Q
at the president’s suggestion José López Portillo, the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), then directed by Dr. Edmundo Flores, looked for a way to support Vietnam through institutions and professionals in the field of ecology. That country had been devastated in 1975, after so many years of intervention by France and the United States. Its natural resources suffered severe damage from the tens of thousands of tons of incendiary bombs dropped by the neighboring country’s aviation.
To see how to provide this help, Dr. Flores asked me to visit Vietnam and evaluate the state of the environment. For this purpose, I had several interviews with your ambassador, which were also attended by Manuel Becerra Acosta, director of the newspaper Oneplus one, and interested in publishing my impressions of the visit. During my stay I would see President Pham Van Dong and Le Duc Tho (1911-1990), the talented diplomat who represented his nation in the negotiations with the United States that led to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.
During November, I toured the most ecologically affected parts of Vietnam: forest and crop areas, rivers and destroyed water storage systems. Same villages and towns, but the population was already launching agricultural production and establishing nurseries for reforestation. As I informed Conacyt upon my return, ecological aid was not essential. The Vietnamese had ancestral knowledge of their environment. They required technological and financial support, and they received it from several countries.
If I highlight that visit today it is to remember the interview given to me by Le Duc Tho, whom President Ho Chi Minh appointed as chief peace negotiator with the United States. He “gathered the virtues to deal with a cunning and resourceful enemy,” according to the legendary leader. And he accomplished his task in spades. I then highlighted in the Oneplusone his assertion that this agreement was a way to give the United States a decent exit from Vietnam, since its defeat was inevitable.
I also mentioned the reason he had for refusing to receive the Nobel Peace Prize that he was awarded together with Henry Kissinger. He was the only one to reject it. His answer: peace did not exist in Vietnam. The aggression continued. And furthermore, he could not share such recognition with someone who was a fundamental part of the destruction of his country, along with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon.
A few weeks ago, Donald Trump said he deserved this distinction for achieving peace between Israel and Palestine, and that not giving it to him would be an insult to his country. He didn’t get it, but he assured that the chosen one dedicated it to him because he was the one who really deserved it. It is good to remember today that on February 4, when death and destruction were at their peak in Gaza due to the Israeli army and the support of the United States, Trump announced that he would “take control” of that strip. And I would rebuild it.
Their project: turn it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera.” It will be, he said, “such a magnificent place,” where “people from all over the world will reside in an extraordinary area in the Mediterranean.” Next to him, Benjamin Netanyahu nodded smiling. He concluded by promising to “dismantle all unexploded bombs, level the land, get rid of the destroyed buildings and level the area to promote economic development that generates an unlimited number of jobs and housing.”
And the 2.3 million Gazans? Trump proposed sending them to Jordan and Egypt, and when his proposal was rejected, to Morocco and the autonomous territories of Puntland and Somaliland. The magnate ignores the prestigious past of that Palestinian strip, which dates back to the Bronze Age. An oasis praised for its glory and lifestyle; a port through which the riches of the East, Arabia, Africa and the Mediterranean transited. Which has numerous archaeological sites today in danger. One of them: the Monastery of San Hilario, declared a World Heritage Site.
He also ignores that Gaza is a melting pot of ancient cultures. Prominently, from the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman and Ottoman. That does not matter to him, as can be seen from the peace plan he proposed, since it includes the reconstruction of Gaza according to the interests of the great power and Israel. They are of economic-political domain, and not in accordance with a sovereign Palestinian State, made up of all the territories today disintegrated and attacked.
