JFK Library Conference on Vietnam Lacks Vietnamese Representative
Quang X. Pham, a Vietnamese American author, is asking for help from Vietnamese American list serve for representation on the upcoming conference:
First of all, this conference dwarfs the Oakland Museum's effort. Most likely C-SPAN will have live coverage and archive the presentations on its web site. I had written several emails and spoken with a key staffer at the Kennedy Library, essentially asking her to include Vietnamese perspectives. She never bothered to reply except to tell me the dates and to keep an eye out for a press release. As far as the Joiner Center (UMass/Boston) it's not in this in this league either. Its antiwar position is clear.
Secondly, there has to be a good reason to protest. What are we protesting? Are the organizers using tax payer money to host a fair and balanced educational forum? Many distinguished journalists, politicians, scholars, veterans and others didn't make the cut either.
Lastly, what can we advise/offer as a solution? Who would be qualified to speak on behalf of Vietnamese Americans? Are age, accent, health and privacy prohibitive factors? Would it matter if their positions on the war vastly differ?
Besides penning some Op-Eds, I'm contemplating going to Boston as a free-lancer for several newspapers (English and [translated to] Vietnamese) and web sites. I may also post observations on my BLOG which is accessible from my web site. If I have a business schedule conflict, I may just TIVO and watch the same old clan reason why over 3 million Vietnamese, 58,400 Americans and countless others in the aftermath of the war had to die.
Best regards,
Quang X. Pham
www.asenseofduty.com
Reply from Jean Libby, Viet-Am Review
Subject: Fwd: RE: The American War in Vietnam Redux - Sans Vietnamese
Dear Quang, these are great questions and ideas to get something going for Vietnamese representation at the Kennedy Library symposium. You are the person to spearhead because you have spoken recently at both the National Archives and a Presidential Library.
Your question: is there someone who can represent Vietnamese Americans? I say yes, and that person is Nguyen Ngoc Bich, of Virginia. He has historical knowledge, scholarly credentials, international reputation (recently the only Vietnamese American at a gathering in Paris to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the end of the war), excellent bilingual skills, and consummate style. He was in both Washington D.C. with the Embassy and the Republic of Vietnam during the war.
The issue is inclusion of the position of the Vietnamese allies of the United States.
This history is quickly being lost in the spin that the Republic of Vietnam was not an entity worth fighting for, did not have leaders and people who understood and wanted democracy. The history of the Vietnam War in the United States is presented by the winners as an independence movement. Americans grow up now believing this, it's in all the textbooks.
Is there anyone listed on the program who believed in democracy for Vietnam? Certainly not Kissinger, who sold the people down the Seine River for a photo-op and release of only American prisoners. He will want to make the Paris Peace Accords of 1973 his historical legacy by glorifying his betrayal of the Republic of Vietnam.
Certainly not Ted Sorensen and Jack Valenti, who covered the tracks too well, and whose primary interest is to protect the historical reputations of their presidents.
What about the American journalists who told the world that the communists were winning during the Tet Offensive, when the opposite military and political position was correct. They are crediting themselves with ending the war, and they do it by denigrating the Republic of Vietnam military and political leadership and falsely presenting the people as welcoming Ho Chi Minh's armies and ideology.
The issues can be summarized as presentation of the Vietnam War as an American War, which serves the interests of the Communist regime and the antiwar Americans.
Quang, you have run up against the gatekeeper of the Presidential libraries. Delay, wait, "be reasonable," until it is too late to change anything. This is exactly what the Community Advisory delegation to the Oakland Museum faced in asking for Vietnamese American inclusion in the exhibit after Mimi Nguyen was summarily fired for proposing this inclusion in writing. The smiling faces are sometimes more treacherous than the obstinate ones. Neither had any intention of inclusion.
Inclusion in the Presidential conference can be approached from the outside or the inside. If anyone could have changed it from the inside, it would be you, with your recent experience as an invited speaker to both the National Archives and the Nixon Library. But you got the classic brushoff.
Therefore, what is the best way to get public recognition that without inclusion of the history of the Republic of Viet Nam presented by themselves, it will be historically hollow?
All in exactly two months' time? The only people who can do this are bloggers who get read. Unfortunately this costs a bit of money, but not a lot. Your blog has to be able to be Googled on its topics. It has to leave the realm of personal expression and be found, quickly, online. I have just looked at yours (which I put onto a link on my site, http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com ) and it was hard to navigate into. It needs its own url, which you don't get with free hosts.
I have just joined an organization called the Online News Association. Perhaps this one can help you get read, online, with the important things you have to say.
This list serve has a lot of journalists with websites. Let's all link into Quang X. Pham's blog, which is at A Sense of Duty and get the information and opinions out there. Knowledgeable people can submit materials, too. His email is just below.
People will be reading journalist blogs about the conference while it is occurring more than print news.
Thank you, Quang X. Pham, for leading this inquiry.
Jean Libby
Jean Libby is a retired U.S. History instructor (college level) who is active in supporting the Vietnamese American community with this blog and other activities. She is the editor for the dissident poet Nguyen Chi Thien for his upcoming publication of stories of prison conditions in the "Hanoi Hilton" by the Council for Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University.