"HOW WE FAILED TO STOP A WAR"
A discrete mission executed privately
against the designs of powerful people.
The Vietnam War began in 1955, with the creation of a
Republic in the southern half of what had been the French
Vietnam Colony. Ngo Dinh Diem, who had deposed the King,
easily organised his election as the first President of
the new Republic. A lifelong bachelor, he brought his
brother along as principal adviser, and his sister-in-law
as a sort of First Lady. The three occupied what had been
the Royal Palace, renaming it "Independence Palace". |
The
war began in skirmishes, building up over time into
full-fledged combat, circa 1960. The US role at first
was more political and economic, very few boots on the
ground. And the South Vietnam army, ARVN, was holding
its own against the battle-hardened army of the north,
PAVN & Viet Cong (the later being South Vietnamese Communist
gorillas). From the beginning, Diem's sister-in-law
worked to reform South Vietnam society in favour of
those who deserved more civil rights. Under her influence,
the Diem government enforced the banning of concubines.
The economy was modernizing under Diem until full-on
war intervened. As it escalated, more Americans began
to turn up in Saigon with strongly worded suggestions
on how the ARVN could better execute their side of the
war - suggestions which bordered on directives. Diem
and his family, university educated and English speaking,
began to resent such treatment. Madame Nhu gave interviews
to the English speaking media, in which she defended
her countries sovereignty. |
Vice
President Lyndon Johnson visited in 1961, accompanied
by the head of a prominent New England political family,
Henry Cabot Lodge, one of the most hawkish government
advisers on Vietnam. He would become US Ambassador there.
The Government of South Vietnam early on realized that
American politicians, the military and the intelligence
community acted as though they had a plan B which involved
replacing the independent Diem government with a puppet
regime which would permit the US - unfettered by local
authorities - to engage directly against the North.
So, powerful forces in America began to beat the drums
for direct control over the conflict: drums of war.
Madame Nhu, in an attempt to raise the visibility of
Saigon's sovereignty, made herself ever more available
to take US broadcast interviews. Ordinary Americans
tuned in with interest. In consequence conservative
American Politicians, right-wing press and spokes-persons
for the military-industrial complex began to revile
her as an impediment to their aspirations. They began
to refer to her as "the Dragon Lady". All this pressure
on Saigon from the American war lobby reached a tipping
point in the summer of 1963. Serious irreversible action
by Washington against Saigon seemed imminent. On the
urging of prominent friends in London and Washington,
Madam Nhu applied for a visa to visit the US. Her mission
would be to speak directly to the American people. To
describe to them the black cloud that was approaching
her country, pushed there by the US Government and military
interests, and if the American public was not in favour
of what was about to be done in their name; "Do please
exercise your right as free people living in a Republic:
and stop it". To accomplish her goal Madame Nhu would
need to get her message onto the national news networks,
and talk shows, she would need to hold press conferences
and meet one-on-one with American influencers. She would
be on an all-or-nothing mission to divert the calamity
she and informed friends could see coming. At the last
minute, the US Government rejected Madame Nhu's visa.
Peter Howard, a well known British journalist, author
and playwright - her friend - along with a small team
on both sides of the Atlantic, formulated a plan to
outflank the US politicians and authorities who thought
they had removed "Dragon Lady's" threat to their dark
scheme with the stroke of a rejection stamp. To put
this into perspective, the United States of America
had never, and has never since, refused a visa to a
prominent member of a friendly Government. |
Our
plan was for Madame Nhu to issue herself a Vietnamese
Passport in her maiden name. Immediately one of the
team obtained, through a friend at the US consul in
London, a US visa for a Vietnamese lady of that name.
Two days later Madame Nhu arrived in New York City,
ready to go to work. We got her on two nightly talk
shows and one-morning news program before the FBI came
after us. Thereafter, like fugitives, we went from city
to city making the occasional surprise visit to local
TV and radio stations (always leaving after only 15
minutes) and from pay phones, she gave interviews with
newspapers and call-in appearances on live broadcast
radio and TV networks. She was in the country for a
total of six days before we had to spirit her across
the border into Canada. Madame Nhu flew back to Vietnam
from Vancouver.
A normal appearance for her on US media would go something
like this. After being introduced, she would deliver
a message: "Dear American friends, please hear me. We
in South Vietnam are your friends, and it is our sincere
desire to continue this friendship forever. I must tell
you, however, as a friend, there are some people in
your Government, your military and secret service who
wish to engage in an all-out war with North Vietnam.
A war which, if it comes, will be fought in my country,
over the rice fields and in the home towns of our beloved
people. If you permit this to happen, many innocent
children, women and men will be killed. Many of your
young men will be killed as well. My husband and his
brother, the President of the Republic of Vietnam, are
determined to not let this unnecessary loss of life
takes place, as am I. Here is what is about to take
place if you do not stop it: the CIA, following the
advice of Mr Henry Cabot Lodge, will initiate a Buddhist
Coup against the Government of the Republic of Vietnam.
The President, his brother (my husband) and I: will
be assassinated. The head of the army will become the
acting head of Government. He will take orders from
the US Military and the CIA. When this man gets into
power, your military and politicians will fabricate
an excuse to declare all-out war on North Vietnam. America
will station thousands and thousands of troops, ships
and aircraft in and around South Vietnam, and will unleash
a bloody war against the Army of the North and the Viet
Cong. Please, my friends, please exercise whatever power
you have: stage protest events, call politicians, write
a letter to the editor of your local newspaper; use
any influence you can find to stop what your mighty
country is about to do against their friend; my little
country. For the sake of your young men and for the
sake of all my people at home: please do this". This
was her message. She also often went off script to add:
"I am also bound to tell you that. if the United States
makes this tragic error in my country: what it starts
will end very badly for the United States of America.
Please know this, and believe it." |
.
First
reactions to her message were all we could have hoped
for. There were impromptu demonstrations on university
campuses.
Soon, however, a non-stop barrage from the conservative
Press, Network News and political commentary, full of
invective against Madame Nhu, turned things back around.
She was characterized as "That Dragon Lady who had "entered
America illegally", "everything she's saying is a lie,
no such events as she predicts are about to take place",
"the regime she is part of is completely corrupt and
subjects the poor South Vietnam people to unspeakable
human rights violations". "She is only here in a desperate
attempt to keep her family in power."
Three months later the coup she had predicted happened;
her husband and brother-in-law were assassinated by
the head of the Army, who assumed the title of the head
of state. Madame Nhu escaped with her children, to begin
a long widowhood in exile. The Vatican first
took her in. She and her daughters got away from Vietnam
taking with them no more than the clothes they stood
up in.
Six months later a naval destroyer, the USS Maddox,
cruising off North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, was
attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The destroyer,
with help from fighter/bombers from the near-bye aircraft
carrier, USS Ticonderoga, drove off the attackers without
damage to the Maddox. Next day the Maddox again raised
the alarm, claiming to be under attack by the same NV
torpedo boats. The US Congress speedily approved the
declaration that "A state of war exists between the
United States of America an the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam (DVR´- North Vietnam)". Soon, Much of the
US's military might and machines began to arrive in
Vietnam. The events of the next eleven years, unlike
previous US military adventures; did little to cover
the Stars and Stripes with glory. From defoliating much
of Vietnam by spraying the chemical 'Agent Orange' from
high altitude tankers - to getting caught by surprise
in the 1968 Tet offensive - and retaliating three months
later with the Me Lai massacre, the victims including
many women and children - and finally to the desperate
flight of every American in country to reach the safety
of US evacuation ships, when the North Vietnamese army
reached the outskirts of Saigon. It was the only war.
up until then, in which America was ever defeated. |
By
coincidence (or not), Henry Cabot Lodge, the man who
had helped start it all in ´63-´64: was tasked to negotiate
with Ho Chi Minh in 1975, an official treaty acknowledging
defeat. Little attention was ever paid to the final
results of an examination into the facts pertaining
to the torpedo attack on USS Maddox in the Tonkin Gulf.
It was, after all, the touchstone the US Government
used to excuse its all-encompassing invasion of a small
East Asin country. Some investigators determined the
Maddox had provoked the initial attack by having landed
Commandos behind North Vietnamese lines. And that a
second torpedo attack never actually happened. The episode
was a pretext for declaring war. [Not unlike the phantom
WMDs which. in the 21st century. would be the license
for America to launch 'Iraq War II'] |
And
what of Peter Howard, the British journalist, author,
playwright who brought together the maverick team who
attempted to staunch the Vietnam War? Fourteen months
after the assassinations of Diém and Nhu, Peter travelled
to Peru at the head of a social mission. Upon arrival
in Lima: he suddenly died. The official cause was viral
pneumonia, which allegedly took him almost immediately
after coming into contact with it. Knowing Peter Howard,
however, one is sceptical about this. Peter was 58 when
he died, exercised daily, had no unhealthy habits, had
the body of an ex-world class athlete: he had, after
all, captained the English National Rugby Team, and
won the world bobsled championship.
And what of Madame Nhu? She who fought with everything
good at her disposal to save the things she loved. Up
close she did not seem the champion of a great cause:
she was demure and feminine, as attractive inside as
on the surface. There was no Dragon Lady in her. Oh
yes, and the same yellow journalists who gave her the
title of "Dragon Lady"; upon learning her husband had
been assassinated and she not; gave her a new title:
"Lady Macbeth". Her widowhood in exile would last forty-eight
years. Those of us who know the facts hear revealed
believe Madame Nhu should receive a more fitting title:
"mother of the Vietnam Protest Movement'.
And what of the rest of us? Some followed in Peter Howard's
footsteps: to Peru. There we founded a social mission,
not unlike that which had taken Peter there thirty-six
years earlier. We spent the better part of two decades;
mostly fruitful years when we spread our good project
throughout South America: Bruce
Peru. On our return to Europe we leave behind more
than a dozen duplicate projects, ones we planted and
nurtured like seedlings: and which now have stories
of their own to tell.
In keeping with our colleagues, some of us have experienced
more than life's usual bumps and brushes along the way:
maligned in the press, bank accounts at times frozen
for no apparent reason, taken into custody at airports
- only to be released two hours later (after connecting
flights had left). In fact, whenever any of us lifted
our head above the parapet - published something, were
mentioned in a Wall Street or Broadway article, had
an exhibition of paintings, opened a European charity
in America (Emmaus, Restos de Coeur): as soon as someone
somewhere connected the dots: we got slammed in the
press - and if a pretext could be floated, in the judiciary
as well. However, all such problems notwithstanding,
I know every one of us still living: we would do it
all over again.
Imagine the number of lives, the suffering and the sadness
we might have prevented, had we succeeded in preventing
US Forces from going into Vietnam.
And what of the Vietnam War? 2 million civilians died,
1.1 million North Vietnamese & Viet Cong fighters died,
200,000+ South Vietnamese soldiers died, 58,000 US military
personnel died. The North Vietnamese won and went on
to rid Cambodia of the genocidal Khmer Rouge of Pol
Pot.
And what of Vietnam, the country? Doing fairly well
as a communist market economy (oxymoron), 8% economic
growth in 2018. |
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