Learning about Peace and Human Rights from Viet Nam—a short personal reflection

By Elder Frank Joyce

The first time I came to northern Viet Nam was with three other antiwar activists. It was in April of 1970. My fifth visit was in April 2025 to join the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Reunification and Liberation. Each encounter within that fifty-year arc has enriched and inspired me.

Because so many U.S. Americans think of Viet Nam as a war but not as a country, it’s easy for them to miss how deeply Viet Nam nurtures peace. Ever since my first trip however I have sensed the appreciation from all those I met for the beauty of Vietnam’s land, sea and ancestral past. I am invariably reminded of the vast difference between fighting for the defense of one’s culture, heritage, family and territory as compared to fighting for domination, ideology and conquest.

All kinds of people from the U.S. go to Viet Nam these days. Ordinary tourists, war veterans, businesspeople, students, members of NGO’s. When I talk with them after their trips, it’s common for them to express surprise at how welcoming and friendly Vietnamese people are. Perhaps they don’t notice how respectful the Vietnamese are with one another.

I do. Conspicuously in the streets. Scooters, pedestrians, cars, trucks, buses, bicycles moving like a ballet. Everyone close, vulnerable and in motion; aware and protective of each other—trusting the current. In the U.S we speak often of road rage. In the streets of Viet Nam, I see road love. On the sidewalks too where people are eating, talking, laughing. Connecting.

I saw it in the April 30, 2025 events commemorating the Anniversary in Ho Chi Minh City. The crowds gathering in the early morning darkness. The place in the parade afforded to honor the ethnic groups, the religions and spiritual practices, the old and the new music, the many kinds of work required in a modern society, the marching soldiers and the doves of peace.

There is a certain ease to daily life throughout Viet Nam. It’s apparent in schools, parks, museums, offices, restaurants, airports and markets too. Everywhere we go.

I don’t romanticize this. I’ve seen some traffic accidents, arguments and meanness. Of course, the pace of urbanization intensifies the potential for friction. Of course, the period of colonialism sought to impose divisions within the Vietnamese people. Hence the theme of Reunification for the 50th Anniversary of April 30, 1975.

I think back to my first visit, during the war. The sporadic awareness of U.S. bombers overhead. Things very much on a war footing. Yet people exercising calmly in the park across from my hotel early in the morning. The quiet confidence of Ho Chi Minh about the ultimate outcome embodied by those we meet.

On the morning of May 4, 1970 we were in a village south of Hanoi. We were informed that four antiwar protestors had been shot and killed on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. The regret our hosts expressed for those lost lives was from their hearts. They were not cynical and numb as we were.

It reflected, in a revealing way, the distinction always made by Vietnamese officials between the people of the U.S. and the government policy of the U.S. In the years since 1970, I have come to better understand this in the context of the thinking behind people-to-people diplomacy.

Governments can relate better to other governments if the peoples of a nation are also in relation with the peoples of another nation. To have some firsthand awareness of the music, the food, the holidays and rituals, the spiritual beliefs, the differing political and governing systems. To see in a way less filtered by media and colonial ideology that the quality of life of the people can be measured by multiple metrics and criteria is eye-opening.

In reading carefully the Replies of Viet Nam to the list of issues in relation to its fourth periodic report…, I was struck by a difference between my Viet Nam experiences and my upbringing and life in the U.S. In the U.S., policies meant to affirm human rights and achieve social justice tend to be either coercive or aspirational.

People are expected to treat others respectfully or they will be punished. The euphemism “held accountable” is often used. Alternatively, some “equality for all” principles are enunciated, often insincerely, in the hope that maybe they will be adhered to.

For this and other reasons, U.S. laws and policies often foster conflict, not harmony. They perpetuate rather than heal the divisions intrinsic to the colonial origins of the United States.

I feel something quite different when I am in Viet Nam. So very powerfully in my most recent visit. The energy and enthusiasm of the people, who are mostly young is palpable. Unsolicited, they express gratitude to their elders for the sacrifices they made to bring peace and opportunity. Their horizon is 2030 and 2045. Not some poisonous pain for a past they are encouraged to believe that someone illegitimately took away from them.

They use the word peace not just to mean the absence of war. It expresses Vietnamese people seeking and knowing peace within Viet Nam and beyond.

Absorbing such peacefulness in heart, body, mind and spirit replenishes me when I am in Viet Nam and sustains me when I am not.

We all have much to learn from Viet Nam.

Elder Frank Joyce is a lifelong Detroit based activist and writer