North Vietnam

An article in the New Citizen (15.5.75) when the forces of the former Thieu government were in retreat, quotes the Rev. Don Scott, Director of World Vision's Saigon Office as saying that while he offered encouragement to his Vietnamese colleagues, he really saw no hope, not even through his faith, which led him to believe that "God could stop the Communist advance". This suggests that World Vision is politically very close to the former governments of South Vietnam, and the governments of South Korea and the Phillipines and maintains a rigidly anti-Communist ideology.

And yet, these are not the reasons that World Vision Officers provide, when asked why the operation does not operate in North Vietnam.

Mr Geoff Renner, World Vision Director in New Zealand, has stated that, "we offered help to the North at the time of the Paris agreement and were declined," ((New Citizen, 15.5.75). A pamphlet delivered to all households in March, 1973, contained this message from the late Prime Minister Norman Kirk:

"World Vision of New Zealand has decided to play its part in raising funds for a badly needed hospital in Cambodia and for the care of needy and orphaned children throughout Indochina'..

Given Mr Renner's previous statement, to speak of offering aid "throughout Indochina" seems rather misleading.

In an interview with Terry Bell (Dominion Sunday Times, 18.3.73), Mr Renner claimed that:

"We don't take a political stand. We are prepared to give aid wherever it is needed and whenever we can. The North Vietnamese don't trust us and, as far as I can see, some of the people who have moved into North Vietnam have perhaps been too hasty."

Considering World Vision's unabashedly anti-communist stance it is perhaps not difficult to understand North Vietnam's reluctance to trust the organisation, if Mr Renner is indeed correct.

Rather it is rather difficult to understand how Mr Renner can claim that World Vision does not take a political stand.

World Vision claims to work through indigenous Christian Churches. One must therefore ask why it has not worked through the Protestant or Catholic Churches of North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese churches maintain contact with other agencies, such as the World Council of Churches.

There are probably several reasons why World Vision has not done this. As far as we can establish, one of the basic principles of socialist development of North Vietnam is that all people must share as equally as possible in the economic benefits of the country. Mr Russell Marshall MP, claimed that this was one of the strongest impressions he gained during his trip to North Vietnam. If this impression is correct, it is unlikely that the Vietnamese would accept individual sponsorship that favours certain individuals at the expense of others. World Vision may claim that individual sponsorship is 'apolitical' but we suggest that this only seems possible to us, because favouring certain individuals is a major part of our western way of life. We fail to recognise the philosophical concepts and beliefs that underlie each favouritism.

Therefore it is likely that any World Vision aid to North Vietnam would have to aim at benefitting everyone equally. One would assume that World Vision would have no objection: yet they have not found a suitable means of providing aid to North Vietnam Other agencies, such as the World Council of Churches, seem to have no difficulty in that country.