The Vietnam War, the news media and the North Vietnamese Dich Van Program

Thanks to Mark Woodruff,[i] I recently became focused on the North Vietnamese program (Dich Van) to undermine the credibility of the United States, its military and especially its involvement in the Vietnam War.

I knew the Dich Van program existed because Douglas Pike[ii], Truong Nhu Tang[iii], the North Vietnamese’s War Experiences Recapitulation Committee[iv] and others mentioned it at various places in their writings. But Mark devotes an entire section in his book to the subject, concentrating lots of data into one location.

The program was designed to make America look like a mean ogre beating up on a defenseless puppy dog while supporting a puppet government containing a cesspool of corruption. For my final project in Jee-Young Chung’s Strategic Communications class at Southern Utah University, I am writing a paper analyzing the Dich Van program from a public relations perspective.

Let's look for a minute at the aftermath of the program. Fast forward 35 years from the Fall of Saigon and look first at a misnomer and then picture posted in an article by William Kern, who claims to be "the Moderate Voice"[v] when referring to the 1975 Fall of Saigon, he states,

 “The event marked the defeat of America and its allies and a victory for the forces of Ho Chi Minh”[vi].

Whoa there!
 

#1: South Vietnam was defeated in the Fall of Saigon, not America. We signed a peace treaty and our troops went home over 2 years before Saigon fell.

US combat troops were not involved in the defense of Saigon or the defense of any part of Vietnam during the 1975 offensive. If we had been, Saigon would still be Saigon, not Ho Chi Minh City.

US Marines that went in had one mission, assist in the evacuation of Embassy staff, American civilians and loyal South Vietnamese. There was also reported to be a mission to extract vital materials from a nuclear power plant that was being built, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the North Vietnamese. 

American forces had specific orders not to engage Communist forces. As it turns out the Communists had orders not to engage US forces as well.

#2: America was not defeated, we are still here, and we are still a super power! It is the Communist Empire that fell in 1990.

PS: Ho Chi Minh died in 1969 so they weren’t really his forces anymore, but that technicality (while demonstrating either Kern’s ignorance or his hero worship of Uncle Ho) is not the point.

Next lets look at the picture. Note the caption says, “Misery: Women and children take cover 20 miles from Saigon during the Vietnam War, 1966. The war ended 9 years later, April 30, 1975”[vii]. If you go to the Moderate Voice website (click on the photo) look at the photo and read the first paragraph you will get the impression that this misery is America’s fault.

However, look closely at the soldiers in the background. Those helmets are American helmets, not North Vietnamese or Vietcong. The women and children are taking refuge from the communists not the Americans. They are not afraid of the GIs, if so they would not turn their backs on them. They are afraid of the Communists.

Do you see how the context of a picture that shows Vietnamese civilians that are not sympathetic to the Communists is twisted to make the US appear to be the bad guys? This attitude is at least substantially a result of the Dich Van program. A detailed look at all possible causes is beyond the scope of this blog is a good topic for future research.

You might argue that we shouldn’t have been there, so they wouldn’t have to hide from the VC therefore we caused their misery (again an attitude developed by the Dich Van program). I answer that by asking who would have protected them then?

The North Vietnamese were determined to unite Vietnam under communist rule. The war would still have happened, though arguably it may not have lasted so long.

The South Vietnamese did not want to be ruled by the communists. That is why they voted with their feet and migrated south by the hundreds of thousands when Ho Chi Minh expelled the French. They chose the South Vietnamese government even with all its flaws.

Toledo Blade May 16th 1989

It is the North Vietnamese that should not have been there!

Once I finish the paper on Dich Van, I plan a series for this forum based on the paper. Watch for it. It should be interesting reading.

For one thing, it points out why the US media denied our overwhelming victories, sensationalized even our slightest mistakes and generalized the guilt of a few criminals onto every Vietnam Veteran.

But for the next post, I return to the Credibility Gap.

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[i] Woodruff, Mark W. (1999). Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961 – 1973. Arlington VA: Vandamere Press, pp. 197 – 246.

[ii] Pike, D. (1969). War, Peace and the Viet Cong. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press.

[iii] Truong Nhu Tang, Chanoff, David and Doan Van Toai (1985). A Vietcong Memoir: An inside account of the Vietnam War and its aftermath. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers. 

[iv] War Experiences Recapitulation Committee of the High-Level Military Institute, (1980) Joint Publications Research Service (trans.) Doc. No. 80968 (1982). Vietnam: The Anti-U.S. Resistance War for National Salvation, 1954-1975: Military Events. Hanoi: People’s Army Publishing House.

[v] http://themoderatevoice.com/70913/vietnam-celebrates-victory-over-the-greatest-imperialist-voice-of-vietnam-vietnam/

[vi] Ibid, paragraph 1

[vii] Ibid, photo caption.

http://themoderatevoice.com/70913/vietnam-celebrates-victory-over-the-greatest-imperialist-voice-of-vietnam-vietnam/