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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| September 28, 2003 |
Viet Nam, Heaven and Earth – Le Ly Hayslip |
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| Le Ly Hayslip (front) with Peace Boat staff Johanna Stratton |
Without the help of five-time guest speaker Le Ly Hayslip with us between Tokyo and Singapore, knowing Viet Nam as deeply as we could, would have likely been impossible. Her life story, from the time she was a young girl in a Viet Namese village in the early 1950's to American citizenship and life in California, served as a gateway into an immensely rich country and people who, like Le Ly, have much in experience from which the world can, and needs, to learn. That experience is not only about a history of events; more importantly, it is about how a people and country have responded, bridging the distance across a scarred land separating former enemies, leading to healing, and a commitment to building a future ensuring peace.
Le Ly's story, later published as a book and the subject of Oliver Stone's movie "Heaven and Earth," began in the rural village of Ky La, about a half-hour outside of Da Nang, Viet Nam in 1949. Although quite poor, youth was a contented time with little idea of leaving the area of her village. Barely into her teens though, the "American War" as it is known became the next in a long succession of conflict to plague Viet Nam going back for a thousand years, most recently with the Chinese, Japanese and French. |
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| Presenting "Heaven and Earth" |
With civil war came the forces that rip families apart. The toll was heavy on Le Ly's family, causing the death of her father and one brother. Initially, a young Le Ly assisted the Viet Cong while pretending to ally with the South. Over time, the violent pull by both sides resulted in torture and rape, eventually forcing her to Da Nang where she hustled a variety of jobs to get by. Marrying an American civil engineer 30 years her senior put Le Ly squarely on the American side of the war.
During this time, Viet Nam was subjected to heavier bombing than in all of WWII, including chemical warfare. The last thousand years of conflict-riddled history of Viet Nam reached a new intensity, eventually resulting in the deaths of an estimated three million and fifty thousand. Three million of those fatalities were Vietnamese, and fifty thousand were American soldiers. War for Viet Nam did not end in 1975, but continued against the American-supported Khmer Rouge in Cambodia for another four years. What was left was starved by the Western trade embargos, which remained until the process of normalization began in 1994, finishing only in 2001. |
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| Le Ly's youngest son Alan, and friend K. Thanh Bui |
Leaving Viet Nam in 1970 with her new husband didn't mean an end to conflict; rather a new struggle to survive in a vastly different culture and society, currently at war with her own. While trying to adjust to her new life, now with three children, Le Ly lost both her first and second husbands in quick succession. It was in these early years that Le Ly quickly learned of the racism towards her country and people held by some Americans, and the deep lack of understanding about Viet Nam in general. Later, Secretary of Defense, until 1969, Robert McNamara would remark that one of the key causes of the terrible mistake of war in Viet Nam was a simple lack of understanding of the country, its history and people by those who led America into that war.
Educating the people in this new environment quickly became a focal point for her determination to rise above the hardships she'd faced in experiencing the collapse of her family and country. She soon published her story, promoting a deeper understanding of the Viet Namese people. In 1986 Le Ly helped organize the first visits to Viet Nam by American Veterans of the Viet Nam war. Soon after she founded the East Meets West Foundation, with the goal of assisting with various social development projects in Viet Nam, and is now a major contributor of financial aid country-wide. Where the 'East Meets West Foundation' is directed towards the structural development of Viet Nam, the 'Global Village Foundation' Le Ly recently founded is directed at the exchange of ideas and assistance promoting peace in Viet Nam and internationally. |
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| The bride and groom, family and friends |
Le Ly responded to the conflict and violence she experienced by becoming a bridge-builder between the people of North and South Viet Nam, between the Viet Namese and American Veterans of the war, and between herself and the society that is now her home and country. When asked about how she felt about what the war did to Viet Nam and herself, Le Ly spoke of being able to heal the her wounds inside by working to facilitate reconciliation between people of different countries and opposing sides of the conflict. Her work has also been a way to create hope, excitement and optimism about the future, an occupation that has kept her busy for the last 25 years.
The stigma of war remains strong for Viet Nam, especially as misunderstood by most Americans. Le Ly asked the question, why do so many people still associate Viet Nam with napalm, Hamburger Hill, POW's and totalitarian communism, when the country has since left so much of that baggage behind in an effort to reconcile and look towards the future? As one American veteran of the war we met later explained, unlike Viet Nam and its people, the war is not yet over for Americans. Thus it is the need to heal, for which American government has yet to face directly, is the reason so many veterans travel to Viet Nam themselves.
Joining Le Ly from Viet Nam to Singapore were close friend K. Thanh Bui and her son Alan, who recently chose to return to Viet Nam from the US and work with the 'Global Village Foundation.' As they explained, the Viet Namese people see war, as not just with the Americans but the last 1000 years of war, as a result of bad karma from events even farther back in history. Like Le Ly, Viet Nam has chosen not to dwell on the past or wish it had not happened, but rather focus on rebuilding, with the belief that reconciliation, good relations with other countries and development for its people will ensure that such a painful history will never be repeated.
Yet the new challenge of development in a tumultuous world is just beginning. In the world now is a great struggle between the school of traditional development, or Washington Consensus, and that of the World Social Movement arguing that a new, broader approach to development respecting the environment, human rights and equitable development must be adopted. Viet Nam is at a fork in the road; the challenge, explained Mr. Bui, is that Viet Nam must choose the right ideas, and learn to adapt rather than simply adopt. |
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| Bridesmaids in traditional Viet Namese style |
Le Ly's time onboard ended with an international version of a traditional Viet Namese wedding, performed for two recent newly-weds sailing onboard Peace Boat as an extended honeymoon. Although the western style white dress and tuxedo is gaining in popularity among Viet Namese youth, for participants onboard Peace Boat, coming from Japan and a host of other countries, to experience the intricacy and beauty of such a wedding in traditional dress was a very special occasion. |
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