Confronted by the present situation in our country, and following upon the increasingly urgent appeals of Pope Paul VI, we Catholic priests, motivated by neither political nor religious partisanship, desire to express the profound anguish of men who refuse to betray their fellow-men, of Vietnamese who share the sufferings of their compatriots as well as the anguish of servants of Jesus Christ, Who died to bring to all men love and salvation. 

The blood of men has already flowed too abundantly over this Vietnamese land; this fratricidal war is in a paroxysm of its cruelty. 

In their march toward victory by force of arms, both the North and South are progressively giving up more and more of our country’s autonomy, thereby leading the Vietnamese problem into more and more of an impasse, where its solution is no longer the free decision of the Vietnamese people. 

The disorder created by the war, the presence of foreign soldiers, forces upon the masses of people economic, social and moral conditions which are an affront to human dignity. 

With all men of goodwill, we wish to be mindful of man’s sacred destiny, his dignity, his right to freedom, and the fraternity of each and every one of these men, our brothers, who in the North as in the South are today victims of the ravages of bombardment, the oppression of ideologies, misery, suffering, the degrading corruption of money, divided and torn by prejudice, self-interest and politics. 

In the name of these men, we wish to proclaim from the housetops the aspirations of all those who suffer so much and who hardly have a voice anymore: we seek peace through the freedom of the human person and the justice of society, for the well-being of all. 

We cannot tolerate this absurd drama of brothers of the same country, sharing the same sincere love for their country and their people, the same determination to dedicate themselves to a great cause, the same thirst for peace, attacking and killing each other in hatred. 

We cannot accept the fact that the objective of unifying the country, or of building some better future, can serve as a pretext for continuing this fratricidal war. 

That is why we urgently implore the authorities of the North and South to take all appropriate steps to bring the war to an end immediately. Let them not wait for some sort of guarantee before deciding in all sincerity to respect the life and liberty of the Vietnamese of the North and South and the brotherhood that binds them together. 

Let these authorities renounce the claim that they seek through armed victory a guarantee for negotiations and the ending of hostilities—let them also renounce their ambitions of implanting or suppressing ideologies through subversion and bombardment, for that can only lead to genocide and prolong the tragedy of underdevelopment and the country’s alienation. 

May the authorities on both sides undertake negotiations in justice and honesty to arrive at peace, for only genuine peace will enable them both to devote themselves to the creation of the material and moral conditions necessary for the Vietnamese people’s free and democratic choice of their future. 

May the great powers respect the autonomy and self-determination of the people and not contribute to making the war in Vietnam more and more murderous, creating in this way such an impasse that the only outcome can be a world war. 

Since effectively the North and the South, as well as the great powers that support them, have demonstrated that they cannot by themselves bring the war to an end through the illusory attempt to obtain victory for one side and capitulation by the other, virtually the only way that leads to the cessation of hostilities, to negotiations and to peace (which would at least stop the shedding of more blood) is to acknowledge both the mediation and arbitration of the United Nations, to have recourse to, and to collaborate sincerely with, that organization. 

With all our hearts we invite men of good will of both the North and the South to surmount every form of oppression, and to express openly and bravely the will of the Vietnamese people for peace. By such action the responsible authorities can no longer pretend to ignore that will or to enjoy clear consciences, not until they have engaged in negotiations toward peace and utilized every means of negotiation, not until they have seized every occasion for doing so. 

But peace can come and be maintained only insofar as the Vietnamese masses become aware of the peril that threatens both man and country, and the well-being of the community and the survival of the people are set above the interests of individuals and groups. 

The survival of the country, the interests of the people and of peace itself, have nothing to fear from the diversities of ideologies and of beliefs. On the contrary, truly to be feared are those who, in the name of one side or the other, go so far as to no longer respect free choice and its exercise on the part of their fellow-citizens. Also to be feared are those who in actuality have no other ideology or religion than themselves, their money, their passions, and their own interests. 

The moment has come to mobilize all that remains of the faith and spiritual energy of the people—not to intensify hatred but to extinguish so many discords, so much jealousy, to restore the bonds of unity which, from this moment, before it is too late, will permit the imparting from all hearts, all families, all groups to the structures of society: truth, justice, liberty and love as solid foundations for authentic peace and happiness. In this experience, little by little, man will no longer need to oppose his brother for the right to subsist and to think, etc. ... but all in common will put forth their efforts to exploit the resources of nature, sharing equitably the conditions and means of material and spiritual progress necessary for personal and community achievement. 

Up to this point, we have been echoing in the name of man the voices of those who are about to have voices no longer. In concluding, it is also in the name of man that we speak out for those who have decided not to be subjugated in misery, for those who do not accept defeatism, for those who demand victory but not victory through arms and through exploitation and hatred, a victory in which men continue to suppress men and men continue to be held inferior to other men. We demand a victory of truth, justice, liberty and love, the unique victory which can bring peace for the true honor of man. 

DO XUAN QUE

NGUYEN NOC LAN

TRAN VIET THO 

TRUONG DINH HOA 

VU VAN THIEN 

HO DINH 

NGUYEN THANK CAO 

TRUONG BA CAN 

HOANG KIM 

DINH KHAC TIEU 

HUYEN THE MY 

This appeal to end the war in Vietnam is translated from the French. It appeared in the February 2, 1966 issue of Informations Catholiques Internationales. 

“Scripture warns that ‘where there is not vision the people perish.’ The failure of vision in our time is a blindness to realities no less than to ideals. The threat of this moment is a preoccupation with the enemy that destroys our society’s power to understand itself or its foes. In such a time the greatest service to the society comes from those voices—in church, politics and press—that risk the displeasure of the powers that be in order to challenge dogmas that imperil ourselves and our world . . . . ”

—Editorial Board, Christianity and Crisis