“It could be said that I’m simply an honest American woman.” Lady Borton
shared her feelings while talking to the “Chuyên đề An ninh thế giới”
(World Security Newspaper) about war amongst other things.
Lady Borton is an American writer, journalist and charity activist,
who has visited Vietnam many times. Borton has recently translated a
number of works by President Ho Chi Minh, including “ Vua di duong vua
ke chuyen ” (Stories told on the trail), into different languages. She
is also author of the books “ After sorrow: An American among the
Vietnamese ” and “ Sensing the enemy: An American among the Vietnamese
Boat people ”.
Borton along with journalist and
cultural researcher Huu Ngoc, compiled a number of bilingual reference
books and also translated the books “ Dien Bien Phu: Diem hen lich su ” (
Dien Bien Phu: Rendezvous with Destiny ) by General Vo Nguyen Giap and “
Tay Nguyen ngay ay ” ( The Central Highlands: A North Vietnamese
Journal of Life on the Ho Chi Minh Trail ).
Borton
first came to Vietnam in 1969 and since then has returned to the
country many times. She was present in Vietnam during historical
times, right after the country regained its national independence in
1975, in her capacity as a member of a US organisation working for
peace and as a member of an US education delegation. Occasionally,
Borton visited Vietnam as a writer, a freelance journalist or a
translator.
In her memory, during those days,
Hanoi was at peace and there were very few cars. Whenever a car
appeared in streets, it would belong to a minister or a foreigner. There
were just bicycles and pedicabs, even wagons, on Hanoi ’s roads
which had few traffic lights. The local people had no telephones and led
very poor lives. In the eyes of foreigners, Hanoi lacked
everything.
Borton said that when she comes back to
Hanoi nowadays, she feels surprised at the rapid changes. Hanoi
is now much more modern, especially its communications networks. The
city lacks nothing compared with other developing nations. In the past,
there remained certain gaps in cultural exchanges with foreigners, but
communicating with foreigners has now become popular. Hanoians have
successfully upheld their age-old cultural traditions, while leading
abundant and diverse lives. Whenever Borton came to Vietnam , she
visited the Temple of Literature , which has preserved the cradle
of Vietnamese first cultures.
When asked why she
chose Vietnam as her destination, Borton said that she had worked for
the peace movement during Vietnam ’s war with America . The project
provided medical equipment and medicines for the Vietnamese-German and
Bach Mai Hospitals as well as local people, channelled through
Cambodia . As a manager, Borton regularly met with Vietnamese people
and felt their agonies during the war. She also thoroughly understood
American losses during the war.
During her meetings
with Vietnamese people, Borton made friends with many people, including
journalist and culture researcher Huu Ngoc, the former Director of the
World Publishing House, and people from the Vietnam Women’s Union
Central Committee and the Vietnam-US Society under the Vietnam Union of
Friendship Organisations. With her love for Vietnam , the American
writer has been teaching herself Vietnamese since 1969.
When talking about women’s aspirations for happiness and peace, Borton
said she is very fearful of war. In whatever family or country, people
have a hatred for war as it brings cruel and terrible destruction. War
means wives lose husbands, mothers lose children and people lose family
members. In particular, the impact of Agent Orange (AO) on millions of
people was terrible and bombs and mines left over from the war are still
a big threat to people.
The writer said she used
to be a member of non-governmental organisation against war no matter in
what country it occurred, because one war always leads to another. For
example, the US ’s war in Vietnam ended in 1975, but its aftermath
still exists. In fact, the US even imposed embargo on Vietnam , and
backed the Khmer Rouge in an attempt to invade Vietnam ’s southern
region.
Borton said that the US government should
admit the consequences of AO in Vietnam . Many young Americans were
forced to serve and only a few of them voluntarily joined the army. A
lot of them never came back, or were injured, or reported missing.
“Being an honest American woman, I fell very painful about this. The war
in Vietnam ended 35 years ago, but American’s pain is still there,”
she said.
On returning to Vietnam this year,
Borton said she was sickened by corruption regardless of what country it
occurs in. The trafficking of women and children is also a stinging
issue, while sending guest workers abroad needs to be carefully
considered. On educational reforms, there remain many pressing matters
such as private teaching and tuition and illegally collecting money from
students.
While sharing what inspired her to
translate President Ho Chi Minh’s works into English, Borton said that
she has read 12 books about President Ho Chi Minh during her trips to
Vietnam and found that he was a politician, a diplomat, a poet and a
man of culture.
During the war, the US
government had taught Americans to hate communists. However, when Borton
first came to Vietnam in 1969, she was very surprised when people
who had followed the former regime also cried and were saddened when
President Ho Chi Minh passed way. Borton gradually understood that Ho
Chi Minh was a father and a great teacher to the Vietnamese people.
No State President in any country worldwide is informally called
“Uncle”. If Vietnam had not had President Ho Chi Minh, it would have
found it hard to have a successful revolution. Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts
are “Unity, unity, great unity. Success, success, great success”;
“Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom!” Ho Chi Minh’s
thoughts and actions for national independence and liberty are
absolutely right. Vietnam was the first colonial nation in Southeast
Asia to rise up and struggle for national independence. This posed a
profound influence on the world movement for national liberation.
Leaders from the US , France , the UK and the Netherlands
respected Ho Chi Minh because of his influence.
Ho
Chi Minh created a lot of ideological works that Borton would like to
introduce to help international friends understand him and the
Vietnamese people better. They include “Nhật ký trong tù” (Prison
diary), “Bản án chế độ thực dân Pháp” (a Judgement on French
colonisation), “Lời kêu gọi toàn quốc kháng chiến” (the Appeal for
national resistance), “Thư gửi cho đồng bào trong việc hoàn thành cải
cách ruộng đất ở miền Bắc” (Letter to compatriots following land reforms
in the North), “Thư chào mừng năm mới gửi nhân dân Mỹ” (New Year
greetings to the American people (1966)) “Bản di chúc của Chủ tịch Hồ
Chí Minh” (President Ho Chi Minh’s testament).
“Whenever and wherever he was, Ho Chi Minh also placed friendship and
solidarity amongst peoples first. He once said that the Vietnamese
people would wage a protracted war of resistance to defend national
independence,” Borton concluded./.
South African officials were in Vietnam Wednesday to discuss ways of curbing the illegal trade in rhinoceros horns used in traditional Asian medicine, a conservation group said.
A court in Ho Chi Minh City Monday handed down a life sentence to a former high-ranking beauracrat for taking US$262,000 in bribes from a Japanese firm in 2003.
As of Monday night, floods caused by the torrential rains that began last Wednesday have killed at least 35 people in Vietnam’s Central region, the Central Committee of Storm and Flood Control reported.
