THE COMMUNIST DISSOLUTION OF THE CULTURE OF SOUTH VIETNAM

The Confiscation of Book

　

While achieving the takeover of power in South Vietnam in April 1975, the revolutionary government suspended almost all private publications and compiled a list of banned books, including the entirety of works of fifty-six southern authors. The citizens were prohibited to listen to imperialist radio broadcasts. They were also urged to report with the local authorities those who listened to them or spread news heard from them. An army cultural unit was set up and worked at each neighborhood to wipe out the vestiges of the neocolonialist culture left behind by the old regime, including books, printed materials, tapes, records, and publications. Groups of red guards went from house to house in search for decadent and reactionary literature.

Tons and tons of books, reviews, magazines and all types of printed materials published under the old regime were confiscated. Loads of such decadent culture materials were piled up and burnt at crossroads. In May 1975, the libraries at the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Letters of Saigon University were ransacked, and all the books were burned. Control was strict and focused on the circulation and possession of printed matter. Possessors of books and all types of printed matters were encouraged to register with the local authorities for unforeseen inspection. Failures to do so would commit crimes. Officials in the old regime‘s Bureau of Censorship of Newspapers and Books, Ministry of Culture and Information, oftentimes, would have blinded their eyes on certain sources of news and criticisms on newspapers and magazines with charges of benefiting the communists left certain leftist authors alone. As private publications did not exist in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, publications of any sort in the North, must be Party- oriented and State-owned, and thus instrumental at the hands of the Party and State. The ultimate goal was to propagate the Party’s ideology and dogmas, and eulogize Uncle Ho and the Party leadership. Books of all types, from textbooks to novels, reviews, magazines, and newspapers of every sort were there to serve the regime to make the citizens believe in Uncle Ho, the Party, and the State.

The Communist State, as always, monopolizes the acculturation of the propagation of ideology and the diffusion of information, and distribution of printed matters. The size of an edition and the effort that went into publication did not depend upon the needs and demands of the society but upon the judgment of the authorities who determined if the content of information and sources of the material are instrumentally good for the regime. Thus, after April 30, 1975, for political purposes, all private printing houses, newspapers, bookstores, theatrical and opera troupes, tea rooms, film companies, cinemas, and publishers were ordered to suspend their activities. and they remain closed thereafter.

The dissolution of the culture of the South was systematic and complete. Party Secretary-general Le Duan, at the 1976 Party Congress stated that "the important task of ideological and cultural work is to combat bourgeois ideology and other non-proletarian ideologies, to sweep away the influence of the neocolonialist ideology and culture in the South, to spread thoroughgoing propaganda and education about Marxism-Leninism ideology and the lines and policies of the Party in order to give absolute predominance to Marxism-Leninism the political and spiritual life of the entire people." The review Nghien Cuu Lich Su (Historical Studies), a research organ of the Vietnamese Communist Party, in its issue of publication in November-December, 1977, pointed out that "the governmental reviewed reports confirmed the seizure of 2,711 m3 of books (10 million volumes) from Khai Tri bookstore in Saigon alone, of which 66 percent were on the official list of banned books." This confiscation process was repeated over and over until there was no trace of any books was left."

Fully six years after the conquest of Saigon, in early 1981, the Communists again mounted a new operation of confiscation against the books that had been published in the South before April 1975 and any new ones that were published by individuals after that since they were only regarded as unorthodox. Three months after the fall of Saigon, the cadres of the campaign for confiscation of materials of decadent culture tallied their accomplishments and had them published in the October 1981 issue of Tap Chi Cong San (The Communist Review): another organ of research of the Vietnamese Communist Party, millions of copies nationwide, and in Saigon alone, 60 tons of printed materials.

The Communist Party and State of Vietnam had practically incorporated all private educational, social, and cultural organizations, agencies, institutions, and establishments previously existent in the South into the State agencies of culture and information in various forms. The Party and State monopolize the publication of books, diffusion of news, and distribution of reading materials of any sort. Journalists and writers who oppose communism have always been made victims of a policy of systematic elimination, through interrogation and incarceration. If Vietnamese books had no way of getting out and being safeguarded abroad, some day people would hardly know how the true literature of Vietnam before the August Revolution of 1945, and notably that of the South prior to the takeover of the South by violence by the Communists would be like.

What the Communist authorities did and have done is to establish a realist literature to serve the Communist regime. The cadres of the Culture and Propaganda departments at all levels have to raise quite a brouhaha about it. The motive behind it all is to create an impression that this is the true literature. The North, after the Nhan Van (Humanity) event, and the South, after the fall of the Nguyen Van Thieu regime, have to follow the same direction. Anything that had been written and circulated in south of the 17th parallel, during the twenty years of war (1955-1975) was no cultural at all. It is nothing but the product of a decadent culture! (Vo Phien, 1993: 5). "

Reevaluation on the Culture of the South

As soon as the Communists came to power in the South April 1975, they began to clamp down the community of journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals. Successive operations were renewed in late 1975 and early 1976 as part of the campaign against the decadent and reactionary culture. The campaign of repression began with a censure of all intellectuals. They were called up to sign themselves in and to report all details of their life, works, and activities. This was ostensibly just a counting of heads, but, in fact, it was later used as a complete file system for the police. It was given in the name Reevaluation by the Communist authorities that was justified in a declaration made by Tran Bach Dang, the Head of the Propaganda Branch of the North Vietnamese Government in the South (Summer, 1975). The culture of the South, in this cadre; s views, "is a slave culture, promoted by the American imperialists to destroy the Revolution. If the literature of the South is not reactionary, it is at least decadent. Therefore, the (Communist) Party and the Government of the North must reevaluate the whole culture of the South."

　

Categorization of Literary and Scholarly Works

In the summer of 1975, all writers, poets, artists and journalists in the South were to register with the Association of Writers and Artists of Ho Chi Minh City. Their works were revaluated. The reevaluation involved the division of all literary and scholarly works into six categories, and all published works had to be subject to this classification:

Category A: Works that opposed communism in any way. Examples of writers in this category were: Andre Gide, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, and Pearl Buck. Among the Vietnamese writers were Doan Quoc Sy, Vu Khac Khoan, and Nghiem Xuan Hong.

Category B: Works considered by the northern cultural authorities as decadent, for example, those of Henri Miller, Elia Kazan, D.H. Lawrence, Erskine Caldwell, and Herman Hesse, and existentialists such as Camus, Sartre, and De Beauvoir. Among the Vietnamese authors in this category were Tuy Hong, Nguyen Thi Thuy Vu, Trung Duong, and Nguyen Dinh Toan. Even the female novelist Nguyen Thi Hoang, who described in the most modern and poetic terms, a love affair between a sixteen-year-old student and her teacher, was classed as decadent because the ‘moralistic’ northerners do not permit such emotions.

Category C: Romantic works, approximately like works of nineteenth century authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, and George Sand. Pre-nineteenth century authors were not considered necessary for evaluation. Also in this category were Carson McCullers, Eric Segal, Somerset Maugham, Quynh Dao, and Han Suyin. The writers in this category were considered bourgeois unaware of the miseries of society around them. South Vietnamese writers in this category were Linh Bao, Tu Ke Tuong, Trong Nguyen, Hoang Ngoc Tuan, etc... Poets of love and romance were also classed here, such as Tue Nga, Nhu Hien, Nguyen Sa, and Hoang Anh Tuan.

    

Category D: Philosophical and Religious Works: According to the principles of reevaluation, behind every religious system, and in every philosophical school, the literature of a capitalist state aims gradually to destroy the will of mankind to struggle and to debilitate man's spirit. Therefore, all translations of Tagore, Omar Khayyam, and poems praising Shakyamuni (Buddha), Kwan-Yin, Christ and the Virgin Mary were classified as category D. Works of poets Pham Thien Thu, Pham Cong Thien, Bui Giang, and the Zen poet Vo Chan Cuu and Huy Tuong were also in this group.

Category E: Works considered by the cultural authorities of the North to be healthy, constructive, and progressive, for example, were those of Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, and all works praising the working class struggle. Vietnamese authors included in here were Nguyen Van Xuan, Phan Du, Nguyen Thi Thuy Vu, Vu Mai Anh, and so on. Poems by Mac Khai, Truc Phuong, and Kien Giang Ha Huy Ha were also admitted.

Category F: This is the highest category and includes all works based on Marxist thought, which were considered to have contributed to the revolutionary struggle, for example, works of Maxim Gorky, Vu Hanh, and Nguyen Van Xuan who attacked the decadent culture of the South, celebrating their Anti-French Resistance movement. Finally, what was known as the Autumn Collection was classified here, as well as works of Phan Du, Van Xuan, Bien Ho, and Ho Truong An (Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1978: 22-23)."

　

The Persecution

　

Independent writers and personalities were arrested. They were Nguyen Manh Con, Doan Quoc Sy, Ho Huu Tuong, Bui Giang, Le Xuyen, Pham Viet Tuyen, Pham Van Tam (Thai Lang Nghiem), Le Van Tien, Vu Hoang Chuong, Nguyen Sy Te, Pham Dinh Tan, Pham Trong Nhan, Nguyen Viet Khanh, Ho Van Dong, Hoang Hai Thuy, Vo Long Trieu, Thich Quang Do, Thich Huyen Quang, Tran Van Tuyen, Nguyen Hoat, Nguyen Ngoc Tan (Pham Thai), and Vu Quoc Thong. They were personalities whose free thinking and modern ideas presented a prime obstacle and a serious threat to the austere ideology coming from the North.

 

　

Mass Arrests

Mass arrests of the intelligentsia in the South began. It was severe, expansive, and systematic. Waves of journalists, writers, artists, dignitaries and intellectuals of the old regime were called to reeducation. They were necessarily reeducated, that is, brainwashed, detained, and imprisoned. Very few of them escaped from being arrested because of a sophisticated network of journalists, writers, and artists who served as underground agents for the Communists during the Vietnam war. They were such intellectuals as Vu Hanh, Hoang Trong Mien, Thai Bach, Thanh Nghi, Luu Trung Duong alias Luu Nghi, Nguyen Ngoc Luong (Tin Van Literary Group), Lu Phuong, Ngoc Linh, The Nguyen, Van Trang, and Cung Tich Bien.

Independent writers and personalities were arrested. They were Nguyen Manh Con, Doan Quoc Sy, Ho Huu Tuong, Bui Giang, Le Xuyen, Pham Viet Tuyen, Pham Van Tam (Thai Lang Nghiem), Le Van Tien, Vu Hoang Chuong, Nguyen Sy Te, Pham Dinh Tan, Pham Trong Nhan, Nguyen Viet Khanh, Ho Van Dong, Hoang Hai Thuy, Vo Long Trieu, Thich Quang Do, Thich Huyen Quang, Tran Van Tuyen, Nguyen Hoat, Nguyen Ngoc Tan (Pham Thai), and Vu Quoc Thong. They were personalities whose free thinking and modern ideas presented a prime obstacle and a serious threat to the austere ideology coming from the North.

Three distinct waves of repression that could be delineated in the years that followed the Communist takeover of April 30, 1975. The first wave took place in May and June 1975. The initial group consisted primarily of writers and journalists who had worked for the pre-1975 government in the South or who had joined or had been conscripted into the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam. The second wave began in late 1975 and early 1976 as part of an intensive campaign against decadent and reactionary culture. The third wave of repression began on May 2, 1984 when more than 20 writers and artists were arrested, also for ungrounded reasons. A significant number have been arrested at other times under different circumstances (Aurora Foundation, 1989: 73-77).

In the first wave of arrest, at least, ten prominent journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals, reportedly died in prison. They were the lawyer Tran Van Tuyen, the writer Nguyen Manh Con, the novelist Duong Hung Cuong, the scholar Ta Nguyen Minh, the writer and journalist Nguyen Hoat, the scholar Ho Huu Tuong, the poet Vu Hoang Chuong, the film actor Kha Nang, the scholar Le Khai Trach, and the music composer Nguyen Van Dong. The number of writers and artists died at camp remained unknown due to massive arrests and poor access to sources. In the third wave of arrest, Nguyen Hoat and Duong Hung Cuong did not survive maltreatment. Nguyen Hoat died in Chi Hoa prison. and Duong Hung Cuong died in Phan Dang Luu prison. Eighty former prisoners of conscience interviewed by the Aurora Foundation independently claimed that the Communist's goal was to prevent contacts between Vietnamese writers and the foreign intellectual community (Aurora Foundation, 1988: 77). Approximately one hundred journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals were reportedly detained at unknown whereabouts.

Journalists, writers, and artists who had worked for or who had joined or been conscripted into the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam were coercively arrested and detained. Among them were: Thanh Tam Tuyen, Van Quang, Nguyen Dinh Toan, Nhat Tien, Duy Lam, Vu Duc Anh, Do Tien Duc, Thao Truong, Dang Tran Huan, Nguyen Huu Nhat, Lam Hao Dung, Cao My Nhan, Duong Hung Cuong, Ha Thuc Sinh, Dang Chi Binh, Pham Quoc Bao, Phan Nhat Nam, Ta Ty, Dang Giao, Khuat Duy Trac, and Nguyen Duc Quang,

Hundreds of other writers, poets, artists, publishers, painters, musicians and composers, actors and singers, journalists, scholars and lawyers who were arrested in successive mass arrests. Among them were: Ha Thuong Nha, Vu Dang Dung, Phan Lac Phuc, Ly Dai Nguyen, Sao Bien Tran Tu Binh, Uyen Thao, Nguyen Huy Giao, Nguyen Huu Doan, Cung Tram Tuong, To Thuy Yen, Tran Danh San, Duong Nghiem Mau, Nguyen Manh Con, Son Dien Nguyen Viet Khanh, Tran Da Tu, Ho Huu Tuong, Bui Giang, Le Xuyen, Tran Le Nguyen, Son Khanh, Hoang Hai Thuy, Nguyen Thuy Long, Nguyen Thanh Cam, To Kieu Ngan, Thanh Van, Thai Thuy, Nguyen Kim Phuong, Duy Lam, The Uyen, Phuong Trieu, Hoang Loc, Thanh Ton, Tran Hoai Thu, Ho Minh Dung, Duong Kien, Nguyen Trung Dung, Tran Dai, Ngo The Vinh, Hong Duong, Hoang Dinh Huy Quan, Luan Hoan, Bui Kim Dinh, Chinh Yen, Chu Tram Nguyen, Cao Thoai Chau, Lam Hao Dung, Duong Dien Nghi, Phan Viet Thuy, Dinh Hoang Sa, Mac Phong Luan, Le Vinh Tho, Thuy Nguyen, Pham Le, Phan, Hoang Quy, Hoang Khai Nhan, Nguyen Vu, Phan Du, Do Tan, Luu Van, Nguyen Trieu Nam, Trieu Hoa Dai, Ninh Chu, The Phong, Huy Luc, Tong Minh Hong, Nguyen Van Thang, Nguyen Bach Duong, Tran Lu Vu, , Y Yen, Tu The Mong, , Phan Ba Thuy Duong, Mai Tien Thanh, Muong Man, Tu Ke Tuong, Le Ba Lang, Lam Chuong, Ha Nguyen Thach, Huu Phuong, Nguoi Thang Long, Pham Viet Tuyen, Luu Kham, Thich Thong Buu,, Nhu Phong, Ngoc Diep, Phan The Hung, Nguyen Huu Hieu, Huy Phuong, Tran Chau Ho, Tran Van Thai, Pham Dinh Tan, Hi Van, Pham Trong Nhan, Mai Chung, Pham Ngoc Khue, Ho Thanh Duc, Nguyen Lam, Thuc Vu, Xuan Diem, Do Kim Bang, Truc Phuong, Le Minh Bang, Nguyen Van Dong, Dan Trinh, Vu Xuan Thong, Hi Van, Kha Nang, Nguyen Sang, Van Dzai, Vu Duc Duy, Hung Cuong, Minh Dang Khanh, Nguyen Van Truong, Pham Quang Khai, Ho Nam, Thanh Thuong Hoang, To Ngoc, Nhuoc Bang, Tran Xuan Thanh, Tran Buu Khanh, Tran Dai, Le Khiem, Nguyen Khac Nhan, Vo Long Trieu, Ho Van Dong, Nguyrn Kien Giang, Minh Vo, Doan Ke Tuong, Huyen Anh, Lam Tuong Du, Anh Thuan, Nguyen Tien, Le Phu Nhuan, Thai Duong, Nguyen Trung Thanh, and Cat Huu (Charter 78)..

Still, a significant number of journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals were arrested and sent to various reeducation camps. Among them were Vu Duc Hai, Vo Van Hai, To Huy Co, Doan Van Khang, Mac Thu Luu Vo Quoc Than, Duc Sinh, Nguyen Thach Kien, Dang Giao Tran Duy Cat, Sao Bien Tran Tu Binh, Vo Long Te, Bui Ngoc Dung, Le Ba Lang, Le Khiem, Nguyen Bao Danh, Nguyen Huu Nhat, Nguyen Tien, Nguyen Tu, Jham Dai, Phung Ngoc An, Phan Ngo, Tran Buu Khanh, Tran Dai, Tran Dai Long, Tran Ngoc Tu, Tran Quy Phong, Trinh Viet Thanh, Vu Mong Long alias Duyen Anh, Truong Vi Tri, Vu Duc Nghiem, Vuong Van Nga, Bui Kim Dinh, Cat HuuDinh Ngoc Nguyen, Ha Tuong Cat, Ho Van Dong, Nguyen Thuy Long, Tran Nhon Co, Nguyen Trung Thanh, Mai Duc Khoi, Nguyen Khanh Gio, Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Nguyen Thi Phuoc Ly, Nguyen Lang, Nguyen Van Than alias Ho Ong, and Pham The Hung.

Religious dignitaries and political figures were targeted with arrest and imprisonment. High dignitaries were not an exception. Among them were Catholic Archbishop Nguyen Kim Dien, Catholic Archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan, the Buddhist Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang, the Chairman of the Institute for the Propagation of Buddhist Faith Thich Quang Do, the Honorable Phan Vo Ky of the B’Hai, His Excellency Tran Quang Vinh of Cao Dai, The Honorable Phan Ba Cam and the Honorable Luong Trong Tuong of Hoa Hao, the Honorable Vu Hong Khanh and Nguyen Van Thai alias Thai Nam of Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang, the Honorable Ta Quang Hoi alias Ta Nguyen Minh of the Viet Nam Quoc Gia Xa Hoi, and the Honorable Pham Van Tam alias Thai Lang Nghiem and the Honorable Tran Thanh Dinh of the Duy Dan.

Amnesty International was particularly concerned about political prisoners who were detained or arrested between 1975 and 1985 The organization requested the Council of Ministers of Vietnam their immediate and unconditional release. Several of them were released. Others were still incarcerated simply because of their faith or expression of opinion Among them were the writers, poets, and journalists Tran Nhon Co, To Huy Co, Thai Nhu Sieu, Doan Quoc Sy, Nguyen Chi Thien; Duong Thu Huong and Nhu Phong Le Van Tien; the Roman Catholic priests and followers Tran Ba Loc, Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, Nguyen Khac Nghieu, Joseph Le Thanh Que, Nguyen Thai Sanh, and Vu Duc Tuan; the Buddhist monks Thiah Quang Do, Thich Nguyen Giac, Thich Duc Nhuan, Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Tri Sieu, Thich Tue Sy, Thich Thien Tan, and Thich Phuc Vien; and personalities of various professional circles, Diep Hong Chieu, Nguyen Chuyen, Nguyen Lang, Nguyen Thanh Long, Ly Nghiep Phu, Tran Vong Quoc, and Ung So; businesspersons such as Truong Tuy Ba, Truong Di Nhien, Truong Kim Cang, and Thach Phiem; Nguyen Ngoc Lan Doan Thanh Liem, Nguyen Dan Que, Doan Viet Hoat, Nguyen Dinh Luong, and Nguyen Quoc Xung, Trinh Hoc Binh, Le Xuan Diem, Nguyen Van Hao, Pham Duc Nhuan, Quach Vinh Nien, Nguyen Kim Tay and Le Cong Thinh.

 

　

Denunciations of Crimes

Personalities representing various literary, social, and political circles continually voiced denunciations of crimes committed by the Communist administration. and pledge to firmly struggle for freedom, democracy, and human rights for Vietnam. Typical of them is the manifesto by seventeen personalities in front of Saigon Cathedral on April 18, 1977.

"We, with what remains of our failing strength and our mutilated spirits, resolve to struggle nonviolently for the respect of freedom, democracy, and human rights for Vietnam. Our strength is diminished by hunger and privation. Our spirits are mutilated, with heads bowed and backs bent, we must obey blindly unconditionally, and irrevocably the orders of one Party and a tyrannical government.

We have chosen nonviolence, as it is the only way of avoiding the bloodshed and sacrifice of a people martyred relentlessly over the past decades.

Peasants of the world!

Look at your brothers in Vietnam. The Vietnamese peasant labors in the sweltering heat of the tropics, at the mercy of nature only to find his harvest confiscated in the name of building a so-called socialism. The water-buffalo, after pulling the plough all day is allowed a few moment’s rest. The Vietnamese peasant, after toiling all day in the rice-fields is forced to spend his rare moments of leisure undergoing indoctrination lessons.

Workers of the world!

Imagine the working conditions of the Vietnamese laborer. Forced to work all month long without hope of a different week, all week without hope of a different day, all day without a different hour, he is to receive in the end nothing but a pittance of a wage and, on top of this, be obliged to declare that he is working on his own free will. He has to offer his sweat, blood, and tears to the Party leaders, and for propaganda’s sake, must publicly proclaim that his acts are guided the providence of the government, of the omniscient, all-clairvoyant Party. In Vietnam, even this basic right has been denied.

Clergymen, scientists, artists, and progressive intellectuals of the world!

May all those praying in churches have their prayers!

May all those engrossed in their research come out of their laboratories!

May all those who create break up their pens and threw away the brushes!

All! All! Look at the tragedy of Vietnam! A country where churches and pagodas are turned into indoctrination centers, where all principles even the very laws of nature are distorted to fit the regime’s propaganda and where writers and journalists are forced to put their pens to the service of the Party and Government, to cover up the cruel errors they have committed.

All Vietnamese, whether they be peasants workers, or intellectuals have no other alternatives to

-Resign themselves to the inevitable, and blindly obey the orders of this new race of peculators --Communist cadres-- in order to receive a miserable wage, the meager crumbs of a meal and perish in despair.

-Die of hunger and exhaustion in one of the many concentration camps that have been set up all over the country.

The entire harvest of the peasants and all goods produced by the workers are taken over by the State and redistributed according to the State’s own criteria.

We have seen:

-Workers and peasants forced to work unpaid during the leisure hours for fear that their family’s rice ration be cut and that they will die of hunger.

-Old people and women feigning smiles and enthusiasm in meetings and gatherings, for lack of enthusiasm can be punished by the refusal of rice rations and basic necessities for the whole day.

-Prisoners who, even after release, must keep silent, dare not tell about the horrors they have seen in the prisons. They are haunted by the constant fear that if they are caught speaking out, their wives and children will be deprived of their rice rations and die of hunger.

-One may find the courage to sacrifice one’s own life, but who can bear to see his loved ones sacrificed because his own acts?

This is the reason behind many pathetic and unthinkable cases, and in the case the father who, in order to ensure a proper rice ration for his son, urges his son to denounce him. Otherwise, both of them will die. This only one of many, imaginable to those who have not lived in Vietnam (e.g. a woman denouncing her husband, a man denouncing his own brother). The present regime uses food as a pressure to govern the people, compelling them to obey, breaking all resistance. Any individual thought, however constructive it may be, although it may never be put into action, is branded reactionary and can entail arbitrary imprisonment for he who dares express it. Those who run the Laws Courts, the Police and the deputies in the National Assembly are all, in fact, political cadres who follow the directives of the one Party.

Whereas the propaganda machine grinds out principles of tolerance, humanity, freedom, and democracy. the reality is completely different. More than twenty percent of the former regime’s regime officials detained in concentration camps have been murdered or tortured to death. Moreover, the Government has confiscated all private property, even that of the workers who have been chased out of towns and now have to work on country sites and in the camps.

Intellectuals in the world! Wake up!

Proletarians in the world! Wake up!

To save the human being, this conscience which is inherent in man, you must all struggle to put an end to the barbaric cruelty and the violation of human and civil rights by the Government in Vietnam today.

There is not a moment to lose and on the basis of clauses 13 and 63 of the United Nations Charter, you, progressive nations, governments, international organizations, and, particularly, UNO must intervene to end by all means this savage violation by which reduces man to the state of an animal, resigning himself totally, blindly obeying orders.

Every hour that passes marks the death of thousands of people in concentration camps and prisons. Every day that passes is one more day of torture and suffering for millions of Vietnamese. They live in waiting for the outcry and action of humanists all over the world (The Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1078:5-7).