Smith: Sonoma County Vietnam vets meet ex-foe now in a seat of power

Vietnam veteran Bill Simon days ago found himself in an unusual situation: He was seated directly across a large hotel conference table from a former enemy fighter who is now one of the five top leaders of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

As Dinh The Huynh spoke at a 90-minute meeting at the Fairmont San Francisco, he seemed to direct many of his comments right at the 66-year-old Simon, a retired Santa Rosa psychotherapist and county Mental Health Services analyst. Simon served in Vietnam with the Air Force in 1969 and now presides over the local chapter of Veterans for Peace.

“I tried to be as attentive as possible,” he said.

Simon was intrigued when Huynh, 63 and executive secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, began his formal comments to the Vietnam veterans by saying he hadn’t slept at all the night before.

Simon and fellow Sonoma County vets Fred Ptucha, 73, of Santa Rosa and Tom Meier, 68, of Rohnert Park said Huynh alluded to some of the harm done to his country through the decade of war with the United States that ended with the seizing of Saigon by Communist forces in 1975.

The veterans said Huynh, speaking in Vietnamese with an interpreter, observed that in addition to the hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese killed, there are a great many more missing in action, Vietnamese babies still are born with deformities caused by exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange and the ongoing clearing of unexploded but lethal American ordnance could take 300 years.

But the Sonoma County residents said the visitor from Vietnam spoke mostly about the need for Vietnam and the U.S. to move beyond the pain of the past.

“He is after peace,” said Meier, who served in Vietnam with the Army through 1970 and then worked a career with the Army Security Agency. “He is after developing his country.”

Huynh brought his mission of reconciliation and partnership to the U.S. at the invitation of Secretary of State John Kerry. Stopping also in D.C., New York City and Boston, the Vietnamese Politburo member scheduled his visit five months after President Obama traveled to Vietnam and lifted restrictions on weapons sales to the country. Earlier this year, Vietnam, the U.S. and 10 other nations joined in the yet-to-be-ratified Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Huynh’s goodwill trip came also as the Philippines strengthens relations with China, and China heightens tension among its neighbors through its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Prior to coming to San Francisco and meeting with Bay Area veterans of the Vietnam war, Huynh told Kerry in D.C. he was pleased to help promote the coming together of the former enemies “in the spirit of shelving the past, overcoming differences, capitalizing on similarities, and heading to the future.”

Soldier-turned-peace-advocate Meier said that at the Fairmont, Huynh seemed genuine when he invited the U.S. vets to come back and visit Vietnam.

“He would like to show us where the forests are coming back and the land is healing,” Meier said.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.