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Vietnam's Lost Souls

By VVAW

In the United States, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the whereabouts of American soldiers who are Missing In Action (MIA) from the Vietnam (Indochina) War(s). At times, there has been outrage at the Vietnamese government for not doing more to find these soldiers, or their remains. This is a bit much, as these same United States soldiers killed the people of Vietnam and destroyed their country.

Many Americans have the amazing ability to ignore the casualties and suffering of the Vietnamese, focusing upon their own losses and suffering, which are tiny in comparison to the years of bombing, defoliation, war, and destruction of homes inflicted upon Vietnam by American forces (granted, all of their news and entertainment sources tend to help hide this fact). At one point, President Jimmy Carter actually said that the U.S. owed no reparations to Vietnam because "the destruction was mutual."

For the very first time, I have seen a news article that actually presents the idea that the Vietnamese suffered as much, or more than the Americans in the Vietnam war, an unusual viewpoint for a mainstream American newspaper to be writing about. This article ran in the August 30 Los Angeles Times on their front page in the "Column One" section entitled "Seeking Closure for Vietnam's 'Lost Souls'" (Column One tends to be for stories that are issues, but not really "news"). For this, the LA Times is to be commended. There are a number of problems with the article, but it is still a step forward.

The article is about a Vietnamese woman named Pham Kim Ky, whose son, Ho Viet Dung, fought for the North Vietnamese army in the Vietnam War, and has been MIA for 25 years, presumed dead. The article brings up the fact that the number of American MIAs (1578) pales in comparison to the 300,000 Vietnamese MIAs. The article mentions that "thousands" of mothers and fathers like Ky are searching the country for information about their relatives who fought in the war.

According to the article, Vietnamese tradition says that when someone dies, their remains should be unearthed and cleaned three years after their initial burial; once these bones are reburied, the soul of that person can then find peace. The Vietnamese MIAs cannot have their remains tended in this way, and therefore their souls cannot find rest; hence the "lost souls" mentioned in the title.

Several things are admirable and unusual about the article. By showing the numbers of MIAs on both sides, the reader can see that Vietnam is worse off in this respect. The article also portrays North Vietnamese as human beings with personalities and feelings, instead of describing them as a ruthless fighting force, backwards peasants, or brainwashed commie tools.

Now, the downsides: Often, one can tell about a widespread social problem by telling the story of one or several individuals, helping the reader get a proper perspective and context of the problem. This particular article does the contrary; it focuses so heavily on Ky herself, describing her in such a emotionally charged manner, that it overshadows the scope of the problem; the fact that thousands of families are looking for their loved ones fades into the background. Secondly, any implication of guilt on the part of the United States is deftly sidestepped. This is most prominent when the article talks of the difficulty of finding remains on the battlefields, which "had been napalmed; terrain had been transformed by Agent Orange; bodies had been stripped of wallets, identification and family pictures by GIs seeking souvenirs." These actions are described as though they had happened without any cause or agent. A stronger statement would be "US soldiers napalmed ... dropped Agent Orange etc.." The article also makes no mention that many of these "lost souls" were killed by American soldiers.

This article is about as much as we can expect from the American mainstream media on such a touchy issue. A neglected point of view is presented, but truly controversial, unpleasant aspects of the issue are suppressed, ignored, or danced around.

Excerpted from NEWS WATCH, Volume 1, Issue 11 [October 4, 1997]. NEWS WATCH is a bi-weekly email publication available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ben2.ucla.edu/~jsexton/NewsWatch

For an email subscription to NEWS WATCH, write to the editor, Jane Sexton, at jsexton@ucla.edu.