Art Recalling 'The American War'

4/11/2019

There is a current art exhibit in Washington, D.C., that I am hoping to see -- “Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975,” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Holland Cotter in The New York Times calls it “protest art” from the American point of view.

But the “second, smaller” part of the show I most want to see is “Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue,” a view of the Vietnam War era through Vietnamese eyes – “far more than a mere add-on,” as Cotter put it.

The Vietnamese people experienced that war – in some ways 180 degrees differently -- but it is safe to say all suffered.

In 1991 I visited “post-war” Vietnam with a small group involved in child care. My wife was doing vital volunteer work by frequently visiting India but she also visited Thailand and the Philippines. I joined her on the trip to Vietnam to deliver goods to a hospital and visit facilities in both “North” and “South” Vietnam.

I was most definitely not there to work or act like a journalist, but I could not help looking and listening to how “The American War” had impacted Vietnamese lives.

Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City: We met a doctor doing complicated surgery. He let us gown up and observe a complicated facial procedure done by a visiting American doctor, the mutual language in the operating room being French.

We got to spend enough time with the doctor to learn he had been on the “wrong” side when the North took over, and was sent to a camp deep in the countryside. I gathered that his family had assets, and he had a great reputation, and he was released from the camp and allowed to resume his profession, refreshing his skills at major hospitals in Asia. He was an asset.

In a relaxed social setting, the conversation got around to how he was able to put the war behind him, to function, to move on. I totally paraphrase his answer; it has been a long time, after all. He said you cannot live in the past, you have to get back to “normal” as smoothly and quickly as possible.

When I (subtly, I hope) asked about the lost years in the camps, he showed no bitterness. He was still a surgeon, putting people back together again. Life went on.

Hanoi Region. We worked our way up north (baguettes and coffee on the beach; ancient ethnic villages; a growing crafts shop outside Da Nang) and we flew to Hanoi. On a chilly day, we took a jitney out to visit a rural orphanage. Our interpreter was a woman around 30 who worked in the sciences and was fluent in English. I happened to sit next to her.

Far into the countryside, I noticed circular ponds scattered on the flat land. I asked the interpreter what the waterholes were for – fishing? rice? source of irrigation?

Actually, she said, with no trace of emotion or agenda, they were holes left over from bombs. She did not mention Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger or the “Christmas bombing” of Hanoi and Haiphong in late December of 1972.

She remembered, she said casually, living at a school, and hearing the bombs, and later discovering children her age had been killed or injured. I did not ask any other questions.

The orphanage was shabby, but the workers were doing the best they could. They let us hold children as we walked around. They had a handle on each child, would not release children for adoption if relatives claimed them. We were bringing some aid, and people were courteous.
A young worker pointed at my ball cap, from the 1990 World Cup, and he said, “Maradona,” and I gave him the cap. And then we flew on.

Now I read about the show at the Smithsonian about the remaining terrible divisions in the United States over the Vietnam War. I hope to see that show, as well as its companion piece about Vietnamese reaction to the American War – “more than an add-on,” indeed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/arts/design/vietnam-war-american-art-review-smithsonian.html

Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue:
https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/chung

My past articles about John McCain, American hero, and Vietnam:
https://www.georgevecsey.com/home/category/vietnam

My article about the excellent crafts shop outside Da Nang:
https://www.georgevecsey.com/home/-happy-lunar-new-year

bruce

4/12/2019 10:13:05 pm

george,

this column reminded me of the reason i first emailed you 10 or so years ago.

the fact you're proud to be american but--too unusual in my experience--realize that other countries have value--that other cultures/countries might love theirs as much as americans do.

also there is a point of view in those countries that might not be known to americans.

it also struck me--from what i read--that many/most Vietnamese seemed to lack rancor toward a country which was responsible for so many of their citizens being killed.

i recall a number of years ago, don't ask me who said it, when an american politician was asked about rapprochement with vietnam.

he made some comment about not being ready to 'forgive' vietnam.

vietnam was not a high point in american history.

yet the experience seems to have been forgotten pretty quickly. .

we had to wait a little longer than usual between blogs but it was worth it.

bruce

George Vecsey

4/13/2019 09:46:56 am

Bruce, thank you for the compliment(s). I try to avoid my most blatant comments of late 60s, since I know people who served over there, and did not get back, and I also know proud officers who came home from combat to find LBJ and McNamara had already deduced it was a lost cause.
Hard to read other cultures, but it struck me that the Vietnamese people were eager to get on with it, and were still boggled at what we were doing over there. It is also true that my wife and others were representing aid and contact with the good impulses of the U.S. I also learned from my one long and memorable visit with John McCain, early 2000s. My wife had met one of his guys on a flight Out East, and learned McCain's guys sent goods to VN. I asked him why, and he shrugged with those ruined shoulders of his. If John McCain and the Vietnamese could move on, in their ways, that was a lesson to me. Go find Johnny Cash's recording of "Drive On." GV

bruce

4/14/2019 08:49:49 pm

george,

i remember the mccain story.

you might not be aware that, according to a book written by a globe&mail reporter named lawrence martin, that lbj grabbed canadian prime minister lester (mike) pearson by the lapels and shook him. pearson had gone to the WH for a meeting. when he declined to send troops to vietnam, johnson decided to get a little physical.

pearson was the PM who introduced bilingualism and biculturalism, opened up immgration, introduced national medicare and gave canada an actual flag....something we didn't have until 1965.

tommy douglas--kiefer sutherland's grandfather--had given saskatchewan that dreaded socialized medicine in 1944, if memory serves.

pearson also won the nobel peace prize in 1957 for the suez crisis.

bruce

Alan Rubin link

4/14/2019 04:47:07 pm

George. Bruce and I share an appreciation for your vast scope of experiences, sensitivity and insight in reporting them.

My wife Sandi and I recently returned from twenty four fantastic days in Mexico with another couple. They suggested that we represent ourselves as Canadians, but we nixed that idea.

The leadership of Canada is currently putting that of ours to shame. However, our founding fathers, as imperfect as they were, gave us a strong foundation on which to build. Although it is currently under threat, our basic American values have always managed to survive over the years.

In addition to the usual tourist places like Mexico City and Oaxaca, we visited Chihuahua to see the Copper Canyon and take the railroad, and the colonial towns of Guanajuato, Pueblo, Creel, Morelia and others.

Wherever we went, people dismissed our current president and expressed their admiration for the American people.

We were in a gorge returning along a difficult path from a waterfall when a friendly woman gave me a hand up a difficult high step. When she learned we were from MA in the states, she commented that it was nice to see Americans in that part of Mexico. I commented that it did not make sense since it was such a beautiful area.

She was from Guadalajara and in a beautiful voice sang the song.

Our guide was a history buff and we enjoyed many discussions of the origins of the 1848 Mexican War. She was surprised that I was against the war, which was part of our expansionist Monroe Doctrine.

An interesting book is "How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States" by Daniel Immerwahr. It covers our unfavorable treatment of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and many Caribbean and Pacific Ocean nations and smaller islands.

I thought I knew much of this history, but so much of it was shocking. It explains much of what is happening today. Our presidents cavalier attitude towards Puerto Rico is nothing new, just more crass.

bruce

4/14/2019 08:38:58 pm

alan,

there are many stories of americans pretending to be canadians when they travel. even some buying covers to place over their passports.

however, canadians can hear two words and know--with rare exceptions--that they're talking to a 'merican.

as for our leadership, trudeau has been badly scarred by a scandal in quebec.

he's lagging far behind the conservatives now. has about six months to climb back before the next federal election.

Alan Rubin link

4/14/2019 04:52:55 pm

If you have time when in DC, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is a must. Allow the better part of a day, and book in advance.

Enjoy your trip.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

Art Recalling 'The American War'

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