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The Day Madame Nguyen Thi Binh Came To Visit

By Fredy Champagne

One day, we got a call from our friend Cherie Clark, who said that an important delegation of Vietnamese would be visiting California and wanted to meet the veterans of Garberville. We had been sending delegations to Vietnam to build medical clinics and leading peace walks through the major cities in protest of the US Embargo against Vietnam.

I had previously met Nguyen Co Thach, the Foreign Minister in Hanoi, to obtain permission to bring 12-man teams to begin rebuilding Vietnam, just as Oliver Stone had written in the last lines of Platoon. Both Nguyen Co Thach, representing the North Vietnamese, and Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, representing the South Vietnamese Provisional Revolutionary Government, were involved with the Paris Peace Accords. Both were signers of this document. It was truly an honor to have met them.

We had built our first medical clinic, the Friendship Medical Clinic in Vung Tau, with a non-profit group named the Veterans Vietnam Restoration Project (VVRP). Members of the VFW, the American Legion, and other veterans formed this group. We had 14 members of Team One of the VVRP in 1989. We led 28 activists on the first Peace Walk in 1991, marching through 5 major cities with our flags and banners calling for Normalization of Relations.

The delegation included the famous Madame Binh, Le Mai, General Secretary of the Vietnam - US Association, and Tran Minh Cuoc of the Vietnam - US National Committee.

Escorting the delegation was Ms. Martha Walsh of the Indochina Reconciliation Project.

I had met Le Mai and Tran Minh Cuoc previously, but I had not known Madame Binh. I had asked Madame Binh if I had met her before. "If I had met you before, " she answered, "you would be dead." Whoa! Awesome woman, this lady.

However, I did remember my battalion of the 1st Infantry Division chasing her and her Viet Cong headquarters on operations in 1966. All of us grunts knew who Madame Binh was, and we always failed to trap her. Imagine my surprise when I learned she was coming to visit us in the Emerald Triangle of Humboldt County, California. She wanted to see how this little town managed to send so many veterans back to Vietnam on projects designed to help rebuild Vietnam, while protesting the US Embargo.

We had this delegation in Garberville for 3 days, spending our time in meetings and some sightseeing. As this was a secret delegation, we were not allowed to talk to the press about their visit. We got rooms at our local favorite motel, next door to the police station. We spent time discussing future projects. They knew they were in the heart of cannabis country and found it ironic that we were guarding them in our guerrilla redoubt.

We were pleased to accept a gift while the delegation was preparing to leave. Madame Binh presented us with two copies of their newly published 50th Anniversary history of American activists visiting Vietnam. I was surprised to see pictures of the opening of our first clinic in Vung Tau, as well as a pic of our first Peace Walk members visiting a Hmong tribe Northwest of Hanoi.

Louis Block and I were the drivers taking the delegation the 200 miles to San Francisco, where we handed over the group to our VFP friends in the San Francisco chapter. There was an event planned in the SF Veterans Building, and of course, the event was protested by Vietnamese and Cuban anti-communist activists. There were no problems aside from some shouting and screaming epithets.

Madame Binh spoke to the assembled audience for more than an hour, touching on subjects such as the need for normal relations and improved travel and trade. The only mention of the war was the useless carnage and loss of life on both sides.

We stayed the night and helped with security before driving back home to Garberville.

This visit from Madame Binh and her delegation happened nearly 34 years ago. To us in Garberville, the Madame Binh visit was a delight. This delegation had visited five American cities. They visited Washington, DC, New York City, Salt Lake City, Garberville, and San Francisco.

Upon departure from the area, Madame Binh commented on the irony of the local Vietnam veterans guarding their former enemies, the Viet Cong, in their local guerrilla headquarters base in the mountains of Northern California.

Fredy Champagne, aka Fred S Higdon, Jr, A Co, 2nd Btn, 2nd Bde, 1st Infantry Division Based in Lai Khe, Song Be Province.

Madame Binh in a meeting holding Chris Champagne, Fredy's grandson. Behind them is Chris' Mother, Vanessa.

Fredy Champagne, near Tay Ninh, 1966.