AN INTERVIEW ON APRIL 30
During the week around April 30, the 25th Anniversary of the fall of Saigon to the Communists, there have been countless articles on the press media about the last day of the Republic of (South) Vietnam. Those included many interviews given by persons related to the Vietnam War, the US-backed Saigon regime and the Soviet-China-backed Hanoi dictatorship.
Among those who were interviewed on the occasion, Ms. Duong Thu Huong was one with the most interesting remarks. Duong Thu Huong is the well-known dissenting writer, author of famous books, such as "Thien Duong Mu" (Paradise of the Blind), "Vo De," (No Title)...
During the Vietnam War, she served the North Vietnamese side, suffering hardships of war and witnessing tragic death and horrible destruction of villages and streets. After 1975, she became one of the most enthusiastic dissident, her writings against the Communist regime have been the best sellers.
Following is the free translation into English from the original interview in Vietnamese, which was broadcast by Radio Free Asia. Phan Dung of RFA conducted the interview by telephone in Bangkok.
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To the RFA's question about how she felt at the first time she set foot in South Vietnam after Apr. 30, 1975, she said at the time, she was in Quang Binh (some 50 miles north of the 17th Parallel) heading for Saigon. She and her comrades were victors who should have been cheerful. But she felt pained and began crying instead.
"At the time," she said, "people of my side were very happy, but I thought I had no reason to be happy, because upon arrival in the South, I understood that the victorious regime was a barbaric one. Only then in the South did I learn that the South Vietnamese had been free to madly imprecate President Thieu."
Next, she saw books of all writers sold in Saigon sidewalk stalls. And thirdly, South Vietnamese people possessed all kinds of the most advanced radio receivers with which they could listen to broadcast from foreign countries. "What I knew made me filled with emotion much more than all that moved other people. Right then I knew that the winning side, my side, was actually a savage society without democracy."
About the Vietnam War, after an RFA question, Ms. Huong said, "It was a wrong war, because it was not against the aggressors but the war between the two systems. Thus the Vietnamese were forced to be mercenaries serving both systems. I said so since I felt the necessary to find a world for my own and my intellectual self.
RFA: "After 25 years of reunification, have you found out your own line?"
DTH: "Certainly I have, that's why I could still be alive now."
The path she chooses is to struggle for a democracy. She is not capable to become a politician, so unable to found a party to struggle in the political arena. "I could only struggle by writing, in order to tell my compatriots that I have to live with full perception of the human's right to live, because only with that is the life worthy," she commented.
RFA: "In 1986-87, you said that none of the Politburo members could meet people's wishes. Have your opinion changed as the current Politburo is not that of 1986-87?"
DTH: "Nothing's changed. Mr. Le Kha Phieu is a little better. But as action is concerned, there is nothing about democracy to praise."
She accepts the price for her struggle. She believes that the failed coup d'etat in Russia did contribute 60 percent to the efforts to save her life. Mrs. Danielle Mitterrand, the French government, and many French intellects and artists have contributed the remaining 40 percent. "Without such efforts, I'd have been crushed into red pepper sauce as one of my interrogators once threatened me."
"According to your observation, do you think that Hanoi Communist rulers dare to keep up its intention to consolidate its alliance with China, North Korea and Cuba to establish a Communist bloc?" RFA interviewer asked.
DTH: "I think they (Communist leaders) have not dropped that intention, but because the slaps dealt by the northern neighbor were too powerful, they would suffer a deadly blow if they keep on... Recently, they reviewed an agreement about the common border with China without notifying the Vietnamese public. According to my knowledge, we have lost one village (to China), that means losing the strip of our territory of 3-kilometer width along the border. I don't know whether the information is true or not. If it is, they are criminals and history will brand stigmas on their faces."
Asked if she has an opportunity to meet for dialog and discussion with those who were once fighting on the other side against Hanoi, what would she talk about, Duong Thu Huong said: "I would tell them that history always chooses the darkened pathway, and the Vietnamese are a wretched people as both sides of the conflict were forced into a gloomy way. We ought to remember that the Vietnamese people shouldn't have fought that war. We should have found another way out. Probably Vietnam has been too miserable. The Vietnamese became mercenaries serving both ideological systems. At last, whether winning or defeated, the Vietnamese have been the losers first.
RFA: "Would you let us know about your living now?"
DTH: "I retired nearly ten years ago, so I've got no salary, but last year they began paying me retirement pension, about US$20 a month. So I have to earn my living by working as a translator. Everyone knows my generation is lacking of formal education. I've learned French myself but I can't speak French, only able to translate some trifling texts. My life is actually a normal one that I accept and I have anticipated all of it long ago. I don't have any significant demand."
RFA: "Now what is your wish?"
DTH: "I wish our people would be better, that is the burden in common people's mind be relieved, that people have the better life, and they gradually gain full consciousness of human beings and the struggle for democracy. I have no dreamy romanticism, as I am aware of the fact that people whose only concern is finding food for survival could never have any concept of human rights and democracy. They would only do something rebellious when they are starving. If this is going on, our people would be buried forever in barbarism. I know such a wish is still far away from our people, but I still wish. Because without aspiration, people would find it difficult to survive."
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