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Frida?, October 8, 1%5
Fife An*
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
A Ituhhi Reports
those of us who are over here;
but the prospect of giving in to
a brutal, tyrannical aggressor is
is to be brought, let it be applied
to the side which refuses to con
sider any honorable proposal for
Seven Months in Vietnam
much less attractive. If pressure peace.
By RICHARD E. DRYER
Chaplain (Capt.) U. S. Army, Vietnam
For seven months Chaplain I>ryer was the only Jewish chap
lain with the U. S. Armed Forces In Vietnam. lie has since
been joined by Chaplain Robert Ix>uis Reiner, USNR, and a
third Jewish chaplain. Chaplain Harry Z. Schreiner, Is due to
reach Vietnam the second week in October.
More and more American ci
vilians are coming to Vietnam
these days with preconceived
ideas. They spend a few days
here interviewing people, inter
views intended primarily to
strengthen and support their pre
conceived ideas. Then they re
turn to the United States as self-
proclaimed experts on the Viet
nam situation.
I have lived for over seven
months in this beautiful but em
battled country. Since I have
been the only rabbi available
during this period to serve both
the American Jewish servicemen
and U. S. civilian aid officials, I
have had the responsibility and
the opportunity to travel the en
tire length and breadth of South
Vietnam, from Quang Tri in the
north to Ca Mau in the south,
from the largest cities to the tini
est hamlets. I have had long con
versations with many religious
leaders, students and ordinary
people. All of them want peace
in their country. But not one of
them has said to me that he be
lieves that a satisfactory peace
couid be obtained by the unilat
eral withdrawal of the American
military forces.
I have been stopped by Viet
namese as I walked down the
street in civilian clothes the day
after a Viet Cong bombing of an
.American troop billot. These
Vietnamese wanted to express
their heartfelt and sincere grief
— and thanks—to an American,
any American. These ordinary
people were deeply grateful for
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the presence of the American
military in their country. Their
own dead they could accept more
easily than the sacrifices of men
from thousands of miles away
who were here to defend theiT
freedom.
A refugee from North Vietnam
invited me to his humble home
to share a meal with him and
his brother and their ten chil
dren. He, too, stopped me on the
street only because he recognized
me as an American and wanted
me to know how he felt.
I accepted the invitation, and
learned how his parents had been
brutally murdered by the Viet
Cong—not killed by the accidents
of war, but brutally, deliberately
murdered.
A taxi driver bought me a
drink, simply because I was an
American and I was in his coun
try to protect him.
While the Viet Cong plunder
and terrorize, rob and murder,
what are the Americans doing to
warrant the affection of the Viet
namese? They are acting like
typical good-hearted Americans.
For example, a Jewish Marine
surgeon and a Protestant Marine
chaplain have teamed up to adopt
Catholic and Buddhist orphanages
in their area. The chaplain takes
up special offerings from his mil
itary congregation to buy med
ical and baby supplies, and the
surgeon puts the money collected
to good use.
I have had to counsel with an
American serviceman who has
been tortured by nightmares
since the night the Viet Cong
bombed a civilian restaurant in
Saigon. This typically generous
American had picked up a hun
gry five-year-old Vietnamese
child and taken her to the res
taurant for a dinner. He came
out of the bombing unhurt. She
started to run away after the
first bomb went off and was
killed by the second.
Being truly liberal means to ap
proach a subject with an open
mind, to examine impartially
both sides of a matter.
War is evil. There is no doubt
about that. But the issues in
Vietnam are not that simple. The
United States is not opposed to
peace in Vietnam; the Commun
ists are. The United States is not
opposed to negotiations; the Com
munists are. The United States
did not start an aggressive war
on the territory of another coun
try; The Communists did. The
United States has not deliberately
kidnapped and murdered civilian
women and children, teachers
and communal leaders; the Com
munists have. The United States
is not an uninvited foreign pow
er on the territory of a peaceful
country; the North Vietnamese
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are. it goes far beyond the de
mands of sensible liberalism to
contend that American forces
should withdraw from this war
while the Communists continue
to carry out their announced
plans to subjugate South Viet
nam.
I too was opixised to American
involvement in the Vietnamese
war—before I came over here.
In fact, it took about four months
before I became firmly convinced
that we are doing the only thing
we can do. I have tried to avoid
hasty and ill-founded judgments.
I have gained first-hand know
ledge by being here for a long
period of time and by talking
with many Vietnamese in all sec
tions of South Vietnam. I have
heard of no refugees fleeing from
us to the Communist controlled
portions of the country but I have
seen thousands who have fled
from them to us.
I certainly share the desire of
all well-meaning people that this
war be brought to an end as
quickly as is reasonably possible
But we cannot bring this about
unilaterally when we are not the
aggressor, when the other side
refuses even to consider a peace
ful solution. For a time, we
stopped the bombings of North
Vietnam. This brought no cessa
tion of Viet Cong aggression in
the South. It only brought the
response that no cease-fire would
result from the cessation of the
bombings unless this action was
accompanied by a complete
withdrawal from Vietnam and a
complete Communist takeover. I
hate war as much as anyone, but
this kind of submission is not
an acceptable alternatve.
Our present policy of continu
ing the military struggle is not
a pleasant one, especially for
s
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