To the editor: As a citizen affected by the Vietnam War, I agree with the author of the Times letter, a Vietnamese American, who wrote that “many Vietnamese expatriates…do not understand the history of Vietnam.”
He went on to cite various facts about Vietnam under French colonialism and its arbitrary division between north and south. The writer also mentioned that the United States intensified its military activities after fabricating an attack on Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964.
It is time for people with very strong feelings about Vietnam and its political leaders in Orange County to abandon their delusional war narrative. They should accept the fact that Vietnam and its people, who managed to overcome and survive French colonialism and American military power, have evolved into a modern market-driven economy with investment assistance from the United States.
Just shop at Costco to find clothing made in Vietnam and understand its socioeconomic and political evolution since it became a unified country committed to self-determination.
Larry Naritomi, Monterey Park
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To the editor: As a citizen of the United States, Jane Fonda certainly had the right to speak out against our war effort in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. Her support for the enemy, however, with a trip to Hanoi in 1972 that included her sitting in the seat from an enemy anti-aircraft gun, was significantly beyond the right. (“Vietnamese groups angry over 'Jane Fonda Day' in Los Angeles County,” May 15)
She played the role of traitor. It was an act that provided help and comfort to an enemy. She violated her responsibility as a citizen.
I was the pilot of an American airliner who willingly put himself in harm's way at the direction of our commander in chief, and my resentment runs deep. Fonda's success playing roles on screen did not give her the right to glorify those who put me or any of my comrades in the crosshairs of that gun.
He behaved in a manner that violated the moral obligation of American citizenship.
Stephen Sloane, Lomita
