Table Of ContentVret Nam The Unheard Voices
'KOR 730 00' Summer 93
DON LUGE
&JOHN SOMMER
With a Foreword by
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
"Don Luce and John Sommer are
two extraordinary young men. . . .
They and a few others became a
part of the Wietnamesel people.
listened to them, spoke for them,
worked for them, loved and under-
stood them. at a time when a
thoughtless war was rolling over
them."
- Edward M. Kennedy, from the
Foreword
"Don Luce and John Sommer
have written the most important .
first-hand memoir to come out of
the American experience in Viet
Nam; it isalsothe mostfascinating.
. .
. Their book is a story of people,
of the tragc sympathy the Viet-
namese have for Americans de-
spite the suffering our acts have
caused. and of the incapacity of
Americans to understand the hu-
man dimension of the conflict. "
-John T. McAlister, Jr.
This is no ordinary book abut
jiet Nam. Written by two men who
;peak Vietnamese fluently, it re-
mrts the words of the people -t he
-
~nh eard voices of Viet Nam as
loth authors remember them from
nany years of living and working in
jouth Viet Nam's hamlets, cities.
IContinW on back Hap]
-
Viet Kam The Unheard Voices
VIET NAM-
The Unheard Voices
By DON LUCE and
JOHN S0MME.R
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright @ rg6y by Cornell University
All rights rcsend. Except for brief quutatiom in a rcricw. this
book or parts therwf, must nut br reproduced in any frrnt~~ virl~our
pxmkiun in writing from the pnbliil~cr. For infonation ad&
Cornell Unirersity b,rzt Rokrts Race, Ithaca, xcw York 14850.
Library of Cungrcss C~taloC~ar d Sumhcr: +1836r
PRINTFD IN THE C31TED S-rATE.5 OF AMlBRlW\
BY VhU.-lMLU)U PRESS ISC.
To the people of Viet ~Vmn
Forervord
by Edward M. Kcnnedy
Preface
I Caught in the Aliddk
1VS Vulunteers in l'ict Sam
2 ''What a Pitv for a Cimcllia Flu\ver!"
Vietnalncsc Soc-iq- oocr thc Years
3 Representing thc People
Saigi~nP olitics
4 PIight of thc %lint~rity
Thc Highland 1-rikpmple
j tIunlan Fr~iInes
Rcd Tap, Corrupriun, and Lethargy
6 Defending thc Interests of rhc Believers
Cath<dics, Buddhists, and the Struggle AIrn~c~~icnt
7 The Same of thc Game
Pacification and Its Effects
8 Candy and Top
Thc I'ri~hlans of Jiefugces
g Spcnding Thcir Time in I IeU
An~u-ic-anl' ruop in Glmbat and Out
Thc Rig Adviser
10
,ln~cricansT r!- to HcIp
I I Rrports from thc Field
Qucstia;ial~leS taristiu; and Official Visitors
"Look Up, WaIk Straight, Smile''
12
A Trou1,lcd Ccncration of Studcnts
13 Thc Choice
Appeal nf thc S1.F
14 "We, thc Victnamcse People, Can Make It"
Thc Postwar Prospoctf
There Is a 1-esson
I j
lvhat IVc Can Ixarn from 1-'iet Nam
Appendiv 315
Text of Letter to President Johnson, September 19, r967
Note
About the Authors
Index 325
ILLUSTRATIONS
Photograph follow page I*
Don Luce and John Sommer are two extraordinary young mcn
They wcre not inr~olvedi n the Vict Nam war as we know it,
althr~ught hey and their colIeagues pcrsondy lived thugh this
tr~gedy-and still do. 'They were not on the side of a great powcr
or a nationalistic movcrnenr, although they, too, have fought for
othc-d still do. Luce and Sommer became a part of Vier
Xarn. Rut most impt~rtantly,t hcy and a few- others bccarnc a part
of the people, listened to them, spoke for then& ~~~orlcfocrd thcm,
lovcd and understood thm, at a time when a thoughtless war was
roiling over them.
I mct Don Lucc when he testified sn eloquently beforc the
Scnacc Judiciary Subcommittee on Refugees in 196j. Bv 1967, he
no longcr could raIcrate the suffering that our good intentions
brought to the people of Wet Nam. So he left, retumcd to this
country and spoke of things that America had lost sight of, and of
a \var that -\\ye were losing, the computers and statistics to the con-
trary. No\\! he has gone hack.
John Somn~crtr atyclcd with me through lriet Xam in 1968. With
his knowIcd~co f thz ctluritrr and its Ian-mge he hclped me m
speak with the Vietnamese refugee, thc farmer, and those womcn
and children so horribly injured hy war. In Sr~mrner's quict manner
I found great strength, hut more than that, I found a dedication
in the truest sense to Viet Nam and her future.
Viet Narn--The Unhemd Voices is a different mry. Had the
voices to which the authors refer bwn heard, or at least not dis-
missed, Vict Nam might hart bccn different Yet, neither Luce nor
Sommer is ansious to focns on villains. Thcy claim no prescie~~ce
for tl~emsclr~cisn the early days. But they do mke the cnx: tlmt
most no\\<r ecognize: ". . . the fault is mt~reo urs . . . fnr it ~vas
our duty to understand bcforc we intervened in such grat
force."
It is my hope that the war in Viet Sarn will soon end and
~Zn~cricwaId~i~er s will soon be Jllc to Imvc that land. But it is also
my hope that -rve lave with a mord-this adventure in Southelst
Asia is not sad or regrettable simply hccause it failed. Fighting mcn
dicd on both sidcs, arid hundrcds of thousands of civilians died on
110th sidcs, because in hastc -rvc relied primarily on the tools of war
to attxk social problcrr~sa nd to win political allegiancc for an un-
sral~lcg overnment in a distant place. That did not do in this case.
It 1x411 not ddo in the future.
Description:pcacefuI period after what is now callcd thc First Indochina War. Few would .. French were there, and rcspeftful applause now came as a matter of course. Les half . hbtming o\!er thcir own six-mercr stretch, -=we alsn hnc and irri- tated. its troops to fight, said othcrs, then U.S. commanders shoul
