Just a heads up on something you'll be hearing more about soon. For now please go read Forgotten South Vietnamese Allies and Vietnam Healing Foundation. I got an email from R J Del Vecchio a little bit ago that really got my attention -- I'll post it soon as part of a larger post -- and I intend to do my best to try to get yours. Developing ...
2006.08.31 Update: It turns out there may be some practical reasons I can't tell you as much as I'd like to about The Vietnam Healing Foundation. For now I'm going to just have to say "Del believes in this project, Bruce Kesler believes in this project (We've traded mails on the subject within the last 24 hours) and that's all this old dog needs to know." Please, please, follow the links to Bruce's posts and do everything you can to help. If the situation changes so I can tell you more I will.
2006.08.31 Update 2: Here's a slightly revised (by Del) version of the email that grabbed my attenton when I saw it last night:
Early last year my local vets group was contacted by the nearby VN community. We did a few things together, and I got friendly with a few of their guys. After a while they decided that I was medium OK for an old white guy, and brought me into some meetings about a concern they had. Many of these guys were in the camps, or had relatives who died there. They all know of former ARVN still living in Viet Nam, where they are (as you may know) subject to official discrimination, they and their kids and grandkids. (Really nice guys, those communists- I'd love to have Kerry explain again to me how the takeover of the South was going to have very little negative impact on the people.)
The worst off guys are the disabled ones, and my local VN wanted to set up a charity to help them. I, being the logical former manager, etc, pointed out you'd need to do some kind of survey in Nam to find and interview at least a few guys, bring back pictures and recordings. Well, none of the VN guys are going back to do that, something about having been in the camps tends to make then not ever want to be under communist control again. Next thing I knew, they said "Del, you are just a fat old white man, no one will pay attention to you. So we have elected you for this honor."
I had never had any urge to go back, there's nothing there today that I need to see or do in connection with the war. But finally I found a way to get myself there (FT miles and a combination business trip to Germany). I got off the plane, gave a fictitious hotel address to the officials, walked out into the mass of people in the reception area, and then vanished from official sight for the rest of my stay. I was met by some very good people, taken out of the city, and provided with a bilingual translator who was visiting from another country. We lived with a VN family in a built-up village, and went out to travel around the countryside to meet and interview and photograph the crippled vets.
It was tougher than I'd ever thought it would be, I gave away every dime I had, sent home for more money, gave that away, got some from friends and the VN back in the US, gave that away too. My wife is a bit sorry now that I went, because I cannot get those guys out of my mind any more. The shame and guilt I feel about us leaving them in the lurch are tough to deal with. And what I saw of life in Viet Nam, and heard about what goes on there and elsewhere, makes me hate the bastards in power (who aren't really communists any more) more than ever. And I'd like to drag all the proud antiwar activists through the real Viet Nam, not the tourist trail or the banquets the gov't throws for VIP visitors, and have them see and understand what they made happen.
So I got back and we got the charity going, and have raised money and sent it over to help people. And to avoid any problems with the bureaucracy and politics and the costs of doing anything officially, it is all done on a people-to-people basis.
