◆ SpookStack

eee eee em I TS I ine teense 2 venue e ccereenemmemmetli es tS CMR RRE CON Ng cae Nemes we This hostel offers a home atmosphere and some educational and employment assistance where a bakery is operated. Other VISA personnel are working in Buddhist educationa institutions, two in the Saigon Children's Hospitel and-others in medical programs in the Pleilku area involving imuunizetion and drug distribution. Work assignments often changs, however, and it is difficult for nex VISA arrivals to enter into a work assignment promptly. This is because the objective is not work for work's __ sake but to find an assignment in which a sensitive interpretive job can be done. One can only feel after discussions with many Vietnamese that the Quaker -program in Vietnam is a valuable contribution. For example, Dr. Ton That Thien - and Au Truong Thanh expressed a strong desire and concern that Quekers continue to work in South Vietnam. As they put it, "The work here gives you a basis to 4 understand what is going on and enables you to remain in touch with those of us who are struggling to devise alternative means to this war." There has been concern among some American Quakers as to whether or not the basic anti-war position of Quakers is understood in Vietnam. It is here that one of the most remarkable changes has taken place within the year separating my two visits to Vietnam. Quakers are very well know to many large sections of the Vietnamese community. Not only has the almost two years of the VISA end Quang Ngai programs achieved @ measure of ecceptance and understanding but also the mmerour Quaker visitors to Vietnam plus the newspaper ads and book and the general posture of Quakers with respect to the war have made clear our position. The voyage of the Phoenix has elso reinforced our position. The Phoenix has had a particularly striling effect in the Buddhist community where it is felt the voyage highlighted the repressive Situation in which Buddhists found themselves and indicated a Quaker understanding of it. While the voyage of the Phoenix has produced some hostility in some quarters, on balence it has reinforced the position occupied by Quakers with respect to the war. I came eway with the feeling that when all of this is over, if the American government would like to recoup in some small way a tiny measure of what has been lost in relations between Americans and Vietnamese, it would be an astute move to appoint a Quaker ambassador to Vietnam. _ . .