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The
Mekong Club was founded late in 2000, following the disbanding
of the BVLCA
The History of the Britain Vietnam Association -
Britain Vietnam Laos and Cambodia Association
1975-2000
by the late Stewart Valdar, London.
Hilda
Vernon, of Coventry Road, Ilford, founded the British Vietnam
Committee (BVC) in 1951, "sending money from supporters and
sympathizers to help the Vietnamese cause against the French, who
occupied the country, pursuing a policy of exploitation and
incredible cruelty".
The highly
successful financial appeals of the BVC, in the Vietnam Bulletin,
rooted in the work of the then Medical Aid Committee for Vietnam
(later Medical & Scientific Aid to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia)
which was set up in June 1965 by Dr Joan McMichael Askins
(1906-1989).
Hilda
Vernon edited and published 140 issues of Vietnam Bulletin
1951-1976, "which was the first British journal to expose the US
crime of spraying toxic chemicals of Agent Orange on a massive scale
in Vietnam, affecting up to 47 per cent of arable land in south
Vietnam".
On 19 May
1954 the BVC called a meeting at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square,
London to celebrate the 64th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh to
demand an end to the widening US war on Vietnam and called for a
cease-fire.
In 1965
the British Council for Peace in Vietnam (BCPV) was set up. It
merged with British Vietnam Committee in 1975 to form Britain
Vietnam Association. The aim of the BVA was "friendship between the
peoples of Britain and the three countries of Indochina, Vietnam,
Laos and Kampuchea (Cambodia), bringing economic and cultural
benefits to all".
The
founder president was Fenner, later Lord Brockway (18881988).
Earlier he had been president of the British Council for Peace in
Vietnam. After his death Lord (Hugh) Jenkins of Putney became
president. The chairman was Ernie Roberts MP (Hackney North). Hilda
Vernon, who became treasurer, remained active in the BVA until her
death on 12 August 1982. Membership organizer and researcher, Joan
Yuille, became secretary in 1975 and her husband David became
vice-chair.
Jack
Askins, former joint secretary of BCPV founded the NW British
Vietnam, Laos & Kampuchea (after 1 May 1989, Cambodia)
Association and it continued until recently, latterly as Friends of
Vietnam, under the leadership of Mike Luft, Bernard Barry and Ken
Sharples of Preston, Lancs. Askins, who died in 1987, who were
awarded the Vietnamese Order of Friendship.
Scotland
Vietnam Association was founded by Colin Anderson of Glasgow and
others and thrived under his leadership until his early death on 9
January 1999, at the age of 47. He organized meetings between the
Vietnamese ambassador and leaders of the Scottish TUC.
The BVA
launched Vietnam Broadsheet in 1979 with the secretary Joan
Yuille as editor but with her husband doing much of the editing. It
was a four A4 page newsletter with the sub-title "an alternative to
the lies and distortions of the media". It was planned to issue it
in spring, summer and autumn.
David, a
retired schoolteacher, and Joan Yuille visited Vietnam and Cambodia
in 1985. They were both awarded the Vietnam Order of
Friendship.
In 1987
Ernie Roberts ceased to be a Member of Parliament and his place as
chair was taken by Chris Mullin recently elected as MP for
Sunderland South. Ernie Roberts and David Yuille were elected
vice-presidents. David Yuille died on 16 September 1988 and Ernie
Roberts in August 1994.
In spring
1988, Stewart Valdar, a journalist who had been on a study tour of
Vietnam in 1985, led by fellow journalist Chris Mullin, took over
the Broadsheet (No 9) and continued editing the magazine
until its final issue (No 48) in May 2000. The title changed to
Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia Broadsheet in spring 1990.
The
Broadsheet maintained contact with Indo-China support
magazines in the US, New Zealand, Australia and Denmark and was
listed in US and UK (SOAS and Sussex) University libraries.
The BVA
(after 1994, BVLCA, Britain Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Association)
kept in touch with the Scottish and NW organisations who distributed
its Vietnam Broadsheet to their members and friends.
Its
activities included annual general meetings and socials and public
meetings at Unity Hall, Euston Road, London and at the House of
Commons committee rooms, under the chair of Chris Mullin MP.,
Vietnam Victory Day and National Day, in co-operation with the
Vietnamese Embassy, the Loa Revolution and liberation of Kampuchea
from Pol Pot celebrations.
One of the
most lasting activities of the BVA was the erection, in 1990, at the
instigation of Chris Mullin, of a blue plaque to President Ho Chi
Minh (1890-1969), founder of Modern Vietnam, on the outside wall of
New Zealand House, Haymarket, London, site of the Carlton Hotel
where he worked in 1913.
The plight
of Cambodia in the late 80's and 90's produced a number of
friendship and support organizations -- the Oxford Group for
Indo-China, the nation-wide Friends of Cambodia (1990), Schools
Cambodia Campaign, London Cambodia Support Group and other
organisations to help land-mine victims. The Cambodia Trust. Active
in this field, in Vietnam, aided by Medical & Scientific Aid to
Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia, and in Cambodia and elsewhere was the
Indian-inspired Jaipur Limb Campaign, London.
Leading
figures in the British film industry, led by Neil Gibson, backed by
the ACTT, set up in 1989 the Campaign to Assist Vietnam Cinema,
shipping containers of donated equipment to Vietnam.
As
Indo-China recovered from the devastating American war, tourism
developed and popularized in Britain by Progressive Tours and Regent
Holidays, TBN World Tours, Oriental and Occidental, Tennyson Travel,
Asian Journeys and Silk Steps, all of which supported Vietnam,
Laos and Cambodia Broadsheet with regular advertising. They also
distributed the magazine to their travellers.
In autumn
1979 the BVA campaigned against the British Government's plans
to sell weapons, including Harrier jump jets to China after its
attack on Vietnam.
In January
1980 the BVA published a four-page special edition of Kampuchea
Broadsheet to cover the popular uprising against the Khmer Rouge
terror and the setting up of the People's Republic of Kampuchea of
Heng Somrin, calling for British recognition.
In autumn
1983 the BVA joined a national campaign to overturn UN and EEC
policies denying Vietnam food aid to Vietnam which has suffered
typhoons and floods. It was backed by UNA, Oxfam, the Catholic CIIR
and Cafod, Quaker Peace and Service, Christian Aid and others.
Chris
Mullin MP, remained chair of BVLCA until it disbanded in the winter
of 2000. For many years Prof. Ted Shellard played a leading role as
treasurer of the BVA. He was succeeded by barrister Josh Swirsky.
Among the stalwarts on the executive remained peace campaigner and
Quaker, Peggie Preston.
Secretaryship of the BVA, after Joan Yuille, was held
successively by Len Aldis and, as BVLCA, by Ian McDonald, until its
disbandment.
Joan
Yuille, BVA secretary 1975-1987, died aged 83, in May 1996. Chris
Mullin MP paid tribute to "the years of selfless devotion that she
and David gave to the cause of peace in Vietnam and the years of
tireless work they gave to the BVA". He added: "They helped to keep
a small flame alight at a time of great difficulty for
Vietnam."
The
association held a meeting in the House of Commons grand committee
room, on 22 November 1983, to pay tribute to the campaigning
Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett who had died 27 September,
with tributes from James Cameron, John Pilger, David Munro and Chris
Mullin (then of Tribune). In July 1979 Burchett had held a
press conference in the same room to report on the awful Pol Pot
terror in Kampuchea (Cambodia).
Early in
1984 Greenwich branch of the BVA was set up with lan McDonald of
Woolwich as secretary. It met monthly, with discussions, talks and
socials.
By 1989,
the BVA called for an end to the US economic blockade of Vietnam,
four years after its military withdrawal, in these words: "The
richest country on Earth, despite solemn pledges, has made no
reparation. Worse, the US has blockaded Vietnam, struggling to
rebuild its economy, and pressurized its allies, including Great
Britain, to shun her, too."
The BVA
urged cultural exchanges, development of trade, tourist visits and
student and training exchanges. In 1991 the BVA celebrated 40 years
of solidarity and friendship with Vietnam from the setting up of
Britain Vietnam Committee.
The BVLCA
supported the British appeal for funds to build the Vietnam
Friendship Village, outside Hanoi, brainchild of George Mizo, a US
Vietnam veteran, and the Vietnam Festival of Culture, in May and
June 1997, in London and Edinburgh, planned by two Edinburgh
cultural project partners.
In 1998
Connie Seifert, life-long campaigner in the anticolonial struggle
and other progressive causes, friend of Vietnam and executive member
of the BVLCA, died aged 87.
The BVLCA
that year appealed for donations to Vietnam Red Cross fund for
victims of Agent Orange. Over two million people had suffered from
US chemical warfare, described by the UK magazine The Ecologist
as "one of the most shocking scandals of our age".
Ian McDonald,
BVLCA secretary, wrote to the US ambassador in London, following
an AGM resolution, urging the US to commence paying reparations,
promised in 1973, to Vietnam caused by "unprovoked aggression,
bombing, napalm bombing and chemical warfare, which resulted in
birth defects". (No reply was ever received).
This was
followed in February 1999 by Oona King MP putting down an early day
motion in the House of Commons, signed by 65 Members, calling on the
US government to compensate Vietnamese affected by the poison Agent
Orange sprayed on their country by American troops during the
war.
The BVLCA
held a public meeting on 9 June 1999, in the House of Commons,
calling for compensation for Agent Orange victims, addressed by
editor of the genetics magazine Splice.
The last
issue of the Broadsheet (May 2000) featured Chris Mullin MP's
letter to the US ambassador in London, Philip Lader. He asked what,
if any, contribution the United States government had made, either
directly or through non-government organizations, to help Vietnam
cope with the human consequences of Agent Orange and related
substances?
At
an extraordinary general meeting, in November 2000, the Britain
Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia Association decided its work was
largely done and decided to close down.
During
that final meeting, held in the House of Commons, members felt
that it would be a pity if the social and cultural functions of
the BVLCA were to end. It was agreed that £200 of the remaining
Association assets would be allocated to setting-up a new organization,
and thus the Mekong Club was born.
Stewart Valdar died at the age of 90 on 5 June 2007.
Click here for an obituary
RPB,
WebMaster
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