Vietnam
“What I Could Not See.”
Vietnam
“What I Could Not See.”
As a friend read Sam Keen’s poem The Enemy Maker: How To Make an Enemy, each word raised emotions from the depths of my mind and soul which I had buried for decades. When Marianne spoke the last word, within seconds I knew what I had to do: Return to a country I abhor, even though I always had questions regarding what I had done and what the United States was really there for.
Late evening on July 5, 2007 during the 20-minute ride from Tan Son Nhut airport into Saigon, it became clear to me why I needed to return. All of us who were there during the war could not look at Vietnamese people without being extremely cautious due to the intermingling of friend and foe clouding our ability to view the people as human beings. All were possible dangers and targets.
Walking out to a bustling street early the next morning, my first thought was, “I did not see any of this when I was there so long ago.” Immediately the title for my project appeared — What I Could Not See is what none us could allow ourselves to see, the Vietnamese people as Human Beings.
I have returned five times allowing me to attend the 40th and 50th My Lai Massacre Memorials interviewing survivors, traveling from the China border to the Gulf of Thailand and points in between.
If anyone in 1970 would have told me I would have friends in Hanoi, I would have had a healthy laugh. The truth is, I do. I have been to their home for dinner, met Phong’s (Trang’s husband) father who was in the North Vietnamese Army outside of Saigon the day it fell. To this day Trang and I still communicate. It has been a great healing journey.
Thank you, Marianne.
