79-09-B5

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Joan Baez I

Transcript Back in the 1960s when our campuses were in turmoil and a quarter of a million demonstrators disrupted the business of government in the nation's capitol, singer Joan Baez was a prominent figure in the Anti Vietnam war movement. Today Miss Baez may be making a major contribution to better understanding of that tragic decade. Some of us at the time insisted that while many in the so called peace . movement were sincere there were others who were using it to further different and longer range goals. By her recent actions Miss Baez has proven that she was sincere in her anti-war activism. Disturbed by the stories coming out of Communist Vietnam -- stories of persecution by the North Vietnamese conquerors she once thought of as liberators, Joan Baez is condemning the Hanoi government for its inhumanity. She serves as President of the Humanities/International Human Rights Committee and in that capacity took out full page ads in five major newspapers on May 30th demanding an end to the imprisonment and torture of innocent men, women and children in Vietnam. Joan did more. She mailed out to reporters and columnists packets of material documenting her charges against the communist regime, including in it a map pinpointing the location of the prisons and torture camps. She has appeared on national television and has been joined by a few -- but only a few of her former associates in the anti war movement. Miss Baez is probably still a socialist in her political leanings and possibly hasn't changed her mind about our participation in the war but she no longer has any illusions about the communist conquerors of South Vietnam. By her own admission it took some time for her to accept the reality of what was going on. The first horror stories out of South East Asia found her trying not to believe them but she didn't close her mind. She sought the truth. Probably the final proof came from Dr. Tran Xuan Nink who later appeared with her on a national press conference. The doctor has spent 27 months in one of the re-education camps where he witnessed the torture and beatings of his fellow prisoners. He bribed his way out of the camp and with his family escaped Vietnam by boat. While only a few hours from safety in the Philippines his youngest child and only son died in his arms. Joan Baez took her facts to Vietnam's ambassador to the Uni ted Nations and asked him to let a team of neutral observers go to South Vietnam. He refused on the grounds that this would be an interference in Vietnam's internal affairs. On the next commentary I'd like to tell of some of those in the anti-war movement who apparently had other causes they served and who have refused to help Miss Baez. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-09-B5 Production Date 06/29/1979 Book/Page RPtV-456 Audio Youtube? No
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