April 30th, 2005 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, and the start of the brutal oppression of the 100 million people who have lived and are living in Vietnam. Even as an atheist and a libertarian I never the less applaud US President George W. Bush and his administration for demonstrating their resolve in the just cause of supporting freedom and liberal democracy in the world. I wish that the people of the United States had the same resolve 30 years ago. But 30 Years ago the people of America turned their backs on a just cause, confused and disheartened by sensationalized violence, bias reporting, and good intentions gone horribly awry. They cried for peace and for a stop to the killing. They thought we were the enemy to the people of Vietnam, and they thought that when we left, peace would come, and the killing would stop. But they were wrong, and the killing grew far worse. Tens of thousands would die in land reforms and murder quotas handed down by the leaders of the Vietnamese communists. Over a million people would flee the communist oppression and take to the sea, hoping for a better life somewhere else. Hundreds of thousands died at sea, some by pirates; some by the failure of make shift rafts, and some by foreign navies who prevented the refugees from landing, against UN agreements. The future the realists had so ominously predicted came to pass, and the domino theory proved true enough. After the dictatorial communists were finished imparting their brutal oppression on the people of South Vietnam, and with western opposition willingly derailed, they moved onto Laos, inflicting brutal revenge upon the valiant mountain people. They then moved their guns, bombs, and chains onto Cambodia and subsequently armed and brought to power the perpetrators of the worse genocide the world has ever seen. A democide the world had cried "never again" about and completely ignored, ignored again in Rwanda, and is ignoring again today in the Sudan.
The North Vietnamese communist governments and its proxies killed 7.5 million people since 1975. In the four year period starting at the fall of Saigon, more people were killed in Indochina then Americans have been killed in all their wars combined. The western world is the freest, the richest and the most militarily powerful, yet most of it stands idly by while murderous regimes like that of Saddam Hussein, Kim John Il, and the communist party of Vietnam rack up bodies by the millions, while the west's populations justify their own inaction by appealing to moral relativism; a questionable philosophy steeped high in body counts. On April 30th of this year, thousands of people will be marching in Washington, they will be marching in honor of the millions of Indochinese people, to bring attention to the sad fate that befell them, and to remind us of what could have been. April 30th marks an astounding opportunity for the Bush administration and the American people to deal another blow against the tyranny of the world and start down the path of making amends to one of the greatest transgressions of the United States of its entire existence. That transgression was the wanton abandonment of the people of Indochina to murderous and brutally oppressive communism. Even today, the 80 million people of Vietnam live under one of the worst regimes on the planet, a regime which actively suppresses democracy and political dissent with swift and brutal violence. I implore everyone to grant these forgotten heroes and victims an audience, and to speak out against the continual inaction of the west in the face of these murderous regimes, and show some support for these forgotten victims. We can bring international attention to the plight of the people of Indochina, to the murderous hypocrisy of the peace activists and anti-war protestors, who since 1975 have been as silent as the 7.5 million murdered by the Vietnamese Communist government and it's proxy regime's, and to the consequences in lives of running from just causes when the going is rough at a time when that lesson is more important than ever. 57,000 Americans lost their lives defending the people of South Vietnam, and many thousands more were injured. But history has proven their cause just. How many more would have been killed continuing to defend the South? Likely none, since South Vietnam stood on its own for two years with no help, a modicum of material support would have likely been enough for them to defend against aggression, just like South Korea has for nearly 50 years. But we will never know, and 7.5 million people died because we did not continue to help defend the South. Every politician who supported the war, labeled as 'hawks' by the 'peace activists' warned of the dreadful blood bath that would ensue if we abandoned Indochina to the communists and sadly they proved to be correct. If there is a lesson to be learned from the Vietnam War that is applicable today, it is to not abandon a people in their darkest hour.

Visit www.april30.org for more information.

The figures I cite for death tolls are moderate estimates and based on the investigations done by Rudolph J Rummel, a retired political science professor from the University of Hawaii who has authored 24 books and was a runner up for a Nobel Peace prize. Mr. Rummel's book "Power Kills" is one of the most cited books in history. There is probably no man alive who knows more about how and why governments kill people, and their death tolls, than Mr. Rummel. Be sure to visit his web page at http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/ Among tremendous information on Vietnam, R.J Rummel's site: Power Kills says…

"Perhaps of all countries, democide in Vietnam and by Vietnamese is most difficult to unravel and assess. It is mixed in with six wars spanning 43 years (the Indochina War, Vietnam War, Cambodian War, subsequent guerrilla war in Cambodia, guerrilla war in Laos, and Sino-Vietnamese War), one of them involving the United States; a near twenty-one year formal division of the country into two sovereign North and South parts; the full communization of the North; occupation of neighboring countries by both North and South; defeat, absorption, and communization of the South; and the massive flight by sea of Vietnamese. As best as I can determine, through all this close to 3,800,000 Vietnamese lost their lives from political violence, or near one out of every ten men, women, and children.1 Of these, about 1,250,000, or near a third of those killed, were murdered."
And that 3,800,000 figure of course does not include the 3,000,000 in Cambodia.

Killed in Vietnam:
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1B.GIF
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.GIF

Between 1975 and 1987 the Vietnamese Communist government killed 2.5 million people (these are moderate estimates). The last US soldier had left Vietnam in March 1973. The war was over in April 1975. 500,000 people died at sea (10 times the number of American soldiers killed) The Vietnamese Communist government killed ANOTHER 1.5 million people in Cambodia and Laos in the same time period. That's 4.5 million dead, killed by Vietnam Communist government since 1975. The Khmere Rouge, a government put into power by Vietnamese Communist government and armed and supplied by them, would kill another 3 million people That's 7.5 million people since we left Vietnam. Not surprisingly this is not a statistic you hear very often.

Where were the peace activist when Hanoi rolled through Saigon? Where were they when it crushed Laos? Where were they when it brought the Khmere Rouge to power? Where were they when 500,000 vietnamese people died at sea? They were as silent as the 7.5 million people murdered by the government they helped bring to power.

- Michael