The War around Me
In Reply to the War behind Me by Deborah Nelson
Phan Vũ

Dear Deborah Nelson,
I am pleased to borrow your book The War behind Me from Westminster Library, Orange County, California. You’re the Carnegie Visiting Professor, the Pulitzer Prize recipient, and the author of the book I am reading. I respect your thinking, but the more I read it, the more I got afraid of it, because its contents trouble me and upset me very much: your knowledge got a big hole of ignorance about the war in Vietnam and you could not see the War behind you.
I want to tell you who I am: Vietcong started the Vietnam War when I was 13: I lived in the war. I worked in a “rice and bean” area, that meant I worked among Vietcong who knew me but I did not know them and that a strict curfew began from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, I lived under Vietcong’s rule. So I know the Communist regime better than you, Nelson. So the Vietnam War was around me.

In the chapter one, I found a series of reports given by former GIs fighting in the South Vietnam. All those reports were written accusations. The main ideas of those accusations were:
“They [19 VC Suspects were captured] consisted of women, children, babies and two or three very old men.”
“The shooting started…”
“He [Lt. Carter] said, “I had to do it” (Nelson 18).
In brief, women, children, babies, and old men were killed; the shooting, soldiers’ duty, and burning thatched houses were the targets being exploited.
About massacres, I found one on page 42: “In September 1969, in a hamlet on the border of Quảng Nam and Quảng Tin Provinces, a reconnaissance squad…came upon at least nine unarmed women and children …They were counted as enemy kills.”

The same ideas were repeated.

How about the interrogation with torture? “In 1967, Nobel Prize-winning philosopher Bertrand Russell convened a citizens’ tribunal in Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, to investigate U.S. war crimes in Vietnam.” (Nelson 49) “Martinsen testified that he took part in beatings and watched others torture detainees…” (Nelson 50). The chapter two reported that there was torture during the interrogation and death by torture. Other accounts repeated the same ideas.
A My Lai A month. This chapter contained a number of letters sent to top officers, reporting the killing of women, children and old people. I had expected to read Nelson’s account on Mỹ Lai massacre; but there wasn’t. I am very disappointed.
About the body count. “ A Newsweek article from 1972 estimated that ‘thousands of Vietnamese civilians’ were killed deliberately by U.S. Forces.’” (Nelson 89)  “The 9th Infantry Division reported 10,899 enemy killed—but only 748 weapons recovered.” (Nelson 90). “…Kevin P. Buckley …estimated as many as five thousand civilians had perished in the operation…The death toll there made the My Lai massacre look trifling by comparison…”(Nelson 90) “…Hunt at all suspicious when 9th Infantry Division’s average monthly body count more than doubled without a similar surge in recovered weapons…” (Nelson 91) “…A young man returned with Pham Chi Tam…He (?) ran home to find burning bodies stacked ‘like a pyramid’ outside the bunker…” (Nelson 132) Was it Mỹ Lai massacre?

I am very surprised at your visit to Vietnam, your talk with “Nguyễn thị Nay who served you drinks,” and your surprise “at her graciousness toward you…” You had permission of entering Vietnam, didn’t you? Do you know who she is? Anyone who had the right to talk with foreigners like you, she/he, being a Communist cadre, had been instructed to reply according to the Party directives. If you do not have permission of setting foot in Vietnam or in North Korea, you’ll see what would come to you right away. (You know that Laura Ling and Euna Lee just made some steps inside the North Korea territory) And Bill Clinton would come to rescue you: no one more childish than reporters. If you had met Nguyễn thi Nay before April 1975, you would not have been surprised at her graciousness, but you’d have been frightened to death, wetting your pants or beheaded. You know for sure that American reporters like Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Neil Sheehan and many more were protected either by American GIs or Vietnamese soldiers when doing their duty in Vietnam.
Appendix A: Case summaries of U.S. war-crime investigations.

• Number of suspects:     240
• Number of convictions:  32
• Number of confinement: 11

The percentage of convictions/suspects:    32/240= 13.3%
The percentage of confinement/suspects:   11/240=   4.6%

After April, 1975, I remained in Saigon. I visited the U.S. War Crime Exhibition
Building where I saw the pictures of American Presidents, of Vietnamese Puppet government officials, jetfighters, tanks, weapons, bombs (a CBU-55), and Vietnamese fugitives, the so-called traitors.
Comparing your book with that Exhibition Building, I found striking resemblances:

• Peace-Prize winner Bertrand Russell presided over U.S. War crimes Investigation in Vietnam  and Communist Party Politburo’s order to set up that Building (Lê Đức Thọ was a Peace-Prize winner as well). 

• Accusations from the page 1 to the last page of your book and condemnations from the entrance gate to the exit gate of that U.S. War Crime Exhibition Building.
• All kinds of crimes: shooting, rape, torture, and house burning against unarmed women, innocent babies, and pitiful old guys.
• Either reading your book or visiting that Building revives Vietnamese Americans’ lingering tragedies, betrayal and hatred. 

Big differences:

• Your book contained written accusations, official documents and a list of suspects, convictions, and confinements, but the Building showed pictures, planes, tanks, weapons, bombs and house ruins.
• You’ve got money in selling your book, but the admission at the Building was free.
• The author of the book The War Behind Me is a free person, born in Liberty and Democracy, grown up in Freedom and Human Rights, enjoying Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights. But Communist Party Politburo members such as Ho Chi Minh, Lê Duẫn, Lê Đúc Thọ, and many more are dictators, butchers, killers, enjoying a dictatorial regime, ruling by steel-hand police and secret service men, governing by the “request and permission” policy. However Nelson and those Communist hard-liners have the same purpose: killing the Free South Vietnamese.

I say again. I do not criticize you. I just explain to you point by point what you haven’t known so far, what you wrote without understanding it. I did the same thing to Jane Fonda three years ago when her book was published. She then sent me as well as all South Vietnamese a deeply emotional apology.
First, American GIs killed unarmed, innocent women. Unarmed? Because weapons were hidden somewhere. Women showed bare hands when you confront them. But when you turn your back, you will be shot. That was the case of Mỹ Lai. Lt. Calley’s soldiers searched every house in Mỹ Lai Village (not hidden tunnels and double-layer walls). They found nothing; but when they got out of the village, they were shot dead.
They were innocent? Well, where did they live? In the jungle? “In a hamlet on the border of Quảng Nam and Quảng Tin Provinces” without family books, out of the government control? Why did they live in the jungle? Were they female Vietcong General Nguyễn thi Định’s guerrillas? If you answer those questions, you’ll see they were not unarmed and innocent. Lots of South Vietnam soldiers got killed by those female unarmed, innocent women when they came home with their parents.
Second, killing children (Mike Wallace called “Babies Killers”). Who fathered those children? Who made those women pregnant? Don’t tell me they were cloned babies. It was clear that male Vietcong hid somewhere in tunnels. Do you think those children could not kill you? (see pictures).
Third, killing old guys. Vietcong called them “white head soldiers” in charge of warning and planting bobby traps and toad-mines.
The South Vietnam did not start the Vietnam War. The North Vietnam did. We, Southerners defended our Liberty and Democracy like the first President of the USA, George Washington had kicked Englishmen out of the America. If the Vietnam War was a mistake, an error, the George Washington’s War had also been a mistake, an error. Either living in the Republic Government’s area or siding with the Vietcong hiding in the jungle: War is a deadly game: “kill or get killed.”  Tell me what your decision is.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorists covered their faces with masks when they carry weapons. They are unarmed and innocent when they move around towns, assassinating government officials or detonating bombs or dig holes along the streets. If they are killed, they are unarmed and innocent people. And you, Deborah Nelson, Seymour Hersh, ACLU lawyers condemned US soldiers, sending written accusations to the top officers. How do you feel? Innocent or guilty. What side are you with? Americans or terrorists. In the name of what do you denounce? Human rights? Whose Human rights? Terrorists’ or their victims’. Terrorists care neither about human rights nor death.

Now about Seymour Hersh with Mỹ Lai Hamlet: Lt. Calley with his company composed of 3 platoons, each platoon having about 30 soldiers at maximum. Arriving at Mỹ Lai Hamlet, two platoons about 60 GIs surrounded it, one platoon entered, searching the hamlet. They saw nothing suspicious: only women, children, and old people. GIs being too young and inexperienced, they did not know men hiding in tunnels, in walls, in big jars of rice. They got out of the village. Right away some shots killed some soldiers. Calley got angry and painful, watching his men dead in front of him. If Nelson had been Calley, what would Nelson have thought and reacted? Nelson’s first thought was that those women had shot. The second one was that male Vietcong hid somewhere and shot, and those women knew where they had been hiding. I think Nelson would do what Calley had done.
Hersh reported that the casualties were 504 dead, stacked like a pyramid. Where did he get that number from? From Hanoi radio? Life magazine carried two pictures of Mỹ Lai killing: not more than 20 if you count. That number 504 was doubtful, so inaccurate. Israel attacked South Lebanon for 34 days with all kinds of cannons, mortars, rockets, and tanks. The casualties were only more than 1,000. Was it A Bright Shining Lie (Neil Sheehan’s words)?
Seymour Hersh with Abu Graib prison. We saw on the photos:

• Filming director and photographers and cameramen.
• Smiling actors and actresses, smoking cigarettes
• Nude, fat, and shining-skin supporting actors (prisoners) unlike released McCain at Nội Bài Airport, Hanoi in 1973.
• No interrogators with bloodthirsty eyes, ready to punch, beat…

The Washington Post was proud to carry that scandal for 140 issues. Abu Graib reminded us of the Tiger Case in Côn Sơn Island, South Vietnam. To me, Abu Graib Scandal was a movie, Abu Graib prison, the film ground, Seymour Hersh, the film director, and Dan Rather, the advertiser. That reminds me of Dan Rather with a false document about President G. W. Bush’s military services.

            How about the body count: you are surprised at the difference of the number of dead bodies and that of recovered weapons. We, Vietnamese Americans are not. We knew the kind of war tactics: in Vietnam, it was a jungle guerrilla, but in Iraq it’s a city guerrilla.
Jungle guerrilla: first, detailed plan and practice; second, surprise attack with outnumber; third, quick withdrawal and dispersing all direction. Vietcong a.k.a. foot-soldiers, ran at full speed to the target because Vietcong do not have trucks. Problems: how to carry heavy guns, mortars and ammunition? For example: an 81-mm mortar, one soldier carries the base, another, the mortar, and another, its legs. To transport 81-mm bomb shells, each soldier puts on a vest with 3 pockets in the front flap and 3 pockets in the back: so he carries 6 shells. To have 60 shells for one 81-mm mortar, they needed 10 carriers. So the unit has 13 soldiers for one mortar. If that unit was hit, the number of bodies was 13, but the number of weapon was only 1.
City guerrilla in Iraq, the unmanned aerial vehicle caught sight of a number of men digging a hole. It fires a rocket and kills them all, without weapon. They were unarmed and innocent, because the men who dug holes were not the ones who planted the bomb and were different from the man who pulled the trigger. Especially, they did not know each other. It is understandable why 19 terrorists (they were unarmed and innocent) could attack New-York in 2001. Nelson can have more examples.

About Bertrand Russell’s War Crimes Investigation in the Vietnam War. That was a good deed. We, Vietnamese Americans, support that effort. We also want that action to be impartial and completely all-sided. Russell forgot Vietcong and their leaders. From 1955-1958, under Hồ Chí Minh’s rule, more than 300,000 rich peasants, bourgeois, and business people were tried in kangaroo courts and then buried alive: Doesn’t Nelson know that the agony in the earth tombs was long and extremely painful? However Russell ignored it. During the war 1960-1975, Vietcong used all kinds of atrocities in Maison Centrale, Hilton Hotel, Hanoi, and in the countryside of South Vietnam (read Kenneth L. Khachigian’s article); especially Huế Massacre, more than 3,000 people buried alive in 19 sites, each site having many graves. (The 68’ Massacre at Huế Documentary Book. See picture). Nelson can investigate it because the Communist leaders who ordered it are still alive. After 1975 when the war ended, more than half million of re-educated were beaten, tortured and killed in concentration jails throughout Vietnam. Nelson can have a famous, tremendous topic to explore because the ex-inmates, live witnesses, live in Little Saigon, Orange County, California. There’s another colossal, worldwide topic of million of boat people and their tragedies on the South-East Sea. I’m very surprised that Russell did leave out those war crimes. Aren’t you, Deborah Nelson? A third big topic was thousands of South Vietnamese disabled vets, a large number of them losing both legs, moving with two hands holding wooden sabots, living for 30 years without pensions to eat, and suffering from lingering wounds without medicine.

Bertrand Russell, a Peace-Prize winner,
Lê Đức Thọ, a Peace-Prize winner, the mastermind of the fall of Saigon, the bloody revenge of the re-education jails, and the exodus of the boat-people on the South-East Sea.
President Jimmy Carter, a Peace-Prize winner, one of Anti-Vietnam War activists. The Fall of Saigon, the loss of South Vietnamese’s Freedom and Democracy, and the tragedies of million South Vietnamese families were the results of the Anti-Vietnam War movement. On the book cover the photo of Deborah Nelson smiling at the South Vietnamese soldiers with weapons but without bullets, facing the fully-armed Vietcong in April, 1975. Have those anti-war activists taken responsibility for that to the South Vietnamese so far? Or is she smiling with the triumphal Vietcong entering Saigon?
What’s the meaning of that international Peace-Prize?

How about the Appendix A?
The percentage of convictions/suspects is 13.3%.
The percentage of confinements/suspects is 4.6%.
Comparing with 56,000 Americans dead, these percentages were very trifling. As I told you above the decision to kill or to get killed was quickly conditioned by the circumstances. The judges, who have never experienced such encounters do not have just and impartial decisions. Soldiers work with their body’s life to protect Deborah Nelson, Seymour Hersh, ACLU lawyers, and others… from Communists and terrorists. Vietnamese Americans happily live in the US, thanks to more 56,000 Americans and more than 300,000 Vietnamese soldiers sacrificing their lives in the Vietnam War.

In brief, I could see the Vietnam War around me, witnessing the Vietcong’s atrocities during the war, the day-and-night hunger and forced labor in the re-education jails, the drowning of half a million boat-people, and the tragedies of million South Vietnamese families. We also saw the cutting-off military aids to the South Vietnamese soldiers, who, in fact, had nothing to fight the Vietcong entering Saigon. Deborah Nelson, how could you see the Vietnam War behind you and why do you care about our enemies, the Vietcong so much?