Vietnam Legacy

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Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — More than 100,000 Vietnamese have been killed or injured by land mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, and it will take decades more to clear all of the country, officials said Monday.

"The war's painful legacy, which includes hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs and unexploded ordnance, continues to cause painful casualties every day," Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told a United Nations-sponsored conference on ways to deal with the problem.

Dung said 42,132 people have been killed and 62,163 others wounded by land mines, bombs and other explosives since the war ended in 1975. The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam government, which was defeated by northern communist fighters who reunified the country.

U.S. Ambassador David Shear told the conference that the United States has provided $62 million to help Vietnam cope with "this painful legacy."

"Our efforts to help Vietnam deal with this difficult problem have helped build the mutual trust and understanding between the U.S. and Vietnam that has allowed our bilateral relationship to flourish," he said.

Bui Hong Linh, vice minister of labor, war invalids and social affairs, said explosives remain on about 16 million acres (6.6 million hectares) of land, or more than one-fifth of the country.

He said only 740,000 acres (300,000 hectares) or 5 percent of the contaminated area has been cleared and a recently approved government plan calls for clearance of an additional 1.2 million acres (500,000
hectares) that would cost $595 million in the next five years.
RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

fingerprints

That may be so, but how many south VN people were murdered by the north VN leaders after they invaded south VN after we left. About one million south VN people were murdered in concentration "reeducation" camps! I have no pity for the people of the north. How many punji pits are still undiscovered in the south? Who dug them?
Rich Hansell, A troop, 2nd Plt. Sept. 67 to March 68. Driver of A-28. Infantry track member.

Fred Lohr (D Troop 68-69)

Quote from: fingerprints on December 23, 2011, 12:28:41 AM
That may be so, but how many south VN people were murdered by the north VN leaders after they invaded south VN after we left. About one million south VN people were murdered in concentration "reeducation" camps! I have no pity for the people of the north. How many punji pits are still undiscovered in the south? Who dug them?

The "Legacy" info was just that... info.  Draw no conclusions of a political nature.  Many of the land mines mentioned were used to keep Vietnamese in control during the "Boat People" episode when the government tried to control the population (North and South) but then basically gave up and let them run.

Most of the people injured today were not even born during the war and have no guilt or innocence as to these explosive devices.

As far as the number killed in the camps, we will never know but here are some published estimated:

An estimated 1 million people were imprisoned without formal charges or trials.

165,000 people died in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's re-education camps, according to published academic studies in the United States and Europe.

Thousands were abused or tortured: their hands and legs shackled in painful positions for months, their skin slashed by bamboo canes studded with thorns, their veins injected with poisonous chemicals, their spirits broken with stories about relatives being killed.

Prisoners were incarcerated for as long as 17 years, according to the U.S. Department of State, with most terms ranging from three to 10 years.

At least 150 re-education prisons were built after Saigon fell 26 years ago.

One in three South Vietnamese families had a relative in a re-education camp.


Explosive devices are by their nature impersonal.  Our recovery teams looking for MIAs have to deal with that legacy also and they were not  even born, like many Vietnamese victims, when the war ended.


RVN 68-69  72-73

Fred Lohr

http://www.fredlohr.com

James Cregan

#3
The "Legacy" info was just that... info.  Draw no conclusions of a political nature.

Most of the people injured today were not even born during the war and have no guilt or innocence as to these explosive devices.

Well said Fred.


Information is just that, information. And it is a most powerful tool when the information is digested in an open and unbiased mind.

"Is the information factual or not becomes the burden placed upon the recipients' experience's and knowledge of it".