U.S. Worsened Situation for Vietnam

* According to your article, “Little Saigon Reacts With Sadness to McNamara’s Book,” (April 28) South Vietnamese who fled their country still say that they fought for “democracy and personal freedom,” something they never had in their entire history.

Believe me, if it wasn’t for U.S. paranoia, the South Vietnamese would have been united with the North as far back as 1954. That was the year the Vietnamese people gained their country back from the French.

The South Vietnamese government was our puppet right from the beginning. It was the U.S. propaganda machine that convinced a small group of South Vietnamese, and the majority of the American people, that “Communists” were the enemy. When the truth finally came out, it was millions of disenchanted South Vietnamese who were fighting their own government in the South.

Ever since I got involved in the anti-war movement back in 1965, I said that if the two so-called Vietnams wanted to fight it out, let them. And call it a civil war.

Let it also be remembered that at no time during this barbarous war were there any Russians or Chinese troops fighting in South Vietnam, while there were over 500,000 American troops and thousands of token forces from our so-called allies.

I can only feel sorry for those South Vietnamese who feel insulted by McNamara’s statement that the war was a mistake and that it was “wrong, terribly wrong.” I would clarify that statement by saying that it was America’s military involvement that was wrong, terribly wrong.

BENNY WASSERMAN

La Palma

* Re: “The Triumph of the Will” (editorial, April 27):

The article reminded me of my experience as a volunteer for Amerasian service last summer. Amerasians were born in Vietnam during the Vietnam war as descendants of Vietnamese mothers and American soldiers. They were discriminated, hated and, therefore, unable to go to school in Vietnam for several reasons: many Vietnamese hated their fathers; their mothers were believed to be prostitutes during the war, and some Amerasians’ skins were black or white, not brown.

My job was to teach Amerasian immigrants basic math because some of them didn’t even know how to count money. Many of them didn’t even know how to read or write in their primary language, Vietnamese. However, they were always enthusiastic in learning and often sang songs in breaks, which I really enjoyed listening to.

TETSUYA UEHARA

Irvine