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A Trip to HanoiBy VVAW"There are two things that the American public should concern itself with now. They are: 1) the 7 Points and 2) the 7 Points This is the only honorable way out of Vietnam for America." With these words and the double emphasis on the 7 Point Peace Proposal of Madame Binh, the Prime Minister of North Vietnam, Pham Van Dong summed up a visit to Hanoi by three delegates from the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice. We were there from August 13 to August 21, and it was the most enlightening 8 days I've ever spent. The PCPJ delegation was made up by Dave McReynolds of the War Resisters League, Judy Lerner of the Womens Strike for Peace and me, Joe Urgo of the VVAW. I suppose the easiest way for me to relate my experiences in Hanoi is to start off comparing it to the year I spent stationed at Tan Son Nhut A.B. next to Saigon. I remember Saigon as a place where children were starving, the women were prostitutes, and the men were thieves, and everybody could be all three if they were not crippled or dead. One of the insanities of the war was that we created an inflation that made the people our slaves in order for them to survive, and then we always wondered why we had to protect ourselves from the people we were "helping". Hanoi differs from Saigon in many ways, the most obvious is there is no barbed, armed guards, or people begging, and the people have spirit and determination to be free of foreign intervention (remember the original American Revolution??) As veterans we all know how the "Big Lie" was pulled on us: "America all good; Communism all bad." "Kill the Commie Gook for mother flag and apple pie." So we My Lai'd and defoliated our way across Vietnam and found out what our fathers didn't tell us: that war is insane and that one reason for this insanity was American Imperialism. I hated that word when I worked for Barry Goldwater in 1964 but I've come to know it well since Vietnam. For those who don't realize how totally we were betrayed I ask you to take a trip to Hanoi and see for yourself what I state here; that for 10-15 years we've been fighting a people whose history is 10 times older than ours and who have thrown off every empire that tried to enslave them – Japanese, Chinese, French, or American. We were the guests of Solidarity Committee with the American people and one of the statements we heard time and time again everywhere we went was: "We know it is not the American people, but the American government who fights this war." The fact that they can separate the American people from this war shows me that they understand us many times more than we understand them. Mr. Luu Quy Ky --- the Secretary General for the Vietnamese Writers and Journalists Association – made another statement that shows me that their determination to be free with this understanding with America makes them unbeatable. He said "In 1954 we began to see the emerging American presence in Vietnam and so we allotted 25 years to rid ourselves of the Americans. We have been fighting now for almost 18 years. We have 7 year years to go (sic). We think we will make it." In their museum of the Revolution you can see 2,000 years of Vietnamese history unfold before your eyes. One of the more interesting facts we found out was that in the 2nd and 3rd century after they had repelled and defeated Ghengis Khan's invasion of Vietnam – they rebuilt the invading ships and gave them food and sent the survivors home. We asked to see one or two POWs but were refused on the grounds of security. However we were given a tape recorded message from 4 POWs. The Son Toy raid-where 59 Vietnamese were killed- had caused a situation now where they didn't see it necessary to jeopardize their security unless a definite political wedge was possible. After a week there I'm convinced from the way they treated us on a human level and not as visiting Americans, that they treat the POWs in a human manner. This is radically different from the way Americans handle their POWs- when it's decided to take prisoners in the first place. We visited sites of bombing of homes and residential areas and factories. We were also told of schools, churches, and hospitals bombed constantly. At their War Crimes Museum we saw captured American equipment, photos of the effects of napalm and anti-personnel weapons. We met two deformed children, deformed from the effects of the agent Orange defoliant. A country whose northern half is supposed to be a "Police State" and whose southern half is "free". The terms must be reversed when the north allows free religious expression and the south closed down its newspapers and censors the news. A country where a lot of Americans not knowing what or why they were doing-committed a great deal of men and money to destroy the people, culture, and land of that country- all for nothing. The 7 points of the PRG are in this paper. Read them and spread the word and remember what one of the Vietnamese told us: "That you must study western philosophy in order to save your country." We must study ourselves to save ourselves or we are going to die. Finally there was a movie showing more of these and other insanities of this war. The totality of what we have done to Vietnam really hits home- nothing and nobody has been spared misery and pain. In talking with the representatives of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Vietnam, I learned how they saw the military situation in the South. What they had to say was what we already know- that dissension and anti-military sentiment is very strong among the guys there- especially the grunts. The withdrawals are continuing and situation on the bases who depend on ARVN support is flaky. Even in the field – the lack of fighting spirit is rampant throughout. They said that not only are Americans abandoning their equipment without destroying it but now they are for the first time not risking their lives to even retrieve their dead. The NLF troops are walking by Base Camps and not getting fired upon and in some cases are being let go after they are captured. The fragging and drug situation are rampant as I racial fighting and the hatred of lifers and ARVN. We also met a 13 year old girl named DA from Guang Tri province wholse village of 60 people wass wiped out by the Americal Division in April, '69. She and her little sister were the only survivors and only because an older woman fell on them before dying herself. We drove to Haiphong and then up to Ha Long Bay to see the countryside and the people and its a most impressive site of land reform and collectivization of the farms. The north is extremely poor materially- all the money goes to the military. But the spirit of the people is tremendous and their love of us was evident everywhere we went. When people found out who we were they would thank us for coming to see the truth. Several times I was embraced because of what I represented- the men who had committed all these horrors to these people. The director of the museum hugged me and cried. The Prime Minister Pham Wan Dong also embraced me and left me with a look in his eyes that I'll never forget. A look that said, "I understand who you vets are, and the Vietnamese people love you as a brother." For us to return to Saigon with out families someday was his wish.
To sum up:
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