San Gabriel Tribune 2-14-73

VOICE OF VALLEY

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Just Practicing Textbook Democracy

Mr. Desens’ letter in answer to my critique of our Vietnam policy made one acceptable point. Vietnam, as we know it today, does not have a clear, unified thousand years of history. Sure, the Viets of the North fought the Champas of the South a thousand years ago over religious and cultural differences, etc....but that should not be the issue to Americans. The issue should be: Did Americans, French, and Japanese have more in common with the South Vietnamese than the Southerners had with the Northerners? Did the French and Japanese have enough more in common with the Southerners than the Northerners had to warrant colonialism and warfare? Do we have enough more in common to warrant warfare?

The rest of his letter is scary and sad, especially if many think as he does. He admits that Ho would have won an election—but says we were right in cancelling the election. for he knows, as God knows, that Ho would have been evil and destroyed the opposition party. Does that mean we should now intervene in the communist election victory in Chile? Does that mean we should have intervened when Sukarno of Indonesia announced he was a communist? The Indonesian people seemed to have done pretty well in taking care of their corrupt communist leader, and it cost us no lives.

I hope Mr. Desens does not get his ‘sometimes’ wish of abolishing the two-party system. I’d also like to inform him that I’m no demagogue—one who would arouse prejudices for selfish motives. My motives against the war were to save American lives, honor, national fiber, and dollars.

Senator Fulbright, unfortunately a member of the party that Mr. Desens sometimes thinks should be ‘outlawed,’ once said, “To criticize one’s country is to do it a service and pay it a compliment. It is a service because it may spur the country to do better; it is a compliment because it evidences a belief that the country can do better....” As for my being a demagogue, I’m not the one who wants to bomb those who disagree with my 1 country, or the one who wants to cut out the opposition.

Thick Nhat, a Vietnamese scholar, poet, and monk, spoke appropriately when he said of our war effort: “The longer you continue to do what you are doing now, the more communists you will create not only in Vietnam, but all over Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Be worried in time!”

I think there’s a better, more patriotic, less demagogic way to stop radical ‘isms.’ The next time the Trib gives me Space, I’ll write it. In the meantime, since taxes and inflation have hurt my pocketbook, I’d be glad to take that paid trip Mr. Desens offered to a communist nation, leave some criticisms there, and return to continuing my patriotic duty to criticize my land when I think it can be more just. That’s what textbook democracy is all about, isn’t it?

Dwayne Hunn

Glendora