.."WE WERE SOLDIERS".. Vietnam Actor DON DUONG is FREE at Last..

Los Angeles Times, Calendar Section | 4/8/2002 | ANITA BUSCHE

[ALOHA RONNIE]

NEVER FORGET ...and Thank GOD we NEVER did.

...Los Angeles Times Reporter ANITA BUSCH is reporting in today's Los Angeles Times Calendar Section that...

.."WE WERE SOLDIERS".. Vietnam Actor DON DUONG (Pronounced "Dong") will be arriving in San Jose, California tomorrow with his family as a Free Man.

...After months of negotiations U.S. Government and Communist Vietnam Officials reached an agreement for DON DUONG to leave his native country and to live in the United States, permanently.

...Last September DON DUONG was proclaimed a Traitor to the Government and Peoples Army of Vietnam... for appearing as the North Vietnamese Army Commander who lost to MEL GIBSON in .."WE WERE SOLDIERS".. after which long interrogations ensued to try and pressure him into signing a confession for his "Crimes." A Confession that DUONG never signed with punishment always just around the corner.

...The BUSH White House, .."WE WERE SOLDIERS".. Personnel and others have all been working hard on DON DUONG's behalf ...each in our own ways. Reporter ANITA BUSCH has been a Jewel thru all of this.

GOD IS GOOD.

Signed:..ALOHA RONNIE Guyer / "WE WERE SOLDIERS" Vet-Battle of the IA DRANG-1965 http://www.LZXRAY.com

[ALOHA RONNIE]

NEVER FORGET

'Vietnam Brands War Film Actor 'National Traitor'

http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=196

NEVER FORGET

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[Anamensis]

Now THAT is good news. I remember reading about this right here on Free Republic just after I'd seen the movie. I'm so glad he'll be here, and safe.

[katze]

Thank you, Ronnie. I see "Never Forget" is being used to honor the fallen comrades in the current conflict.

[Arkinsaw]

He played the Vietnamese commander with sensitivity, honor, and thoughtfulness. I can understand why the NV government is so upset.

[CyberCowboy777]

YES!

[joesnuffy]

He sure killed a lot of our people in his carreer and kept a lot of his commie brethren at the throats of his own people in the south...

I understand he was an actor an all...but how does this translate to his being a US hero?
Just because he was branded a traitor in his own country...how does he get a pass to come over here...

Because he is an actor?

There are a whole bunch of Tiger Scouts who fought on our side..against the commies...who were thrown into concentration camps their familes slaughtered after the war because they supported us...

We abandoned them...but we take in an NVA field grade officer because he is an actor????
Sorry but if America wanted to bring anyone over ...our real friends in Vietnam are still prisoners...

Not to mention our POWs....I would rather see them come to San Jose with fanfare than my former enemy

I dont care how good he portrayed himself in a freakin war movie... Mel Gibson asside...
sheesh

[NavyCaptain]

Roger that!

[American Soldier]

Throwing actors in the slammer for playing Vietnamese characters... Wow, the Vietnamese government sure has improved since we normalized relations and started trading with them! I'm impressed!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Was he REALLY a NVA Field Grade Officer, or did he merely PLAY one on TV? I mean, he's only about 45-ish in age - much too young to have been an NVA Officer during the Viet Nam war...

[UNGN]

Portrayed himself? He was 7 years old in 1965.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

See:

http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=196

http://www.WeWereSoldiers.com

http://www.LZXRAY.com

[Chad Fairbanks]

Wow... those Viet kids sure look much older, then... wow... at least he was the only kid in second grade that could buy beer... bet he was popular ;0)

[ALOHA RONNIE]

...In honoring our U.S. 7th Cavalry's...

...Rolling for Bagdhad...

...and our Sept. 11th 7th Cav Hero...

...RICK RESCORLA...

...t'was US at the OSCARS =

http://www.tripflicks.com/pro/
(Photos)


Signed:

..ALOHA RONNIE Guyer / Yellow Jacket Vet-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" U.S. 7th Cavalry's Opening Days of the Vietnam War 1965-66

http://www.LZXRAY.com/guyer_collection.htm
(Photos)

[The Duke]

What Azzholez!!!!!!

[ALOHA RONNIE]

Actor DON DUONG = Lt. Col. AN

See: http://www.LZXRAY.com

[anymouse]

Something happens when you kick the @ss of the most vicious bully in the World - respect.

I think the Vietnam commies just had a gut check and realized it doesn't pay to piss off the badest country on the planet.

Will North Korea also reach a similar epiphany? Will France, ever?

[El Gato]

Gosh, I thought he potrayal of the NVA commander was very sympathetic to the NVA, and NVA soliders in particular. Why in the world would the government persecute him for that? Maybe they thought he was too sympathetic or respectfull to the American point of view, or was too "soft" in general?

I've heard of "sore losers", but these guys are "sore winners". Maybe they've figured out that what they won was really the booby prize.

Oh, I forgot, they are Communists, they don't have to make any sense. After all, their whole theory of government and society is based on ignoring fundamental human nature, be those humans, Russians, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Americans of various ethnicities, so they are used to ignoring reality.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.."IS it SAFE?" = HILLARY on Armed Services Committee..

http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=629

[El Gato]

We abandoned them...but we take in an NVA field grade officer because he is an actor????

He's an actor, I don't think he is a NVA (or more properly, especially now, PAVN) officer of any kind.

It may be that "Soldiers" is only a secondary concern, and the real concern is another of his roles(from the article lined above):

Vietnam has also taken issue with another movie role Duong took -- that of the head of a refugee camp in the 2001 movie "Green Dragon," starring Patrick Swayze.

That movie was about the life of Vietnamese refugees in a U.S. camp after the war in Vietnam ended in 1975.

"...both the movies carry the same tone of distorting the history of the just war of our people and the kind-hearted quality of the Vietnamese," the defense ministry-run daily said.

Communists can never stand being portrayed in their true light. PAVN solider, like soldiers everywhere, are just that soldiers, for the most part, aside from a few polical generals anyway. (And we've had a few of those ourselves, in fact maybe more than they do, at least prior to the Korean and Vietnam wars, think how many Presidents were Generals first) This does not include their equivalent of the KGB or GRU, even though those "people" and I use the term loosely, often carried military rank. Communists have never really held their own military leaders in partiucularly high regard, and certainly never trusted them.