MORAL HEIGHT OF VIETNAM
KAJAL CHATTERJEE
Though the company of American soldiers had killed more than 500 women, children and older men, raped girls, mutilated bodies and burnt homes with families still inside in the hamlet of My Lai on 16th March 1968; still the surviving members of the village and their offspring have desired to move on without remaining bitter with the Americans as a whole, that too with a pardoning attitude towards one of the greatest villains of the episode - - platoon commander William L. Calley Jr who was convicted of killing at least 22 people - - and this is the reason why even the news of his recent death was hardly rejoiced or celebrated.
Since past cannot be rewinded, one must move ahead in life so as to rebuild a better future instead of licking wounds and crying revenge which would lead the society to nowhere and merely augment feelings of hatred, thereby serving nobody.
Rather the surviving villagers speak highly of those American soldiers who did not kill or tried to stop their colleagues from indulging in mindless slaughter!
While it might be true that more than half of the population of the hamlet/country have taken birth after the US-Vietnam conflict ended in early 1970s, but surely this is not the reason behind the morally forward movement of the common Vietnamese.
It must not be forgotten that the Indian subcontinent got divided amidst communal bloodbath way back in 1947 with the population below the age of 80s having no question of any memory associated with that gory episode. Yet with each passing day, that episode is being crudely exploited with direct communal tone, holding a particular community as "villain" behind the Partition - - just to reap electoral reward in polls and gain power! And by successfully nurturing such communal hatred, electoral success is also being gained handsomely!
So "time is the greatest healer" cannot be the reason behind such a liberal mindset of the common Vietnamese. Rather they have promoted themselves to such a magnanimous height by consciously uprooting the poison of hatred and sowing seeds of love in the hearts of themselves, whose long term benefits are being witnessed among the future generation too. Indeed Vietnam and My Lai treat hatred like a virus, suppress its power so as to avoid passing it to future generation or letting it grow! When American citizens get not only welcomed or tolerated, rather embraced with genuine enthusiasm by the Vietnamese (as noted by Edward Miller - - American historian of modern Vietnam); innumerable Indians (even those born 60 years after Independence) are being found to hate their own innocent fellow citizens on communal angle by invoking the Partition and that too without knowing the history behind it!
Will the flag-bearers of much zealously shouted "giant" "Visvaguru" learn an iota of humanity and moral progress from the "tiny" South-East Asian island! No wonder why Vietnam features among the most optimistic countries of the globe in Gallup's ranking!
India and the whole world must implement the mindset of the famous survivor in the US-Vietnam War - - Kim Phuc Phan Thi (whose picture of running naked on the streets as a 9-year-old girl, screaming in agony following the napalm attack in 1972, had shaken the world) - - who had rightly asserted "Still, I believe that peace, love, hope and forgiveness will always be more powerful than any kind of weapon"!