FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FOR INFORMATION CALL: 608-244-9505
AMERICAN VETERANS AND PEACE ACTIVISTS WORK WITH THE PEOPLE OF QUANG NGAI
PROVINCE TO BUILD A PEACE PARK FOR MY LAI.
March 16, 1997 is the 29th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, when
U.S. troops killed over 500 civilians in Quang Ngai Province in Viet Nam.
Today the Madison Quakers are announcing the beginning of plans to build a
Peace Park for My Lai. The park is similar to one recently dedicated in Bac
Giang Province near the Madison sister-city of Bac Giang.
The Women's Union of Quang Ngai Province and the Quang Ngai People's
Committee have asked Roy M.(MIke) Boehm and the Madison, Wisconsin Quakers
to help build a Peace Park near My Lai. My Lai hamlet is in Son My village
where on March 16, 1968 American soldiers led by Lt. William (Rusty) Calley
massacred 504 Vietnamese.
On December 6, 1996, after a series of discussions over a period of
two years, a Memorandum of Understanding was drawn up and signed by Le
Phuong Tuan for the Vietnamese and Roy M. Boehm for the Americans.
Boehm, a former U.S. Army staff sergeant who lives now in Madison,
Wisconsin has done substantial work in the Quang Ngai area, including
administration of the My Lai Loan Fund, a capital support project for poor
women and war widows. He also helped create, along with Prof. Nguyen Ngoc
Hung, the Vietnamese-American Peace Park near Bac Giang, 35 miles north of
Ha Noi, Viet Nam, dedicated November 11, 1995. Prof. Hung, a sergeant in
the North Vietnamese Army during the war, is now vice-director of ESP
(English for Special Purposes), a language school in Ha Noi. Boehm and
Hung's goal is to commemorate the My Lai Peace Park on the 30th anniversary
of the My Lai massacre, March 16, 1998.
Regarding the project, former U.S. Senator George McGovern has said:
"The Vietnamese-American Peace Park is a wonderfully healing concept,
worthy of the support of all who wish to convert the tragedy of
misunderstanding and conflict to cooperation and peace."
And Nguyen Huy Thiep, perhaps the most famous of the new writers to
come out of the Doi Moi or renovation period in Viet Nam, said during a
recent visit to New Orleans: "I personally admire people who lay bare the
tragedy of My Lai. The Vietnamese-American Peace Park would be a great
project and I have nothing but admiration for those who would build it."
For more information contact:
Roy M.(Mike) Boehm
2312 E. Johnson St.
Madison, WI 53704
Tel. 608-244-9505 FAX 608-251-5457
j grant
Academic & Small Press
Authors & publishers display books free at
<http://www.bookzen.com>
12,862 Visitors Last Week
192,213 since 07-01-96