The Christmas Bombing of Viet Nam
52d Anniversary Webinar
Thursday, December 26, 2024
View the recording by clicking here
Share the youtube link with friends, colleagues and on social media https://youtu.be/cNfZgoe0O1c
Eyewitness accounts, human consequences, historical impact, peace movement response
* Doug Hostetter moderator, Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee
* Joan Baez, Telford Taylor Video account of their time in Hanoi during the bombing
* Linh Nguyen US Institute of Peace, sharing stories from her mother about the attacks
* Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg Hofstra University, professor of history and author
* Bill Zimmerman Medical Aid for Indochina, Bach Mai Hospital Fund
Cosponsor Brooklyn For Peace
Doug Hostetter (moderator) was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and chose to do his alternative service working for Mennonite Central Committee in Tam Ky, Quang Nam, from 1966 - 1969. Doug returned to Vietnam in November and December 1970 with the US National Student Association delegation that negotiated the People’s Peace Treaty (PPT). The People’s Peace Treaty was signed in Saigon by representatives of the Saigon Student Union and brought to Hanoi where representatives of the South Vietnam Liberation Student Union, the Vietnam National Student Union and the US National Student Association signed it. Upon return to the US, Doug joined the staff of the People’s Peace Treaty national office in New York City, which, in cooperation with the US National Student Association, introduced the PPT to students in colleges and universities across the United States. In the spring of 1971, the PPT was ratified by almost 200 US colleges and universities -- hundreds of thousands of US students declaring their peace with student in Vietnam. Doug was active broadly in the US anti-Vietnam War movement. He was the Treasurer for Medical Aid for Indochina which after 1972 became the Bach Mai Hospital Fund and after 1975 became Friendshipment. Doug is the NGO Representative for Pax Christi International at the United Nations in New York. Earlier in his career Doug was as the Director of the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Office, the Director of the New England Office of the American Friends Service Committee; the Director of the US Fellowship of Reconciliation; and the Resource Specialist for Peace for the United Methodist Office for the United Nations. Doug has published widely on the issues of war, peace and nonviolence, and is a contributing author to The People Make the Peace: Lessons from the Vietnam Antiwar movement.
Linh Nguyen is Ho Chi Minh City-based Program Manager of the US Institute of Peace, where she oversees and supports various initiatives, including the War Remnants Museum exhibit project, a documentary on dioxin remediation, a series of dialogues between Vietnam and American youths, and a regional transnational crime project. Linh holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was a Fulbright and John F. Kennedy Fellow. She has experience working with international organizations, including the IOM, UNICEF, Oxfam, and Investing in Women, on a range of development and humanitarian projects.
Operation Linebacker II, sometimes referred to as the Christmas bombings and, in Vietnam, Dien Bien Phu in the air, was a strategic bombing campaign conducted by the United States against targets in North Vietnam from 18 December to 29 December 1972, during the Vietnam War. More than 20,000 tons of ordnance was dropped on military and industrial areas in Hanoi and Haiphong and at least 1,624 civilians were killed. The operation was the final major military operation carried out by the U.S. during the conflict, and the largest bombing campaign involving heavy bombers since World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker_II
Vietnamese film footage of the destruction in Hanoi click here
Share this https://youtu.be/JreB-ayawfM
"Joan Baez in Hanoi: 12 Days Under the Bombs"
By Tim Cahill Rolling Stone February 1, 1973 click here Share this link https://archive.md/yey3R
Extraordinary interview within a month of the bombing, a must read.
Telford Taylor and Joan Baez on the effect and intention of the bombing, click here
Share this link https://youtu.be/HKBMeHI-fx0
LP album side with the song "Where Are You Now, My Son" and recordings from Ha Noi Click here Share this link https://youtu.be/p4a8xFesASg
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Resources
I've met so few folks in my time who weren't afraid to die
But dawn bleeds with the people here and morning skies are red
As young girls load up bicycles with flowers for the dead
An aging woman picks along the craters and the rubble
A piece of cloth, a bit of shoe, a whole lifetime of trouble
A sobbing chant comes from her throat and splits the morning air
The single son she had last night is buried under her
They say that the war is done
Where are you now, my son?
An old man with unsteady gait and beard of ancient white
Bent to the ground with arms outstretched faltering in his plight
I took his hand to steady him, he stood and did not turn
But smiled and wept and bowed and mumbled softly, "Danke shoen"
The children on the roadsides of the villages and towns
Would stand around us laughing as we stood like giant clowns
The mourning bands told whom they'd lost by last night's phantom messenger
And they spoke their only words in English, "Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger"
Now that the war's being won
Where are you now, my son?
The siren gives a running break to those who live in town
Take the children and the blankets to the concrete underground
Sometimes we'd sing and joke and paint bright pictures on the wall
And wonder if we would die well and if we'd loved at all
The helmetless defiant ones sit on the curb and stare
At tracers flashing through the sky and planes bursting in air
But way out in the villages no warning comes before a blast
That means a sleeping child will never make it to the door
The days of our youth were fun
Where are you now, my son?
From the distant cabins in the sky where no man hears the sound
Of death on earth from his own bombs, six pilots were shot down
Next day six hulking bandaged men were dazzled by a room
Of newsmen. Sally keep the faith, let's hope this war ends soon
In a damaged prison camp where they no longer had command
They shook their heads, what irony, we thought peace was at hand
The preacher read a Christmas prayer and the men kneeled on the ground
Then sheepishly asked me to sing "They Drove Old Dixie Down"
Yours was the righteous gun
Where are you now, my son?
We gathered in the lobby celebrating Chrismas Eve
The French, the Poles, the Indians, Cubans and Vietnamese
The tiny tree our host had fixed sweetened familiar psalms
But the most sacred of Christmas prayers was shattered by the bombs
So back into the shelter where two lovely women rose
And with a brilliance and a fierceness and a gentleness which froze
The rest of us to silence as their voices soared with joy
Outshining every bomb that fell that night upon Hanoi
With bravery we have sun
But where are you now, my son?
Oh people of the shelters what a gift you've given me
To smile at me and quietly let me share your agony
And I can only bow in utter humbleness and ask
Forgiveness and forgiveness for the things we've brought to pass
The black pyjama'd culture that we tried to kill with pellet holes
And rows of tiny coffins we've paid for with our souls
Have built a spirit seldom seen in women and in men
And the white flower of Bac Mai will surely blossom once again
I've heard that the war is done
Then where are you now, my son?
Bach Mai Hospital today
https://bachmai.gov.vn/images/stories/en/history.html
Several doctors from Bach Mai have come to the US for advanced study and training. The US government has provided assistance for its current work.
Where the bombs fell
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Chat
20:57:31 From Jay Wilberforce to Hosts and panelists : The bombing was, in some disgusting sense, "performative," on Kiss-of-Death's part, in particular, no??
20:59:04 From Andrew Berman to Hosts and panelists : Carolyn's comments ring true. Very perceptive. Many thanks! -Andy Berman
21:02:22 From Eleanor Stein to Hosts and panelists : To: Carolyn-Rusty! That was a spectacular presentation, and your book is of such great use for activists today. We spend a lot of time talking to young activists about just your point: we had and have a far greater impact than we realize. Very hard to maintain this today, in the context of Gaza. But the tide of young/student militancy on Gaza is so heartening. I hear news of you from my son Thai - love to you, Eleanor Stein
21:07:23 From Andrew Berman to Hosts and panelists : Re: Bill's remarks about sending medical aid and not money, to avoid the accusation of supporting the Vietnamese military.
21:10:57 From Andrew Berman to Hosts and panelists : Today, Medical aid for Ukraine is being collected based on need, and it is not denied that the Ukrainian fighters against Putin's invasion are the recipients of much of that medical aid.
21:21:16 From Dana Moss to Hosts and panelists : This is a very important and fabulous panel. Thank you ALL for educating us on this horrific war crime and the transnational response.
21:23:03 From Barbara Harrison to Hosts and panelists : Was there a senator, and I am thinking of Fulbright who told Nixon he would not fund the War anymore?
21:26:44 From Mavic Cabrera Balleza to Hosts and panelists : I’m working with the organization Global Network of Women Peacebuilders based in NY. We work on peacebuilding and conflict prevention and humanitarian action in Afghanistan, Palestine and Israel, and Ukraine among other countries. What lessons should we learn from your experience in ending war?
21:27:16 From Jay Wilberforce to Hosts and panelists : https://interactive.wttw.com/playlist/2017/09/14/archive-ron-kovic-talks-studs-terkel
21:27:18 From Mavic Cabrera Balleza to Hosts and panelists : In Vietnam Ñam?
21:27:21 From brent bleier to Hosts and panelists : Thank you for this program !!!
21:29:32 From Andrew Berman to Hosts and panelists : The difference? In Vietnam, 59,000 Americans were killed and 300.000 wounded. How many Americans have died in Gaza and Ukraine?
21:30:12 From Jay Wilberforce to Hosts and panelists : The invasion of Ukraine was provoked by US militarists ignoring repeated warnings from both Russian elites and US foreign policy elites that continuing the expansion of NATO would be seen as an existential threat by the Russian elites and they would respond by "wrecking Ukraine." See numerous lectures by Prof John Mearsheimer as far back as 2014.
21:35:29 From Phil Josselyn to Hosts and panelists : on high schools as well! The pressure is constant! reminiscent of the McCarthy era.
21:38:31 From Jay Wilberforce to Hosts and panelists : My Lai was mentioned. We should always lift up the heroic actions and honorable memory of Hugh Thompson and his gunner, Larry Cockburn, and Glenn Andreotti, killed two weeks later in what was believed to be a deliberately dangerous assignment. https://elciervoherido.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/my-lai-50-years-after-american-soldiers-shocking-crimes-must-be-remembered-robert-hodierne/
21:39:54 From Susan Scott to Hosts and panelists : Re Linh’s mothers attitude toward Americans— when I was at a conference in hanoi in 2009 I was amazed by the welcome we received from the people we met. One young man answered my question — aren’t the VN people angry with Americans? He said they had been taught in school that the American people opposed the war and it was only Nixon and Kissinger and the officials who were responsible…!!
21:41:05 From Jay Wilberforce to Hosts and panelists : When Hugh Thompson died in 2006 he was buried in a cemetery in Lafayette, Louisiana. He was given a three rifle salute and... a helicopter flyover! (Died on January 6.)
21:41:43 From Marc Gilbert to Hosts and panelists : Why leaders past. present, and future engage in atrocities is explored with great clarity with regard to the good works and words offered here at a review of a new book at https://networks.h-net.org/group/discussions/20053802/h-diplo-review-essay-605-waterman-friedman-commander-chief-test. Marc Jason Gilbert The Vietnam War on Campus.
21:45:03 From Jay Wilberforce to Hosts and panelists : Thanks to all of for reminding us of the courageous resistance we were all part of, each in our own best ways, which helped constraint and end this criminal war perpetrated by an undemocratic and seemingly forever unaccountable government. Thanks!! Merry Christmas!!
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