safety violations.
* Vietnam, Southeast Asia fourth largest oil producer
Kuala Lumpur, July 13, IRNA -- Vietnam is the fourth largest oil producer in
Southeast Asia after Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia, with more than ten
multinational oil and gas exploration companies licensed to operate in the
country, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Friday.
VNA said these companies pump and process an average 15 million tons of crude
oil per annum and one billion cubic meters of natural gas.
In the first six months of 2001, the sector exported 8.5 million tons of crude
oil worth $1.8 billion. This represents a 15 percent rise in output and a 35 per
cent increase in turnover.
Such figures mean that the industry is well on track to hit this year's target
of exporting more than 16 million tons of crude oil and 1.65 billion cu.meters
of gas, VNA said.
Recent World Bank estimates suggest that this is only the beginning. Oil
reserves in Cuu Long and South Con Son are thought to contain around two billion
barrels of crude oil, and up to 230 billion cu.m of natural gas.
At present, 85 percent of the country's crude oil and 100 percent of the natural
gas supplies are extracted from the Bach Ho (White Tiger) wells, operated by
Vietsovpetro -- Vietnam's first foreign joint venture project in petroleum
exploration and exploitation.
In a bid to increase state returns from the exploitation of oil and gas
reserves, the Vietnamese Government has introduced sweeping changes to the way
in which oil and gas companies are taxed.
According to VNA, as of Tuesday all businesses engaged in oil and gas
exploration have been made to pay value-added tax (VAT) on their operations..
The circular was issued by the Finance Ministry also lists new taxes that apply
to the exploitation of natural resources, the import and export of oil and gas,
as well as company profits.
New taxes have been also imposed on foreign-owned oil and gas companies that
repatriate turnover and profits overseas.
The transfer of individual or corporate shareholdings in profit-making oil and
gas companies is also taxed.
The circular outlines new regulations concerning revenue taxation and payments,
alongside legal obligations, to which affected foreign and domestic businesses
will be expected to adhere.
* Vietnam Gets Three New Bishops
VATICAN CITY (AP, 14/7/01) - A month after a Vatican (news - web sites)
delegation to Vietnam pressed the Holy See's requests for new bishops in that
Communist country, Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II has filled some
vacancies.
The Vatican said on Saturday that bishops were selected for Bui Chu, which has
been without a bishop for some time; for Phan Thiet, whose bishop is elderly,
and for Ho Chi Minh City, which was called Saigon before Communist rulers took
over South Vietnam.
The bishop in Phan Thiet was given the title of ``coadjutor,'' meaning he will
hold the right to succeed the current bishop in case of retirement or death.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the new post is that of auxiliary bishop for the diocese,
where one of the bishops has been quite ill.
The appointments had been expected after Vatican officials last month reported
some headway, with some of the church's choices winning government approval but
others being rebuffed.
But no concrete progress toward establishing diplomatic ties was reported after
that trip.
Among the Vatican choices reportedly buffed for the bishop's posts was one to
replace an 82-year-old bishop in Hanoi, another for a diocese in the northeast
which has been without a bishop since 1992 and another for a diocese lacking a
bishop for three years.
Dealings have been tense over Hanoi's insistence that it have final say over
religious appointments.
Vietnam's 76 million people are predominantly Buddhist, although the 8 million
Catholics constitute the largest Catholic community in Southeast Asia outside
the Philippines.
* Dragon boat racing will celebrate a legacy
The Inquirer, 13/7/01
Global competitors will help Vietnamese here revive a tradition.
The muscular Asian men pushed their boat away from the dock and plunged their
paddles into the Schuylkill, heading downstream like a centipede skittering
across the water.
A smiling monk wrapped in a robe the color of a marigold stood at the river's
edge. Around him, other onlookers waited and watched, chatting in their native
Khmer language.
All are refugees from Vietnam, and they had come to the river to race, to
celebrate, and to revive a tradition frozen for years in their memories.
Through a stroke of serendipity involving the forthcoming World Dragon Boat
Racing Championships, they have been able to bring the boat-racing legacy of the
Mekong Delta to their adopted home of Philadelphia. A crew of Khmer Krom
paddlers will make its debut at the dragon boat races, to be held from Aug. 1 to
5 on the Schuylkill.
For the Khmer Krom, an ethnic tribe of Cambodian people who live in Vietnam's
southernmost province, boat racing is as much ritual as sport.
During the October harvest, villagers flock to a tributary of the Mekong River
to watch as many as 50 boats, each with 48 paddlers, compete. Before and after
the races are days of celebrating that are part Mardi Gras, part Thanksgiving -
with a little bit of New Year's Eve thrown in.
On the Schuylkill, the Khmer Krom team is using a dragon boat of Hong Kong
design. It's smaller, seating only 22 athletes, and made of light fiberglass,
not the traditional trunk of a tree.
But the differences don't seem to matter. The Khmer Krom community here,
numbering about 1,500 people in Philadelphia and Camden, is thrilled just to be
paddling again.
"For people who came to this country, we now live here, we work here, but our
mind is always back home," said Mannrinh Tran, a community leader who fled
Vietnam in 1980. "The boat racing is resurrecting a tradition for us. That's why
everyone is excited."
So excited, in fact, that when the local team makes its debut at the dragon
races, more than 100 Khmer Krom people from around the country will travel here
to cheer them on.
The revival of boat racing for the Khmer Krom community started with a letter
from the organizers of the dragon boat championships.
The races here will attract 2,400 competitors from more than 20 countries,
mostly in Asia. In dragon boats, 20 paddlers sit in twos, with a drummer and
steersman on either end. Athletes use only their upper bodies to paddle, unlike
rowers, who sit on sliding seats and also use leg muscles to pull the oar
through the water.
Race organizers decided to reach out to local Asian communities to recruit
volunteers as goodwill ambassadors. And so it was that Mannrinh Tran, an officer
with the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, got a letter last spring asking for
help.
Tran was intrigued - not by the possibility of volunteering, but by the races
themselves.
He met with the organizers to explain the significance of boat racing to Khmer
Krom people. He showed them a racing picture from a book about Vietnam, as well
as someone's home video. He also invited them to visit the Khmer Krom temple on
Rising Sun Avenue in Olney.
The tradition of racing long boats is popular throughout Asia, especially among
rice-growing societies that view water as sacred, according to Adrian Lee, a
dragon boat expert in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"They do races for different reasons, but the common thread seems to be a
reverence for water and the power of water to give life," Lee said.
The organizers of the dragon boat championship, realizing the significance to
the Khmer Krom enclave, lent them a racing boat for practice and threw in a
bonus: a one-ton, wooden dragon boat to keep at their temple.
Robert Morro, one of the organizers, said the boat was donated in 1983 by the
Hong Kong Tourist Association to the first dragon boat team in Philadelphia.
These days, however, local teams favor the faster fiberglass boats.
After the old wooden hulk was used to make a model for mass-producing fiberglass
versions, it was neglected.
"The boatbuilder told us to get this thing out of his lot," Morro said.
The Khmer Krom community was ecstatic about getting a boat.
In the Mekong Delta, the boats used in the October water festival - called the
Ooc-om-boc Festival - are considered the sacred property of Buddhist temples.
They must be made in the yard of a pagoda and are decorated by monks.
The monks, meanwhile, have the duty of selecting the villagers who will paddle,
making their decisions based on character as well as strength.
Vuong Hang, the 55-year-old coach of the local team, called his old temple in
Vietnam when he heard the news about the boat and new team. The monks followed
up by sending him a letter with coaching tips.
The Khmer Krom team, including men between 20 and 35 years old, has been
practicing for two months. A few women practice with them, including 16-year-old
Phoumi Tran.
Born in the United States, the Olney High School junior knows boat racing only
from the stories she hears from older people. What she likes about the sport is
the sense of community.
"Everyone's family and friends," she said. "It's not like we're just on a team
and you don't know any of the other team members."
Next week, the monks at the Khmer Krom temple will begin painting the donated
boat. Morro said they would like to feature the decorated boat in the opening
ceremony Aug. 1 on the Parkway.
"Everyone is so excited," said Sarat Thach, the 26-year-old leader of the Khmer
Krom team. "It's like we've been born again."
* Good Morning, Vietnam...
HANOI (Reuters, 13/7/01) - In a sign of the times in fast-changing Vietnam, the
communist country's congested commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City gets its first
traffic radio show next week.
Friday's official Saigon Giai Phong (Liberation Saigon) said the city's
state-run radio station would coordinate with the police to inform listeners of
traffic jams around the city.
Broadcasts will start at 6 a.m. and run until 11 p.m.
Traffic jams in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's largest city and home to some seven
million people, have worsened in recent years due to a surge in the number of
cars and motorcycles as the country pursues free-market reforms.
* Vets hopeful about Vietnam War movie
By LOU MARANO
WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- With Paramount Pictures announcing "a wrap" on the
filming of a Mel Gibson war drama, Vietnam veterans are hopeful that, for once,
they won't be portrayed as racist monsters or befuddled dupes.
Gibson has the reputation of being one of the few socially conservative stars in
Hollywood. (Fiscally responsible libertarians are more common.) He is a
traditional Catholic who has eight children with his wife, Robyn, and patriotism
was the theme of "Braveheart" (1995) and "The Patriot" (2000).
Filmmaker Oliver Stone recently phoned this reporter to comment on my story
about his plans to make a movie about Bobbie Garwood, the only American to have
been convicted of collaborating with the enemy during the Vietnam War. In the
course of the conversation, Stone expressed his concern that the Gibson movie
might turn out to be a portrayal of Heroic Americans in Combat --"John Wayne,
right up the middle." Dare we hope to be so lucky?
In Stone's Oscar-winning "Platoon" (1986) and Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal
Jacket" (1987), tremendous talent and artistry were employed to reinforce the
conventional wisdom. Hailed as "daring" at the time, Stone and Kubrick
recapitulated the position of elites on both sides of the Atlantic that the U.S.
effort to save 17 million South Vietnamese from communist tyranny was
neo-imperialist (and quite possibly racist) folly.
The implication was that anyone who allowed himself to be "complicit" in such a
horror was either immoral or stupid.
The Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers," will be released next year, Paramount
publicist Susan Ciccone told United Press International. It is based on the 1993
book "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young: Ia Drang: The Battle That Changed the
War in Vietnam," by retired Army Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore -- then the aggressive
commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Air Cavalry -- and Joe Galloway, the
reporter who covered the battle for UPI.
Gibson plays Moore in the movie.
In 1998 the Army took the unusual step of awarding Galloway, a 24-year-old
civilian at the time of the fight, the Bronze Star for heroism for rescuing
wounded soldiers.
The Ia Drang operation of Nov. 14-18, 1965, was the first major engagement
between U.S. combat forces and North Vietnamese Army regulars. The first phase,
which involved Moore's 1st Battalion and supporting units in and around Landing
Zone X-Ray, was a success.
The second phase was a debacle. That's when the NVA ambushed the 2nd battalion
after its commander foolishly ordered his troops to walk through six miles of
woods and tall elephant grass from X-Ray to Landing Zone Albany.
The movie does not deal with the Albany phase of the operation.
Longtime ABC newsman Jack Smith, now a California businessman, was a young
private first class in 2/7. His platoon was all but annihilated near LZ Albany.
His company suffered 93 percent casualties, with most of the wounded crippled
for life.
In three separate incidents, Smith was wounded in the head and both legs. A
North Vietnamese soldier, taking Smith for dead, lay down on top of him and
started to set up a machine gun before the NVA soldier was killed by U.S. mortar
fire.
In a phone interview, Smith said that the North Vietnamese had drawn the correct
lesson from the battle, but American military leaders had drawn the false
conclusion that they could defeat the NVA by grinding them down in set-piece
battles.
The first Air Cavalry Division was a huge experiment, Smith said. The Army
didn't know if helicopters or air mobility would work. "We killed five to 10 of
them for every one of us."
The Seventh Cavalry, of course, was Gen. George Armstrong Custer's old unit.
"Our conclusion was, 'My God! If we can inflict 10-to-1 casualties on them, why,
they'll quit and go home.' So let's start counting bodies. As Custer did, let's
troll around in the wilderness, and when they attack us, we'll put an iron ring
of artillery around the American force, and air strikes, and we will kill the
North Vietnamese as they are drawn like a moth to a flame.
"No country can sustain casualties at that level for very long. In a year or
two, we'll have the light at the end of the tunnel, the North Vietnamese will
sue for peace, and we'll be out of there.'
"The North Vietnamese," Smith said, " drew a completely different conclusion.
"Ten-to-one was acceptable for them." For them it was significant that they
killed more than 100 Americans, which would not look good in the New York Times.
Smith characterized the communist strategy: "If we can keep this up for three or
four years, which we can, they'll go home just like the French did."
North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh had given the French this warning in 1946:
"For every one of you we kill, you will kill 10 of us -- and in the end, you
will grow tired." He applied the same principle to the Americans in the late
1960s.
This does not mean that it was impossible to win the Vietnam War, only that
counting bodies was not sound military strategy.
Retired Major Ed "Too Tall" Freeman was a helicopter pilot who volunteered to
fly into Landing Zone X-Ray when others faltered. After more than 35 years,
President Bush will award Freeman the Medal of Honor, America's highest military
decoration, at the White House on Monday morning.
In a phone interview from his home in Boise, Idaho, Freeman told UPI that he had
seen the script of "We Were Soldiers."
The only thing he had objected to was the recurring use of profanity on military
radios, "which did not happen." This former communications officer can confirm
that one did not use such language on the tactical net.
Freeman was concerned that this Hollywood anachronism might hurt the film by
causing it to be given a more restrictive rating than it otherwise would be
given. He hoped that the profanity would be edited out in the final cut.
* Remembering, honoring Vietnam veterans
Publication date: Friday, July 13, 2001
By NANCY NEWMAN
Tribune staff writer
ROYAL CENTER -- So many names. So very many names.
So many lives that never had a chance to begin. So many dreams that were
destroyed in a second. So many other lives intertwined with those lives that
ended, lives that were changed forever because of what happened on a battlefield
a world away.
In small Rea Park in the little community of Royal Center in northern Cass
County, a tumultuous part of America's history lives again. For people who lived
through it, it is an experience that floods the heart with memories. For those
too young to remember, the wall engraved with name after name after name of the
men and women who died during the Vietnam War puts a reality to something that's
only been studied in history books.
The Traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be in Rea Park through Sunday
afternoon. It officially opened just after midnight on Thursday. "We had about
20 people here waiting when we turned the lights on," said Tim Minnick of Royal
Center, a Vietnam veteran who spearheaded the effort to bring the Wall to Cass
County.
And at noon Thursday, when the official opening ceremony was held, well over a
hundred people were on hand. They arrived early and stayed long after the
ceremony, gathered in small groups, or walking alone. They made their way along
the Wall, which is half the size of the permanent memorial in Washington, D.C.
People looking for a specific name could feed that name into a computer and find
out the panel and line the name was on. Papers clutched in their hands, visitors
made their way slowly along the wall, looking for that special name. Even those
not looking for a specific name made their way slowly. There is no hurrying past
those names.
"That wall will attract you to it," Minnick said. People have come and spent a
little time, he said, but later on he sees them again. They have come back to
again walk the flag-lined path.
Jeff Chester, Peru, and Bruce Glaser, Lucerne, came to Royal Center during their
lunch hours at Burger Chevrolet in Logansport. Chester, a 1967 graduate of North
Miami High School in Miami County, held one of the computer print-outs in his
hand. Glaser, who graduated from Pioneer High School in Royal Center in 1969,
helped Chester look for the name of one of Chester's high school friends. They
found Mike Waymire's name on the wall. Twenty-one when he died in Vietnam, he is
buried in Gilead Cemetery in northern Miami County, Chester said.
"We're honored today to be in the presence of so many great people, great
friends," Minnick said during the opening ceremony. "There have not been enough
words written to repay those friendships."
So, very few words were said during the brief ceremony. A U.S. Navy Honor Guard
from Indianapolis took its place for a presentation of wreaths. The four-member
unit stood facing each other, a path between them. The commander of the guard
handed each wreath to a representative from the organization that sent it.
Minnick read the name of the organization. The wreath was carried in silence
between the Honor Guard members, who slowly raised their hands in a salute each
one passed by. The only sound were the birds singing overhead.
Wreaths were placed by representatives of the Howard County Vietnam Veterans
Organization, Gold Star Mothers, Carroll County, Cass County American Legion
Post 60 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3790, Cass County American Legion
Auxiliary Post 60, Royal Center Lions Club, Royal Center Masonic Lodge, Royal
Center United Methodist Church Order of the Eastern Star 375, Royal Center
Baptist Christian Church, Fulton County Veterans Organization, VFW Auxiliary
Post 1121 of Kewanna, and White County AmVets Post 91.
"As long as we educate one person or help one person, our goal has been met,"
Minnick said after the ceremony. Called "The Wall that Heals," he said it is
important to always remember the names of the people who made the ultimate
sacrifice for their country.
He has no idea how many people will come to the Wall, but for those who do come,
he is certain it will be an experience they won't forget. He sees no competition
in Iron Horse Festival, also going on this weekend. There's room for both, he
said. "The Iron Horse Festival is upbeat, fun," he said. He looked around the
park, where clusters of people visited, exchanging memories. "This is where
people stand and talk. Our festival is family, friends and loved ones."
A woman stood at the wall, tracing a name with her finger. Then, her hands at
her sides, she stood, quietly, lost in the past.
A bouquet of flowers leaned against the wall. At the center of the Wall another
bouquet had been left, beside the inscription that reads, "Our nation honors the
courage, sacrifice and devotion to duty and country of its Vietnam veterans.
This memorial was built with private contributions from the American people.
Nov. 13, 1982."
* Freedom Forum names 3 Journalism Teachers of the Year
Friday, July 13, 2001
Media contact: Donna Fowler, 703/284-2887
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Freedom Forum today announced its Journalism Teachers of
the Year awards, honoring three professors for outstanding teaching and
leadership in journalism instruction. Each honoree will receive a medal and
$10,000 at an awards luncheon on Sunday, Aug. 5, at the convention of the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in
Washington, D.C.
"Young journalists are fortunate to have gifted teachers like these as
inspiration," said Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of
The Freedom Forum. "The Freedom Forum is proud to honor them."
All three winners are former or current journalists and veteran teachers. They
are:
Jean Folkerts, professor and director of the School of Media and Public Affairs
at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The first female student
reporter to cover the Vietnam War, Folkerts has worked in and around the news
media for her entire career. She was a reporter for several years at the Topeka
(Kan.) Capital-Journal and an assistant press secretary to the governor of Texas
in the late 1970s. Afterward, Folkerts turned to teaching journalism at
universities in Kansas, Texas and Washington, D.C. She has served on the
editorial boards of several media-related journals and has received many
professional grants.
Frederick R. Blevens, associate professor of the department of mass
communication at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. Blevens was
simultaneously a teacher and a journalist until 1995, when he began teaching
full time. His journalism career included working for Missouri Magazine, the
Houston Chronicle, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the San Antonio Light. He
has taught at several universities, including Texas A&M, the University of
Missouri, San Antonio College and Ball State University. Blevens has won many
academic honors and awards and was a 2000 fellow for the Institute for
Journalism Excellence at the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
A.J. "Jack" Langguth, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the
University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Langguth has taught journalism
for more than 40 years. His journalism career including reporting for The New
York Times on a number of historic events, including the civil rights movement,
the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. He
also was a political correspondent at the Valley Times in San Fernando Valley,
Calif., during the 1960 presidential election.
The awards recognize excellence in teaching and leadership in the core areas of
print and broadcast journalism: reporting, editing, journalism history, media
law and ethics. The awardees are selected from nominations submitted to The
Freedom Forum by journalism-school administrators, alumni and students across
the country. This is the fifth year the awards have been presented.