War in Vietnam

Today I met a Vietnamese family, mother and two daughters. The elder daughter awaits results of an MA in law at Bristol. She told me it was rare to find a British person who could talk about Vietnam's history.  I explained I had been a young graduate when Vietnam was constantly in the headlines. It turned out that her grandfather was a war hero, decorated for rescuing a Vietcong fellow soldier when under fire from the American enemy. I said how grateful I was that the UK was not involved in the war as it was my American contemporaries who were drafted or dodging one way or another. Like the Presbyterian who could claim he was still a Mennonite and so join the peace corps instead. I think it was the working class, black and white who were drafted. I found out the reasons the two sides fought were very different. I remember the great American fight to stop the spread of communism. My Vietnamese friends said it was all about American colonialism and imperialism. 'Wad some power the gift tae give us tae see ourselves as others see us.' I said the way the war was conducted was unpopular here and eventually in US too.

Christians Injured in Attack in Vietnam Denied Medical Care

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Christians Injured in Attack in Vietnam Denied Medical Care
House church network leaders finally resort to private hospital far from attack site

By Michael Ireland
Senior International Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

HANOI, VIETNAM (ANS) -- Three Christians seriously injured during a savage attack near Hanoi on Nov. 13 have been evacuated to an undisclosed hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after several hospitals in the region refused to examine and treat them.

Nguyen Thi Lan’s pelvis was broken in two places in the attack on her house church. (Photo courtesy Compass Direct News).

According to Compass Direct News, the attack on a church leaders’ worship service of an Agape Baptist Church (ABC) house church in Lai Tao village, Bot Xuyen commune, My Duc district, left one woman, evangelist Nguyen Thi Lan, with her pelvis broken in two places and with badly damaged internal organs, according to doctors who recommended emergency surgery.

Yet previously doctors at three area hospitals had told her and two other seriously injured Christians that they were fine and dismissed them, said Pastor Nguyen Cong Thanh, head of the ABC.

Compass explained that when doctors in Vietnam learn that religious motives play a role in violence, commonly they do not dare to treat or even examine the victims of persecution.

Compass reported that Nguyen Thi Lan is a recently-retired Communist Party official who converted to Christianity only last year. Within that short time she had led some 50 people to the Christian faith, angering a fellow villager identified only by his given name, Khoan. Khoan and his son led a gang into her house and beat several people, leaving Pastor Nguyen Danh Chau unconscious and destroying property, sources said.

Compass also said doctors diagnosed internal injuries to the kidneys, liver and perhaps other organs of Nguyen Danh Chau and admitted him for hospital treatment. Nguyen Thi Tac, who had been hit with a steel shovel on her chest and stomach as well as her back, was also still in considerable pain but was not admitted for hospital treatment.

“I pray that you will patiently endure your suffering for Jesus’ sake without bitterness,” Nguyen Cong Thanh told the victims. “Know that the blood you spilled is now joined with Christ’s blood in suffering.”

For more information, log-on to www.compassdirect.org