July 2, 1969

Vietnam A ‘Holy War’ In Many Respects

Of all the protesters of the Vietnam war, the hardest to understand is the clergy.

Throughout history, churchmen have demonstrated remarkably flexible memories - too often erasing interfering logic, and recalling convenient trivia.

The Vietnam conflict is an example "par excellence."

Where now are the prophets of 15 years ago who wept when the North Vietnamese communists tortured thousands of Christians in brutal "re-education" programs?

Where are the bleeding hearts who petitioned Congress to rescue the hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholics fleeing atheism in North Vietnam?

Ministers invoked devils when humanitarianism seemed to be on the side of intervention, and the same devils now that they have wearied of the adventure.

How confusing for unsophisticated blokes like me who read the newspapers, believe 51 per cent of what is published and remember it like it was.

For instance, I remember that Ho Chi Minh started his so-called "civil war" on Dec. 19, 1946, by disemboweling more than 1,000 native women working for French employers.

I have not forgotten the children of Haiduong who were deafened by having chopsticks driven into their inner ears so they would not "ever again hear evil men preach religion."

I still shudder at the account of a priest who stumbled into a refugee camp with nails driven into his skull in a terrible parody of Jesus' crown of thorns.

The photographs of Christian Vietnamese "voting with their feet" by fleeing south with a few meager belongings still haunt me.

Speak not to me of self determination, oh Judas

Many ministers today tend to froth at the mouth when they discuss the U.S. role in the Vietnam war.  To them, Americans are aggressors interested only in napalming helpless women and children in support of evil leaders.

In expression of their opposition, these self righteous diviners urge their congregations to disobey our defense laws "even at the risk of national security," teach young men to dodge the draft, show communist propaganda films in the church parlor, billet flag burners in the fellowship hall, send medicine to Uncle Ho, picket ROTC classes.

If you or I carried on in such an outrageous fashion we would be accused of treason.

Our ministers, our political doves, our fuzzy-headed liberals, our turned-on teenagers need to be reminded of a little history they have forgotten - if they ever knew it.

A totalitarian Bamboo Curtain slammed down on the 17th Parallel of Vietnam with the signing of a treaty at Geneva on July 21, 1954.  No Vietnamese signed the document.  Nor did Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.  He walked out of the Geneva conference saying the U.S. would not be a party to "an agreement handing over half a country to totalitarian tyranny."

By terms of the agreement, however, the communist north and the free south were to be established as separate, sovereign nations; and the people of both sides were to have 10 months to switch countries if they wished.

Nobody moved for awhile, but the communists were too arrogant to wait out the probationary period.  They soon started a diabolical program to wipe out "foreign religion."  The Christians were tortured and persecuted to a degree far worse, I am sure, than the original Christians of Rome.

In panic the Christians began to flee.

Though the Geneva Treaty specifically admonished the two Vietnam nations "to assist" those wishing to change sides, the communists took extreme measures to prevent it.  The defections were of such mass proportions that it reflected damagingly on the communist system.

To rescue these pitiful refugees, the United States Navy launched Task Force 90.  At first our ships anchored four miles down from Haiphong harbor and took aboard all who could get out to the ships.

When the communists blocked Haiphong, the task force moved out beyond the three-mile limit off the beaches of Tonkin Gulf.  As night fell the water was churned with a bizarre collection of makeshift floating craft – dugout canoes, home-made rafts, tubs, logs.  Aboard were the frightened, maimed, starved refugees from communism.

The atrocities which their physical condition revealed are too inhuman and too terrible to recount here.  For documentation I recommend the book "Deliver Us From Evil" written by Naval Doctor Thomas A. Dooley who was attached to Task Force 90.  His eyewitness account and photographs ought to be on every pastor's bookshelf.

In all, more than 900,000 Vietnamese escaped from the North before the chinks in the Bamboo Curtain were plugged.  Thousands of Christians were slaughtered, the exact number will never be known.

There are today about a million and a half Christians living in South Vietnam, most of them former North Vietnamese.

The Buddhists regard them about like Nazis regarded Jews.  The analogy is frightening - the same number' of Jews were murdered during World War II.

It is the mass of dependent Christian refugees that makes an accommodation with the North Vietnamese communists absolutely impossible.  This is the dilemma that no politician will talk about because it treads the dangerous ground of religion.  It is these who will be massacred if they fall under communist control.

I say it is time we brought the matter out in the open.  Not until the problem is truly known can realistic solutions be sought.  We have lost too many fine men in what is, in many respects, a holy war.

Enough of talking around the edges.

Enough of demagoguery.

Enough of self-seeking morality.

The Christian churches have poked their missionary noses into every corner of the world.  Our political zealots have touted democracy in hundreds of foreign nations.

All well and good.  But when simple people buy our concepts, we can't abandon them to the first band of determined pagans.

We put Christianity and representative government into Asia and now we have to save both or go down in history as the biggest, baddest joke of all time.

Author: Lindsey Williams