FOR VIET FARMERS
A life of apathy, work
By Jim Sullinger
(Editor's Note — The character in the following article is fictional, but is the end product of research and talks with various KU professors.)
Pham Vinh has lived in Cai Con and farmed his tiny rice field for 37 years. He was born in this village, married, and raised his family as did his ancestors centuries before him. All in the same location.
Cai Con is a small Vietnamese village near the Song Hau Giang River. It is located about 80 miles south of Saigon in the rich Mekong Delta region.
PHAM HAS NEVER left Cai Con because it never occurred to him that he wanted to. He is the composite of many other South Vietnamese.
When he was 14-years-old,he knew the inside of a French schoolroom for two days. Pham never attended again because he was the son of a Vietnamese farmer and needed to work the rice fields.
The world in which this man grew up is limited to a concern for basic needs. Even the peasant language is basic.
PHAM VINH'S wife and seven children work next to him under the hot tropical sun.
As the transplanting of the tiny rice seedlings from their seed beds begins, their feet are caked with thick black mud. The soil of the Mekong Delta is rich and holds many abundant harvests for Pham and his family.
The flat plain of the delta facilitates the irrigation he needs to flood the rice field a few inches deep.
HIS LIVESTOCK consists of three hogs and a few chickens.
With these possessions, he finds happiness and security.
For many months he had noticed more and more women and children in the fields. The war claimed many of the younger village men for military service.
The dirt roads began to be choked with trucks, tanks and foreign soldiers called Americans. As to that America's location in the world, Pham is completely ignorant.
SINCE AMERICANS and Europeans are white, their countries must be located in the same place, he ponders. However, America must be far off. He has noticed they bring equipment for a long stay.
If the government would leave him alone, he couldn't care less about who controls his country.
GOVERNMENT, EVEN in the recent Diem days, never functioned for him. It only did things to him.
The security of just being left alone was a cherished way of life to Pham and many like him.
Government officials have made many visits to Cai Con trying to explain strange concepts to the men of his village.
THE TRADITIONAL AMERICan heritage of freedom, individualism and liberty is alien to him. These terms cannot even be translated with any meaning into the language Pham speaks.
Centuries of Vietnamese traditions would not allow him to grasp their significance, even if he had the words for them.
Given a choice between bread and freedom from Communist domination, Pham would choose bread without hesitating. How can he savor what he has never tasted.
HE KNOWS SCARCELY more about Saigon than about Europe and America.
To Pham Vinh, the Viet Cong are idealized "Robin Hood" bandits who roam the countryside giving to the poor and taking from the rich.
This bandit concept is fundamental in his pessimistic thinking.
IN THE PAST, if government oppression became too great, these bandit bands of peasants were the only form of protest.
Following the Japanese invasion of Viet Nam in March of 1945, Pham Vinh has known only the constant tragedy of warfare.
Pinnings and Engagements
Mary Kim Buckley, Atchison sophomore in Journalism, Alpha Chi Omega, to Greg Sipe, San Lorenzo, Calif., senior in Architecture, Pi Kappa Alpha.
He has witnessed war waged around and over Cai Con. His crops have been destroyed and his village ransacked many times in his life. Close relatives and friends have been killed savagely.
Kris Ledford, Columbus, Ohio, sophomore in Spanish, Alpha Chi Omega, to Mike Moroney, Kansas City sophomore, Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
PINNINGS
WAR HAS BECOME almost an expected way of existence; a predeined evil that will plunder with the surity of past raids.
Any white man is a symbol of the hated outside domination from French colonial days.
ENGAGEMENTS
Beverly Braun, Mission junior in Math Education, Alpha Chi Omega, to David Bower, Shawnee Mission junior in Math, Triangle.
Patti Slider, Lyons sophomore in Apparel Merchandising, to George Mack, Lawrence, Delta Chi.
Today, Pham knows that someone will again come to his village to fire and kill. He fears for his family and the precious security that land and livestock bring.
Janet Fassnacht, Overland Park senior in Special Education, Alpha Chi Omega, to Dan Epp, Tribune graduate student in Business Administration, Tau Kappa Epsilon.
Valera Richmond, Kansas City senior in Elementary Education, to Arnett Dixon, Kansas City.
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HE IS ILLITERATE, backward and held by centuries of tradition. Life has been a constant series of wars that seem never to end.
He can never understand the war's meaning but only endure it.
Pham Vinh is for thousands of Vietnamese the symbol of just such a backward way of life.
Daily Kansan
Tuesday, March 15, 1966
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