FREE VIETNAM
April 30th, 2005 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon,
and the start of the brutal oppression of the 100 million people who have
lived and are living in Vietnam. Even as an atheist and a libertarian I never
the less applaud US President George W. Bush and his administration for demonstrating
their resolve in the just cause of supporting freedom and liberal democracy
in the world. I wish that the people of the United States had the same resolve
30 years ago. But 30 Years ago the people of America turned their backs on
a just cause, confused and disheartened by sensationalized violence, bias
reporting, and good intentions gone horribly awry. They cried for peace and
for a stop to the killing. They thought we were the enemy to the people of
Vietnam, and they thought that when we left, peace would come, and the killing
would stop. But they were wrong, and the killing grew far worse. Tens of thousands
would die in land reforms and murder quotas handed down by the leaders of
the Vietnamese communists. Over a million people would flee the communist
oppression and take to the sea, hoping for a better life somewhere else. Hundreds
of thousands died at sea, some by pirates; some by the failure of make shift
rafts, and some by foreign navies who prevented the refugees from landing,
against UN agreements. The future the realists had so ominously predicted
came to pass, and the domino theory proved true enough. After the dictatorial
communists were finished imparting their brutal oppression on the people of
South Vietnam, and with western opposition willingly derailed, they moved
onto Laos, inflicting brutal revenge upon the valiant mountain people. They
then moved their guns, bombs, and chains onto Cambodia and subsequently armed
and brought to power the perpetrators of the worse genocide the world has
ever seen. A democide the world had cried "never again" about and
completely ignored, ignored again in Rwanda, and is ignoring again today in
the Sudan. The North Vietnamese communist governments and its proxies killed
7.5 million people since 1975. In the four year period starting at the fall
of Saigon, more people were killed in Indochina then Americans have been killed
in all their wars combined.
The Vietnam War was a just war, the soldiers who fought and died in Vietnam tried to bring and protect freedom to a population of millions. The Vietnam war was won and over in 1973, with Noble Peace prizes handed out, but congress withdrew all material and financial aide from the people of South Vietnam, condeming them to invasion and enslavement by North Vietnam. Though they fought valiently and bravely for nearly two years with no help from the United States, eventually the people of South Vietnam succumbed to the continual onslaught from the Soviet and China backed communist armies of North Vietnam.
Memorial from Arlington Cemetary
The western world is the freest, the richest and the most militarily
powerful, yet most of it stands idly by while murderous regimes like that
of Saddam Hussein, Kim John Il, and the communist party of Vietnam rack up
bodies by the millions, while the west's populations justify their own inaction
by appealing to moral relativism; a questionable philosophy steeped high in
body counts. On April 30th of this year, thousands of people will be marching
in Washington, they will be marching in honor of the millions of Indochinese
people, to bring attention to the sad fate that befell them, and to remind
us of what could have been. April 30th marks an astounding opportunity for
the Bush administration and the American people to deal another blow against
the tyranny of the world and start down the path of making amends to one of
the greatest transgressions of the United States of its entire existence.
That transgression was the wanton abandonment of the people of Indochina to
murderous and brutally oppressive communism. Even today, the 80 million people
of Vietnam live under one of the worst regimes on the planet, a regime which
actively suppresses democracy and political dissent with swift and brutal
violence. I implore everyone to grant these forgotten heroes and victims an
audience, and to speak out against the continual inaction of the west in the
face of these murderous regimes, and show some support for these forgotten
victims. We can bring international attention to the plight of the people
of Indochina, to the murderous hypocrisy of the peace activists and anti-war
protestors, who since 1975 have been as silent as the 7.5 million murdered
by the Vietnamese Communist government and it's proxy regime's, and to the
consequences in lives of running from just causes when the going is rough
at a time when that lesson is more important than ever. 57,000 Americans lost
their lives defending the people of South Vietnam, and many thousands more
were injured. But history has proven their cause just. How many more would
have been killed continuing to defend the South? Likely none, since South
Vietnam stood on its own for two years with no help, a modicum of material
support would have likely been enough for them to defend against aggression,
just like South Korea has for nearly 50 years. But we will never know, and
7.5 million people died because we did not continue to help defend the South.
Every politician who supported the war, labeled as 'hawks' by the 'peace activists'
warned of the dreadful blood bath that would ensue if we abandoned Indochina
to the communists and sadly they proved to be correct. If there is a lesson
to be learned from the Vietnam War that is applicable today, it is to not
abandon a people in their darkest hour.
Visit www.april30.org
for more information.
The figures I cite for death tolls are moderate estimates and
based on the investigations done by Rudolph J Rummel, a retired political
science professor from the University of Hawaii who has authored 24 books
and was a runner up for a Nobel Peace prize. Mr. Rummel's book "Power
Kills" is one of the most cited books in history. There is probably no
man alive who knows more about how and why governments kill people, and their
death tolls, than Mr. Rummel. Be sure to visit his web page at http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/
Intro
Forgotten in the modern worlds semi concern of 'evil' or repressive
countries is Vietnam. Freedom
house, a nonpartisan international organization which measures the freedoms
of individuals in countries, continues to rank Vietnam as one of the worse
countries in the world, sharing the elite group with Cuba, Iraq, North Korea,
Burma, Iran, Syria, Tagisktan, and Saudi Arabia.Yet today, few people of the
west even realize that it is still a communist regime. And just like every
other Communist regime in history, it has killed a lot of its own people and
it has suppressed nearly every individual civil liberty, often brutally. Criticism
of the state is punishable by imprisonment, there are no trials, no juries,
and no justice. Large percentages of its population live in brutal poverty,
religions are oppressed or banned. The country is full of arbitrary imprisonment,
for crimes meager as portraying soldiers of the South Vietnam army in a positive
light or posting articled about democracy on the internet. It is a society
dominated by fear of the state. The people of the former nation of South Vietnam
are second class citizens in nearly every possible manner.
Help us remind everyone that it was the communists
that won the Vietnam war, and that Vietnam today is still a brutal, oppressive
hell for 80 million
people. Get a "FREE VIETNAM" bumper sticker.
Historian R.J. Rummel has probably studied the number of people governments
have killed and how and why they do so more than any man alive. His books
and research results are some of the most frequently cited and well researched.
Among tremendous information on Vietnam, R.J Rummel's site: Power
Kills says…
"Perhaps of all countries, democide in Vietnam and
by Vietnamese is most difficult to unravel and assess. It is mixed in with
six wars spanning 43 years (the Indochina War, Vietnam War, Cambodian War,
subsequent guerrilla war in Cambodia, guerrilla war in Laos, and Sino-Vietnamese
War), one of them involving the United States; a near twenty-one year formal
division of the country into two sovereign North and South parts; the full
communization of the North; occupation of neighboring countries by both
North and South; defeat, absorption, and communization of the South; and
the massive flight by sea of Vietnamese. As best as I can determine, through
all this close to 3,800,000 Vietnamese lost their lives from political violence,
or near one out of every ten men, women, and children.1 Of these, about
1,250,000, or near a third of those killed, were murdered."
And that 3,800,000 figure of course does not include the 3,000,000
in Cambodia.
Killed in Vietnam
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1B.GIF
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.GIF
Between 1975 and 1987 the Vietnamese Communist government killed 2.5 million
people (these are moderate estimates). The last US soldier had left Vietnam
in March 1973. The war was over in April 1975. 500,000 people died at sea
(10 times the number of American soldiers killed) The Vietnamese Communist
government killed ANOTHER 1.5 million people in Cambodia and Laos in the same
time period. That's 4.5 million dead, killed by Vietnam Communist government
since 1975. The Khmere Rouge, a government put into power by Vietnamese Communist
government and armed and supplied by them, would kill another 3 million people
That's 7.5 million people since we left Vietnam. Not surprisingly this is
not a statistic you hear very often.
From 1975 -1987 the Vietnamese Communist Government was
responsible for 7.5 million murders.
How many people were killed during the US involvement in Vietnam? Rummel
estimates 1.75 million war dead. How many more would have been killed continuing
to defend the South? 1,000? 10,000? 1 million? We will never know, but 7.5
million people died because we did not continue to defend the South. Every
politician, labeled as 'hawks' by the 'peace activists' warned of the dreadful
blood bath that would ensue if we abandoned Indochina to the communists.
Where were the peace activist when Hanoi rolled through Saigon? Where were
they when it crushed Laos? Where were they when it brought the Khmere Rouge
to power? Where were they when 500,000 vietnamese people died at sea? They
were as silent as the 7.5 million people murdered by the government they
helped bring to power.
Historical atrocities
On January 30th 1968 Honoi ordered a massive offensive against
the South. The city of Hue was overrun quickly by communist forces who then
set about the cold blooded mass murder of thousands. Of the 4,000 that were
massacred, most were thrown into trenches, many still alive and in their holiday
clothing.
Uwe Siemon-Netto's, A journalist who covered much of the Vietnam
war, said in his mea culpe to the English magazine Encounter,1979
"...In 1956 close to 56,000 peasants were
executed in North Vietnam."
"Many of us have seen the tortured and carved-up bodies
of men, women and children executed by the Viet Cong in the early phases of
the war. And many of us saw, in 1968, the mass graves of Hue"
and finally
"...today's Vietnam tragedy may have a lot to do with
the way we reported yesterday's Vietnam tragedy; considering that we journalists
might have our fair share of guilt for the inhuman way the world treats those
who are being expelled by an inhuman regime which some of us had pictured
as heroic"
Nguyen Manh Tuong stated at the 1956 National Congress in Hanoi:
"It is better to kill 10 innocent people
then let one enemy escape"
The Vietnamese employed the typical plan used by most communist
revolutions, kill anyone who opposed them. This plan was implemented in 1945
and continues to this day. The Viet Minh slaughtered noncommunist politicians
and sympathizers by the thousands including the friends, family members, and
children of their political enemies.
With the establishment of the communist government in the North
in 1954, the new power of the state allowed these atrocities to widen in scope.
The lower class peasants were instructed to choose which of their fellow villagers
were to be considered landlords, and to subsequently kill them. Amazingly,
the central government laid down a murder quota - 5 percent of the
population of each village were to be killed. From 1953-1956, an estimated
150,000 people were killed in this manner. Not surprisingly, some peasants
rebelled, but these campaigns were brutally suppressed, at an estimated cost
of an additional 10,000 lives.
"central government laid down a murder
quota- 5 percent of the population of each village were to be killed"
These atrocities only touch the surface of the brutal regime
of Ho Chi Minh and the North Vietnamese Communists. To see a more detailed
list, see R.J. Rummels site
South Vietnam
Starting just after the establishment of the Communist government
in the North, and active campaign was undertaken in South Vietnam to assassinate
and political enemies or even people who might become political enemies.
This assassination campaign was highly selective, directed toward individuals
capable of organizing, influencing, or raising opposition to the Communist
Party. The number of people killed in this campaign has been estimated to
be around 6,000 to 7,000 people.
In the years of direct involvement by the US in Vietnam, the
ferocity of the assassinations grew, with the north hoping to prevent the
south from ever organizing resistance and standing on their own, something
made even more difficult by the unstable leadership in the south and the south's
own problems with corruption. South Vietnamese were singled out and murdered
during this time because of their anti-communism, association with anti-Communists,
or merely because of their competence or ability. The deaths during this period
are estimated to number in the tens of thousands.
A more general terror campaign was undertaken against the south
as well, entire villages were massacred, roads used by civilians were mined,
buses ambushed with machine guns, and residential neighborhoods randomly shelled.
All of these occurred for no reason other to kill civilians. In all, the North
Vietnam's communist party is estimated to have killed 164,000 thousand noncombatants
in South Vietnam.
The end of the Vietnam War
As is usual with communist governments, the losers faired horribly.
The killing did not end with the surrender of South Vietnam in April 1975,
almost two years after the congressional abandonment of Indochina by the US.
Uprisings continued in the south where another 160,000 lives were lost. In
fact, more lives were lost in the six months following the fall of Saigon
then were lost in the entire war! Vietnam was invaded by Cambodia and China,
and in turn Vietnam invaded Cambodia and Laos. The total killed is estimated
to be at 150,000 and, amazingly, an estimated 7.5 million were killed by the
Vietnam governments and it's proxy regimes.
...In fact, more lives were lost in the
six months following the fall of Saigon then were lost in the entire war!
Vietnamese concentration camps, deportations to 'new economic
zones', and the people rounded up and shot for various reasons has been estimated
to be 250,000. A quarter of a million people.
One of the most telling signs of the brutality of the North
Vietnamese Communist party was the fleeing of nearly 1.5 million Vietnamese
people, most took of into the South China sea in make shift rafts. Of these
"Boat People" it is estimated that nearly 500,000 drowned trying
to escape this murderous regime.
Rummel's telling and important "Democide" page details
the following figures.
Vietnamese Death Toll (excluding war dead): Total 1945-1987 1,813,000
Democide by (North) Vietnam: Total 1945-1987 1,669,000
Domestic 1945-1987: 944,000
Foreign 1945-1987: 725,000
In South Vietnam 1954-1975: 164,000
In Cambodia 1970-1987: 461,000
In Laos 1975-1987: 87,000
Be sure to visit Rummel's phenomenal site "Power Kills" http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html
Neighboring Cambodia fared much worse at the hand of the Communists, its
people suffering the worse democide the modern world has ever seen. (link)
Modern Vietnam
Today the people of Vietnam still do not receive the personal
liberties that the people in the south did in 1975! With the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the client state of Vietnam had to stand on its own, and begin
instituting market reforms. The standard of living quickly grew in the south
and especially in Saigon, so quickly in fact that the government responded
by curtailing the economic freedoms, claiming that the people of the south
enjoyed 'too high' of a standard of living.
Between 73-74, the South was one of the worlds largest rice
producers, today it imports rice. Average income in 1974 was $500, today it
is $350. In the South prior to its fall there were over 20 independent newspapers
or television stations, today, as is usually with oppressive governments,
there are none. It is still a crime to even criticize the government. Freedomhouse
in its 2003 review ranks Vietnam as one of the worse regimes in the world.
Former South Vietnamese native, NLF Supporter, and Anti-American
protester Doan Van Toai had this to say about modern Vietnam
"Vietnam today is a country without any law other
than the arbitrary directives of those in power. There is no civil code.
Individuals are imprisoned without charges and without trial....How many
political prisoners are there in Vietnam today? And how many of them have
died in prisons during the first six years of Communist rule? Nobody can
know the exact numbers. The United States Department of State has said there
are from 150,000 to 200,000 prisoners; Vietnamese refugees estimate about
one million."
and notably
"if liberty and democracy are worth struggling for
in the Philippines, in Chile, in South Korea or in South Africa, they are
no less worth defending in Communist countries like Vietnam. Everyone remembers
the numerous demonstrations protesting United States involvement in Vietnam
and the war crimes of the Thieu regime. But some of those people who were
then so passionately committed to democratic principles and human rights
have developed a strange indifference now that these same principles are
under assault in Communist Vietnam"
And paralleling comments above by Uwe Siemon-Netto, Doan Van
Toai says in his own mea culpe
"Looking back now on the Vietnam war, I feel nothing
but sorrow for my own naivete in believing that the Communists were revolutionaries
worthy of support. In fact, they betrayed the Vietnamese people and deceived
progressives throughout the world. The responsibility for the tragedies
that have engulfed my compatriots is mine."
Speaking of the Communist Vietnam prison system, he says
"One South Vietnamese Communist, Nguyen Van Tang,
who was detained 15 years by the French, eight years by Diem, six years
by Thieu, and who is still in jail today, this time in a Communist prison,
told me: "In order to understand the Communists, one must first live under
a Communist regime."..."My dream now is not to be released; it is not
to see my family. My dream is that I could be back in a French prison 30
years ago." This is the one wish of a 60-year-old man who has spent his
entire adult life in and out of prison fighting for the freedom and the
independence of his country. At this moment, he may already have died in
his cell or have been executed by the new rulers."
last updated - April 04 2005
