Nguyen Chi Thien spent a total of 27 years imprisoned at the hands of the Vietnamese communist regime due to his speaking the truth to his fellow countrymen. The Epoch Times had a chance to speak with him at the Human Rights Torch Relay events in San José and San Francisco.
Epoch Times: Mr. Nguyen Chi Thien, thank you for coming to the Human Rights Torch Relay events and for your moving speeches at both the San José and San Francisco rallies. I know that it took you more than six hours to get here. What motivated you to join these events?
Nguyen Chi Thien: These rallies have a very righteous cause, and I support them with all my heart. I am very happy that CIPFG (Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong) has organized such a great event all over the world.
In 1936, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) made an unforgivable mistake, in that it had not cancelled Germany's privilege to host the Olympics in Berlin. This encouraged Hitler to provoke World War II three years later. As for the Beijing Olympics, the actress Mia Farrow was very right, when she called it "The Genocide Olympics."
In order to fool people in the free world, every dictatorship, especially in China and Vietnam, always talks about peace and social stability. But we shouldn't be so naive and take barbarous oppression for peace and stability. All communists, Chinese, as well as Vietnamese, are blatant liars.
ET: Last year, you were among several hundred survivors of communist regimes that gathered near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C., for the dedication of the city's first-ever memorial to the victims of communism. The Foreign Ministry of Communist China and the leader of the Russian Communist Party both denounced the Memorial, prompting VOCMF (Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation) Chairman Lee Edwards to comment: "When you are denounced by both the Chinese communists and the Russian communists, you know you're doing the right thing."
NCT: Jun. 12, 2007 was a historic day—a day of remembrance of more than 100 million victims who had died under communism's cruel yoke. Communism is worse than Nazism. Communists have been murdering people in times of peace, not just during war, and the number of victims was incomparably larger. Communists are very, very cruel to their own people.
ET: San Francisco sculptor Thomas Marsh, in 1989, after viewing on TV the brutalities of the Tiananmen massacre, vowed to rebuild the statue of the original Goddess of Democracy, which was destroyed by a tank in the moment that was witnessed throughout the world.
The first bronze replica was unveiled in 1994 by Chinese dissidents and Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco. And now, the Goddess of Democracy crowns the center of the memorial in Washington D.C.
On the front of the pedestal is carved: "To the more than one hundred million victims of communism and to those who love liberty." On the back of the pedestal the engraved words are: "To the freedom and independence of all captive nations and peoples."
NCT: I was deeply touched, when I saw this monument. It is a very important reminder to young people, who have to learn their history lessons.
Here, in America, there are no victims of communism. Nazis' crimes are exposed everywhere, both in the U.S. and Europe, but not so with communism. Communist crimes should not be forgotten. Actually, communists are always afraid of exposure. And today, one-fifth of the world's people still live and suffer under communism.
As the Olympics come closer, they (communists) are escalating oppression everywhere, even in Vietnam. In Saigon city, South Vietnam, people are planning demonstrations of protests against Beijing's torturing. Torture is a symbol of tyranny.
ET: Your new book of essays about prison life at the so-called "Hanoi Hilton" Prison in Vietnam was published at the end of 2007 by the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University in their Monograph Series. Where and when did you write it? Did you memorize your stories, while imprisoned, like you did your poems?
NCT: After my release, I was invited by the International Parliament of Writers (IPW) to spend three years in France (1998 -2001). I was welcomed by the prime minister of France, Mr. Jacques Chirac, Mr. Christian Salmon, Secretary of IPW, and many kind French people. Their generosity and care not only helped to restore my health, but also gave me the peace and quiet that I needed to recollect, conceive and write the book of essays about the bitter life of prisoners in communist Vietnam.
ET: Where can readers buy your new book of essays?
NCT: They can buy the new English edition of Hoa Lo/Hanoi Hilton Stories from Amazon.com . They are being sold through the publisher, Yale University Press.
Please read Part II of the interview.
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