You don't get it and never will

There's an OP-ed piece in the NY Times today by John Wheeler. He feels Vietemease Americans should forgive and forget and help to rebuild their homeland.

Mr. Wheeler maybe you should look at it from their view. How many of their family members and friends were killed the regime that's now in power in Hanoi? I think its hard to forgive people who murder in the name of political ideology. Free trade or a film showing the attrocities of thirty years ago isn't going to bring these people back to life.

The Last Wound

By JOHN WHEELER
Published: June 25, 2005
Washington

WHEN Prime Minister Phan Van Khai of Vietnam wraps up his trip to the United States today, he will have gathered with President Bush at the White House and Bill Gates of Microsoft in Seattle, rung the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange and met the presidents of Harvard and M.I.T.

But two stops left off his itinerary were Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, home to the biggest communities of Vietnamese-Americans and epicenter of anti-Hanoi sentiment.

One million Vietnamese-Americans enrich the United States with their work ethic and vibrant culture. Yet many still feel animosity toward their homeland.

They lobby against closer relations, boycott visits by officials like Mr. Khai and vilify the Vietnamese government on human rights. They consider the yellow and red flag of the old regime their own; a misguided bill pending in Sacramento would make California the 10th state to endorse that flag as the official banner for Vietnamese-Americans.

The impact of this breach is social and political but also economic, impeding the growth of trade and discouraging Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs from taking knowledge and values back to their homeland. Closing the rift would greatly benefit both our countries.

I recently witnessed a hopeful sign in the reception of "Journey from the Fall," a new film about the fall of Saigon, re-education camps and the boat people coming to America. For years the movie's star, Kieu Chinh, had been ostracized for serving as co-chair of the Vietnam Children's Fund, which builds schools in Vietnam. Yet at the Washington premiere, a big audience of Vietnamese-Americans roundly applauded her.

While candid about the abandonment of South Vietnam by the United States and the severe abuses by the Hanoi government, the film provoked not enmity but a sense of healing among the tearful audience. It focuses on children and the future, representing the view of its young producers, Alan Ford and Lam Nguyen, whose parents fled Vietnam.