Thoi Bao Ga

To the Editors:

I am writing you about Thoi Bao Ga, a newsletter on the Vietnam War published by Vietnamese students in this country. Thoi Bao Ga covers aspects of the war glossed over by daily news reports. It goes beyond reports of bombing raids or the movement of armies, to show how the Vietnamese people are being affected. The newsletter stresses the political nature of the war. Issues deal with such topics as:

1. The damage the war has done to Vietnam’s economy. Inflation rates of up to 50 percent per year are causing many people to starve.

2. The imprisonment and torture of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese Civilians. American officials are standing by while people are being tortured by means whose barbarity equals medieval times.

3. The forced drafting of unwilling Vietnamese youths. The Saigon regime has been drafting huge numbers of youths giving them the choice between fighting and imprisonment or starvation.

The newsletter also includes letters and articles expressing the feelings of Vietnamese people. A Vietnamese professor describes his sorrow and anger that a seventeen-year-old boy has been permanently paralyzed by an American anti-personnel bomb because he happened to be in the wrong place.

I strongly urge people to subscribe to this newsletter. It has a great deal to say. Subscriptions help Vietnamese students to educate Americans about the war. Write to: Vietnam Resource Center, 76a Pleasant Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139. The subscription rate is $5 for one year (twelve issues).

Peter Forbes

Milton, Massachusetts