GUEST EDITORIAL

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

Dear Mr. President;

Recently, the Washington media published an outstanding editorial by longtime USAID executive and former POW Michael Benge recounting some of the latest in a series of horrors that have befallen the Montagnard people in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region, all orchestrated by the government in Hanoi. As a Special Forces officer living with them in 1968 and 1969, and like most other green berets, I quickly grew to love the Montagnards and have continued to fight for their rights to this day. They were, during the Vietnam War, America’s staunchest and most loyal allies, and we have abandoned them; and now, they have become victims of state-sponsored terrorism, mainly because they have simply tried to worship God. They are being starved, raped, tortured, and murdered, at an alarming rate. They have fled to Cambodia with bounty hunter teams going after them with exorbitant bounties on their leadership promised by Hanoi.

Sir, I have the utmost respect for your leadership, vision, and commitment and also understand that we must delineate clear-cut priorities in our on-going War On Terrorism, but should we not; first and foremost, protect our friends who are being terrorized after first securing our own homes?

Some years ago, a US State Department spokesman said to me, “Why should Washington care about some guys in a jungle wearing loincloths who shoot bamboo crossbows and throw spears at Soviet-made tanks?”

I replied, “Because they were our loyal friends and allies and were promised by us from 1958 on that we would protect them if they would fight for us. They believed us simply because there is no word for “lying” in the language of any of the thirty-one tribes of Montagnards.”

Those who fought alongside our green berets are now being made to drink pig’s blood and being tortured in village squares and forced to denounce Jesus Christ for simply trying to practice Christian worship in their homes and villages. While they are being jailed and tortured left and right, Hanoi thumbs their noses at us, the UN, and anyone who tries to monitor the treatment of the Montagnards, who call themselves Degar, meaning the “Sons of the Mountains.”

I know that Hanoi is not a nuclear, biological, or chemical threat. I know that Vietnam is a gold mine waiting to be mined by US interests. But Mr. President, before we allow certain overzealous congressmen to pass more lucrative trade agreements with Hanoi, let us please first remember that a country without honor is simply a very large non-profit business, concerned only with its annual report, holdings, and image. Many men, like me, who wore the Green Beret with pride, gave our word, on behalf of your valored office and the distinguished Congress, to these people that we would protect them, because they always protected us so well. They protected us, your finest fighting men, the US Army’s Special Forces.

Our friends are now in dire straits. They don’t want to invade our borders and take American jobs. They want to live in their own homes in peace. They want schools, hospitals, and representation in government, freedom to worship God, freedom from torture, involuntary servitude, confiscation, over-taxation, and murder. Is that really too much to ask?

Almost every Green Beret who served in the Central Highlands region during the Vietnam War can relate a story to you about how some Montagnards saved his life. We, of the US Army Special Forces volunteered. We have been wounded, killed, sickened, and carry some horrible memories to our graves, but we do not complain or whine about this. We are glad to do this for our great nation, but we are men of honor, Sir. Please do not ask us anymore to keep breaking our word to our friends and blood brothers? Please do not make us witness anymore our country breaking its word to our close allies . . .The Sons of the Mountains. Please do what is just and right.

A few years ago, when some enslaved Montagnards complained they could not work anymore because of starvation, PAVN officials taunted some Montagnards and told them, “Have your Jesus supply you with food from the skies!”

Mr. President, God often uses people to accomplish miracles.

Blessings,

Don Bendell

A former Green Beret officer, Don Bendell is a best-selling author from Colorado and is senior advisor to Mr. Kok Ksor, the President of the Montagnard Foundation, Inc. and was a brigadier general in the Montagnard’s super-secret warrior society, the FULRO.