Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Viet Nam News, September 22, 2005

American folk singer and anti-war activist Peter Yarrow, of the group Peter, Paul and Mary, has recently carried his message of peace, mutual respect and personal, ethical accountability to Vietnam through performances for war victims organized by the Fund for Reconciliation and Development.

Vietnam News Agency (VNA) correspondent in New York Nguyen Anh Tuan spoke with Yarrow and John McAuliff, executive director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, about their concerns for Vietnamese war victims.

Could you speak about past and present activities for Viet Nam, and this tour, which is to raise funds for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims?

Peter Yarrow:

I follow in the tradition of activist singers such as Pete Seeger and the other members of The Weavers, Woody Guthrie, and others who sang such music as they tried to do their part to bring greater fairness and justice to the world.

During the war between the United States and Vietnam, I helped organize and mobilize performers for events that helped unite Americans in their struggle to oppose and end the war – such as the March On Washington on November 15, 1969, in which over 500,000 people participated, and events in Madison Square Garden and Shea Stadium in New York City.

I hope that my trips to Vietnam can bring a message of the sincere concern of Americans for the after-effects of the war that still plague Vietnam, including the multi-generational effects of the use of Agent Orange by the US.

It is my hope that such actions will help heal the hearts of our American countrymen and countrywomen who are still painfully divided by this war, and show the Vietnamese the caring side of Americans.

John McAuliff:

I was active in the anti-war and draft resistance movement. I headed an organization of former Peace Corps volunteers who opposed the war and participated in the national leadership of the anti-war coalitions. I made my first trip to Vietnam at a historic moment, arriving in Ha Noi on April 30, 1975, the day the war ended. At that time I worked for the American Friends Service Committee, the Quakers. In 1985 I founded the US-Indochina Reconciliation Project, which became the Fund for Reconciliation and Development.

You have done so much for Vietnam, especially for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims, and your efforts have been lauded. Could you say anything about your motives?

Peter Yarrow:

For 30 years, since the end of the war, our government has failed to take responsibility for the use of Agent Orange in the war and its ongoing effects in the population of Vietnam. I have seen such injury myself in Vietnam - the parents, grandparents, and children deformed, disfigured and hobbled by this act of war.

We owe these victims, Vietnamese and American soldiers alike, our humanity as citizens of the US, and as moral human beings. US policy has sadly and seldom represented efforts to do what is possible to make amends in the wake of such travesty.

John McAuliff:

Regardless of one’s feeling about the war, fair-minded people have to acknowledge that the US did great damage to Indochina and should provide assistance to heal the wounds of war.

Agent Orange is a particularly insidious problem... We are morally obligated to assist the victims of our actions.

What do you think about the prospects of the Vietnam Agent Orange lawsuit in the US court system? What messages do you want to send to the US government, the chemical companies and Vietnamese Agent Orange victims?

Peter Yarrow:

It is my hope that through a judgment that includes compensation and acknowledgement of wrongdoing, some of the suffering of the people in Vietnam will be alleviated, though true compensation for such suffering can never be achieved.

John McAuliff:

While I think that the chemical companies and the US government are obligated morally to assist the victims, the legal case is more complicated... The real problem is awakening US public opinion. — VNA/VNS