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CONTENTS
Vol.21,Nos.2–4:April–December1989
“TwentiethAnniversaryIssueonIndochinaandtheWar”
• NgoVinhLong-Vietnam:TheRealEnemy
(cid:129) MichaelVickery-Cambodia(Kampuchea):History,Tragedy,and
UncertainFuture
(cid:129) W.RandallIresonandCarolJ.Ireson-Laos:Marxismina
SubsistenceRuralEconomy
(cid:129) NoamChomsky-TheUnitesStatesandIndochina:FarFroman
Aberration
(cid:129) W.D.Ehrhart-TheInvasionofGrenada/APoem
(cid:129) DavidSheff-AnInterviewwithDanielEllsberg:USForeignPolicy
inVietnamThenandNow
(cid:129) GeorgeR.Vickers-TheVietnamAntiwarMovementinPerspective
(cid:129) DouglasAllen-AntiwarAsianScholarsandtheVietnam/Indochina
War
(cid:129) MarvinE.Gettleman-AgainstCartesianism:PreliminaryNoteson
ThreeGenerationsofEnglish-LanguagePoliicalDiscourseon
Vietnam
(cid:129) FilmsontheWar
(cid:129) JeneferP.Shute-FramingVietnam
(cid:129) GaylynStudlarandDavidDesser-NeverHavingtoSayYou’re
Sorry:Rambo’sRewritingoftheVietnamWar
(cid:129) NinaAdams-TeachingAbouttheVietnamWar:BringingItAll
HometotheClassroom
(cid:129) JayneWerner,PaulJoseph,ChristinePelzerWhite,andMartin
Novelli-CourseSyllabiontheVietnamWar
(cid:129) MerleRatner-SomeReflectionsontheGrowingUS-Indochina
FriendshipMovement
(cid:129) JonLivingston,BryantAvery,JoeMoore,BillandNancyDoub-
TheBulletinofConcernedAsianScholarsfromthePerspectiveof
PastandPresentManagingEditors
(cid:129) BCASEditorialBoard-WhoWeArein1989
BCAS/CriticalAsianStudies
(cid:129) IndexandGuidetoPastIssuesofBCAS
www.bcasnet.org
CCASStatementofPurpose
CriticalAsianStudiescontinuestobeinspiredbythestatementofpurpose
formulatedin1969byitsparentorganization,theCommitteeofConcerned
AsianScholars(CCAS).CCASceasedtoexistasanorganizationin1979,
buttheBCASboarddecidedin1993thattheCCASStatementofPurpose
shouldbepublishedinourjournalatleastonceayear.
Wefirstcametogetherinoppositiontothebrutalaggressionof
theUnitedStatesinVietnamandtothecomplicityorsilenceof
ourprofessionwithregardtothatpolicy.Thoseinthefieldof
Asianstudiesbearresponsibilityfortheconsequencesoftheir
researchandthepoliticalpostureoftheirprofession.Weare
concernedaboutthepresentunwillingnessofspecialiststospeak
outagainsttheimplicationsofanAsianpolicycommittedtoen-
suringAmericandominationofmuchofAsia.Werejectthele-
gitimacyofthisaim,andattempttochangethispolicy.We
recognizethatthepresentstructureoftheprofessionhasoften
pervertedscholarshipandalienatedmanypeopleinthefield.
TheCommitteeofConcernedAsianScholarsseekstodevelopa
humaneandknowledgeableunderstandingofAsiansocieties
andtheireffortstomaintainculturalintegrityandtoconfront
suchproblemsaspoverty,oppression,andimperialism.Wereal-
izethattobestudentsofotherpeoples,wemustfirstunderstand
ourrelationstothem.
CCASwishestocreatealternativestotheprevailingtrendsin
scholarshiponAsia,whichtoooftenspringfromaparochial
culturalperspectiveandserveselfishinterestsandexpansion-
ism.Ourorganizationisdesignedtofunctionasacatalyst,a
communicationsnetworkforbothAsianandWesternscholars,a
providerofcentralresourcesforlocalchapters,andacommu-
nityforthedevelopmentofanti-imperialistresearch.
Passed,28–30March1969
Boston,Massachusetts
Vol. 21, Nos. 2-4/April-Dec. 1989
Twentieth Anniversary Issue on Indochina and the War
edited by Douglas Allen and Ngo Vinh Long
Contents
Douglas Allen; 3 Introduction
Bill and Nancy Doub
5 List ofAbbreviations
N go Vinh Long 6 Vietnam: The Real Enemy
Michael Vickery 35 Cambodia (Kampuchea): History, Tragedy, and
Uncertain Future
W. Randall Ireson and 59 Laos: Marxism in a Subsistence Rural Economy
Carollo Ireson
Noam Chomsky 76 The United States and Indochina: Far from an
Aberration
W.D. Ehrhart 93 The Invasion ofGrenada/poem
DavidSheff 94 An Interview with Daniel Ellsberg: U. S. Foreign
Policy in Vietnam and Now
GeorgeR. Vickers 100 The Vietnam Antiwar Movement in Perspective
Douglas Allen 112 Antiwar Asian Scholars and the Vietnam/Indochina
War
MarvinE. Gettleman 136 Against Cartesianism: Preliminary Notes on Three
Generations ofEnglish-Language Political Discourse
on Vietnam
Films on the War:
Jenefer P. Shute 144 Framing Vietnam
Gaylyn Stud/ar and 147 Never Having to Say You're Sorry: Rambo's
David Desser Rewriting ofthe Vietnam War
Nina Adams 156 Teaching about the Vietnam War: Bringing It All
Back Home to the Classroom
Jayne Werner, Paulloseph, 161 Course Syllabi on the Vietnam War
Christine Pelzer White,
and Martin Novelli
Merle Ratner 176 Some Reflections on the Growing U. S. -Indochina
Friendship Movement
Jon Livingston, BryantAvery, 180 The Bulletin ofConcernedAsian Scholars from the
Joe Moore, Bill and Nancy Doub Perspective ofPast and Present
Managing Editors
BCAS Editorial Board 193 Who We Are in 1989
205 Guidelines for BCAS Authors
206 Index and Guide to Past Issues ofBCAS
210 List ofBooks to Review
© BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org
Contributors
Nina Adams teaches history and women's studies at Sangamon Martin Novelli is assistant provost of academic affairs at Rutgers
State University in Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A. For further University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A. and teaches
information about her, see Doug Allen's article in this issue. courses in language and literature part-time at the University
of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Douglas Allen teaches philosophy at the University of Maine
in Orono, Maine, U.S.A. For further information about him, Merle Ratner is the New York coordinator of the Committee
see his article and the South Asia section in "Who WeAre in in Solidarity with Vietnam, Kampuchea, and Laos, and one
1989" in this issue. of the coordinators of the National Network of Indochina
Activists.
Noam Chomsky teaches linguistics and philosophy at the Mas
sachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachu David Sheff is a free-lance writer who lives in San Francisco.
setts, U.S.A. For further information about him, see Doug
Jenefer P. Shute teaches modem literature and film in the Divi
Allen's article in this issue.
sion of Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College
David Desser teaches cinema studies and speech communica in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. She writes about mass cul
tion at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, U.S.A., and ture and is currently working on a first novel.
is working on a study of contemporary American Jewish
Gaylyn Studlar teaches film studies at Emory University in
filmmakers.
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. and is the author of In the Realm of
W.D. Ehrhart is a Vietnam veteran and poet who taught tenth Pleasure: Von Sternberg, Dietrich, and the Masochistic Aesthetic
grade English at Germantown Friends School from 1986 to (Illinois, 1988). She is currently working on a book dealing
1989, and in the spring of 1990 will be teaching at the University with the representation of masculinity in American films of the
of Massachusetts in Boston as Visiting Professor of War and 1920s.
Social Consequences. He is the author of four books about his
George R. Vickers teaches sociology at Brooklyn College· and
experiences in Vietnam.
the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His
Marvin Gettleman teaches history at Polytechnic University in published works include studies of the New Left, the Vietnam
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. and at the New York Marxist antiwar movement, and Central American revolutionary move
School. He is also an editor of Science and Society and is at ments. In 1971 he was coexecutive secretary of the People's
work on several projects on Central America. He edited Viet Coalition for Peace and Justice, one of the national antiwar
nam: History, Documents, and Opinions (1965) and coedited coalitions.
Vietnam and America: A Documented History (1985).
Michael Vickery teaches Southeast Asian history at Universiti
Randall and Carol Ireson first worked in Laos from 1967 to Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia. For further information
1969 with International Voluntary Services. While on leave about him, see the Southeast Asia section in "Who We Are in
from Willamette University, they returned to Laos in 1984 to 1989" in this issue.
co-direct the American Friends Service Committee develop
Jayne Werner teaches political science at Long Island University
ment assistance program in Laos and Vietnam. They have also
in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. For further information about
conducted research on pre-liberation village cooperative pat
her, see the Southeast Asia section in "Who We Are in 1989"
terns. Randall is presently advisor to an irrigation management
in this issue.
project in Laos, and Carol teaches sociology at Willamette
University in Salem, Oregon, U.S.A. Christine Pelzer White teaches political science at the Center
for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at
Paul Joseph teaches sociology at Tufts University in Medford,
Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. For further information
Massachusetts, U. S . A. and is the author ofCracks in the Empire
about her, see Doug Allen's article in this issue.
(1987).
Ngo Vinh Long teaches history at the University of Maine in
Orono, Maine, U.S.A. For further information about him, see
Douglas Allen's article in this issue. The Bulletin is indexed or abstracted in The Alternative Press
Index, The Left Index, International Development Index, Inter
national Development Abstracts, Sage Abstracts, Social
Science Citation Index, Bibliography of Asian Studies, IBZ
(International Bibliographie der Zeitschriften Literatur), IBR
(International Bibliography ofBook Reviews), Political Science
Abstracts, Historical Abstracts, and America: History and Life.
TIu! photo on the front cover shows rice seedlings being transported
Back issues and photocopies of out-of-print back issues are
to the fields by boat for transplanting in the Mekong Delta in August
available from BCAS. Microfilms of all back issues are available
1980-new growth, new life for a devastated area. One of the most
from University Microfilms International (300 N. Zeeb Road,
urgent tasks after the war ended was stemming hunger and restoring
production in the countryside. This photo is by John Spragens, Jr., Ann Arbor, MI 48106, U.S.A., phone: U.S., 800-521-0600);
c 1980. Canada, 800-343-5299).
2
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Introduction
by Douglas Allen
Three years ago various Asian scholars who had been We would publish comprehensive overviews of Vietnam, Cam
active in the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS) bodia, and Laos, the relation of U.S. Indochina policy to U.S.
and in the Bulletin ofConcerned Asian Scholars (BCAS) began policy throughout the world, the antiwar movement in the
discussing the possibility of doing something special for the United States and within the field of Asian studies, and the
twentieth anniversary issue of the Bulletin. What evolved was literature and movies on Vietnam. We also hoped to have articles
an extremely ambitious and significant project resulting in the on U.S. and Vietnamese veterans of the Vietnam War, although
publication of this triple-sized issue of BCAS. these articles never materialized.
It was not difficult to select ·Indochina as the focus for This project proved to be more ambitious, challenging,
this commemorative issue. The beginning of the Statement of and time-consuming than anticipated. Rather than soliciting
Purpose of CCAS reads: "We first came together in opposition manuscripts from Indochina scholars in terms of their current
to the brutal aggression of the United States in Vietnam and specialized research interests, .Ngo Vinh Long and I usually
to the complicity or silence of our profession with regard to had to ask authors to formulate entirely new manuscripts in
that policy." The tenth anniversary issue of BCAS (October terms of the rationale of this commemorative issue. This often
December 1978), edited by Jayne Werner, had focused entirely raised issues, such as the tension between scholarship and ac
on Vietnam. How should we now approach the subject matter tivism and between writing for specialists in one's field and
of Vietnam/Indochina? communicating with a wider readership, issues that have been
Over the years many of us repeatedly noticed what seemed central to debates within CCAS and BCAS. Some authors, both
to be a serious vacuum in the scholarship on Indochina, a void in terms of their academic training and the recognition and
with dire consequences. For example, a teacher offering a rewards within their fields, are understandably more comforta
course on the literature of the Vietnam War or an Asian studies ble writing for Asian specialists and view efforts to communi
course in which one or two weeks are devoted to Indochina, cate with others as a watering-down or compromise of their
or a student curious about U. S. policy during the Indochina scholarly standards, rather than a somewhat different form of
War or U.S. relations with Indochina since 1975, might ask us communication requiring just as much intelligence, skill, and
to recommend one good comprehensive article providing rigor. We also wanted, as much as possible, to have the articles
background information on the history, lessons, and present cohere, and this placed additional burdens on individual authors.
situation. There are a few good recent publications, such as On the whole, authors, both because of their own priorities
Gabriel Kolko's Anatomy of a War and George McT. Kahin's and concerns and their commitment to this project, devoted a
Intervention, but most teachers, students, and general readers tremendous amount of time and energy to their manuscripts.
have neither the time nor motivation to read such major works. Many of the manuscripts grew to near-monograph length. Ngo
And most highly specialized books, of course, do not present Vinh Long and I considered the first four comprehensive pieces
the desired comprehensive overview. One of the consequences the foundational articles for this issue: Vietnam by Ngo Vinh
of this absence of progressive, widely accessible, scholarly Long, Cambodia by Michael Vickery, Laos by Carol and Ran
literature on the United States and Indochina has been to make dall Ireson, and U.S. domestic and foreign policy, particularly
it easier for the U. S. government and the mass media, some in relation to Indochina and Central America, by Noam
times working with scholars with a long history of complicity Chomsky. Chomsky's piece was followed quite naturally by an
in U.S. governmental, military, and corporate policies, to re interview with Daniel Ellsberg focusing on United States in
write the history of the Indochina War and to undo the valuable volvement in Vietnam and Central America and what citizens
lessons learned through many years of painful struggle. can do about it, which in tum was amplified by an overview
Our proposal for this anniversary issue on Indochina was of the antiwar movement in the United States by George
to avoid publishing the more usual rather narrow and technical Vickers, and then my own account of the effects of the war on
articles directed primarily to a readership of specialists in Asian Western scholars of Asia.
studies and instead publish articles presenting a general intro Since there has been such a proliferation of literature on
duction, comprehensive overview, and summing up of the les the Vietnam War, recent movies on the war having a tremendous
sons of the Indochina War and its aftermath, accessible not cultural impact, and university courses focusing on the Vietnam
only to Asia specialists but also to the interested general reader. experience, we decided to include articles in each of these
3
© BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org
areas: Marvin Gettleman's essay surveying much ofthe Vietnam pleased with the consistently high quality of the articles, and
literature; two essays on films on the Vietnam War, and Nina feel we are very fortunate to have people who are among the
Adams's essay on teaching about the Vietnam War, followed best in their fields writing for us or letting us use their work.
by syllabi from a variety of courses on the war. And since all In the course of editing the articles we discovered that
of our authors hope for reconciliation between the peoples of they have a common theme running through them, something
Indochina and the United States, Merle Ratner's summary of we find remarkable since they were written independently of
the growing U.S.-Indochina friendship movement is a valuable one another. Of course Doug Allen and Ngo Vinh Long's selec
addition to our issue. tion process may have a lot to do with a common theme emerging,
The last part of this conunemorative issue focuses entirely but if Doug or Long had this theme in mind all along, they
on the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars: Our past and certainly made no mention of it. At any rate, we would have
present managing editors offer some reflections on their roles chosen this theme for the issue if we had thought of it, and we
in the development of our journal, members of our editorial feel it is worth elaborating on here.
board introduce themselves, and we provide an index and guide Again and again the articles encourage us to look at the
to all of the articles published in BCAS during the past twenty Vietnam/Indochina War from the perspective of the indigenous
years. peoples involved, to get away from our ethnocentric world view
Special thanks must be given to my coeditor and dear and typical focus on why and how the United States got involved
friend, Ngo Vinh Long, for his enthusiastic support and collab and how our involvement affected us at home. The overviews
oration in working on this commemorative issue; to those au of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos say by their very existence
thors who had to be more flexible and more understanding and and in their contents that these countries have their own histories
had to devote much more time and effort than they anticipated and agendas. Chomsky uses a quote at the beginning of his
when they agreed to do an article for this anniversary issue; piece to point out the absurdity of Americans now saying that
and especially to Bill Doub, Nancy Doub, and Jay Dillon, the war affected us as much and as importantly as it affected
without whose dedication the Bulletin of Concerned Asian the Indochinese, and then goes on to show how we Americans
Scholars could not survive, much less flourish. have repeatedly avoided facing the enormity of both our real
intentions and what we have actually done to other people.
ElIsberg's interview describes some of the events that contrib
uted to his being able to see the war from the perspective of
the Vietnamese he was fighting, and ends with him pleading
for us to honor other countries' rights to independence, to
choose their own paths. Gettleman builds his whole article
by Bill and Nancy Doub around a version of Cartesianism that reduces "a country with
a rich and complicated historical tradition stretching back cen
turies to a mere episode in U.S. foreign policy," and maintains
We would like to express our deepest appreciation to Doug that only with the arrival of a third generation of scholars who
Allen and Ngo Vinh Long for guest editing this twentieth anni can usually read the indigenous languages and can view the
versary commemorative issue. They are prime examples of war from the other side-why they won, as opposed to why
editors who have made an enormous difference-no way would we lost-only then can there be truly comprehensive scholarship
this issue have come into being without Doug's vision, painstak on the war. The discussions of the films focus on how most of
ing persistence, and cheerful optimism in the face of seemingly these Western films on the war are merely American "coming
endless setbacks; or without Ngo Vinh Long's encouragement of age" stories that happen to take place during the Vietnam
and expertise as a consultant every step of the way, or his War, or speak to our need to transform our repressed guilt over
coming through so brilliantly in the end. This issue also the Vietnam War by seeing ourselves as the victims rather than
wouldn't be what it is without the incredible contributions of the aggressors, both of which approaches downplay the role of
graphics made by John Spragens, Jr., Ngo Vinh Long, Doug the Vietnamese and ignore the political-social context of the
Allen, and Carol and Randall Ireson, and the sharing of particu war, particularly the context for the Vietnamese.
larly treasured photos by Daniel Ellsberg and Chuck Cell-not Of course we also have the articles on the antiwar move
to mention the many pictures of themselves the editors were ment in the United States and how the war affected Western
able to come up with. In addition, we are grateful to the many scholars of Asia, but these articles do not really run counter
people whose contributions to the Bulletin's recent fund-raising to the overall theme of the issue since they speak of those
campaign have helped provide enough financial cushion for us people in the United States who struggled hard and sometimes
to not bring the Bulletin to ruin (we hope) by "following our sacrificed much to get people to see American involvement in
bliss" on this project. Their contributions and the basic indepen Southeast Asia from a different perspective, more often than
dent structure of BCAS have allowed us to go with what we not from the kind of perspective asked for in the other articles.
felt was intrinsically right for the lengths of articles and our And although the article on the growing U.S.-Indochina
choices of graphics, rather than doing the practical "reasonable" friendship movement focuses on activities in the United States,
thing. the whole point of it is to increase ties with Indochina and
The heart and soul of the issue, of course, are the articles encourage us to get to know one another as people.
themselves. We would like to join Doug Allen in thanking the We are very pleased that our twentieth anniversary issue
authors for their tremendous effort in writing and revising their has arrived at a theme that counterbalances the currently more
articles with this commemorative issue in mind, and we would common way of viewing the Vietnam/Indochina War. The im
also like to thank the authors and publishers who kindly allowed portance of this theme is not to be underestimated, since it is
us to reprint their previously published articles. We are very all too easy to kill faceless enemies and apparently that is just
4
© BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org
what the Indochinese were to many of the decision makers in Terrible things happened twenty years ago and are still happen
Washington. As Ellsberg noted on TV shortly after releasing ing today, but we would like this issue to emphasize our potential
the Pentagon Papers, for growth and recovery. We would like this twentieth anniver
sary issue to celebrate people's ability to look directly into* the
The fact is that in the seven to ten thousand pages of this study, I
face of evil, admit responsibility and guilt when they exist,
don't think there is a line in them that contains an estimate of the
and move on to working for a better world.
likely impact of our policy on the overall casualties among the
Vietnamese, or the refugees to be caused, the effects of defoliation
in an ecological sense .... That says nothing, more or less, than
[that] our officials never did concern themselves, certainly in any
fonnal way or in writing, and I think in no informal way either,
with the effect of our policies on the Vietnamese.'
Abbreviations
This conclusion was backed up by Robert Scheer when he wrote
that he was "weary of reading the Pentagon Papers over and
over. As yet I have not found a single instance of an individual AID Agency for International Development
inside the U. S. government who reckoned the death of Vietnam
ARVN Anny of the Republic ofVietnam (the anny ofthe
ese people a 'cost' of the bombing":
Saigon government, ca. 1955-75)
. . . The only reference I can find to Vietnamese casualties is a ASEAN Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations
memo prepared by McNamara and his aides after they had turned
against the bombing in May of 1967. He began by stating "the BCAS Bulletin ofConcerned Asian Scholars
primary costs, of course, are U.S. lives," [and then he continued] CCAS Committee ofConcerned Asian Scholars
"... an important but hard-to-measure cost is domestic and world
opinion: There may be a limit beyond which many Americans and CIA U. S. Central Intelligence Agency
much of the world will not permit the United States to go. The CPK Communist Party of Kampuchea (the Pol Pot
picture ofthe world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injur group, sometimes referred to as the Khmer Rouge)
ing 1,000 non-combatants a week while trying to pound a tiny
backward nation into submission over an issue whose merits are DK Democratic Kampuchea
hotly disputed is not a pretty one." DRV Democratic Republic of Vietnam
It is chilling indeed that there appear to be few references to ICP Indochinese Communist Party
the effects of the war on the Vietnamese in the forty-seven
IRC Indochina Resource Center
volumes of the Pentagon Papers, and downright shocking if
this comment by McNamara is actually the only reference to KPNLF Khmer People's National Liberation Front
Vietnamese casualties, especially since McNamara's stated con
KPRP Khmer People's Revolutionary Party
cern here is not with the casualties in themselves but in the
KR Khmer Republic
effect the causualty rate might have on American and world
opinion. Obviously this kind of thinking must go-we must LPDR Lao People's Democratic Republic
not allow ourselves any more faceless enemies-past, present,
LPRP Lao People's Revolutionary Party
or future. It is thus of major importance that we come to know
other peoples as human beings and societies existing in their NLF National Liberation Front
own right, outside of our conceptualization of them in relation NPCC National Political Consultative Committee (of Laos)
to ourselves.
PAVN People's Anny ofVietnam (the North
With this in mind our selection ofgraphics has been heavily
Vietnameseanny)
weighted on the side of showing Indochinese and other indig
enous people as opposed to the Americans who were or are PBS U . S. Public Broadcasting System
involved. We have included many truly gruesome shots because PRG Provisional Revolutionary Government (in South
we want people to see and feel how awful it was, or in some Vietnam, a coalition ofNLF and other forces set up
cases, is. But we have tried to balance these with pictures in 1969)
showing everyday life and the beauties of the countryside and PRK People's Republic ofKampuchea (the government
the people, and particularly pictures celebrating courageous ofKampuchea in Phnom Penh from 1979 until the
resistance and the triumph of the human spirit. Along these present)
lines we have included some graphics from earlier issues of
RLG Royal Lao Government
the Bulletin as a tribute to the Bulletin's twenty years of trying
to tell it like it is. And we have a few shots showing what has RVN Republic ofVietnam (the Saigon government until
become of some people who were deeply affected by the war. 1975)
SDS Students for a Democratic Society
sm
Southern Illinois Uni versity
SRC Southeast Asia Resource Center
1. Both this statement and the one by Robert Scheer that follows are USAID U . S. Agency for International Development
from Robert Scheer, "The Language of Torturers," SunDance (Aug. VVAW Vietnam Veterans against the War
Sept., 1972), pp. 33,39, and 41 (reprinted in Robert Scheer, Thinking
Tuna Fish, Talking Death: Essays on the Pornography ofPower [New
York: Hill and Wang, 1988]).
© BCAS. All rights reserved. For no5n -
commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org
Vietnam: The Real Enemy
by Ngo Vinh Long
Vietnam is a country of about 128,000 square miles, to over 1,000 pounds of explosives for each man, woman, and
stretching more than 1,200 miles from the southern boundary child-also was heavily responsible for over 10 million refugees
of China along the eastern coast of the Indochinese peninsula and up to 2 million deaths out of a total estimated population
and curving into the Gulf of Siam between the eighth and ninth of 19 million by 1972.'
parallels. About 80 percent of the country is mountainous, and What seems quite fantastic to most observers of Vietnam
about 90 percent of its population has been living in the lowland is how such a tiny country, which is so stretched out both
areas for a long time. In fact, the bulk of Vietnam's population geographically and economically, could have stood up to the
which increased from an estimated 10 million by the time the American military onslaught. What made the population there
Vietnamese court surrendered all of Vietnam to the French in fight on in spite of such tremendous destruction and dislocation'?
1884 to about 21 million by the beginning of World War II, The explanation by American policy makers and mainstream
then to close to 53 million by the time of the last census in scholars has been that the South Vietnamese had been coerced
1980 and to more than 65 million in 1989-has been crowded and terrorized by the North Vietnamese communists and their
into the two proverbial rice baskets of the Red River Delta in henchmen in the South, the Viet Congo The North Vietnamese,
the north and the Mekong River Delta in the south. in turn, were egged on by the Red Chinese. U.S. president
The central part of the country, traditionally referred to Lyndon B. Johnson, for example, explained on 7 April 1965,
by the Vietnamese as the shoulder pole for carrying the two "Over this war-and all Asia-is another reality: the deepening
rice baskets, is a narrow strip of land that extends from near shadow of Communist China. The rulers in Hanoi are urged
the nineteenth to the twelfth parallel with such poor soil and on by Peking."2
unfavorable climate that many of the people there have for a While it has been convenient for American policy makers
long time lived off the rock quarries and the salt fields. Prover and mainstream historians to refuse to acknowledge the real
bially, in this region dogs are said to eat stones, and chickens enemy against whom they were fighting in order to justify the
rock salts. Worse still, on this narrow strip of land from 1965 American war effort as well as the failure of that effort, many
until the end of 1972 the United States dropped more than 2 serious students of Vietnamese history have realized over the
million tons of bombs-about equal to the total amount of years that the total disregard of the realities of Vietnam had
bombs dropped on all fronts during World War II-and deliv doomed the American intervention from the start. Joseph But
ered about 3 million tons of high explosives through artillery tinger, an early mentor of President Ngo Dinh Diem of the
strikes, and hundreds of thousands of tons of chemicals. The
resulting destruction has kept the population density there much
lower than that of the northern and southern regions.
In general, however, as a result of the unprecedented de
struction by the bombings (close to 5 million tons) and the
1. Relief and Rehabilitation oj' War Victims in Indochina, Part IV:
artillery strikes (about 7 million tons) there is now only about
South Vietnam and Regional Problems, hearing before the Subcommit
one acre of cultivated surface for every six to seven Vietnamese
tee to Investigate Problems Connected with Refugees and Escapees
in all regions of the country. This is after about 3 million acres
of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 93rd Congress
of land have been reclaimed since 1975 at great costs in both
(U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973), p. 8. For a brief reference
financial and human terms because of the millions of tons of on statistics of U.S. bombings, see James Pinckney Harrison, The
unexploded mines and ammunition in the ground. In the south Endless War: Vietnam's Struggle for Independence (New York:
ern half of the country where the United States declared that McGraw Hill, 1983), pp. 3-4,276-77.
it came to "nation-build," American bombing-which amounted 2. Quoted in ibid., p. 4.
6
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