Vietnam: the Unheard Voices - Refugee Educators' Network

ho\vever, were tiers of 1oudspe;lkers blaring propaganda across at
cach othcr, along with hugc signs proclaiming cither "Gct the
Arncricans out of the Sc)uth" or '"Gct thc Chinesc out of the
North." For a time there had also been a kind of competition to scc
which side could raise the tallest flagpole and hoist the largest Aa3
Fach side continucd to make it5 pIe higher and higher until fillally
thq tacitly agreed to stop at thc same hcisht. On the south hank, a
huge veUo\v flag wirh red stripes billa\~yed in the wind, while immediatelt-
acrtm on the north side there fluttered an equaIiy hugc red
flag i~yith a ~cllo~t~ star.
The cornmenloration in 1965 \\-as sponsored by the Studcnt
Union of Hue Univcrsiq-. Emotions first hccame charged at dusk
when a horde of students rushcd out ontn thc bridge, stopping at
the halfu~a~? pint. Against a pellnwing sky, thc young "voices of
frccdam" charted with northern border pards. When they wirhdrew
from the bridge for an evening program, the voice of a student
spokesman waiied through the microphone. 'iWc arc
commemorating a Day of Shme for Viet Kam," hc shouted. "\Vc
should be crying!" k midnight approached, the studens took
torches and formed an awesome prtzcssir~n in the darkness. Pacing
the banks of the Ben Hai River, they fcn-cntly sang their patriotic
song, "Viet Nam, Viet Nam!" At cracdy midnight they surged
again onto thc hridgc. "1,ong live Wet Kam!" they cheered, and
then burst into song again. I'hroughout, the impersonal loudspeakers
from the North droned on with their propaganda and one could
not help feeling the dilemma of young nationalists in a dividcd land.
Different governing q-stcrns, perhaps, but one nation. Regional
diffcrcnces in outlook, yet one people. "h'am Bac Nha," said a
sip over an archway on the norrhern bank of thc Ben Hai-South
and hTorth: One Home.
-4s more and more Americans came into the South, the KLF
theme of foreign intervention seemed more and more credible to
the averagc Vietnamese. "The VC arc so much Iike us that they arc
a most elusive enemy, like a ghost; but the Americans are so obvious,"
said a Viemamcsc friend. "Even though I believe in thc American
cause and am against the VC, it is very difficult to convince