Please use the comments box below for personal remembrances. (They are not visible until approved.)
New York Times obituary (click here)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/world/asia/don-luce-dead.html
Washington Post obituary (click here)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/08/luce-vietnam-tiger-cage-dies/
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the vietnam-usa society 105A-Quan Thanh Street Ha Noi, Viet Nam
Tel:
84-4-3.8454518 Fax: 84-4-3.8234374
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Ha
Noi, November 29th 2022
Warmest greetings of friendship from Ha Noi, Viet Nam!
It was with deep sadness that we received the news of
the sudden passing away of Mr. Don Luce, your beloved spouse, on Thursday,
November 17th 2022, at Niagara Falls Memorial Hospital, New York,
U.S.A., at the age of 88.
On behalf of the Viet Nam – USA Society, allow us to join many American and Vietnamese friends to extend
deepest sympathy and most profound condolences to you, your family and friends
for such a big loss.
Don Luce, as a civilian aid worker,
was best known for exposing the existence of “tiger cages,” where the South
Vietnamese government imprisoned and tortured its opponents and critics in
cramped cells in 1971. He became a persistent opponent of the Vietnam War whose
activism led the last American ambassador to South Vietnam to call him one of
the principal reasons the United States lost the war.
Don Luce will
be remembered for all he had done to help the people, especially the
peace-loving, progressive and anti-war activists in the United States and the
world over to see the truth of the struggle of Vietnamese for national
independence and peace. He together with other former members of his aid
mission, created the Indochina Mobile Education Project, affiliated with the
Indochina Resource Center, and toured the United States to spread an antiwar
message.
It was a pleasure for us to
have an opportunity to host Don Luce, Tom Harkins and other American friends on
their visit to Viet Nam many years ago.
Don will be in our
hearts and minds forever as a great source of encouragement and inspiration for many Vietnamese people, especially our youths.
May Don rest in peace in
grace of God, and that you and your family will overcome such a hard time and
soon resume a normal life.
In friendship and solidarity,
Pham Quang Vinh Bui
Van Nghi
President Secretary General
Don was a truly wonderful soul! I met Don first in Vietnam where I was working for the Mennonite Central Committee which was a part of Vietnam Christian Service (VNCS) in Tam Ky, and Don was the director of International Voluntary Service (IVS) in Saigon. Our paths crossed in late 1967 when the US government was trying to force IVS to remove David Nesmith, an IVS agricultural worker in Hue, and me, who was a literacy worker with VNCS in Tam Ky. It turned out both David and I were making friends very broadly in the communities where we were working, and the US Military Advisors in our respective areas felt it was hard on the morale of US soldiers to see pacifists living and working comfortably in the middle of intense war zones. Pressure was put on both organizations through the US Ambassador to Vietnam to move Dave and I out of I CORPS to some other area with less conflict in Vietnam. My bosses in VNCS caved in saying that VNCS could not afford to have a conflict with the US government, as they assisted us in bringing in relief supplies to Vietnam for the many VNCS relief programs. Don, however, stood up to the pressure, and told the US government that if they forced the removal of David Nesmith from Hue, IVS would leave Vietnam. Don was personally very supportive of me in that situation, and fortunately, because of an article in the National Catholic Reporter, which was picked up by the NY Times, the US government backed down. The article had pointed out that the US military which was destroying Vietnam was trying to relocate two aid workers, one an agriculturalist and the other a literacy worker, who were actually helping the Vietnamese people. The article also pointed out that in a democracy the US government is not supposed to be telling NGOs how to do their work or place their staff, and in the US, the state is never supposed to be telling church organizations what they should or should be doing and where their staff should be located.
ReplyDeleteI have remained friends with Don over the years, and we lived a few blocks apart in the East Village of New York City in the 1970's. I remember when Don and I used to invite the Vietnamese Ambassador to the UN (after 1975) to picnics in the back yard of my slum apartment at 523 E. 13th street (between A & B). The Vietnamese Ambassador would have his chauffeur drive his car to our neighborhood, which was the highest crime precinct in NYC at the time, (the driver had to stay in the car so it wouldn't be stolen) while the Ambassador and one or two other Vietnamese diplomats feasted on meals that Don usually cooked.
Don's memories will always be with me.
Doug Hostetter
I met Don first in Vietnam where I was working for the Mennonite Central Committee which was a part of Vietnam Christian Service (VNCS) in Tam Ky, and Don was the director of International Voluntary Service (IVS) in Saigon. Our paths crossed in late 1967 when the US government was trying to force IVS to remove David Nesmith, an IVS agricultural worker in Hue, and me, who was a literacy worker with VNCS in Tam Ky. It turned out both David and I were making friends very broadly in the communities where we were working, and the US Military Advisors in our respective areas felt it was hard on the morale of US soldiers to see pacifists living and working comfortably in the middle of intense war zones. Pressure was put on both organizations through the US Ambassador to Vietnam to move Dave and I out of I CORPS to some other area with less conflict in Vietnam. My bosses in VNCS caved in saying that VNCS could not afford to have a conflict with the US government, as they assisted us in bringing in relief supplies to Vietnam for the many VNCS relief programs. Don, however, stood up to the pressure, and told the US government that if they forced the removal of David Nesmith from Hue, IVS would leave Vietnam. Don was personally very supportive of me in that situation, and fortunately, because of an article in the National Catholic Reporter, which was picked up by the NY Times, the US government backed down. The article had pointed out that the US military which was destroying Vietnam was trying to relocate two aid workers, one an agriculturalist and the other a literacy worker, who were actually helping the Vietnamese people. The article also pointed out that in a democracy the US government is not supposed to be telling NGOs how to do their work or place their staff, and in the US, the state is never supposed to be telling church organizations what they should or should be doing and where their staff should be located.
ReplyDeleteI have remained friends with Don over the years, and we lived a few blocks apart in the East Village of New York City in the 1970's. I remember when Don and I used to invite the Vietnamese Ambassador to the UN (after 1975) to picnics in the back yard of my slum apartment at 523 E. 13th street (between A & B). The Vietnamese Ambassador would have his chauffeur drive his car to our neighborhood, which was the highest crime precinct in NYC at the time, (the driver had to stay in the car so it wouldn't be stolen) while the Ambassador and one or two other Vietnamese diplomats feasted on meals that Don usually cooked.
Thanks, Don for your integrity and humanity.
I met Don first in Vietnam where I was working for the Mennonite Central Committee which was a part of Vietnam Christian Service (VNCS) in Tam Ky, and Don was the director of International Voluntary Service (IVS) in Saigon. Our paths crossed in late 1967 when the US government was trying to force IVS to remove David Nesmith, an IVS agricultural worker in Hue, and me, who was a literacy worker with VNCS in Tam Ky. It turned out both David and I were making friends very broadly in the communities where we were working, and the US Military Advisors in our respective areas felt it was hard on the morale of US soldiers to see pacifists living and working comfortably in the middle of intense war zones. Pressure was put on both organizations through the US Ambassador to Vietnam to move Dave and I out of I CORPS to some other area with less conflict in Vietnam. My bosses in VNCS caved in saying that VNCS could not afford to have a conflict with the US government, as they assisted us in bringing in relief supplies to Vietnam for the many VNCS relief programs. Don, however, stood up to the pressure, and told the US government that if they forced the removal of David Nesmith from Hue, IVS would leave Vietnam. Don was personally very supportive of me in that situation, and fortunately, because of an article in the National Catholic Reporter, which was picked up by the NY Times, the US government backed down. The article had pointed out that the US military which was destroying Vietnam was trying to relocate two aid workers, one an agriculturalist and the other a literacy worker, who were actually helping the Vietnamese people. The article also pointed out that in a democracy the US government is not supposed to be telling NGOs how to do their work or place their staff, and in the US, the state is never supposed to be telling church organizations what they should or should be doing and where their staff should be located.
ReplyDeleteI have remained friends with Don over the years, and we lived a few blocks apart in the East Village of New York City in the 1970's. I remember when Don and I used to invite the Vietnamese Ambassador to the UN (after 1975) to picnics in the back yard of my slum apartment at 523 E. 13th street (between A & B). The Vietnamese Ambassador would have his chauffeur drive his car to our neighborhood, which was the highest crime precinct in NYC at the time, (the driver had to stay in the car so it wouldn't be stolen) while the Ambassador and one or two other Vietnamese diplomats feasted on meals that Don usually cooked.
Don will sorely missed by all who have known and love him.
Doug Hostetter