Make up, Stoltenberg!

This article is an English translation of an oped published in the leading Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten "Gjør opp, Stoltenberg" on September 17, 2009. http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/article3273200.ece

English translation:

When Prime Minister Stoltenberg welcomed Vietnam's president last year, we had hoped he would raise the cause of democracy and freedom. Instead, he told about his commitment to FNL during the Vietnam War, without the slightest concern for human rights. Stoltenberg's support for the so-called National Liberation Front FNL was probably motivated by idealism, but also meant supporting a communist dictatorship with all that implies.

Ho Chi Minh.
Our parents fled south along with over 800,000 others when Vietnam was divided in two in 1954. Ho Chi Minh imposed communism in North Vietnam, and conducted, under pressure from Mao, the land reform, which cost at least 10,000 lives. And even more became the victims when it was put a stop to the people revolt in Nghe An and intellectual protests from the groups Nhan Van and Giai Pham in 1956. People's opposition and the regime's reprisals aroused no international attention. No one demonstrated for freedom in North Vietnam, although the similarities were many of the simultaneous uprising in Hungary, where the repression led to 10,000 demonstrated in Oslo.

The Hanoi regime was not content with a communist state in the north, but would also conquer South Vietnam. First, they formed the FNL in 1960 in the south. Then they sent troops south through Laos and Cambodia to support the FNL, with massive help from the Soviet Union and China.

This is where the United States entered the war. And this is where it began to be hard for idealistic young people in the West to distinguish the nuances. From a distance it was easy to perceive the U.S. as an imperialist and North Vietnam as a patriot. In reality, South Vietnam was a fragile system - a young nation that needed help to develop a democracy, with internal enemies from both right and left.

Nascent democracy.
The system in the South had many shortcomings and could not be compared with the robust democracies in the West. There were still thirties independent newspapers and a number of political parties, 100 independent publishers, and a thriving cultural life - before the fall of Saigon in 1975. South Vietnam was ranked better than Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea, based on democracy index from the organization Freedom House in the United States. North Vietnam was, however, referred to worst group along with China and North Korea. These were later joined by Pol Pot's Cambodia.

It took a long time before Western idealists managed to see through Pol Pot. Still people have problems to recognize North Vietnam's inner life. As Graham Greene, people let the sympathy for the soft gentleman with a gray goatee glare of the negative aspects of his regime. Ho Chi Minh began as a patriot, he eventually embraced communism - as a tool to liberate Vietnam. But communism is a dangerous tool. History has shown us that. North Vietnam was soon to experience it. In the South, people tried to rescue themselves.

Aid from the United States.
Thus the help from the United States is essential if the counterparty had China and the Soviet Union in the back. Yet it was the South-Vietnamese forces, not Americans, who had most confrontations with the communist forces. "General Ngo Quang Truong’s division do it better in the jungle than we do," said General Abrams, the U.S. commander.

Hollywood thus presents a distorted picture of the U.S. rescueing South Vietnam for many years - just as wrong as the propaganda from Hanoi about a liberation war against the imperialists. The truth is rather that the people in the south sacrificed their lives for an independent republic and a democratic development. South Vietnam also lost 250,000 soldiers in the war, as compared to 58,000 Americans.

Slowed the Communists.
South Vietnam lost in 1975, but saved the neighboring countries. The former head of state Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore said in his memoirs from 2000. The war slowed the communist advancing and gave Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand time to get the economy to gain momentum and give people greater material security and stability. This decreased thus fertile ground for totalitarian ideologies.

The war claimed unfortunately many civilian lives. Television pictures contributed understandably to create protests in the West. When "peace" sunk in 1975, the borders were closed, the TV cameras switched off, the protests died down. Behind the bamboo curtain Communists took a stranglehold on freedom in the South. They sent hundreds of thousands off to "re-education", ie detention camps, where many spent 15-20 years. Not only military but also religious leaders and dissidents. A few thousandths visited a courtroom. And there were 65,000 fatal victims, according to the estimate from the professors Desbarats and Jackson at Berkeley after a major study.

Boat refugees.
The situation was intolerable. 800,000 boat refugees managed to get out. But it cost. Ten to 30 percent lost their lives at sea. Each escape was unique. Common, however, was the suppression that all individuals had experienced.

We were picked up by Norwegian boats, with warm reception by the crew. When we were put ashore at a refugee camp in Singapore, the captain had dressed in full uniform and saluted each one of us. It gave us a unique impression of Norway. And this picture is only strengthened over the years.

Glorifying FNL.
We think therefore it is regrettable that the Norwegian Hanoi sympathizers from the seventies still glorify FNL and constantly rejects South Vietnam's struggle for freedom. Attraction towards dictatorships may be a private matter, but not with people in positions of power. Former minister of foreign affairs Thorvald Stoltenberg visited Hanoi in 1970 and accepted the regime's message of reconciliation, without objections. South Vietnam's independence seemed irrelevant in his plan for peace. The man who later became UN High Commissioner for Refugees downplayed South Vietnamese’ fate.

The Prime Minister still tells about his youthful enthusiasm for the FNL. Jens Stoltenberg praised a regime that has been behind the genocide of 1.7 million people, according to the recognized mass violence researcher Rummel. This is not only about history but also about the contemporary. As in Iran, it is the same regime that governs in Vietnam now that 30 years ago.

FNL’s founder Truong Nhu Tang became a boat refugee in 1978. Hanoi colonel and editor Bui Tin defected a few years later. Both wrote in their memoirs about reprisals and repression, and they denounced the regime they had fought for.

Make up!
What about Stoltenberg? Our organization sent him a letter and wanted to know if he now in 2009 takes distance from the FNL. Our questions were not answered. He should denounce his unilateral support to the FNL. He must recognize that well-meant idealism led him to support the oppressors - who still oppress! Only when he makes up, he can be a leader we need, an idealist with discernment!

From
The Association of Vietnamese Refugees in Norway