Response to the movie Regret to Inform produced by Ms. Barbara Sonnerborn

Michael Do

Ms. Barbara Sonneborn is the widow of an American soldier who was killed in action in Vietnam in 1972.

After the war, she went to Vietnam to visit the place where her husband died and to make the movie Regret to Inform, in which she was convinced that the Americans had fought an unjust war against the “innocent and peace-loving” Vietnamese.

The film was largely objected to by the American veterans after it had been published. Michael Do joined three American veterans in a discussion panel on PBS/KLRU to express their disappointment regarding the propaganda in the movie.

This is the letter Michael Do wrote to Ms. Sonneborn.

Dear Mrs. Barbara Sonneborn,

I have viewed the film Regret to Inform introduced by Karen Quebe of Austin KLRU and am asked to give comments.

It touched my heart so much when I saw an American widow who had been traveling ten thousand miles to a remote jungle at the other end of the globe to visit the old battlefield where her loving man gave up his life for the freedom of an allied country. It’s so sad seeing the old women who survived the My Lai massacre.

You are doing the right thing to record and bring up the images as a strong message to humankind: “Stop the War, Resolve Peacefully the Conflicts.” I would be glad to give my hands to your righteous cause, as I am myself a war victim. But the more I have sympathy with you, the more my anger grows in my heart when I realize that the film involuntarily carries deceptive propaganda for communist Vietnam. You may not perceive that they are taking advantage to pass the blame of making war on our Americans and to convince themselves that they are innocent in all that happened during the 21 years of the Vietnam War. Please, be calm and read my own story that is not less pitiful than the stories of the subjects in the film.

My name is Michael Do, a former Republic of Vietnam Air Force officer and a former detainee in the so-called re-education camp in Vietnam from 1975 to 1985. I grew up without knowing anything about my father. When I was one, my father was kidnapped by the communists and was imprisoned in Thanh Hoa “Ly Ba So” camp until the Geneva Agreement was implemented in 1954. According to the agreement signed by French and communist Vietnam, the country was divided into two parts with opposing regimes, French and communists withdrew their troops to the South and North of the 17th parallel respectively, and all prisoners must be released. My mother and I were waiting for the beloved one to return. But he never made it. He was ambushed and murdered on the way back home after eight years of hard labor and torture in the camp. Poor daddy, his only crime was being born into a wealthy family; one of the four categories communists hated most: well-educated, wealthy people, landowners, and government officials. To these persons, their policy was to “Dao Tan Goc, Troc Tan Ngon”. That means “dig them up to the root; chop them down from the tip.”

My childhood was not a happy one, although my mom devoted her life to bringing me up in the best conditions she could afford. One night when I was 5, communists shelled the district market. Two mortars hit my home killing one and wounding two. We were luckily unharmed as we were sleeping in the basement.

In the years after 1954, South Vietnam was gradually establishing its democracy with American assistance. It was a short peaceful time, and people were building their new lives. There were no foreign troops except for some American personnel who worked in the assistance group. It is OK when a big country helped allied countries in the Free World to develop; it’s OK too as Russia and China helped to build communism in North Vietnam provided that each side minded its own business.  Of course, we didn’t expect the South Vietnamese government to be perfect in its transition from feudalism to the republic. It must have weaknesses to be corrected through democratic processes. North Vietnam did not let us be safe. Thousands of communist cadres left behind after 1954 began to emerge in the remote countryside where secret guerilla bases had been formerly built. They planted the seed of hatred in the hearts of villagers. Whoever could carry a weapon was armed. Supply from the North began to pour into the South via the Ho Chi Minh trail.

In December 1960, the 3rd Communist Party Congress formed the so-called “South Vietnam National Liberation Front” and started the war.   Terrorism spread out all over the country. At night, they kidnapped and assassinated innocent people; in the daytime, they shelled schools and markets. Not a single day did we not hear about the killing. Dozens of schoolchildren at Song Phu and Cai Lay were killed in 1964 when the schools were targeted by cannonballs. More than six thousand civilians were buried alive in the old capital Hue in 1968. They beheaded, peeled off the skin of civil servants, teachers, and nurses; and drowned alive in rice bags; they used whatever means to scare people to not cooperate with the government. There were many more that could be written in thousands of pages.

We had no choice but to bear arms to fight against them. Given the mask of “anti-American” by communists, such war was truly between the communists and the freedom lovers. We understand freedom, democracy, and human rights only exist in a non-communist regime. We, not the communists, were peace-loving because we were working hard for development; we did not want the war to destroy our achievement.

In 1965, America and six other allied nations sent troops to help us as the war was escalating. Divisions of North Vietnamese regular troops with unlimited supplies from the Soviet Union and China. Their forces outnumbered our army, forcing us back to the defensive. That’s why your husband, like hundreds of thousands of American young men and women, got involved in a bloody, long-lasting war that they were not prepared for. My story is more distressed as the war ended in 1975. I don’t think you are patient enough to listen to me telling what happened to hundreds of thousands of South Vietnam officers and civilian officials in the communist concentration camps. Let’s go back to the contents of the movie. There are some critical points that need to make clear:

1. An American widow in the film posed a question: Did those people (Vietnamese communists) pose any threat to our country (the US)? Did they (American troops) murder them?

I would ask her back. Why did we get involved in the Korean War, WW1, WW2, Gulf War, Somalia, and Yugoslavia wars? Did those Korean, German, Iraqi, Somalian, and Serbian do any harm to the United States? The killing of innocent people is wrong but inevitable in any war. Trapped on the battlefield, people are victimized by both sides. Some crazy people kill for no reason in any society, civilized or uncivilized. They are criminals and must be brought to justice. The fact that Lieutenant William Calley massacred villagers in My Lai, the killing of hundreds of  Koreans recently uncovered, and many more I can not locate, is unforgivable. They spoil our right cause, but can not be assimilated into the whole policy. On the contrary, the murder committed by the communists was not an only individual act but also systematically organized by the party. That is the difference between the two ideologies. The reason we didn’t carry out the killing is that we did not hate; we just fought for our freedom. We believed in God and respected human life. The reason communists kill was that they advocated “the cause justifies the means”.

2.-The North Vietnamese widow, Dr. Nguyen Thi My Hien, as well as about two hundred thousand South Vietnamese mothers and wives, were victims of the war that was initiated by the communists, not by our side. The other woman in the film (the skinny who is introduced as a Viet Cong leader) should not complain because she had chosen to fight as a Viet Cong guerilla. Indeed, she was a spy, a terrorist, and she must accept what happened to her in the war. Nguyen Xuan Ngoc, your companion, grew up in the communist-controlled area and eye-witnessed the burning and killing. Her voice transports a peak of hate. I have sympathy for her. But that selfish whore does not represent widows of South Vietnam KIA’s.

3.-That America failed the war after 21 years of involvement doesn’t mean we did wrong. Mass media in the 60s, with support from traitors Jane Fonda, Angela David, and Ted Turner … spoiled the information and misled public opinion. All those things resulted in the withdrawal of American troops. While WW2 veterans returned home as heroes, Vietnam veterans as murderers!!!??? They should be given back the dignity they deserve. The dead must be honored. The KIA and MIA families must be remembered.

4. Do you believe that we are justified when leading the free world in fighting against the Soviet Union and its satellites: China, Cuba, and Eastern Europe? Why not be justified when fighting against communist Vietnam? Was Vietnam an exception in the ideological war? Did our people not deserve freedom like people in other countries?
5. It is a very good idea to heal the wounds many American families have been suffering. Fifty-eight thousand American young men and women were killed in Vietnam while fighting for freedom not only for the Vietnamese people but also for the noble cause of saving humankind from horrific Communism. As we have played the vanguard role in preaching freedom and democracy, we should be very proud of what we did in Vietnam.
6. When you traveled to Vietnam to make the film, did you realize that the only persons you can talk with, and who can speak out are those selected by the authorities? Indeed, most of them are party members. If you have time to study the annual report on human rights violations in Vietnam by the Department of State and dozens of Human rights advocate organizations, please, do so. In such a regime where there is no freedom of speech, the mass media is in the hands of the authorities. People are to speak in one voice to promote the party’s resolution.
7. Why are the words “American Pirates” removed when translating a woman saying: “The cruelty by American pirates (Toi ac cua Giac My, sic) is longer than a river, higher than a mountain, and deeper than a sea”? Are you not ashamed of hearing that accusation? If your purpose is to heal the wound, the film doesn’t. It points a sharp knife into the wound of our veterans and makes it more painful.
8. When you consider two sides of the conflict, I’m wondering why the South Vietnam side is not your concern. Millions of South Vietnamese people were killed during the bloodiest, long-lasting war mostly by the acts of the North Vietnam army. More than two hundred thousand South Vietnamese troops were killed in action while serving side-by-side with American soldiers. Hundreds of thousands risk their lives fleeing Vietnam after 1975 to seek freedom, half of them drowned in the sea or were raped and killed by pirates. We are victimized twice by the communists. We, of course, feel sorry for the families of North Vietnam soldiers who died in the war; because they were also victims of the ambitious communist party members. South Vietnamese women have hearts and souls too. They suffer not only the loss of their husbands and sons but discrimination under the communist regime as well. They need to speak out in their voice. We are asking for justice and humanity.

Dear Mrs. Sonneborn,

The Vietnamese-American community, although powerless in this new land, is positively contributing to the diversity of American society. More than one million of us here in this country strongly suggest that the mass media should reflect the truth about the Vietnam War. The losing side is not always wrong. Seventy years after the October Revolution, the Russian nationalist flag is flying back on the Kremlin. Please, wait and see what happens next in Saigon. I’d be very glad to cooperate with your project if you consider my comment seriously.

Our hearts are with you and other widows.