January 5, 2025

Friends,

Jimmy Carter was the first post-war President who took seriously the legacy of US intervention in Indochina. Yet in an eight page section about him, this is all the NY Times had to say on the topic:

Mr. Carter’s first act as president was to grant amnesty to Vietnam War draft resisters. The predicted firestorm raged then quickly faded. He had fulfilled his first campaign promise, part of his plan to bind up the nation’s wounds. Warned that the order would be fiercely opposed in the Senate, as indeed it was, he replied: “I don’t care if all 100 of them are against me. It’s the right thing to do.”

Good as far as it went but nothing about who the resistors were, why they mattered,, the numbers of exiles affected and the debate about treatment of deserters and bad discharge veterans.

Nor did we learn about Carter's two time failure of reconciliation and normalization with Viet Nam, the first Hanoi's mistake, the second Washington's.

Most important, completely missing is Carter's mishandling of Viet Nam's dismantling of Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia, and his provision of US diplomatic and weapons support for the KR in the Third Indochina War.

This is not to diminish the positive side of Carter's Presidency and the remarkable accomplishments of his subsequent years, but before the merited encomiums of the State Funeral on Thursday. we thought we should explore more fully the uneven Indochina dimension of his record.

This will occur in a webinar on Tuesday morning described here. If the short notice is a problem, register here and you will be informed of the youtube recording.

-- John McAuliff, VPCC Coordinator

Demonstrating for comprehensive amnesty while President Carter is at church in Plains, Georgia. From left, organizer and author Michael Uhl, Ed Sowders, a deserter, and Ben Israel, father of Sam, a draft resister, and Arthur, a deserter.

Webinar

Jimmy Carter and Indochina

At Home and Abroad

Tuesday, January 7, 11 a.m. ET

Speaker bios, resources and registration, click here and share this link https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2025/01/carter-and-indochina-at-home-and-abroad.html

Or register directly by clicking here and share this link  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1fNo0VktTzijf6WauEE2bg

A webinar to review and reflect on policies and actions by President Jimmy Carter affecting Viet Nam and Cambodia and opponents of the war.

On Viet Nam and Cambodia

* Nayan Chanda, journalist and author

* Elizabeth Becker, journalist and author

On veterans, exiles and draft resistors

* Barry Lynn, religious and legal activist

Now available on youtube, 52d Anniversary webinar 

The Christmas Bombing of Viet Nam

Held December 26, 2024

Watch the video on you tube by clicking here Share the link with friends, colleagues and on social media  https://youtu.be/cNfZgoe0O1c

Eyewitness accounts, human consequences, historical impact, peace movement response

Joan Baez, Telford Taylor   Video accounts of their experience under the bombs

Linh Nguyen   US Institute of Peace   sharing stories of her mother's life during the attacks

Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg  Hofstra University  historical, political and strategic context

Bill Zimmerman  Bach Mai Hospital Fund  response of public opinion and activists

Doug Hostetter   Mennonite Central Committee,  moderator  

Speakers bios, chat and youtube link, click here

Share with friends, colleagues and on social media

https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-christmas-bombing-of-viet-nam-52d.html

Memorable mix of Hanoi live audio under the bombs and Joan Baez singing "Where Are You Now, My Son" Click here  Share this link https://youtu.be/p4a8xFesASg

Join us in Viet Nam

April 15-May 1

Deadline for application extended to January 31

April 30 is the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Viet Nam. Our unique program engages the country's culture, cuisine, history and current challenges with insights and experiences not available on commercial tours. 

We will go to the encampment the OSS shared with Ho Chi Minh and General Giap and enjoy ceremonies in Ho Chi Minh City celebrating half a century of peace and reunification. We will visit My Lai, pictured above during its 50th anniversary event, and learn about efforts to heal the wounds of war from land mines, unexploded ordnance and Agent Orange. We will witness as well dynamic private companies and 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 Fund for Reconciliation and Development has organized more than twenty delegations to Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia since 1985 and this is planned to be our last. We are working with the Viet Nam-USA Society to create a special program for a memorable occasion.  Optional extensions are available to Cambodia and Laos.

Review the draft itinerary for the FRD trip by clicking here and share the link with friends and family. https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2024/07/draft-itinerary-for-50th-anniversary.html The cost in a single room is $3,300, less than 1/2 of a comparable trip by The Nation magazine. 

For more information, write jmcauliff@ffrd.org



Peter Yarrow is Leaving Us

Peter has been a friend of FFRD, VPCC and a force of nature for peace and reconciliation during and after the era of Peter, Paul and Mary. He is currently in family hospice "in the last stages".

Hundreds of tributes have been posted here https://www.peteryarrow.net/ If you want to add your own, go here https://www.bethanyyarrow.com/peteryarrow

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development collaborated with Peter to carry out extraordinary performance tours of Viet Nam in March 2005 (before the US normalized relations), 2006 and 2008. His goal was to raise awareness and funds to assist victims of the defoliant Agent Orange when the US government was still refusing to accept any responsibility. He sang in the Opera Houses of Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City as well as in Hue and Hoi An. 

Our last partnerships were his songs at a VPCC vigil marking the 50th anniversary of the March on the Pentagon and production of a webinar on the role of music in the antiwar movement that can be watched by clicking here.  https://vnpeacecomm.blogspot.com/2022/10/webinar-peter-yarrow-reggie-harris.html

"Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia"

by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg, Hofstra University, member of VPCC, webinar speaker

Interweaves Nixon and Kissinger's pursuit of the war in Southeast Asia and their diplomacy with the Soviet Union and China, the on-the-ground military events, and US domestic reactions to the war, including the anti-war movement

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fire-and-rain-9780197639061

Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee

* Sally Benson * David Cortright * Jay Craven * Carolyn Eisenberg * Susan Hammond *

* Doug Hostetter * Alex Knopp * Steve Ladd * Paul Lauter * Robert Levering * 

*Jack Malinowski * *John McAuliff * Mark Pavlick * Terry Provance * Brewster Rhoads *

* Joe Volk * Andrew Wells-Dang * Linda Yarr *