A Time to Break Silen.doc
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1、-范文最新推荐- A Time to Break Silen they must see americans as strange liberators. the vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence *in 1954* - in 1945 *rather* - after a combined french and japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in china. they were led by ho chi minh. even though
2、 they quoted the american declaration of independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. instead, we decided to support france in its reconquest of her former colony. our government felt then that the vietnamese people were not ready for independence, and we again fell v
3、ictim to the deadly western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. with that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination and a government that had been established not by china - for whom the vietnamese have no great love - but by
4、clearly indigenous forces that included some communists. for the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.for nine years following 1945 we denied the people of vietnam the right of independence. for nine years we vigorously supported the fre
5、nch in their abortive effort to recolonize vietnam. before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the french war costs. even before the french were defeated at dien bien phu, they began to despair of their reckless action, but we did not. we encouraged them with our huge financial and
6、military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.after the french were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the geneva agreement. but instead ther
7、e came the united states, determined that ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators, our chosen man, premier diem. the peasants watched and cringed as diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition, supporte
8、d their extortionist landlords, and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. the peasants watched as all this was presided over by united states' influence and then by increasing numbers of united states troops who came to help quell the insurgency that diem's methods had arouse
9、d. when diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictators seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace.the only change came from america, as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly
10、corrupt, inept, and without popular support. all the while the people read our leaflets and received the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow vietnamese, the real enemy. they move sadly and apathetically as we he
11、rd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. they know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs.so they go, primarily women and children and the aged. they watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. th
12、ey must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. they wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from american firepower for one vietcong-inflicted injury. so far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. they wander into th
13、e towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. they see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. they see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.what do the peasants thin
14、k as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? what do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of europe? where are the root
15、s of the independent vietnam we claim to be building? is it among these voiceless ones?we have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. we have destroyed their land and their crops. we have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutio
16、nary political force, the unified buddhist church. we have supported the enemies of the peasants of saigon. we have corrupted their women and children and killed their men.now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. *soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our
17、military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. the peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new vietnam on such grounds as these. could we blame them for such thoughts? we must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. these, too, are
18、 our brothers.perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies.* what of the national liberation front, that strangely anonymous group we call vc or communists? what must they think of the united states of america when they realize tha
19、t we permitted the repression and cruelty of diem, which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? what do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? how can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of aggression from the north
20、 as if there were nothing more essential to the war? how can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? surely we must understand their feelings, even if we do not condon
21、e their actions. surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.how do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent communi
22、st, and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? what must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of vietnam, and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will not have a part? they a
23、sk how we can speak of free elections when the saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. and they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them, the only party in real touch with the peasants. they question our political goals and they
24、deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. their questions are frighteningly relevant. is our nation planning to build on political myth again, and then shore it up upon the power of new violence?here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it
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