Angering Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY - To Don Duong, it must have seemed like a perfect opportunity. Already one of the most prominent film stars in Vietnam, he was offered featured roles in two American-made movies about the war that had torn his country apart.
But his work in those films has left his career in tatters as he has been forced to defend himself against charges of betraying his country. His family, including a sister in San Jose and filmmaker nephews who grew up in the South Bay, says the government has subjected him to repeated police interrogations, confiscating his passport and pressuring him to sign a confession.
Duong played a North Vietnamese officer in Mel Gibson's 2002 film ``We Were Soldiers,'' which, according to the government, does not accurately depict its soldiers' valor in battle. He played a fleeing refugee in this year's ``Green Dragon,'' which enraged officials for allegedly making America look like a paradise compared to Saigon at the end of the war.
The uproar over Duong's case underscores Vietnam's ambivalence about its increasing ties with the West. While the Communist-controlled government is eager to forge economic links, it is equally determined to maintain political control.
At a press briefing Oct. 17, government spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh chastised Duong for playing roles that have ``offended the Vietnamese people and caused resentment in Vietnam.'' She referred further inquiries to the Ministry of Culture, where a spokeswoman said Duong would not be banned from acting but might be fined an undisclosed amount. Police in Ho Chi Minh City, where Duong was interrogated, declined to discuss the case.
Duong, who is 45 and has been acting professionally for two decades, was unavailable to comment. So far, he has refused to sign a confession. ``He's not a traitor,'' said Susie Bui, Duong's sister, who has kept in touch with him by e-mail from her home in San Jose. ``Why does he have to say he's guilty?''
``We feel his human rights have been violated,'' said Timothy Linh Bui, Duong's nephew and the director of ``Green Dragon,'' by telephone from his home in Los Angeles. ``They have denounced him as a traitor and most important, they don't give him a voice to defend himself.''
Even though Vietnam has opened up in recent years, authorities here routinely punish artists and intellectuals whose works are not officially approved.
``Opening up is an evolutionary process,'' said Henry Nguyen Huu Liem, a professor of philosophy at San Jose City College, ``and unfortunately there are still some corners of government that have not yet seen the light. This is still a very raw emotional issue in Vietnam. People get very upset when they hear the war mentioned in a way they don't agree with, so there's a tremendous amount of political correctness surrounding any portrayal of Vietnam's role in the war.''
Vietnamese authorities are outraged because a scene in ``We Were Soldiers'' shows Vietnamese troops killing a wounded enemy soldier rather than taking him prisoner. Furthermore, the film's nuanced view of a battle has been portrayed by the press as transforming Vietnamese victory into defeat. Duong plays the late Lt. Gen. Nguyen Huu An, commanding a North Vietnamese division against an invading U.S. force led by Lt. Col. Harold Moore Jr., played by Gibson.
``Green Dragon,'' meanwhile, has come under fire for supposedly denigrating the victorious North Vietnamese regime. ``We all felt the film wasn't anti-Communist, that it wasn't negative toward the present government,'' said Timothy Bui. ``But maybe we looked at it the wrong way.''
Apparently so. In a recent front-page editorial, Vietnam's government-owned Army Daily branded Duong ``a sellout and a national traitor'' and said he should be ``severely punished'' for his ``unforgivable'' mistakes. The current issue of Vietnam Film -- a magazine published by the same Ministry of Culture that will decide Duong's fate -- accuses the actor of being ``greedy for money and fame.''
As the media attacks against Duong were starting to accelerate, Nguyen Ngoc Quang, director of the government-sponsored Liberation Movie Company, came to Nha Toi (My House), the restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City that Duong owns with one of his sisters. He asked the staff to take down a poster-sized picture of Duong and Forest Whitaker, Duong's co-star in ``Green Dragon.'' When his request was refused, Quang himself took the picture down and threw it on the floor, according to an account in the Vietnamese press.
Duong's supporters in Ho Chi Minh City -- nearly all of whom are too frightened to speak to the media -- say the actor had the best of intentions when he accepted both roles. He was especially proud to play the part of Gen. An, according to a source close to Duong who declined to be identified for fear of government reprisals.
``He never meant to hurt Vietnam or the Vietnamese military,'' the source said. ``He read the story and thought that it was a true story. And that's why he wanted to act in it.''
Duong's case is being closely monitored by U.S. Ambassador Raymond Burghardt, who has received letters protesting the government's treatment of the actor from Whitaker, Gibson and ``We Were Soldiers'' writer-director Randall Wallace. The U.S. Embassy issued a terse statement recently saying it has been ``consulting with the appropriate Vietnamese authorities.''
``There are no bad people in our film,'' Wallace said in an e-mail interview. ``The only villain is war. Telling the truth will always -- always -- result in opposition. The great irony to me is that this is a film that refuses to demonize the Vietnamese, or the American soldiers who fought in the war.
``Americans went to Vietnam because they were willing to fight for freedom,'' Wallace said, ``and it wasn't freedom for Americans they felt they were fighting for, but freedom for the Vietnamese people. Now Don is being accused of being disloyal to his people because he is in a film that shows both sides as being human.''
By Ben Stocking and Bruce Newman - Mercury News - October 29, 2002
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