Father Ly’s Protest in Vietnam

To the Editors:

Regarding the review of Bill Hayton’s Vietnam: Rising Dragon [NYR, June 24], in which Jonathan Mirsky writes that the dissident movement in Vietnam, led by the “heroic” Catholic priest Father Ly, is “crushed”: as a volunteer with Amnesty International USA who has sent petitions and letters to the Vietnamese government—many signed by Vietnamese-Americans—I can assure Mr. Mirsky that it is not crushed. Father Ly, now released on medical parole but under house arrest, has asked for international support for political prisoners. In a recent statement to the Canadian House of Parliament, Father Ly calls for support for a nonviolent boycott of the single-party elections to be held in January 2011 in Vietnam.

Jean Libby
Palo Alto, California