PVCC Puma Press: March 2005

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	Photo courtesy of Jan Downey and David Harbster
	Professor Jan Downey (left) and Professor David Harbster (right) in front of peace pole with Le Ba Uoc (middle), a former four-star General in the Vietnamese Army.
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Two PVCC professors, anthropologist Jan Downey and environmental biologist David Harbster, were among just 14 professors chosen from a nationwide search to tour Vietnam and Cambodia in January.

The tour, offered by the Council on International Education Exchange, offered participants a chance to come together with other professors with similar interests to learn and better understand the post war development and reconciliation efforts in both Vietnam and Cambodia, on the 30-year anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end. The trip was an experience that both say they will not forget, providing them both with knowledge that they will be able to pass on to students.

Downey and Harbster spent Jan. 3-14 touring both countries by land, river and air with their 12 new comrades. They agreed it was an honor to be chosen. According to Downey, prospective tourists were chosen after submitting a written proposal. “I felt drawn to the trip,” Downey said. “I was worried, but had a sense I was going to go.” Harbster also expressed worry about whether he would be invited, and relief and excitement at the opportunity after he was chosen.

The Experience

“The trip was a shower of neurological fireworks,” said Harbster. The duo discussed some of the sights, while others remained unspoken, referred to by Harbster as “indescribably heinous, horrible events,” presumably for a later date when time and distance has helped ease the mental wounds they received from places like Cambodia’s famed “Killing Fields”.

The year 2005 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the brutal takeover of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. During the four years that the Khmer Rouge and dictator Pol Pot controlled Cambodia, an estimated one-third of its population died.

“What a horrible time that was,” said Harbster. “The Khmer Rouge killed off the intellectuals, took land from anyone that owned it and moved them to form villages to produce rice.”

Downey contrasted the Cambodia of the past to that of the present. “We walked the neighborhoods, met people, and most were extraordinarily friendly towards our group,” said Downey. She told of a behind-the-scenes moment at a restaurant, where gigantic ceramic jars of communal water were all that was available, for washing or drinking. The poor water situation was a common sight. “I could never get used to seeing a child point to my water bottle, and then to their open mouth,” she says.

The most rewarding part of the experience, they agreed, were the friendships they formed. The group included an historian, a biologist, a cultural geographer, a marketing professor and an economist, among others. “We had so many different disciplines, but the group melded well together,” said Downey. “We had time to mix, mingle and learn from each other. We could have had our own seminars daily.”

Lessons Learned

Learning was an important aspect of the trip, and Downey and Harbster are ready to share the intellectual profit they gained from their nearly two week long adventure. Harbster, who was drafted but never had to serve in the Vietnam War, said that there were a number of hard lessons learned from the war. “We don’t want to see them repeated in Iraq,” he said. “My number one hope is that we never again, as a country, treat our returning soldiers the way they were treated after Vietnam.”

Downey agrees. “There were a lot of atrocities on both sides,” she said. “It was hard to see the extent to which humanity will go to destroy one another.” Downey’s husband’s best friend was a conscientious objector to the war, and Downey was witness to the resulting controversy.

Vietnam has changed since the war, and the situation there is improving. After trying unsuccessfully to build a socialist paradise, Vietnam began market reforms in 1986 and has since achieved economic growth typical of countries that do so. Officially, however, Vietnam is still communist, making it difficult to fully capitalize on the newfound opportunities. Still, improvements are taking place. In 1995 the U.S. normalized relations with Vietnam, and in 2001 the two countries signed the U.S.—Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement.

One other exciting moment for the two was when they had the chance to meet and talk with Le Ba Uoc, a 75-year old, retired four-star General in the Vietnamese Army. Downey and Harbster had there pictures taken with Uoc in front of a replica of the same peace pole that we have at PVCC. Uoc’s hope for the future, Downey said, was “peace for the entire world.”