ATTACKING A VIETNAM EXPERT

To the Editors of The Crimson:

As a Vietnamese, I am appalled at Frances Fitzgerald's cheap and shallow intellectualization of the Vietnamese situation as reflected in tody's article of The Crimson:

For years, the people of Viet-Nam have witnessed American experts of one kind or another who sought to find quick answers to America's role in my country. In the 60's, these experts attempted to justify the continuing U.S. agression in Viet-Nam. Nowadays, it is probably easier to rely on totally irrelevant information and try to rationalize the need of an American withdrawal from Indochina. Miss Fitzgerald occupies however a special place among these U.S. "experts." She covers her total ignorance of the Vietnamese situation, past and present, through a maze of explanations ranging from an irrelevant psychoanalysis of the Vietnamese to the simple use of meaningless big words.

As one who is deeply involved in the political life in South Viet-Nam, I very much would like to know about this weird "symmetrical process" that Miss Fitzgerald mentioned. Furthermore, the Peace Agreement, which was signed in Paris, represents an important success for the people of Viet-Nam who fought for more than two decades to free their country from U.S. domination. The peace Agreement did not at all lead to an "inconsequential" situation in South Viet-Nam. Instead, the Agreement did provide for the U.S. to recognize the right of South Viet-Nam to settle their own affairs without American interference. If the Saigon regime is forced to abide by the provisions of the Agreement, the people of South Viet-Nam will be able to force Thieu out of office in a peaceful way. If General Thieu continues to violate the Agreement, the people of Viet-Nam will continue armed resistance. Under such a situation, the U.S. re-intervention would be purely agression in the context of the peace Agreement.

I am afraid that Frances Fitzgerald does not contribute to clarifying the Vietnamese situation vis-a-vis the public. Her expertise, quickly acquired from superficial trips to south Viet-Nam and French colonial writings, is apt to sow more confusion among Americans and hide the real reasons for the U.S. involvement in Viet-Nam. Truong Dinh Hung   Director, Vietnam Political Freedom Committee