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May 08, 1979 - Image 7

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1979-05-08

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, May 8, 1979-Page 7
Reporter calls Vietnam hopeful

By JOHN SINKEVICS
Describing scenes of devastation, tor-
ture, and feelings of mutual
cooperation in Vietnam and Cambodia,
Daily World reporter Terry Cannon told
more than 40 people at Guild House
Sunday night about his one-month ex-
perience in Southeast Asia during the
recent Chinese invasion.
"Cao Bank (in northern Vietnam
near the Chinese border) was once a
very beautiful city before it was cap-
tured by the Chinese during their thirty-
day invasion," said Cannon. "Now, it
looks like Dresden after the Second

World War, or like Hiroshima after we
dropped the atom bomb."
Cannon, who was one of only two
United States reporters to travel inside
Vietnam during the last- weeks of the
March invasion, said the atmosphere in
the country has changed dramatically
since the United States withdrew its
military forces more than five years
ago.
"MOST OF THE Vietnamese people
with whom I spoke said that although
they don't really agree with the com-
munist ideology, they feel the new
government has unified the country by

bringing together the many religious
and economic groups," said the 39-
year-old reporter. "When the U.S. was
there, we just floated like an oil slick on
top of the Vietnamese society - we
really didn't know anything about the
people."
Cannon, who was also in Vietnam asa
representative of the U.S. Peace Coun-
cil, stressed three major problems
which plague the cities of Vietnam
today: unemployment, drug addiciton,
and prostitution.
"As long as there is unemployment,
there are going to be many problems,
like prostitution, which will exist in the
cities," Cannon said. "In addition, get-
ting enough food to live is a crucial con-
cern - the people say they need spoons,
pots, and rice."

Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime,
and said many people were murdered
and tortured by soldiers under that
leadership.
"I WENT to a former Pol Pot torture
center in Phnom Penh where there was
a chair in the middle of a room with a
set of military batteries connected to a
soldering iron. A terrible smell hung
over the entire area," Cannon ex-
plained.
According to Cannon, if the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) had not
overthrown the government of Prince
Norodom Sihanouk, many lives would
have been saved and Cambodia might
be a neutral country today.
"A GREAT amount of responsibility
for what happened in Cambodia rests
with the United States," Cannon said.

'While the U.S. was there, we just float-
ed like an oil slick on top of the Vietnamese
society-we really didn't know anything
about the people.'
-Daily World reporter Terry Cannon

CANNON SPOKE at length about a
special drug rehabilitation program
currently in operation in Ho Chi Minh
City (formerly Saigon) which is regar-
ded by many as the best program of its
kind in the world.
"They have rehabilitated about half
of the drug addicts in the city by
utilizing unique rehabilitation
methods," Cannon said. "They com-
bine cold turkey (immediate abstinen-
ce) with a program of physical therapy
- deep-breathing, acupuncture, exer-
cises - in order to give the drug addicts
a sense of pride and dignity in their,
bodies.
"MANY OF the drug addicts were
terrified when the communists took
over because they thought the com-
munists would kill all degenerate
youths," Cannon said. "But this was not
the case. One young woman told me
that after she got into the drug
rehabilitation program, she realized
that the staff members loved her - no
one had ever loved her before."
Cannon also spoke of conditions ins

He added that it is imperative the
United States normalize relations with
the government. "The people ap-
preciate the unity which the communist
government has brought to the country.
They are willing to work and cooperate
and they do not feel repressed," he
said.
Cannon also said there is still a
danger that China will again attempt to
gain control in Southeast Asia. "The
Vietnamese people told me not to go
back to the U.S. and say it (the fighting)
is finished. They said the first Chinese
invasion was just a rehearsal."
CANNON, WHO regularly covers
civil rights and minorities for the Daily
World in New York, said it is very im-
portant to organize people behind world
peace organizations in order to halt the
escalation of conflicts around the
world. He said the first step is to reduce
U.S. spending for defense purposes, and
allocate these funds to social programs.
"The U.S. has literally taken schools
and squashed them up and made
missiles out of them," Cannon said.

TERRY CANNON, A U.S. reporter who spent a month in Vietnam assessing the
effects of the recent Chinese invasion, spoke Sundy night at Guild House about
the problems of unemployment, prostitution, and drug addiction in Vietnam's
major cities.

--

M.D. calls
for ethics
(Continued fromPage 1)r
taped interview with a client and then
discusses the tape with a psychiatrist to
determine how the case was handled.
Although clients must first approve the
taping, Watson said nearly every client
is willing to participate.
Watson said medical students spend
the first two years of school attending
psychiatry lectures on patients'
feelings and their own feelings. The last
two years are spent doing clinical work
in psychiatric service.
To the problem of disillusionment
among professionals, Watson
suggested developing counseling skills,
which teach the professional to remain
at an optimal distance from their cases.
He added that ethics often are not
taught at professional schools. "Many
law professors haven't come from
practicing backgrounds," he said.
"When you get into the ethics question,
you're getting into what is called
messy territory."'~

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