Hanoi Expels U.S. Teacher Over Use of Foreign Papers

Vietnam arrested and expelled an American English teacher for allegedly threatening national security and possessing secret documents, Hanoi radio and the teacher’s sponsoring organization said Friday.

Diplomats said the expulsion appears to be part of a widening crackdown on foreigners and internal dissidents meant to prevent Eastern European-style democratization in Vietnam.

Hanoi radio said Miriam Hershberger, 35, an English teacher at the Hanoi Foreign Languages School since July, was expelled from Vietnam on Tuesday.

“During her stay in Vietnam, Miriam Hershberger tried to use foreign papers opposing the socialist regime in Vietnam to teach students,” the radio said. “The Vietnamese security agency also searched her living place and confiscated documents containing national secrets of Vietnam.”

Hershberger, whose hometown was not immediately known, declined to comment. Her sponsoring organization, the Mennonite Central Committee, an American humanitarian group, denied the accusations.

It said school authorities had asked Hershberger to teach newspaper reading.

“At no time prior to her deportation did anyone inform her that her teaching methods or materials were objectionable,” the Mennonites’ statement said.