Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!ecn-ec:ecn-pc:ecn-ed:vu From: ecn-ec:ecn-pc:ecn-ed:vu@pur-ee.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: El Salvador: Opinions. Message-ID: <189@ecn-ed.UUCP> Date: Sun, 4-Sep-83 16:22:46 EDT Article-I.D.: ecn-ed.189 Posted: Sun Sep 4 16:22:46 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 9-Sep-83 05:58:17 EDT Lines: 149 This is an article translated from the Vietnamese paper "San Diego News". A few notes for the readers: Ngo Ba Thanh: a woman intellect who advocates for human rights in South Vietnam, but turns out to be a high-ranking official in the Communist Party after the take-over of Saigon. "The intellectual vertex of humankind" is the name North Vietnamese call themselves and their Marxist theories. "Bo-bo" (o here pronounces like "aw" in "saw", past tense of the verb "to see") is an easy-to-plant crop, rich in fat but poor in nutritients, normally used for animal feeding. During the years after 1977, rice shortage in South Vietnam makes the Communist government to sell bo-bo as a substitute for rice. Notes in brackets [ ] are from me, not from the article's author. ------------------------------------ By Kieu Phong. -------------- SIMILAR American papers, television are talking constantly about the similarity between El Salvador and Vietnam war. The TV reporter looks around for pictures, the paper writer searches for facts, both to claim : El Salvador is a second Vietnam. D**n it. How can wars be different, especially wars between a Free Third World country and communist guerilla ? Guns and bullets, grenades, destructions, raids, are all learned from one book, one method... Even in mouth-fighting [read: political arguments], the commies are using the same old way. The hard part is to find the differences, not the similarity. What we should look for is not whether war in El Salvador is similar to Vietnam war, but whether American press and the Congress behave the same way. It is their behavior and view-point that is important. It is the question of life or death for El Salvador and the Free World. And it [press, congress ' behavior] turns out to be the same. Just like the good old days: the President briefs the Congress on the situation in Central America. And as usual, there is always an opponent. There is that guy who went on TV criticizing El Salvador: that its government is corrupt, it takes American aid and puts in Swiss bank, that its government violates human rights, that government soldiers kill innocent children and women, that people of El Salvador are miserably poor, that they need a revolution to improve their lives, etc. and etc.... That guy then proposes a solution: force the government to sit in with the guerillas and find a "peace in honor" [ "peace in honor" is the word used in South Vietnam for the signing of the Paris cease-fire treaty ] That guy was no ordinary American. He is a member of Congress, speaking for the Democratic Party. And not long after, TV's World News presents a reporter reporting from El Salvador. He boasts to have been to Vietnam, he shows images of the war exactly the same as Vietnam. And before ending, he shows a woman, nice and gentle just like Ngo Ba Thanh. She tells that reporter ( and through him, the world ) that she has proofs and pictures of thousands cases of human rights violations in El Salvador. Viewers got a chance to see the pictures in her hands: innocent men, women and children dying in the streets. The enemy is playing the same game all the time. And our side keeps playing our part: the part of the dupe, the permanent dupe, the extreme dupe, the un-convertable dupe. DON'T CHEAT Presenting pictures, facts of the war in El Salvador similar to Vietnam war. Good, I agree. But why stop there, why not talking about possible similarity in the future ? A TV station presents El Salvador's Ngo Ba Thanh. Very good! Very much like Vietnam! But why do we stop there ? Why don't we mention possible following similarities ? Why don't we remind American people that 7 years ago, Ngo Ba Thanh in Vietnam also fought very hard for human rights. She "demands the right to live" very tough, and then one day that tigress shows herself to be a Communist, demanding nobody's right to live but only demanding victory for the Vietcong invaders. American press accusing Salvadorian leadership of violating human rights, totalitarian, etc. & etc... and the guerillas claim "emancipation", getting rid of opression, fighting wholy for the poor. Very good! Very much like Vietnam. But there are other similarities to mention. At Vietnam, when those with "intellectual vertex of animal- kind" have caught the nation, their corruption leads by far any corrupted creatures on the Earth's surface. "The poor" are wholy emancipated, becoming "the hungry". The whole country is a prison. Language become poorer. Asking a "good nephew of Uncle Ho" : What does rice mean ? He had to look through the whole dictionary and proudly answered: Rice means "bo-bo" ! [This article was not written for the serious opinion column, so the author keeps putting on jokes. Doesn't mean that he is not serious, though] Kissinger was commisioned to prepare a Peace Treaty. The Communists want to talk. Good for them ! But why don't we talk about other possible similarities: see how the new Treaty, just like the Paris cease-fire treaty, is honored; and just how great a "peace in honor" can Kissinger bring back to the U.S. And there are also those reporters working in El Salvador, constantly sending into US homes exciting news. Those guys also need to know about similarities in news reported. For example, after showing a news report, a honest anchorman should add: "The way that jerk just reported the news is exactly the same way he did in Vietnam, he can only take pictures of the sins of our side. There is just no way he can get a picture of the enemy. Straying into enemy land, and there goes his life. From time to time, we get a picture from the other side, and it is thanks to the commies who wrote the script, put on a nice play, and then gave them [the pictures] to us. So that those dummies are serving the Communists without knowing it. So please just forget what you saw, lest it is hamrful for Liberty's health..." * Telling a story, we must tell it all, clear. Stopping in the middle not only means the enemy is blindfolding us, but also that we are giving them a helping hand. Ten years ago, being duped by the Communists, that is only being stupid. But now, with a lesson ready, with a lot of similarities to look at, and still refuse to see the truth, that is both stupid and dishonnest. [The author then adds that he couldn't imagine the day when the U.S. will have to massively receive a new class of refugee: the Salvadorans, if El Salvador falls into the communists] ---------------------------------------- >From a paper in Vietnamese, the "San Diego Tin Tuc", meaning "San Diego News". Hao-Nhien Vu (pur-ee!vu, pur-ee!norris)