74- LET YOURSELVES BE HONORED AS HEROES

Our veteran friends of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam and the United States, are you feeling bitter and sad when you see the celebrations, the streets in New York City and many other cities covered with streamers and confetti, with thousands of people joyfully greeting the homecoming of the U.S. troops from the Gulf War?

Please do not feel sad, but instead be proud of your past accomplishments. Let yourselves be solemnly honored as Heroes!

Let your conscience grant you medals and commendations, ranks and grades to your deeds!

Do not withdraw yourself in darkness, but open the door for the light to come to your room, your heart and soul, and brighten your mind and body!

Comfort yourselves to ease the pain on the parts of your bodies that were lost and the wounds that were inflicted by bombs and bullets. Only you and your conscience know the contributions you have made through your sweat, blood, and tears, to your country, your homeland, and your fatherland.

As for those who are contemplating whether to become professional journalists, please think carefully! If you think you can do the job objectively and respect the truth, allowing your conscience to live up to your ideals of serving the community, the nation, and even humanity, then walk in! However, if you think you will bend to the masses, and that your pen can be twisted under pressure, then choose something else.

Why?

Because the power of the news media, especially in the United States, can help mankind to achieve progress – thousands of poor and hungry African children can be saved, or a war can be won. Nevertheless, the news media can also destroy a nation and bring it to downfall. This has been the case of our small and war ravaged country of Vietnam!

Now, in our small country, at each moment and minute, millions of people are suffering under the rule of communism. However, the American news media seem to forget about us and continue to broadcast distorted reports.

As a Vietnamese journalist, I feel very upset with the American news media. I believe that they have the responsibility and duty to restore the good cause for which the soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam, as well as the American Veterans, had fought. These veterans were unjustly defeated, and have been living in shame and suffering because of unscrupulous misreporting by the American news media.

Respect for the truth is a prerequisite for a journalist -- the one who claims to have the mission of telling nothing but the truth to the public, and to serve only the TRUTH.

Many times I wonder about those writers, film makers, or television producers who distort the truth and deliberately mislead the public in order to serve an interest group. I also ask myself how they feel in their conscience to see the entire nation suffer from death and imprisonment, a generation of malnourished, uneducated, sick and hungry young people?

If there is something human in these people, must not they have an answer this question?