ecn-ec:ecn-pc:ecn-ed:vu@pur-ee.UUCP (09/04/83)
This is an article translated from the Vietnamese paper
"San Diego News". A few notes for the readers:
Ngo Ba Thanh: a woman intellect who advocates for human
rights in South Vietnam, but turns out to be a
high-ranking official in the Communist Party
after the take-over of Saigon.
"The intellectual vertex of humankind" is the name North
Vietnamese call themselves and their Marxist
theories.
"Bo-bo" (o here pronounces like "aw" in "saw", past tense of
the verb "to see") is an easy-to-plant crop, rich
in fat but poor in nutritients, normally used for
animal feeding. During the years after 1977, rice
shortage in South Vietnam makes the Communist
government to sell bo-bo as a substitute for rice.
Notes in brackets [ ] are from me, not from the article's
author.
------------------------------------
By Kieu Phong.
--------------
SIMILAR
American papers, television are talking constantly about
the similarity between El Salvador and Vietnam war. The TV reporter
looks around for pictures, the paper writer searches for facts, both
to claim : El Salvador is a second Vietnam.
D**n it. How can wars be different, especially wars between
a Free Third World country and communist guerilla ? Guns and bullets,
grenades, destructions, raids, are all learned from one book, one
method... Even in mouth-fighting [read: political arguments], the
commies are using the same old way. The hard part is to find the
differences, not the similarity.
What we should look for is not whether war in El Salvador
is similar to Vietnam war, but whether American press and the
Congress behave the same way.
It is their behavior and view-point that is important.
It is the question of life or death for El Salvador and the
Free World.
And it [press, congress ' behavior] turns out to be
the same. Just like the good old days: the President briefs
the Congress on the situation in Central America. And as usual,
there is always an opponent. There is that guy who went on TV
criticizing El Salvador: that its government is corrupt, it takes
American aid and puts in Swiss bank, that its government violates
human rights, that government soldiers kill innocent children and
women, that people of El Salvador are miserably poor, that they
need a revolution to improve their lives, etc. and etc.... That
guy then proposes a solution: force the government to sit in
with the guerillas and find a "peace in honor" [ "peace in honor"
is the word used in South Vietnam for the signing of the Paris
cease-fire treaty ]
That guy was no ordinary American. He is a member of
Congress, speaking for the Democratic Party.
And not long after, TV's World News presents a reporter
reporting from El Salvador. He boasts to have been to Vietnam,
he shows images of the war exactly the same as Vietnam. And before
ending, he shows a woman, nice and gentle just like Ngo Ba Thanh.
She tells that reporter ( and through him, the world ) that she
has proofs and pictures of thousands cases of human rights violations
in El Salvador. Viewers got a chance to see the pictures in her hands:
innocent men, women and children dying in the streets.
The enemy is playing the same game all the time. And our
side keeps playing our part: the part of the dupe, the permanent
dupe, the extreme dupe, the un-convertable dupe.
DON'T CHEAT
Presenting pictures, facts of the war in El Salvador similar
to Vietnam war. Good, I agree. But why stop there, why not talking
about possible similarity in the future ?
A TV station presents El Salvador's Ngo Ba Thanh. Very good!
Very much like Vietnam! But why do we stop there ? Why don't we mention
possible following similarities ? Why don't we remind American people
that 7 years ago, Ngo Ba Thanh in Vietnam also fought very hard for
human rights. She "demands the right to live" very tough, and then
one day that tigress shows herself to be a Communist, demanding
nobody's right to live but only demanding victory for the Vietcong
invaders.
American press accusing Salvadorian leadership of violating
human rights, totalitarian, etc. & etc... and the guerillas claim
"emancipation", getting rid of opression, fighting wholy for the poor.
Very good! Very much like Vietnam. But there are other similarities to
mention. At Vietnam, when those with "intellectual vertex of animal-
kind" have caught the nation, their corruption leads by far any
corrupted creatures on the Earth's surface. "The poor" are wholy
emancipated, becoming "the hungry". The whole country is a prison.
Language become poorer. Asking a "good nephew of Uncle Ho" : What does
rice mean ? He had to look through the whole dictionary and proudly
answered: Rice means "bo-bo" ! [This article was not written for the
serious opinion column, so the author keeps putting on jokes. Doesn't
mean that he is not serious, though]
Kissinger was commisioned to prepare a Peace Treaty. The
Communists want to talk. Good for them ! But why don't we talk about
other possible similarities: see how the new Treaty, just like the
Paris cease-fire treaty, is honored; and just how great a "peace in
honor" can Kissinger bring back to the U.S.
And there are also those reporters working in El Salvador,
constantly sending into US homes exciting news. Those guys also need
to know about similarities in news reported.
For example, after showing a news report, a honest anchorman
should add: "The way that jerk just reported the news is exactly the
same way he did in Vietnam, he can only take pictures of the sins of
our side. There is just no way he can get a picture of the enemy.
Straying into enemy land, and there goes his life. From time to time,
we get a picture from the other side, and it is thanks to the commies
who wrote the script, put on a nice play, and then gave them [the
pictures] to us. So that those dummies are serving the Communists
without knowing it. So please just forget what you saw, lest it
is hamrful for Liberty's health..."
*
Telling a story, we must tell it all, clear. Stopping in
the middle not only means the enemy is blindfolding us, but also that
we are giving them a helping hand.
Ten years ago, being duped by the Communists, that is only
being stupid. But now, with a lesson ready, with a lot of similarities
to look at, and still refuse to see the truth, that is both stupid
and dishonnest.
[The author then adds that he couldn't imagine the day when the
U.S. will have to massively receive a new class of refugee: the Salvadorans,
if El Salvador falls into the communists]
----------------------------------------
>From a paper in Vietnamese, the "San Diego Tin Tuc", meaning
"San Diego News".
Hao-Nhien Vu (pur-ee!vu, pur-ee!norris)grunwald@uiuccsb.UUCP (09/06/83)
#R:ecn-ed:-18900:uiuccsb:11000004:000:1210 uiuccsb!grunwald Sep 5 14:42:00 1983 You know, I find it amazing that people automatically assume that any group of revolutionaries which attack a "friendly" government are "commies." In the '30s, there was a similar revolutionary effort in El Salvador. The government of that time said it was "commies" and killed 10,000 of its own people in one week. The current struggle is not recent -- it has been going on for many years. There were attempts at revolution in the early '70s. The revolution was not started by "communist insurgents," it was started by the teachers unions, the farmers unions, etc etc etc. Their ideological bent is more towards democratic socialism (which many americans seem to equate with communisim). Their acquisition of Soviet arms is unfortunate; however the saying "any port in a storm" fits well here -- they were having trouble getting arms from any other source. However, they seem to get most of their arms from corrupt government troops and officials (i.e. the arms we sell the government). So, before you go calling them "commies", why don't you find some more substantial backing before applying this image-laden word? It detracts from your argument to use such emotional phrases in a discussion.
pollack@uicsl.UUCP (09/06/83)
#R:ecn-ed:-18900:uicsl:16300012:000:3661 uicsl!pollack Sep 5 17:30:00 1983 *** D**n it. How can wars be different, especially wars between a Free *** Third World country and communist guerilla ? What the h**l is a "Free Third World country"? Isn't it just a former colony dominated by US industry and its local hooligans? Is a Third World country "free" if it is part of the "free world?" Perhaps a better name for it would be "non-communist world", because the freedoms we Americans know are sadly lacking in the so-called "Free Third World countries," (with or without the justification of communist subversion) like the Phillipines, Guatemala, Taiwan, Korea, Chile, etc. etc. The real reason for a rebellion is unfair treatment of a majority of people - even in the "Economic Miracle" of Brazil, with a puppet regime installed in 1964, a fantastic number of people live in cardboard houses in shantytowns, malnourished but eating carcinogenic vegetables while American Banks Still make a profit "off of" Brazil by lending at 200% interest while inflation is only 135%! *** Viewers got a chance to see the pictures in her hands: innocent men, *** women and children dying in the streets. []The enemy is playing the *** same game all the time. And our side keeps playing our part: the part *** of the dupe, the permanent dupe, the extreme dupe, the un-convertable *** dupe. Happily, there is lots of corroboration for the view that the Salvadoran government is bad and the rebels are good; Lots of US citizens come and go, even in the "liberated zones." Our administration has a problem with this too; its emissaries to Central America keep coming back "crazy," wanting us to support the rebels.. *** At Vietnam, when those with "intellectual vertex of animal- kind" have *** caught the nation, their corruption leads by far any corrupted *** creatures on the Earth's surface. "The poor" are wholy emancipated, *** becoming "the hungry". The whole country is a prison. By the time the Communists in Vietnam took over, there was no country left - we had bombed it into a moon-like landscape. And with the total absence of aid to a region completely dependant on it, massive hunger and death were guaranteed - but it could be blamed on the Commies, not on the US. By contrast, when the Sandinistas took over in Nicaragua, we had not bombed them to oblivion, so there is not massive hunger, even though the US stopped shipments of wheat and cooking oil and stopped buying their sugar and coffee. *** Ten years ago, being duped by the Communists, that is only being *** stupid. But now, with a lesson ready, with a lot of similarities to *** look at, and still refuse to see the truth, that is both stupid and *** dishonnest. Ten years ago, bombing a former French colony who resisted the imposition of a puppet government, that is only being stupid. But now, to continue to support a ruthless regime, and refuse to see the truth that the puppet style of post-colonial government is responsible for misery, that is both stupid and dishonest! *** [The author then adds that he couldn't imagine the day when the U.S. *** will have to massively receive a new class of refugee: the Salvadorans, *** if El Salvador falls into the communists] There already are hundreds of thousands of refugees from Latin America, mainly from El Salvador and Guatemala whose regimes are following a "scorched earth" counter-insurgency policy of destroying whole villages. The US church has had to offer sanctuary to these refugees because they are not refugees from communism. But then, tell me, where are the millions of refugees from Nicaragua? --------- Jordan Pollack ...pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!pollack
eich@uiuccsb.UUCP (09/09/83)
#R:ecn-ed:-18900:uiuccsb:11000009:000:168 uiuccsb!eich Sep 8 18:45:00 1983 Um, what puppet government were we trying to impose on the North Vietnamese? Saigon fell to Soviet armor, not to any Viet Cong trying to bring Ho's way to the south.
grunwald@uiuccsb.UUCP (09/10/83)
#R:ecn-ed:-18900:uiuccsb:11000018:000:124 uiuccsb!grunwald Sep 9 13:57:00 1983 Soviet armor controlled by Viet Cong. And they were fighting South Viets who were using American armor. So what?