News, 20-22/3/99
hy tran
* Vietnam Artist Finds Inspiration and a Living Copying Masters
HCM City, Vietnam (LAT, 20/3/99) --Even when he came south as a soldier with
the North Vietnamese army, Ngo Dong carried a sketch pad. During lulls in
the battle, he would draw pictures of flowers and rice paddies and dream of
being a great artist.
However, life was unimaginably hard after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, and
no one could survive as an artist. Dong got a job painting store signs by
day. By night he painted for his own pleasure in the humble apartment he
shared with three generations of his family.
Not until Vietnam started moving toward a free-market economy with its 1986
policy known as doi moi did Dong's life take a turn for the better. The arts
began to flourish, and now the 45-year-old painter is part of a booming
business in this city once known as Saigon: the reproduction of the works of
the great Western and Russian masters.
In his little studio on Pasteur Avenue--one of two streets in Ho Chi Minh
City whose French name survived the Communist takeover--Dong is copying one
of his favorite masterpieces, "The Major's Marriage Report" by the 19th
century Russian artist Pavel A. Fedotov. The reproduction will take him a
week and earn him about $75 from his client, a Vietnamese businessman.
"You could say this is not real art," said Dong, regarded as one of this
city's top reproduction artists, "but I like my work. I get inspiration for
my own painting while I'm doing it, and I think I'm helping the Vietnamese
to appreciate the great painters."
In dozens of small, street-level studios throughout the city, artists sit
side by side and turn out assembly-line Monets, Van Goghs, Manets.
Some of the reproductions are very good, art critics say. Most clients are
Vietnamese, although the works also are bought by foreigners. An Italian
recently commissioned 30 reproductions of paintings by Fernando Botero, the
Colombian artist.
Although copyrights are infringed in some cases, especially when paintings
by living artists such as Botero are involved, Western diplomats said the
reproductions are done with no criminal intent and do not end up in the
international marketplace to be sold as originals. The paintings are not
signed with the original painter's name.
When Le Diep, 35, an accountant here, showed up in Dong's studio recently
looking for a present for a friend, the artist pulled out his catalog of
great paintings. Diep thought about a Picasso before settling on a Monet.
Vietnam's history of oil painting dates only to 1925, when its colonial
ruler, France, established the Indochina Fine Arts Institute in Hanoi.
Within a generation there was war with France, then the United States.
Artists were pressed into duty as propagandists, painting posters and
designing leaflets in the name of nationalism and communism.
The postwar period brought little relief.
If Dong had an idea for a painting, he first had to submit a sketch of his
proposed work to the government. If it was approved, he would receive a
canvas and packet of paints made in East Europe. The paint, he said, was so
old, it often was rock hard and unusable.
All this started to change in the late 1980s. Political art began
disappearing, and artists were no longer bound by rules that their art had
to be pleasing to the government. Quality art supplies appeared in shops,
and dozens of galleries opened.
Vietnam's current original artwork abounds in landscapes and scenes of
village life. It is vibrant and colorful, and lacks the anger and darkness
one might expect to find in a country that suffered so much for so long.
And slowly, in an atmosphere of increased individual freedom, Vietnam is
producing young, talented artists who have held exhibitions in New York and
Hong Kong.
"I still dream of being a great artist," said Dong, who is at his easel 10
hours a day, six days a week. "And I still save Sunday and nights to work on
my own paintings, so it is not an impossible dream."
* Communist Flag, Protest Tell Us a Lot
LAT, 21/3/99
o Re "Jubilant Protesters Declare Victory," March 12:
Truong Van Tran has left the building. And now the mob can go back to
whatever they were doing before engaging in their ham-fisted snit.
What we have learned from the monthlong demonstration is that we have the
freedom to shout down free speech and free thought if one just says the
buzzword "communism."
We have learned that the police have the freedom to confiscate private
property if one just assumes copyright infringement.
And finally we have learned that [racist] mentality is alive and well and
riding the airwaves of police radios.
Thank God Tran has moved on. But before he left, he held up a mirror to our
many imperfections. Perhaps the one good thing that will come from this is
our chance to see our own ugliness.
JIM SCHNEIDERMAN
Mission Viejo
o Re Dana Parsons' March 5 column, "Westminster: Noting Irony Isn't Enough":
I did not protest to keep Truong Van Tran away from his store. What I said
to Parsons was, "I would be here as long as possible until he takes down
that bloody communist flag and the picture of Ho Chi Minh."
By publicly worshiping Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam Communist flag, Tran was
propagandizing for the oppressing Communist regime in Vietnam. This could
affect the fight for freedom in Vietnam.
By publicly worshiping Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam Communist flag, Tran has
revealed the fact that he admires communism. He has betrayed his refugee
status, which is also my status. His betrayal has insulted me and the
Vietnamese community as well.
By publicly worshiping Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam Communist flag, Tran is
admiring the one man and the bloody regime which indirectly killed my father
and caused the separation in my family.
FRANCIS TRAN
Garden Grove
* Press release Of Texas Friends for Free VN
duc minh truong @ecn.net.au, 21/3/99
TEXAS FRIENDS FOR A FREE VIETNAM COMMITTEE P.O. BOX 262323, HOUSTON, TEXAS
77207 PRESS RELEASE
Arrest of Vietnamese Dissident Nguyen Thanh Giang by Hanoi Texas Friends
For A Free Vietnam Committee call for immediate and unconditional release
of dissident writer, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Giang, who was arrested by the
Public Securities officers on March 04, 1999 in the streets of Hanoi.
Dr. Nguyen Thanh Giang, sixty-three, a respected writer and outspoken
intellectual/scientist, has openly advocated human rights, democracy and
major issues facing Vietnam today since 1989. He has written several
articles calling for peaceful reforms. His criticism of the Vietnamese
Communist Party has led to his arrest.
Texas Friends For A Free Vietnam Committee considers this arrest unjust and
a blatant violation of the Rights to Free Speech guaranteed in Vietnam's
own Constitution, the Rights to Freedom of Speech for Individuals, as
guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights which Vietnam has
signed.
The State Department of the United States has demanded the release of Dr.
Giang: "His arrest is a troubling event, and we call on the Vietnamese
authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally," spokeman James
P. Rubin said.
US Department of States' Country Report on Human Rights Practices in
Vietnam for 1998, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and
Labor on February 26, 1999 confirmed that dissident writers in Vietnam face
tight government control and repression in Vietnam. At present, several
well-known political prisoners, religious leaders, writers, and dissidents
are under surveillance and threat of arrest or held in "administrative
detainment" under Directive 31/CP, which authorizes detention without trial
for up to two years by the Ministry of Interior.
We, Texas Friends For A Free Vietnam Committee, representing the
freedom-loving people in the State of Texas:
1) Totally support the United States, Department of States, to call on
the Vietnamese authorities to release Dr. Giang immediately and
unconditionally. We also demand the Vietnam government to release Dr.
Nguyen Thanh Giang promptly and unconditionally.
2) Strongly condemn this oppressive action of the Vietnamese authorities
to Dr. Giang and the Vietnam government must take responsibility for the
illegal arrest of prominent writer Nguyen Thanh Giang.
2) Urgently call on all Texans, Americans, the Congress, the Senate and
the President of the United States to exert diplomatic pressure on
Vietnamese authorities to demand an immediate and unconditional release of
writer Nguyen Thanh Giang.
3) Urgently call on all freedom-loving countries and international
organizations, the media in the world to use its influences to demand an
immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Giang and to stop the
state-sponsored of terrorism on dissidents by the Vietnamese authorities.
4) Urgently call on the Vietnam government to rescind Directive 31/CP and
join the civilized nations of the World.
Houston, Texas, March 18, 1999
Contact: David Stockman, Secretary General, Texas Friends For A Free
Vietnam Committee: (713) 687-1625 (p)
* Hanoi warns rights group amid crackdown
HANOI (SCMP, 21/3/99) - Vietnam has hardened its stance on human rights,
issuing a warning to rights groups and arresting several dissidents in an
effort to suppress dissent, diplomats say.
``Individuals or organisations which come to Vietnam to conduct activities
concerning human rights or religion and interfere with the internal affairs
of the country will no longer be accepted,'' an official said last week.
That warning, issued after the publication in Geneva of a report on the
lack of religious freedom in Vietnam by UN special rapporteur Abdelfattah
Amor, indicated a tough new approach to the issue, diplomatic sources said.
The heightening sensitivity had already been shown this month in the arrest
of dissident writer and scientist Nguyen Thanh Giang and the expulsion in
January from the Vietnamese Communist Party of General Tran Do, an
outspoken critic of its policies.
``All these things indicate a crackdown by the regime, which is focusing on
strengthening national cohesion, even to the detriment of its external
image,'' a Western diplomat said.
``The arrest of Giang and the expulsion of General Do are warnings aimed at
all the other dissidents,'' the source said.
``The party and the government will not tolerate the spread of this sort of
dissent at a time when many are speaking out against corruption and
demanding democratic reforms.''
A United States call for Mr Giang's release was slammed by Hanoi as ``a
brazen interference into Vietnam's internal affairs, unacceptable in
international relations''.
The 63-year-old was arrested in Hanoi on 4 March for possessing
anti-socialist propaganda and has been repeatedly questioned by authorities
over the years. A respected geologist and intellectual, he has openly
advocated human rights and multi-party democracy.
* Vietnam unlikely to get fresh BOP support by June
HANOI, March 20 (Reuters) - Vietnam is unlikely to get fresh balance of
payments support from the IMF and the World Bank by a June target, a senior
official said on Saturday.
Jean-Michel Severino, World Bank vice president for East Asia and the
Pacific, said talks with Hanoi on the financing were progressing slowly
although he hoped the joint facilities would be in place this year.
In the absence of the World Bank Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) and the
International Monetary Fund's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility
(ESAF) Vietnam is getting very little balance of payments assistance at the
moment.
The World Bank and the IMF have already had regular talks with the
communist government about economic reform measures they want to see in
place before the facilities are approved.
It was unclear how much Hanoi would receive under the joint SAC/ESAF
financing. The last ESAF programme was a three-year facility worth $530
million, but only two thirds was disbursed after the IMF and Vietnam failed
to find common ground on certain reform measures.
``These talks have not been moving as fast as our institutions would
like,'' Severino told reporters after a meeting of finance ministers from
the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Hanoi.
Vietnam has suffered a regular dollar crunch in the past year amid a
downturn in foreign direct investment inflows and slack export growth in
the past year.
But to be eligible for the facility Vietnam needs to agree to implement a
series of tough economic reform measures and provide more financial data,
the IMF has previously said.
* Southeast Asia Predicts Recovery
HANOI (Reuters) - Southeast Asian finance ministers ended a two-day meeting
in Vietnam Saturday with cautious forecasts of recovery from the crisis
that has plunged the region into deep recession over the last two years.
But the ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
warned that considerable risks lay ahead that could derail the rebuilding
of the former ``Tiger'' economies.
``We are confident that 1999 will witness improved economic prospects for
the region,'' they said in a joint statement.
The statement welcomed recent developments such as currency stability,
current account surpluses and lower interest rates but cautioned that many
challenges lay ahead.
``The pace of recovery will be determined to a large extent by further
progress in economic and financial restructuring,'' it said.
Senior officials from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
attending the meeting have largely shared ASEAN's cautious optimism about
recovery but worry that some governments may be tempted into complacency.
``By all international standards these countries have done well fighting
the crisis,'' said Jean-Michel Severino, World Bank vice president for East
Asia and the Pacific.
ASEAN, a once high-flying region confronting its biggest economic challenge
since its inception more than 30 years ago, comprises Brunei, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Ministers said any recovery faced several potential hurdles, including the
risk of protectionism, a sharp reversal in the U.S. stock market, weakness
in the Japanese economy and the uncertainty of external financial flows.
``We therefore urge the industrial countries to take the lead in sustaining
global demand and to coordinate their macroeconomic policies, particularly
to minimize excessive volatility among the major currencies,'' it added.
The ministers called for a review of the roles of large international
financial institutions, such as hedge funds, and regulatory bodies along
with less reliance on credit rating agencies.
``Given the important role credit rating agencies play in the international
financial markets, there should be greater transparency in the rating
process,'' the statement said.
Some ASEAN countries, most notably Malaysia, have criticized the rating
agencies over their country reports, which they say have influenced the
decision of many investors to withdraw portfolio funds.
The communique also highlighted a new regional economic surveillance
mechanism designed to be an early warning of future financial turmoil. The
mechanism, the ASEAN Surveillance Process, is designed to ward off more
financial misery.
Economists have welcomed the body but ASEAN has yet to finalize details of
the system. Officials have not yet decided what type of financial data
would be compiled by the mechanism. ASEAN countries will also not be
compelled to supply data.
Ministers said they wanted more information on markets and capital flows
but were not recommending intervention in free markets, which they said
would be ``counter-productive.''
``We do agree and uphold the view that we should pursue a market-friendly
policy toward investors and market participants,'' Thai Deputy Finance
Minister Pisit Leeahtam told a news conference at the end of the meeting.
Singapore Finance Minister Richard Hu agreed:
``There is not a suggestion that we are recommending regulating hedge
funds. You can't regulate them anyway...I don't think regulation can work.''
* Vietnam appoints new head of Government Office
HANOI, March 22 (Reuters) - Vietnam has replaced Lai Van Cu as head of the
Government Office because of ill health, official media reported on Monday.
The office oversees day-to-day operations of the government and works
closely with the prime minister.
The official Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper and other dailies said
Doan Manh Giao, acting director of the Government Office, had been promoted
on Friday to take over the post, which carries ministerial rank.
Official media gave no details on Cu's health, but speculation emerged last
year that he was suffering from ill health.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and
redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior
written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or
delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
* Vietnam businesses struggled last year -survey
HANOI, March 22 (Reuters) - Vietnamese companies grappled last year with a
host of constraints and recorded worse profit and production figures
compared with 1997, according to the results of a business survey obtained
on Monday.
The survey of 800 state and private companies by the Vietnam Chamber of
Commerce and Industry said just 47 percent of the firms made profits last
year compared with 65 percent in 1997.
Only 48 percent of the entities notched up an increase in production
against 81 percent in the previous period while a mere 31 percent of the
firms recorded a rise in exports compared with 70 percent in 1997. No
absolute figures were given.
``(The figures) imply many enterprises are in difficulties, if not serious
difficulties,'' said the survey, which has been sent to Prime Minister Phan
Van Khai. A copy of the document was obtained by Reuters.
``Should inflation and the depreciation of the Vietnamese currency be taken
into consideration, and given the fact that most enterprises desire to blow
up their achievements, the actual performance of business enterprises in
1998 was much worse than in 1997.''
The figures conform with communist Vietnam's slowing economy and
perceptions among investors that the country has become one of the toughest
places in Southeast Asia to make money.
Hanoi says the economy grew 5.8 percent last year compared with more than
eight percent in 1997. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
dispute the government's 1998 growth figure, saying the result was closer
to 3-4 percent.
Inflation last year also jumped to near 10 percent compared with rates
below five percent in the previous two years.
Among the biggest constraints on local firms were limited export markets,
an unpredictable legal framework, high taxes, low domestic demand and
difficult access to capital.
Private firms in particular found it hard to obtain bank credit because of
collateral requirements and tough repayment conditions, especially for
medium- and long-term borrowings.
``With the constraints of the local business environment and in light of
the financial crisis in the region, the biggest challenge facing our
enterprises according to their assessment is the limited export capacity,''
the survey said.
Vietnamese firms have long complained about their inability to fully tap
the giant U.S. market because Washington does not accord Hanoi Most
Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status, now called Normal Trade Relations (NTR).
Last week Vietnam and the United States concluded the seventh round of
talks aimed at sealing a landmark trade pact that will incorporate NTR.
While progress was made during last week's talks some significant
differences remained, a U.S. trade official said.
Local companies surveyed also said new tax and banking laws contained
numerous obstacles to doing business, although the document did not
elaborate.
* Vietnam investors want action on reforms
HANOI, March 22 (Reuters) - Vietnam must unveil some major economic reforms
when the government meets foreign investors on Thursday or it will see
dimming interest in the country wane further, a senior executive said.
Roger Barlow, chairman of the Hanoi chapter of the British Business Group
(BBG) in Vietnam, welcomed the opportunity for foreign investors to meet
senior government representatives but made clear the BBG wanted more than
just promises of reform.
He said it was unclear if Hanoi would announce specific reforms beyond
vague promises made in official media last month that investors could
expect incentives on land leases, worker recruitment, utilities charges and
administrative procedures.
``If Vietnam wants to boost foreign investment in 1999 it has to announce
some radical reforms,'' Barlow, also general director of telecommunications
giant Cable & Wireless in Vietnam, said in an interview on Monday.
``Vietnam is competing for investment dollars with other Asian countries
that are prepared to give foreign firms very attractive packages and also
allow much more control over the businesses in which they invest,'' he
added.
Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam will chair the half-day meeting on
Thursday in Hanoi and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai is expected to attend.
Khai presided over a similar gathering in southern Ho Chi Minh City early
last year and his pro-reform comments at that time aroused the enthusiasm
of the hundreds of foreign investors who attended, Barlow said.
Since then the overall business climate had worsened, especially because of
tough regulations in the foreign exchange market and new rules for hiring
local workers, Barlow added.
To combat a hard currency crunch the government last year required many
foreign companies to immediately convert 80 percent of dollars in current
bank accounts into Vietnam's dong currency. The new labour law, which took
effect on January 1, forces foreign firms to hire local workers through
state-run labour bureaux.
Barlow said one good signal had been Hanoi's willingness to allow more
wholly-owned foreign firms to be established, although he added that this
process needed to be simplified.
Despite recording large foreign investment approvals in recent years only
one third of pledges have ever been disbursed in the communist-ruled
country of 79 million people.
The International Monetary Fund has said it anticipated $600 million was
disbursed last year from $2 billion in 1997.
Barlow said the BBG wanted to see the following action:
-- Cut red tape and streamline the bureaucracy.
-- Improve transparency in decision-making.
-- Keep businesses informed about foreign exchange availability and issues
concerning the mandatory registration of offshore loans.
-- Allow foreign companies and joint ventures to get access to loans in
dong currency.
-- Allow foreign companies to hire local staff in a market- oriented
fashion.
-- Phase out discriminatory dual-pricing for foreign companies and
individuals on various goods and services.
-- Put costs in dong, instead of the current practise of quoting costs such
as local wages and rents in U.S. dollars.
* Vietnam Makes Efforts to Fight Tuberculosis
HANOI (March 22) XINHUA - The Vietnamese government is making efforts to
fight tuberculosis (TB), English daily Vietnam News reported here Monday.
Professor Nguyen Viet Co, director of Vietnam's Central Institute of
Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, told a press briefing here last week in the
lead up to World Tuberculosis Day this Wednesday that the Vietnamese
government would provide sufficient medicine to treat TB patients and
Vietnam's National Anti-TB Program had been allocated 22 billion Vietnamese
dong (nearly 2 million U.S. dollars) this year to buy medicine.
Professor Co was quoted by Vietnam News as saying that the Dutch government
was likely to grant 1 million U.S. dollars this year to help Vietnam fight
against the disease.
Vietnam's program aims to cure 85 percent of detected TB patients every
year and build a network of medical stations providing disease prevention
and treatment services in all communes and cities.
The prevention scheme aims to detect 70 percent of those who contract TB.
It is estimated that 130,000 cases of TB are detected every year in Vietnam
but another 200,000 sufferers are not identified. About 20,000 TB sufferers
die every year, said Co.
He added that the death rate of TB patients is rising with the spread of
HIV/AIDS. Statistics from Ho Chi Minh City show that more than half of
those dying of TB had contracted HIV at least two years before.
* Vietnam Joins Asia News Network
HANOI (March 22) XINHUA - The English-Language daily Vietnam News of
Vietnam News Agency has just signed an agreement with seven other major
Asian newspapers to form the Asia News Network (ANN) to optimize the
coverage of news events in the region.
Vietnam News said this is the first of such kind of cooperation among
newspapers in Asia where they will exchange news, features, and Op-Ed
articles on a daily basis, giving the Asian press dynamism on a scale never
witnessed before.
The agreement was signed in Bangkok, capital of Thailand, last week by
editors or managing editors representing The Statesman from India, the
Jakarta Post from Indonesia, Sin Chew Jit Poh and The Star from Malaysia,
The Manila Times from the Philippines, The Strait Times from Singapore, The
Nations from Thailand, and Vietnam News.
The Nation's Editor Pana Janviroj, who was elected the first chairman of
the ANN's Executive Board, was quoted as saying that the newspapers will
pursue a more permanent professional and business relationship with the
goal of improving the coverage of Asian affairs by Asian media.
Janviroj also said that leading newspapers from China, Japan, the Republic
of Korea and other countries in the region will be invited to join ANN.
* Vietnam Joins Asia News Network
HANOI (March 22) XINHUA - The English-Language daily Vietnam News of
Vietnam News Agency has just signed an agreement with seven other major
Asian newspapers to form the Asia News Network (ANN) to optimize the
coverage of news events in the region.
Vietnam News said this is the first of such kind of cooperation among
newspapers in Asia where they will exchange news, features, and Op-Ed
articles on a daily basis, giving the Asian press dynamism on a scale never
witnessed before.
The agreement was signed in Bangkok, capital of Thailand, last week by
editors or managing editors representing The Statesman from India, the
Jakarta Post from Indonesia, Sin Chew Jit Poh and The Star from Malaysia,
The Manila Times from the Philippines, The Strait Times from Singapore, The
Nations from Thailand, and Vietnam News.
The Nation's Editor Pana Janviroj, who was elected the first chairman of
the ANN's Executive Board, was quoted as saying that the newspapers will
pursue a more permanent professional and business relationship with the
goal of improving the coverage of Asian affairs by Asian media.
Janviroj also said that leading newspapers from China, Japan, the Republic
of Korea and other countries in the region will be invited to join ANN.
* Vatican official optimistic on Pope trip to Vietnam
VATICAN CITY, March 22 (Reuters) - A top Vatican diplomat who just returned
from Vietnam said on Monday he was optimistic that Pope John Paul could
visit the country, whose communist government wants to forge diplomatic
links with the Holy See.
Monsignor Celestino Migliore, who visited Vietnam last week, said there was
much ``goodwill'' on both side to establish diplomatic relations, although
no target date had been set.
``In our talks with government authorities, there was a willingness to
improve official relations with the Holy See,'' Migliore told reporters on
the margins of a news conference on another topic at the Vatican.
``This is a first step but a very important step because it is the essential
condition for developing the entire process (leading to relations),'' he
said.
Vietnam's Catholic community numbers around eight million and is Southeast
Asia's largest outside the Philippines.
Relations between Hanoi and the Vatican have traditionally been strained
because the church is associated with the colonial past and because the
government does not want automatically to approve the appointment of bishops
by the Pope.
Asked about the possibility of a papal trip, Migliore smiled and said: ``I
am an optimist by nature.''
The Vietnamese Church has invited the Pope to visit the country for
religious celebrations this August.
But Vatican sources have said that if a trip takes place in 1999, it will
most likely be towards the end of the year as part of a tentatively planned
larger trip to Asia.
The Pope will have time for only one foreign trip in 2000 -- to the Holy
Land -- because he will have to remain in Rome for millennium celebrations.
Migliore said that during a mass in Hanoi's Catholic cathedral, a local non-
cleric church leader stood up and said the country's Catholics dearly wanted
to see the Pope.
``This invitation has been relayed to the Pope,'' Migliore said.
While the climate for worship in Vietnam has eased in recent years, the
state retains strict controls over religious groups and their activities.
Last week, Hanoi said a new report by the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on
Religious Intolerance -- which said Vietnam continued to deny freedom of
worship -- lacked objectivity and goodwill.
If the Vatican and Vietnam do establish diplomatic ties, that would leave
China and North Korea as virtually the only major communist countries with
no links to the Holy See.
* We Won Nothing in Vietnam War
LAT, 21/3/99
Kenneth L. Khachigian's attempt to rewrite the history of the Vietnam War in
his March 14 column with the phrase "There was a hard-won peace in Vietnam .
. ." cannot go without comment.
We didn't win anything in Vietnam, and I wish the right wing would recognize
that fact.
When the last American soldier leaves clinging to the skids of the last
American helicopter to leave embassy grounds, that's a licking, not a "hard-
won peace."
Does Khachigian remember the character of the leaders of the so-called
Republic of South Vietnam who betrayed not only America's friendship, but
the trust of their own people?
Does Khachigian remember that Richard M. Nixon ran in 1968 by saying he had
a "secret plan to end the war" and that, instead, more Americans died after
Nixon took over than in the 20 years before?
The reasons some of us are nervous is that some politicians like Khachigian
seem to have missed the message of Vietnam: No matter how noble the cause,
if you can't change the outcome, don't fight.
JIM CORBETT
San Clemente
* 58,000 Lost loved ones - Replica of Vietnam memorial on display in
Floresville
FLORESVILLE (San Antonio Express-News, 21/3/99) — As six American flags
rippled in a cool spring breeze, Juan Marin squatted close to the ground and
stared intently at the rows of names etched on a field of black.
The 58,209 names stretch 252 feet.
"There are just so many of them," he said of the names.
"It's unbelievable."
The "moving" Vietnam Wall that went on display on a sunny Sunday afternoon
in Floresville is a sobering reminder of the conflict's staggering impact on
America.
But the wall at Floresville's River Park, a half-sized replica of the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that's toured communities
throughout the nation since 1984, was much more than that to John Daigle
Jr., Dan Castillo, Jesse Bayer, Peggy McJunkins, Aubrey Hardin and U.S. Rep.
Ciro Rodriguez.
The wall, which remains here through Saturday, was a connection to Daigle's
father, a Vietnam veteran killed in a 1986 plane crash; a reminder of life's
gifts for the wheelchair-bound Castillo; a symbol of duty to Bayer, a B-17
navigator with a pocket diary detailing 30 missions over Nazi Germany; and a
door to the past for McJunkins, Hardin and Rodriguez.
Ex-Army Spec. 4 Marin remembered Vietnam for its oppressive heat, sleep
deprivation and the constant threat of snipers.
"All the names here are people that were very young," Marin, 55, of
Floresville said.
"They could have been famous politicians, teachers, doctors, fathers," said
Castillo, 37. "There's a lot of what-ifs, I guess."
The war started in earnest for the U.S. when Congress approved the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution on Aug. 7, 1964, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson "all
necessary measures" to prevent aggression in South Vietnam. It ended with
South Vietnam's surrender in 1975.
On Sunday, history and hazy memories merged for Daigle, a 40- year-old
Floresville bookkeeper.
Super 8mm movie images of his father and mother playing cards with best
friend Maj. Amos Oliver Fox, an Air Force F-100 pilot who crashed into a
mountain, played in Daigle's mind. He used a pencil to etch Fox's name onto
an 8-by 11- inch printout, then took a photo.
Long before Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, rose to Capitol Hill, he occasionally
borrowed a bicycle from Rudy Hernandez, an older boy in his San Antonio
neighborhood. Then, it seemed, as soon as Hernandez went off to Vietnam,
word came back that he was dead.
Visitors to the moving Vietnam Wall are reflected in the structure as they
look at names and items placed in memory of service members killed during
the Vietnam War. The wall, now in Floresville's River Park, is a half-sized
replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
"Sometimes you have to wonder why a lot of good men had to die," said
Hardin, a 61-year-old Navy veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War.
"They were told to do it, and they went over there and tried to do a job,"
said Bayer, 78, a Floresville farmer who flew his 29th mission 54 years ago
this weekend.
"(The wall) gives me perspective on realizing even though I'm in a
wheelchair I still have a lot to live for, you know?" said Castillo, wounded
in 1987 during a Special Forces mission in Honduras. "I've been paralyzed
since I was 25, and that was 12 years ago, and it's always been a struggle.
"But at least I'm still alive."
McJunkins' son, Donald, had to push terrified South Vietnamese soldiers out
of his Army helicopter, then later pick up the dead.
Long after Saigon's fall, her son doesn't talk much about the war.
"I've been to the wall in Washington. It breaks your heart," McJunkins, 79,
told Rodriguez.
"All the names, all the boys, all the losses of lives, for what?" she told a
reporter moments later. "What were they fighting for anyway, a political
war? I don't know.
"It's sad to look at this wall and see how many people's names are up there.
It's just a great loss."
* My Lai still haunts juror in Calley trial
Knight-Ridder, 22/3/99
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.
Harvey Brown woke up alone 28 years ago in his quarters at Fort Benning. He
blinked, and as though someone had tattooed the image to the back of his
eyelids, saw the image he calls "The Crossroads."
The image was a photo of a jumble of bloodied bodies lying at a dirt
crossroads near the tiny hamlet of My Lai in South Vietnam. Arms. Legs.
Torsos. Too many to count. At the top of the pile was a naked baby, floppy
as a rag doll, skin pale and luminescent in the bright, tropical sun of
Vietnam.
"I don't know how many times they showed us that picture," said Brown, a
juror in the 1971 trial of Lt. William Calley, who was found guilty of
murder and now runs a jewelry shop in Columbus.
Brown gets melancholy every March, the anniversary month of the 1968
killings. It was in March, three years after the killings, to the day, he
was a juror deliberating the fate of the baby-faced U.S. Army lieutenant
accused in the massacre.
Brown said he wonders if other jurors in cases of such violence have images
and words burned forever in their hearts and minds. He thinks they do.
"There needs to be some kind of support system for jurors and their
families," said Brown, now an accountant at a construction firm.
"Everything they have to look at, what they hear, it stays with you
forever."
He describes the memories as "still jagged and raw, wounds that never heal."
The My Lai massacre took place in mid-March 1968 in a cluster of six
hamlets. What happened in the one designated My Lai 4 is remembered by some
Americans as a time of national shame and by others as simply an occurrence
of war.
In that hamlet alone, by best estimates, up to 200 unarmed Vietnamese --
old men, women and children -- were tortured and shot to death by U.S.
soldiers under the command of William "Rusty" Calley.
During the trial, though Brown was allowed to go home at night, his wife,
Cleva, and their three children were prevented by court order from
discussing the case with him.
They couldn't tell him about the threats they got whenever they appeared in
public or the late-night harassment calls requiring a new, unlisted phone
number. "Don't ask, don't tell" had a very different meaning in the Brown
household.
Once they started deliberations, all six of the Army officers who made up
the jury were sequestered at Fort Benning.
Brown, then a 32-year-old Army captain with combat experience, slept under
armed guard while his wife held things together at home off post. At the
time, she was fearful because of threats to her husband and family from
zealous supporters of Calley.
"There was nothing the wives could do to help them," said Cleva Brown. "We
had two or three reserved seats in the courtroom and the six wives would
draw straws for them. We wanted to be there to show support."
They were there for the photos and testimony, too. Testimony about a dead
priest wearing white robes. Pictures of a woman and a small boy lying next
to their market basket and soldiers setting homes on fire.
"I was there when Calley testified," Cleva Brown said. "He was so cold,
saying it didn't matter if they were old people or babies, they were all
the enemy."
Although the Browns never sought counseling, they both have found that
talking about the trial and reading everything they can find about it helps.
Public sentiment, for the most part, has changed. Immediately after the
trial, the Browns received hate mail by the bagful. They kept every one --
two trunks full.
The worst: a hate-filled letter from a school principal accompanied by a
packet of letters from grade-schoolers spewing similar venom.
"I just couldn't understand it," Cleva Brown said. "I saw what Calley did.
He admitted that he killed them, that to him small babies were communists.
I think people who wrote the letters thought, because they were Vietnamese,
they weren't American, they didn't deserve justice."
The jury found Calley guilty. Because the judge ordered secrecy, to this
day Brown refuses to say how the vote played out. They only needed four
votes to convict.
Despite the sentence of life imprisonment, Calley was placed under house
arrest at Fort Benning. He was paroled on Sept. 10, 1975. He has repeatedly
declined media requests for interviews.
Brown and his wife are left with their memories and fear.
* Memoirs : Kissinger, Part Three
Newsweek, March 29, 1999
In the concluding volume, a play-by-play of his clashes with absolutists on
the left and the right
By Michael Elliott
Say "the Ford presidency" and what comes to mind? Neckties a mile wide;
sideburns and bad hair years? Whip Inflation Now? Limit a book on the Ford
administration to its foreign policy-to matters such as the Mayaguez
incident and a civil war in Lebanon-and it sounds like a snooze. If you
knew that such a book was 1,151 pages long, you might conclude that it
would be unreadable.
It is a measure of Henry Kissinger's Years of Renewal (Simon & Schuster,
$35) that it is anything but. Unsurprisingly, there are passages that
challenge all but the utterly committed, like 48 pages on the Cyprus crisis
of 1974. Yet the very comprehensiveness of this account-billed as "the
concluding volume" of Kissinger's three-part memoir of his years serving
Ford and Richard Nixon-is part of its appeal. Not that this is just a
sourcebook; on the contrary, it has perhaps the clearest expression yet of
what Kissinger believed he was doing, and why, during his time as secretary
of State. And "Years of Renewal" fairly crackles with incisive character
sketches of those who shaped an age. (Compare Kissinger's descriptions of
Mao Zedong, which verge on hero-worship even when the Chinese leader was
reduced to speaking in an incoherent dribble, with the ill-disguised
contempt he reserves for the dull, unintelligent Russians he met.)
Moreover, Kissinger's book is, on more than one occasion, genuinely moving.
All told, this is a stupendous achievement.
The strategic challenges that faced Kissinger and Ford after Nixon's
resignation in August 1974 were immense. When Ford spoke of ending a long
national nightmare, he referred only to Watergate. But in truth, the United
States had lived a nightmare since 1963, a time that had seen (among other
horrors) one president assassinated and two forced from office, and a
deadly, unpopular war in Vietnam. This fractured, unhappy country faced an
apparently powerful adversary in the Soviet Union, secure in its domination
of half of Europe, capable of much mischief in the Middle East and
advancing its influence, through proxies, in Africa.
As if that were not enough, Kissinger had what might be called a
philosophical problem. By his own account, he had rejected
Wilsonianism-"foreign policy as a struggle between good and evil, in ...
which it is America's mission to help defeat the evil foes"-in favor of a
policy whose bedrock was the defense of American interests through the
creation of a balance of power. He was not engaged in a "a quest for
absolutes" but "the shaping of reality by means of nuances." Yet with
Vietnam-scarred liberals determined to be righteous, and newly powerful
neoconservatives opposed to all accommodation with communism, this was not
a nuanced time.
In large measure, Kissinger's book is a tale of successive attempts to
advance his policies in the teeth of domestic skepticism, most powerfully
expressed by the post-Watergate Congress. He succeeded more often than he
failed, securing the Helsinki Accords, engaging with the white-supremacist
regimes of southern Africa, pressuring Israel to withdraw from the Sinai.
There was, though, in Kissinger's eyes one great failure: the abandonment
of South Vietnam and Cambodia in 1975, when Congress failed to supply the
funding that Kissinger feels-passionately-the non-communist governments of
Southeast Asia deserved. But here, surely, Kissinger's judgment goes awry;
there is scant evidence that any plausible amount of outside intervention
would have stopped Indochina's communists from achieving their destiny.
Blaming a liberal, softheaded Congress for that fate makes little sense.
If Congress comes in for Kissinger's ire, his president escapes it utterly.
In a book that is remarkably generous in tone, Ford wins more accolades
than anyone. In his short presidency, Kissinger argues, the football star
from Michigan showed courage and leadership, and "embodied our nation's
deepest and simplest values." America, Kissinger concludes, was lucky to
have such a president at such a time. History is likely to conclude that
the president was no less lucky in his secretary of State.
* Cambodia to move statue in reconciliation gesture
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) -- The head of Cambodia's royalist party has
agreed to move a statue of his father, King Norodom Sihanouk, from the
party's headquarters as a gesture of reconciliation with Premier Hun Sen,
officials said.
But Prince Norodom Ranariddh had yet to agree with Hun Sen on where the
statue would be moved, Ranariddh's spokesman Thach Bunroeun said on Monday.
The statue of the constitutional monarch has been standing within the
compound of the royalist FUNCINPEC party since it was donated by late North
Korean leader Kim Il-sung, with whom Sihanouk had a close relationship.
Hun Sen, who toppled the prince as his senior co-premier in a bloody coup
less than two years ago, suggested it be moved to a more neutral area when
he made an unprecedented visit to FUNCINPEC's national congress on Friday,
Thach Bunroeun said.
"Even though the king is the founder of FUNCINPEC, Premier Hun Sen has
promised to find a proper place to put the statue as the king is the father
of national reconciliation," said senior FUNCINPEC official May Sam Oeun.
At first he suggested it be placed in the middle of a traffic roundabout
outside the headquarters, but Ranariddh said a public park would be more
appropriate and Hun Sen agreed.
Sihanouk, who was restored as king in 1993, founded FUNCINPEC in 1981 when
it was one of three guerrilla factions fighting a government Vietnam
installed and Hun Sen went on to lead.
But he was instrumental in bringing the rival Cambodian factions to a
compromise peace agreement in 1991 and since his restoration has styled
himself the neutral father of the nation.
* China says can solve Spratlys row with Philippines
MANILA, March 21 (Reuters) - China said on Sunday its dispute with the
Philippines over the Spratly Islands was a matter they could settle between
themselves, apparently pushing aside attempts by Manila to get the United
Nations to step in.
Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged a sober approach to the
South China Sea territorial dispute in talks with Philippine Foreign
Secretary Domingo Siazon, officials said.
Wang, talking to reporters later, said the two countries could settle
bilaterally problems affecting them.
Asked if China would accept a United Nations role in settling the Spratlys
issue, Wang said:
"We have all along believed that our two countries shall settle the
questions and the problems through friendly consultations between China and
the Philippines on the basis of the principles of international law and
including the principles in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the
Sea."
The convention is a 1994 U.N. statute which governs use of the oceans and
their resources.
"I am confident that our two countries have the capability to settle these
problems," Wang added.
The Spratlys are a cluster of almost 200 isles, reefs and rocky outcrops
believed to be potentially rich in oil and claimed wholly or in part by
China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Philippine President Joseph Estrada said on Saturday he had asked U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan if the United Nations could arrange diplomatic
talks to resolve conflicting claims over the South China Sea islands.
Estrada, who met Annan in New York last week, said the U.N. chief promised
to try to help solve the problem.
Philippine diplomats have said China frowns on "internationalising" the
issue and prefers it settled bilaterally between nations directly involved.
Tension flared in Manila-Beijing relations late last year when the
Philippines accused China of sending naval vessels to Mischief Reef in the
Spratlys and fortifying facilities there for possible military use.
Beijing has rejected the charges and said its facilities on the reef are
shelters for fishermen.
The Philippines says the reef is 135 nautical miles off its shores and well
within its exclusive economic zone.
Philippine foreign undersecretary Lauro Baja said on Friday the Chinese
facilities "are daggers in the heart of the Philippine security concerns"
and urged China to remove them.
Wang is in Manila to attend a two-day meeting with Philippine officials on
confidence-building measures to minimise tension and avoid conflict in the
Spratlys.
Secretary Siazon said Wang, in their talks, did not raise Estrada's
discussions with Annan on the Spratlys "except that they pleaded for a very
rational and unemotional approach to solving the problem."
* China rejects Philippine demands to dismantle reef structures.
ABC, 23/3/99 - China has rejected Philippine demands to dismantle
structures on a disputed South China Sea reef, as experts from both sides
opened a two-day meeting to resolve the row.
China's assistant foreign minister, Wang Yi says the reef is Chinese
territory.
He was referring to Mischief Reef in the Spratlys island chain which is at
the center of a diplomatic storm between Manila and Beijing.
The assistant foreign minister denied allegations by Manila that fortified
Chinese-built facilities on the reef included helicopter landing pads and
what look like gun emplacements, saying they were just shelters for
fishermen.
However, the head of the Philippine panel, Foreign undersecretary Lauro
Baja, says Manila will again ask Beijing to dismantle the structures, which
were expanded in 1998.
**** Posted from RemarQ - http://www.remarq.com - Discussions Start Here (tm) ****