Draft itinerary and costs for 50th anniversary program in Indochina

(revised 2/12/25)     

A Unique Opportunity to Personally Witness Consequences of Conflict, Achievements of Peace and Regional Challenges.

April 30, 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the end of the US war with Vietnam, an historic event for a generation in both countries. The Fund for Reconciliation and Development is facilitating a two week travel program for Americans that engages Vietnam's history, culture, cuisine and current challenges. It offers insights, experiences and people to people meetings unavailable on commercial tours.

We will visit the encampment in Tan Trao where personnel of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) worked with Ho Chi Minh in 1945 and conclude with ceremonies in the city carrying his name (formerly Saigon) celebrating half a century of peace and reunification since 1975.

We will learn about ongoing efforts to heal the wounds of war from land mines, unexploded ordnance and Agent Orange.

We will update ourselves about the strong economic, political and educational ties that constitute a comprehensive strategic partnership between the US and Viet Nam, despite (or because of) the danger of conflict with China.

The group will travel by plane and tour bus from Ha Noi to Quang Tri, Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An, My Lai, Con Dao Island, Ho Chi Minh City and Ben Tre in the Mekong Delta hosted by the Viet Nam - USA Society, Click here for the itinerary and registration information.

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development (FFRD) has coordinated more than twenty educational tours in Indochina led by founder John McAuliff since 1985 and anticipates this is the final such program.

Below is the current version of the itinerary of the program in Viet Nam hosted by the Viet Nam - USA Society (VUS) for people who participated in the antiwar movement, worked on normalization of relations, or have addressed war legacies, plus family members and friends.  Persons with a professional or collegial interest are also welcome.  There is personal flexibility at the beginning and the end, including the option to add a visit to Cambodia and Laos.

Participants will be responsible for international travel and for domestic costs of a fifteen day guided program in Viet Nam .  The estimated domestic cost for sharing a room is $2,500 each.   A single room is $3,050.  Costs may be adjusted by number of participants.  Payment is in cash (USD or Vietnamese dong) on April 15th in Ha Noi. 

Breakfast, lunch and two dinners are included.  All other dinners are on our own.  FRD/VUS will suggest locations and we often will invite guests.  Participation in group dinners will be at an equal share cost.  Some menus will be pre-set and others a la carte.  

The maximum size group is 25.  

For planning purposes, expressions of individual, family and organizational interest are appreciated as soon as convenient.  No committment is required prior to February 28, 2025.  Write to jmcauliff@gmail.com

If you are ready to commit, please complete a registration form and donate for FRD organizing costs at least $200 per person.  We are facilitating this trip but are not a travel agent or tour operator.  FRD is not legally liable for trip cancellation, transit or in-country illness or accidents.  We strongly recommend obtaining travel insurance when you book your flight.  International flight costs are usually less expensive if booked sooner.  Transit destinations include Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and the Philippines.  You may be able to use airline milage for the transpacific flight to one of those locations in premium economy or business and then buy a ticket in economy for the shorter final leg.

Registration forms are available by clicking here  https://form.jotform.com/73274097780970  Return it with the administrative support contribution and a copy of your passport page as soon as possible.

 

Itinerary of FRD’s delegation to visit Viet Nam

From 15  April - 1 May, 2025

 

 

As of 4/2/25 

 

Sunday, April 13-15:     

Arrive in Noi Bai Airport

[option for jet lag recovery pre-program tourism April 13-14:  overnight in Ha Long Bay/ Ninh Binh/ visit to pottery village, etc. to be arranged by VUS on request]  

 

Tuesday April 15: HA NOI

Arrivals for program

08:00 pm   Orientation meeting at hotel.

         Check in Splendid Premium Hotel No 36 Lo Su Str., Hoan Kiem Dist.

 

Wednesday, April 16: HA NOI

08:00am       Visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, his House and Museum, Literature Temple

02:00pm      Visit Ethnology Museum, Hoa Lo Prison

06:30pm      Water Puppet Show

07:30pm  Dinner with resident staff of US NGOs  (TBC)

 

Thursday, April 17: HA NOI

08:30am       Presentation “Viet Nam: 40 years of Construction and Development”

by President of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations (ok)

02:00pm     Visit Women’s Museum

03:30pm     Meet with the Viet Nam – USA Society, soldiers, high-ranking officials (ok)

06:30pm     Welcoming dinner with VUS/VUFO

 

Friday, April 18: HA NOI

09:00am       Visit Garco 10 equitized garment factory (ok)

11:00am       Meet with US Ambassador Marc E.Knapper (ok)

02:30pm       Visit Diplomatic Academy (ok)

05:30pm       Optional Visit home of Mark Rappoport

06:30pm       Dinner with members of US business community (TBC)

 

Saturday, April 19, 2025: HA NOI - TUYEN QUANG – HA NOI

08:00am       Travel by bus to Tuyen Quang

 Visit Tan Trao where OSS assisted Ho Chi Minh 

04:00pm      Travel back to Ha Noi

07:30 pm     Dinner with Vietnamese friends (TBC)

 

Sunday, April 20: HA NOI - HUE

Morning        Relax 

Afternoon   visit the new military museum on the way to the airport (TBC)

05:00pm      or  Leave Hotel for Noi Bai Airport

07:45pm       Flight to Hue. Flight No. VN1549 M

09:00pm       Arrive in Hue. Transfer to Hotel. Check in Hotel

                        Addr: Huong Giang Hotel, 51 Le Loi Str. Hue city

 

 Monday, April 21:

08:00am     Visit Thien Mu Pagoda & Hue Imperial Citadel

                        Visit Khai Dinh Tomb & Hat Village

02:00pm      Visit Hue National University (ok)

04:00 pm     Meeting with VUFO of Thua Thien Hue province (ok)

 

Tuesday, April 22: HUE - QUANG TRI 

08:00am      Check out of hotel

Leave Hue for Quang Tri by bus

11:00am     Visit war legacies (land mines, UXO)

02:30pm     Meet with VUFO of Quang Tri province

Check in Muong Thanh Hotel. Addr: 68 Le Duoan, Ward 2, Dong Ha.

 

Wednesday, April 23: QUANG TRI - DA NANG

                     Check out of hotel

08:00am       Leave Quang Tri for Da Nang by bus

02:30pm       Visit Da Nang Center Supporting for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin

04:00pm       Meet with Da Nang People’s Committee & VUFO of Da Nang city

                       Dinner with Da Nang People’s Committee & VUFO

                     Check in hotel in Da Nang

 

Thursday, April 24: DA NANG

08:00am     Visit Cham Museum

                     Lunch on own, free time at market

02:30pm     Visit East Sea Museum

04:00pm     Meeting at Dong A (private) University

07:30pm     Dinner with friends from Da Nang  (TBC)

                      

Friday, April 25: DA NANG – QUANG NGAI (MY LAI) - HOI AN - DA NANG 

07:30am       Travel by bus to Quang Ngai (My Lai) by bus

Visit Son My Village - war legacies (mass atrocity) in Quang Ngai 

Afternoon    Leave Quang Ngai for Hoi An. Return to Da Nang.  

 

Saturday, April 26: DA NANG – (Transit in HOCHIMINH CITY) - CON DAO

09:00am       Check out of hotel. Travel to Da Nang Airport

11:00am       Flight to HCMC. Flight No. VN119 M DADSGN.

(Luggage checked through Con Dao)

12:30am       Arrive in Tan Son Nhat Airport 

03:10pm       Transit. Fly HCMC - Con Dao. Flight VN1885B SGNVCS

04:10pm       Arrive in Con Dao Airport   

                      Transfer to Hotel. Check in Marina Bay Con Dao Hotel

Nguyen Hue, Khu 5, Con Dao, Ba Ria – Vung Tau

Dinner guests local guide Truong Ai Van and one or two friends (TBC)

 

Sunday, April 27:  CON DAO 

Morning   Free time/Enjoy the beach, turtles, snorkel boat, hiking, island tour, etc.

Afternoon     Learn Con Dao history, East Sea issues / Visit Tiger Cage Museum

 

Monday, April 28:    CON DAO  - HO CHI MINH CITY

07:30pm       Leave Hotel for Con Dao Airport

09:30am       Fly to Ho Chi Minh city. Flight No. 8054B VCSSGN

10:45am       Arrive in Ho Chi Minh city. Transfer to Hotel

                        Check in Avanti Hotel, 186-188 Le Thanh Ton, Ben Thanh Ward, Dis1

02:30pm     Meet with Ambassador Ton Nu Thi Ninh, President of Peace and

development Foundation & officials of Ho Chi Minh city (ok)

 

Tuesday, April 29: HO CHI MINH CITY

09:00am      Meet with US Consulate 

                        Drive through of export processing zone, container port

02:30pm      Reunification Conference Hall, War Remnants Museum

06:30pm       dinner with officials

 

Wednesday, April 30: HO CHI MINH CITY

07:00am       - Participate State/official events (parade and celebration)

Afternoon    - Pay a courtesy meeting with High-ranking official (TBC)

.

Thursday, May 01: HO CHI MINH CITY Options

Morning        Check out of hotel. Departure.

 

Options:

                     

Thursday, May 01, 2025: HO CHI MINH CITY Options

                     1)  Depart Viet Nam, or

                     2)  Shopping/personal activities, or

                     3)  Cu Chi tunnels,   or

                     4)  Cu Chi tunnels and Mekong Delta tour

 

Friday, May 02, 2025:  

.         Depart for home, Cambodia or Thailand

 

 TBC = to be confirmed

Optional additions

Friday, May 2, 2025:  HCMC- Phnom Penh  Limo Minivan $35

Saturday, May 3, 2025 - fly to Siem Reap / Angkor Wat  10 a.m.

Sunday, May 4, 2025 -  fly to Phnom Penh  7:30 p.m.  

Monday, May 5, 2025 -  Tuol Sleng KR prison, meetings

Tuesday, May 6 -- Choeung Ek burial ground, meetings

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 -  Museum of Culture, free time, fly home or to Vientiane, 5:45 p.m.  $208

Thursday - Friday, May 8 - 9,  2025  Vientiane  meetings, market, etc.

Saturday - May 10, 2025   Depart to Bangkok or Ha Noi for flights home or private excursion (Mekong lodge, Luang Prabang, Xien Quang Plain of Jars)

 

If you are potentially interested in participating, please send a note to jmcauliff@ffrd.org to receive updates.

Registration forms are available by clicking here https://form.jotform.com/73274097780970  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

*  https://vietnamnet.vn/en/visitors-flock-to-con-dao-to-participate-in-sea-turtle-conservation-2327259.html

The history of Con Dao is as turbulent as it is transformative. Once known for its infamous prison system during French colonial rule and later the American presence in Vietnam, Con Dao witnessed the suffering and resilience of thousands of prisoners who were confined on its shores. These prisons have now become places of pilgrimage and remembrance, a somber reminder of the past that shapes the collective memory of the nation.

In a remarkable twist of fate, the very isolation that once made Con Dao an ideal location for a penal colony has today turned it into a sanctuary for biodiversity. The islands have been reborn as a national park, with efforts to preserve their pristine nature and protect the rare species that call it home. Con Dao’s transformation from a place of confinement to a bastion of environmental conservation highlights its unique position in Vietnam’s narrative—a story of redemption and natural splendor that now defines this tranquil tourist destination.

https://asiapioneertravel.com/blog/con-dao/

"U S Navy challenges Vietnamese claims to seas around resort island in South China Sea" 

By CAITLIN DOORNBOS STARS AND STRIPES • December 28, 2020

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/navy-challenges-vietnamese-claims-to-seas-around-resort-island-in-south-china-sea-1.656609

***********************************

Former Secretary of State and Vietnam Veteran activist John Kerry

"Anniversaries have a value, not in and of themselves, but what they can actually produce. Anniversaries can often be action-oriented events, forcing moments of redefining or improving or readjusting a relationship between countries,” said Secretary Kerry. “So as someone who invested many years in finally making peace, I hope you won't mind if I suggest something unconventional for next year. Next year let's mark those two anniversaries not by looking back, but by making sure that we are looking forward. Ending the war and making peace two decades later were never ends in themselves, they were hard fought openings to put the bitterness behind us and to work together as countries.”

at the Asia Society https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2024/10/asia-society-hostsviet-nams-president.html

Webinar Grass Roots Education by IMEP

The Indochina Mobile Education Project

Education and Activism at the Grass Roots

Tuesday, July 23, 2024   

Click here to view youtube recording  https://youtu.be/89rcAyJzgJw

The Indochina Mobile Education Project (IMEP) played a key role in educating people in communities throughout America about war damages and the human impacts of the U.S. military intervention in Vietnam and Laos. Its other purpose was to highlight an estimated 200,000 political prisoners held by the U.S. funded Saigon regime and to encourage letters to Congress.

From the fall of 1971 through 1976 following the end of the war, IMEP toured the country with large photo exhibits, films, slide shows and educational materials designed to help citizens understand the toll of the war.  Two people who had experienced the war as soldiers, humanitarian agency volunteers or journalists traveled with each exhibit visiting hundreds of communities in every state making thousands of presentations to churches and synagogues, civic organizations, schools and fraternal groups like Lions and Kiwanis Clubs.  At each stop, IMEP introduced audiences to Vietnamese food and music.  People were encouraged to reach out to their elected officials to call for the end of U.S. military aid and Saigon's repressive government. 

Ambassador Graham Martin reported to Congress  in 1976 that the indochina Resource Center and the Indochina Mobile Education Project had carried. on "one of the best propoganda and pressure campaigns the world has ever seen".

This webinar will feature people who traveled the country as IMEP organizers and tour speakers as well as local exhibit hosts in Colorado, Missouri and Massachusetts.

• Brewster Rhoads, Moderator, Massachusetts host for IMEP team
• Willi Meyers, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri
• Sally Benson, national staff, IMEP
• Jacqui Chagnon, traveling speaker, IMEP
• Bob Chenoweth, former POW; traveling speaker, IMEP
• Judy Danielson, Colorado host for IMEP team

Sally Benson began her work with Ecumenical Voluntary Services on Ishigaki Island in the Okinawa Ryukyus in the summer 1961  She taught English in Tai Tung Middle School in Hong Kong 1963-64 and at the National Institute of Administration in Saigon with International Voluntary Services1967-1968.  She was a staff member of International Student House in Washington 1970-1973 and of the Indochina Mobile Education Project 1973-1976.

From 1975 to 1977 she was part of Mid-Atlantic Clergy and Laity Concerned's  "RRR" focus on diplomatic relations,  reconciliation, and reconstruction with Viet Nam. 

Sally worked with the  Asia Resource Center and was involved with organizing the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace, and the Campaign to Oppose the Return of the Khmer Rouge.

Dick Berliner, John Schafer, Bob Minnich, Steve Nichols and Sally bought an old house in the wake of the Washington DC MLK Riots.  It became home for some IVSers returning home and for activists involved in trying to stop the American war in Southeast Asia It was a guest house for early delegations visiting from Vietnam

For over 20 years Sally and Steven Nichols with others have managed a foundation to help fund post conflict reconciliation and Agent Orange, UXO and environment related programs mostly in Asia.

Robert Chenoweth was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up both in Eugene and Portland.  He enlisted in the Army in June 1966 and was trained as a UH-1 helicopter crew chief.  He was sent to VN in January 1967 flying combat and combat support missions for the rest of the year.  His unit was based at Tan Son Nhut Army Heliport adjacent to the sprawling Air Force base.  He extended his tour for six months and after  leave came back to Viet Nam on January 22, 1968.  He was based at Qui Nhon and involved in fighting around the airfield and in the air.

Bob was shot down and captured February 8, 1968 during the Tet offensive.   He was released March 15, 1973 as part of the Paris Agreement on returning POWs and political prisoners. On return to the US, he and other POWs were charged with aiding the enemy because of statements they had made as prisoners.   Bob writes, "We raised our voices with the millions of Americans who were also protesting the war.  We just learned what was going on based on our military experiences and what we learned in captivity."

After release from the Army in July, 1973 he was contacted by the Indochina Peace Campaign and traveled with Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, Jean Pierre Debris, Holly Near and Jeff Langley.  He also traveled for a couple weeks with Jacqui Chagnon and Roger Rumpf of the IMEP around the border area with Oregon and California.  About a year later Dave Davis asked Bob to travel with IMEP.  He was a film maker ("Year of the Tiger") who had been to Vietnam in 1973.  He did not have much experience with Vietnamese cooking, etc.  So I went with him in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and Ohio.  I ended up meeting my wife in Cleveland.

Bob moved to Cleveland and continued with college that he had started in Berkeley.  He moved to Washington DC in 1975, worked at the Institute for Policy Studies and finished a degree in Anthropology.  He went to work at the National Air and Space Museum after school.  He'd worked part time at Natural History and developed an interest in museum work.  He went to work for the Naval History Center but was denied a clearance so worked as a civil engineering draftsman for several companies in the Northern Virginia, DC, Maryland area before moving to Hawaii in 1983.  He worked alot with the American Friends Servic Committee in Manoa, having gotten to know everyone when he came on an AFSC speaking tour  organized by Ian Lind.

Bob worked from 1984 to 1990 as museum technician at the US Army Museum of Hawaii then went to work as Curator of the USS Arizona Memorial with the National Park Service.  In 1992 he moved to Deer Lodge Montana to be curator of Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historical Park.  In 1995 he moved down the road to Nez Perce National Historical Park, near Lewiston, Idaho, on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.  He stayed in that position until he retired in 2017.  

Bob lives in Moscow, Idaho, has two adult sons, both married, and mostly play music, build models, read and mess with gardening.

He has been back to Viet Nam several times since 2013.  He donated all of his POW clothing and items to the Hoa Loa museum and attended events marking the end of the war as well as the American Dien Bien Phu.  He has spent wonderful time with Lady  Borton and Chi Mai whoworked with Jane Barton, at. al. in Quang Ngai. 

Judy Danielson  was a physical therapist with Vietnam Christian Service from 1968 to 1970, teaching and working in the Saigon Rehabilitation Center for injured civilians, largely amputees and children with polio. She was on Denver staff of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) from 1973-1980 organizing against the war and co-led a campaign to close the local nuclear weapons plant with Pam Solo, which led to the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.  Judy worked with AFSC's rehabitation project in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1985-86,  and continued as a physical therapist in Denver until retirement in 2016.  She is currently with a campaign for a non-profit universal health insurance plan for Colorado and with the Colorado Advocacy Team of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), lobbying against war funding.  She and her spouse Eric Wright, who worked in Quang Ngai with AFSC 1967-70, have 2 daughters and 3 grandsons nearby.

William H. (Willi) Meyers  Mennonite Concientious Objecter and agriculture volunteer with International Voluntary Services in Vietnam 1963 - 65 and in IVS Washington 1965-66 as Recruitment Officer. He resigned in protest of US Vietnam policy in September 1967 and worked with Don Luce and Gene Stoltzfus to establish the Vietnam Education Project with the United Methodist Church and the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Applied Economics at University of Missouri and formerly Co-Director of FAPRI and Director of CAFNR International Programs. Areas of teaching and research have been trade, agricultural and rural policy, food security, transition economics, and EU policies and institutions. He is also Professor Emeritus of Economics at Iowa State University and Adjunct Professor at School of Economics, Management and Statistics, University of Bologna. Other professional positions have been at USDA, World Bank, FAO, Christian Albrechts University-Kiel, and Open University of Catalonia. He earned a BA in Mathematics at Goshen College, MS in Agricultural Economics at University of the Philippines Los Banos and PhD in Agricultural Economics at University of Minnesota. He authored numerous publications on trade, agricultural and rural policy, commodity market analysis, food security and transition economics, including agricultural and rural policy studies on Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary and Ukraine after they regained independence. He is co-editor of the “Transition to Agricultural Market Economies: The Future of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine” by CAB International (2015) and “Handbook on International Food and Agricultural Policies”, World Scientific Press (2017) which includes a Vietnam chapter, “Agricultural and Rural Policies in Vietnam” by Pham Van Hung and Pham Bao Duong, colleagues from Viet Nam. 

Brewster Rhoads, a native of Philadelphia, PA, was active in the anti-war movement as a student at Williams College and as an organizer for the Coalition to Stop Funding the War in Washington, DC.  He hosted the Indochina Mobile Education Project for a week at Williams College in 1974.

Brewster was a VISTA volunteer in Western Massachusetts, Director of the Washington-based Coalition for a New Foreign Policy, Director of the Green Umbrella environmental sustainability alliance in Cincinnati and the SW Ohio Regional Director for Ohio Governors Dick Celeste and Ted Strickland.  He managed over 150 issue and candidate campaigns in SW Ohio.

Brewster is currently the Chair of the Board of the Ohio River Way, Inc., a nonprofit working to promote outdoor recreation opportunities on and along the Ohio River from Portsmouth, OH to Louisville, KY.

He also serves on the boards of Adventure Crew, the Mill Creek Alliance, the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund and Innovation Ohio.

An avid kayaker and cyclist, he is the founder and chair of the Ohio River Paddlefest, now the largest paddling event in the U.S.

Brewster lives in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Cincinnati with his wife Ann Lugbill, a whistleblower attorney. His daughters Elizabeth and Caroline live and teach in Lund, Sweden and Berlin, Germany respectively.

brewohio@gmail.com

Resources

2011 Yen Hoang Vu, “An Evaluation of Technical Efficiency of Small Farm Households in Chuong My District, Ha Tay Province, Vietnam” M.S. Thesis, University of Missouri.

2014 Hoa Hoang, “Three Essays on Rice Markets and Policies in Southeast Asia with a focus on Rice Consumption Patterns in Vietnam”,  Ph.D. dissertation, University of Missouri

2015 Hoang, H. K. and Meyers. W.H.  Price Stabilization and impacts of trade liberalization in the Southeast Asian rice market. Food Policy 57:26-39.

Message from Prof. Marc Jason Gilbert

 My book on the anti-war movement is still in print, The Vietnam War on Campus: Other Voices, More Distant Drums, (2000) as is The Vietnam War: Teaching Approaches and Resources (1991), but much more recently I wrote a chapter on the slow moral turn of the Hawaii delegation in Washington from Hawk to Dove, from 1964-1973: ‘”The View from the Hill: Hawaii’s Congressional Delegation and the Struggle for Peace in Vietnam and equity at Home, 1964-1975,” in Brian Cuddy and Fredrik Logevall, The Vietnam War and the Pacific World  (University of North Carolina Press, 2022).  I attach the latter in an easily printout format if you have time or desire to read it. . You will note that it features Spark Matsunaga, who is the true founder of the United States Institute for Peace, which is doing great work in Vietnam right now, linking US and Vietnamese youth in conversation.

 One of my University’s satellite campus libraries shut down and gave away its books.  I was able to acquire not only the books on the anti-war movement I had it purchase (all the fundamentals), but many others from the early sixties, which may come in handy if I turn that chapter into a book. It is a look from within the Hawaii sovereignty movement (on arrival SDS bowed to local peace leadership, a miracle of sorts), and thus might be filed as a research piece that can suggest to others a way to use local culture as a frame to teach peace. Hawaiians were unable to achieve “Peace with Aloha” in Vietnam, but they tried.  My family has a close connection to Polynesia and to Hawaii which helped me see how successful such research can be. I use it even in the Historical Methods class where student complete a “site visit” reflective of Hawaiian values (including a copy of the “Hiroshima Bell”). I am very lucky that my retirement package included the ability to continue to teach a course or two a year and thus I have opportunities to still teach peace in the present situation.

Marc Jason Gilbert,

Professor of History and

NEH-Supported Endowed Chair in World History

(2006-2019, Emeritus, 2020)  

Editor, World History Connected (2008-)

66 Queen Street, Suite 2605

Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Phone: 808.638.2563

Email: hallgilbert@earthlink.net / mgilbert@hpu.edu

Webinar: Role in Antiwar Movement of Humanitarian Aid Workers in South Vietnam

Humanitarian Volunteers Contribution to Ending the Vietnam War

Monday June 24, 7 -  8:30 p.m. ET  

Watch the webinar video on youtube by clicking here   https://youtu.be/Dmqm4DmEIGo

Moderator:  Doug Hostetter  Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)

Panelists:

• Ann Wright-Parsons  International Voluntary Services (IVS)
• Earl Martin  Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
• Bill Herod  Church World Service / Viet Nam Christian Service (CWS/VNCS)
• John Balaban   International Voluntary Services (IVS), Committee of Responsibility (COR)
• Claudia Krich    American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) 

• Special guest: Dick Berliner. With IVS (eighteen months); COR (six months); Vietnam Education Project in Washington D.C (six months); back to Viet Nam with COR (six months); Dispatch News Service in Saigon (eight months); back to DC to run Dispatch (two years).

A contradictory aspect of the US war in Indochina was that while the US government was responsible for widescale death and destruction, American non-governmental organizations, both religious and secular, undertook humanitarian programs to assist affected populations.

Staff and volunteers through engagement with civilian victims encountered a grass roots reality of the war which they shared with sponsoring organizations, journalists and peace activists.

Upon returning to the US, many became active opponents of the war, using their personal experiences to give interviews, write articles and undertake speaking tours.

This webinar will recall and honor the antiwar movement contribution of activists from the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers), Church World Service / Vietnam Christian Service, Committee of Concern, International Voluntary Service, and the Mennonite Central Committee.

Tax deductible contributions to support this program can be made here https://tinyurl.com/donateFRD

Speakers

John Balaban  as a Concientious Objector was a volunteer teacher at Can Tho University with International Voluntary Services, 1967-1968, and served as field representative  with the Committee of Responsibility, 1968-1970, evacuating and returning war-injured children to and from the U.S.

He is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, including four volumes which together have won The Academy of American Poets' Lamont prize, a National Poetry Series Selection, and two nominations for the National Book Award.  His Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.  In 2003, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.  In 2005, he was a judge for the National Book Awards. His latest book of poetry is Empires (Copper Canyon Press, 2019).  His collected poems, essays, and translations, Passing Through a Gate, is due out from Copper Canyon in May of 2024.

In addition to writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, he is a translator of Vietnamese poetry, and a past president of the American Literary Translators Association. In 1999, with two Vietnamese friends, he founded the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation  (http://nomfoundation.org). In 2008, he was awarded a medal from the Ministry of Culture of Vietnam for his translations of poetry and his leadership in the restoration of the ancient text collection at the National Library. 

Balaban is Professor Emeritus of English at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

contact: tbalaban@earthlink.net  or johnbalaban5@gmail.com

see also : www.johnbalaban.com for fuller biographical materials and bibliography. 

 https://www.nationalbook.org/people/john-balaban/#fullBio    and https://www.johnbalaban.com/ and

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-         magazines/balaban-john-b-1943

Bill Herod worked in relief and development projects in Viet Nam with Church World Service /Viet Nam Christian Service from 1966 to 1968 and from 1969 to 1971 in Pleiku, Tam Ky & Saigon.   

After the war, Herod worked in education and reconciliation projects contributing to reconciliation between the US and Viet-Nam. He travelled widely in the US speaking with church, campus, and civic groups about US policy in Viet-Nam during and after the war. He edited The Indochina Digest, a weekly newsletter about the region directed at policymakers, journalists, researchers, human right groups and others.

In 1977, Herod was among the first Americans to visit post-war Viet-Nam and subsequently facilitated a number of visits by members of the US Congress, congressional aides, human rights activists, journalists, representatives of American church groups and other influential opinion makers.

In Washington, DC, Herod assisted aid groups in securing the licenses then necessary to send humanitarian supplies to post-war Viet-Nam. He maintained regular contact with concerned congressional offices and the State Department and testified before congressional committees on post-war US policy.  

Doug Hostetter 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.

From March 1973 to July 1975 Claudia Krich and her husband Keith Brinton were co-directors of the American Friends Service Committee humanitarian program in Viet Nam. Keith had also been part of the program there from 1966 to 1970. Their work included running a large civilian physical rehabilitation center in Quang Ngai in central Viet Nam, researching and reporting on the war and wartime culture in Viet Nam, and hosting visiting dignitaries and journalists. The program also maintained an office in Saigon, with two representatives there.

Claudia and the team left Quang Ngai in March 1975, and were witnesses to the change of government in Saigon at the end of April. After returning from Viet Nam on July 4, 1975, Claudia and Keith went on a national speaking tour for AFSC. She later worked for some months at the AFSC main office in Philadelphia. She has returned to Viet Nam three times.

Her book, Those Who Stayed: A Việt Nam Diary, will be released by University of Virginia Press in March 2025, to coincide closely with the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war. It is based on the months before and after April 30, 1975, and is drawn from journals she kept at the time and other first hand sources. There are also annotations by Gareth Porter plus first hand vignettes by people relevant to the book, including Pete McCloskey, Don Luce, Craig MacNamara, Phương-Hằng Phan, Nguỹen Thị Mai, and others.

Claudia spoke in the VPCC webinar about the end of the war in Saigon and Hanoi that can be seen by clicking here.

Earl Martin worked with the Mennonite Central Committee in Quang Ngai 1966-69 and again 1973-75.  He and his wife Pat sought to aid displaced farmers in camps and later responded to the problem of unexploded ordnance in the fields.  He worked with Indochina Resource Center in Washington in 1973 after doing Asian Studies at Stanford.  Staying in Quang Ngai after the change of government in 1975, he authored Reaching the Other Side, (Crown 1978), an account of liberation at the grass roots. 

Ann Wright-Parsons joined International Voluntary Services in the summer of 1962 after graduating from Grinnell College, Iowa.  "A colleague in 1962-64 and I were teachers in the two main public schools in Hue - me Dong Khanh Girls School and Jay at Quoc Hoc where many graduates later became political leaders such as Ngo Dinh Giap.   We both became active in anti Diem activities as the demonstrations grew in Hue and friends who were teachers or students were thrown in prison. Many of our friends who were Buddhist were involved with demonstrations as well."

 

After her two years of service she joined the staff of the IVS office in Washington, D.C. from 1964 - 1967.  She married fellow volunteer, John (Jay) Parsons and followed him in his career in South and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh) for 22 years. While in Asia Ann worked in museums in Jakarta and Bangkok. Then in 1993 Ann moved to New York City where she worked in the Anthropology Department of the American Museum of Natural History. In 2001 she became the director of the Anthropology Museum, Northern Illinois University retiring in 2010.

******************

A personal preflection by the moderator :

When America went to war with Vietnam most Americans had no knowledge of even where Vietnam was, much less, its history, people, cuizine, art and literature.  Many of the male humanitarian volunteers were doing alternative to military service.  

Speaking personally, I knew that it was morally wrong to kill another human being, but I, by and large, accepted the US government's understanding that the US Military was there to protect the Vietnamese people from Chinese and Russian Communism.  It did not take long, living in a small village in Central Vietnam, to realize that, not only is it wrong to kill other people, but the US was actually supporting the wrong side!

We discovered that on the village level, it was the National Liberation Front that was made up of local boys raised in good families who were protecting the honest local leaders and businessmen, while the US was supporting an army and corrupt officials trained during the French colonization of Vietnam.  We also realized that to end support for the war, we must help Americans understand who the people were that our armed forces were being sent to kill and destroy.

Most volunteers brought back a deep understanding of how unjust this war was against a people who simply wanted their independence and freedom, but we also brought an intimate knowledge and love of Vietnamese people, their culture and their language.  The former volunteers brought Vietnamese culture to the Peace Movement, and introduced Americans to Vietnamese food, art, songs, poetry, literature, culture and language.  We knew that if Americans knew the Vietnamese that way that we had gotten to know them, Americans would never support that war.

I should also note the contribution that the Peace Movement made to the returned volunteers.  Many GIs fell apart upon returning to the US due to moral guilt, survivor's guilt, PTSD and the realization that they were hated by most of the Vietnamese, on both sides of the conflict. Most humanitarian volunteers did relief, agricultural, medical or education work which was much appreciated by the Vietnamese, which protected us from the moral guilt felt by many soldiers. 

But we were not protected from survivor's guilt.  Humanitarian volunteers were also killed in the war, and surviving volunteers often witnessed the death of Vietnamese friends.  Many returned volunteers felt severe survivor's guilt at being able to leave Vietnam after 3 years, while their Vietnamese friends did not have that option.  It was the US Peace Movement that saved the sanity for many returned volunteers. I had tremendous guilt remembering the many Vietnamese and American friends still in danger in Vietnam, but I realized that activism in the antiwar movement had the power to shorten that War in Vietnam and save the lives of my friends who were still there.   Activism in the antiwar movement has been my therapy.

Doug Hostetter

6/1/2024

Resources

International Voluntary Services in Vietnam: War and the Birth of Activism, 1958–1967                  by Paul Rodell, 2002, https://www.academia.edu/113032653/International_Voluntary_Services_in_Vietnam_War_and_the_Birth_of_Activism_1958_1967

Passing Through a Gate a collection of poems, translations, and essays by John Balaban.  The translations are mostly from Vietnamese--one, the poetry of the remarkable 18th century woman, Hồ Xuân Hương, and, secondly, Ca Dao Việtnam, the folk poetry that he collected on tape during the war. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/passing-through-a-gate-john-balaban/1143935307

Remembering Heaven's Face, an autobiography largely about Vietnam by John Balaban.  The book has been in print for decades and still is published by the University of Georgia Press. https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Heavens-Face-Wartime-Vietnam/dp/0820324159

Reaching the Other Side: the Journal of an American who stayed to witness Vietnam's postwar transition   by Earl Martin, Crown, 1978

A Vietnam Presence: Mennonites in Vietnam during the American War  by  Luke Martin,  Masthof Press, 2016.  Includes copies of Mennnonite correspondence with American officials throughout the war