Welcome to the Vietnam Veterans for Factual History website. Our mission is to provide facts from professional historians, eyewitnesses, and participants in the Vietnam War to correct the historical record of the War wherever that correction is warranted.
VVFH has challenged the Vietnam "Peace" Commemoration Committee, an attempt to attain the recognition which they believe the so-called “anti-war” or “peace” movement deserves for its efforts to “end the war” fifty years ago, to a debate.
The end result of the so called “peace,” was a
brutally hegemonic subjugation of the whole of Indochina under a
fanatically intolerant ideology. It is for this momentous
“achievement” that I believe the “anti-war” movement deserves
not only credit, but due commemoration and enduring infamy.
It is our assertion that the VPCC must assume a well-deserved share of responsibility for the aftermath of the “peace” which you helped
North Vietnam impose. Millions of people were ideologically and
economically enslaved, their human rights, their aspirations for a
genuinely democratic form of governance crushed beneath the
tracks of Hanoi’s Soviet-supplied T-54s.
It is time for the so-called "anti-war" movement to accept the challenge to debate their claims regarding the war.
And so in the spirit of Quixotic chivalry, we offer you a challenge: to
participate in a debate on any topic related to the Second Indochina War.
You may, of course, select the champion of your choice, and after you
inform us of your preferred topic, we may ask one of our colleagues to
serve as champion for our side of the house.
As veterans, many of whom served in the conflict and have remained very conscious of its history, we have become concerned that the 1978 prediction of Guenter Lewy has proven to be all too accurate. 35 years ago he wrote "Mythology, half-truth and falsehood concerning events in Vietnam abound and, unless corrected, will enter the textbooks for the mis-education of our children."
His prediction has proven to be all too accurate, and far too much of the literature about the war has been filled with exaggerations, inaccuracies, opinions presented as facts, and sometimes simple falsehoods. In recent years, historians, many of them being veterans of the Vietnam war, have written more accurately about the war's events. The newer work is often done with information gathered from the records of the communist protagonists, and these contributors are referred to as "revisionists". This is in contrast to the early and still prevalent writings in academia, originally by professors who had been part of the antiwar movement and now by a newer generation trained by those predecessors.
We started out as a group of veterans, historians, and other interested parties who came together recently in reaction to conferences dominated by those with clear antiwar biases. We have committed ourselves to set the record straight, with very factual approaches to those historical events. However this project is more than open to anyone for whom publishing the true history of the war in SE Asia is important. First among them would be the surviving Vietnamese who fought and suffered for their country - then those Americans who served outside of South Viet Nam's borders, or who were involved as diplomats, reporters, civil servants, or in any other capacity during that time, or those younger people who find this history of great interest; all are eagerly welcomed to this alliance. All are encouraged to bring their knowledge and experience of the history to light, as well as whatever questions they have or suggestions to help in fulfilling our mission. United we are bound to achieve more in serving this good cause.
We are the Vietnam Veterans for Factual History, a program being conducted under the auspices of RADIX Foundation. [501c(3)]
