[list_indonesia] [ppiindia] Tet and remembrance of the dead New Feature

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Tet and remembrance of the dead New Feature

 Brennon Jones International Herald Tribune=20
 Monday, February 28, 2005

Vietnam II=20

HO CHI MINH CITY The end of April marks the 30th anniversary of America's d=
efeat in Vietnam, and many U.S. veterans are expected to return there, head=
s filled with memories of the war and, undoubtedly, of former comrades kill=
ed or lost in action.=20
.
The Vietnamese pay special respect to their own dead on Tet, the Lunar New =
Year, which fell earlier this month. Finally, after three long decades, thi=
s year's holiday saw an increase in the honoring of South Vietnamese soldie=
rs who died in the war fighting alongside U.S. forces.=20
.
In the "dark years" after the Communist victory, the Vietnamese government =
dismissed such dead combatants as puppets of the former Saigon regime. Whil=
e elaborate cemeteries were built to honor Communist soldiers, the South Vi=
etnamese dead were accorded pariah status. Their cemeteries were neglected,=
 dishonored, sealed off or built over.=20
.
For many years, most relatives of dead South Vietnamese soldiers made littl=
e effort to visit their graves. Large numbers were "Viet Kieu," Vietnamese =
who fled into exile after the fall. But even those who stayed kept away, to=
 avoid being tainted in the eyes of Hanoi officials. Besides, with the Viet=
namese economy in shambles, most were too poor to travel to distant cemeter=
ies or to pay to maintain the graves.=20
.
One wholesale casualty was the old military cemetery in Go Vap, a northern =
Saigon district. It was turned into an industrial park. Another was Mac Din=
h Chi, the bucolic European cemetery in the heart of Saigon. It had been th=
e resting place not just of French colonialists and their Vietnamese suppor=
ters, but of Ngo Dinh Diem, the onetime South Vietnamese president, his sch=
eming brother, Ngo Dinh Dzu, and even Fran=E7ois Sully, the French correspo=
ndent who wrote for Time magazine. It is now a park and playground.=20
.
The former national military cemetery in Bien Hoa is the one that is seared=
 into my own memory. Created in the mid-1960s, it is the resting place for =
thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers killed in the latter phase of the wa=
r. As part of the crew for the documentary "Hearts and Minds," I visited it=
 in 1972. We filmed the shattered bodies of young soldiers in the cemetery'=
s morgue, and long rows of hollow graves waiting to be filled with what see=
med an endless stream of arriving dead. We also documented one family's ang=
uish as it buried one of its own.=20
.
The experience has haunted me ever since, and after I began returning to Vi=
etnam several years ago, I revisited that cemetery. The first time, in late=
 2002, I was shocked at its condition. Cattle grazed in the high grass betw=
een shattered and neglected tombstones, and the narrow roadways between cem=
etery sections were being mined for soil by a nearby brick factory.=20
.
In January, however, I discovered a remarkable transformation. With Tet app=
roaching, countless graves were substantially rebuilt and freshly painted. =
New planting abounded.=20
.
Local residents told me that Viet Kieu and other Vietnamese are increasingl=
y arriving at the cemetery. They are more prosperous now, and they know tha=
t the Hanoi government in recent years has quietly taken an increasingly le=
nient approach toward the cemeteries of these former South Vietnamese soldi=
ers. It's a promising start to what I hope will lead one day to full reconc=
iliation.=20
.
On a visit to Bien Hoa, I talked with the wife and daughter of Nguyen Hang =
Anh, a soldier who was killed in the Delta in 1974. Their home is in Quang =
Ngai Province, in far-off central Vietnam. This was their first opportunity=
 in 31 years to make what had previously been a prohibitively expensive tri=
p to visit Anh's grave. "Until now, we have been too poor to travel here," =
his wife told me, as they bent over his grave burning a Tet offering to his=
 spirit. It included an expensive new shirt and pants, still in their wrapp=
ings.=20
.
Before I left the cemetery I gave some money to two old women, caretakers o=
f the graves for relatives of the dead who can't make the trip to the cemet=
ery themselves. I asked them to upgrade a few neglected graves on my behalf=
. "Chuc Mung Nam Moi," I said. "Happy New Year!"=20
.
I meant it for those fallen South Vietnamese soldiers, may they rest in pea=
ce. But I also meant it for all those young Vietnamese, from the north and =
the south, who made the ultimate sacrifice, right or wrong, in a sad and tr=
agic conflict. I hope come April 30, Americans will remember each and every=
 one of them, just as we do our own.=20
.
(Brennon Jones was a journalist and social worker in South Vietnam from 196=
9 to 1971.)=20

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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