Meet the Founders of the Vietnam Friendship Village Project

Left:GEORGE MIZO, Viet Nam Friendship Village Founder
and then-President of the International Committee, shakes
hands with Sr. Lt. Gen. TRAN VAN QUANG, President
of the Veterans Association of Viet Nam, after the
unveiling of the sign at the Village dedication. Six flags
represent the countries involved: Japan, France, USA,
Vietnam, Germany and Great Britain. To General
Quang's left is Lt. Gen. Vu Xuan Vinh, Director of
Construction and Management.

"The veterans who have participated in seeing the true horrors of war have a particularly credible voice in speaking out against war. I think it is important also for veterans not just to demonstrate and speak out against war, but to set examples of the kind of things that we can do. And the Village of Friendship Project is one historic example. There are veterans and caring citizens from six countries at this point, who were all former enemies, now working together." --George Mizo, US Vietnam War Veteran (1945-2002)

George Mizo 1945-2002

An artillery sergeant and glorified war hero with almost two years of experience in the combat zone, by the end of 1967 George Mizo had begun to question US involvement in Vietnam. But it wasn't until the horrible moment during the 1968 Tet Offensive when George learned he was the sole survivor of an assault that killed his entire platoon that his understanding of the war's deception and immorality crystallized. From that moment on, George's life was no longer about war, but about peace and reconciliation. In his words (spoken at the grand opening ceremony for the Friendship Village), "Those of us who have seen firsthand that horror called war know how fragile life is, and how precious life is, and know that war is not the answer but part of the problem." At the Vietnamese embassy in Paris in the 1990, George and a group of international "veterans for peace" met face-to-face with Vietnamese officials to propose building a peace pagoda in Vietnam. Although the Vietnamese conveyed their appreciation of the gesture, they expressed that the money for the well-intended pagoda could go to better use securing food and medicine for the survival of the Vietnamese people. As George sat and listened, the idea for the Vietnam Village of Friendship was born.

Senior-Lieutenant General TRAN VAN QUANG was one of the leading officers of the Vietnamese offensive that killed George Mizo's men at Que Son in 1968. Having established his military prowess at the battle of Dien Bien Phu against the French in 1954, General Quang went on to serve under General Giap during the "American War," and was one of the key engineers of the Tet Offensive. Although not a win for the Vietnamese, the large number of American casualties marked the Tet Offensive as a turning point for the US, when the American public began to lose its will to wage war in Vietnam. In 1975 after the fall of Saigon, devastated by war and cut off from the Western world by a vengeful trade embargo, General Quang and his compatriots focused their attention on trying to rebuild the country that had become the third poorest in the world. It was with this goal in mind that he traveled to Paris in 1990 to meet with a group of international veterans for peace. This meeting led to the founding of the Vietnam Friendship Village.

Sr. Lt. General Tran Van Quang General Tran Van Quang (bottom center) shakes hands with then-Mayor Katherine Beiers during a Santa Cruz delegation visit to Vietnam in the spring of 1995.

Left: Besides serving as the President of the International Committee, George also headed up the German Committee with his wife, Rosi Hohn-Mizo. The Germans have been very successful in raising funds for the Friendship Village. In 1997, in conjunction with Friedensdorf International ("peace village"--an organization that takes care of wounded children from war zones all over the world), they received a grant of $425,000 from the German government, which paid for the medical clinic and four of the completed houses.

Dear Friends,

We can't change the past. We can't bring back our friends, our sons, our fathers or brothers . . . nor can we bring back the Vietnamese, no matter which side they fought on . . . nor can we bring back the children or other innocent victims of war . . . but we can change the present and the future.

The Viet Nam Friendship Village Project is already making a difference. What was just a dream a short while ago is now becoming a reality.

The Friendship Village project is about healing and hope. About International cooperation. The project has attracted people--veterans and non-veterans, young people and those not so young--from many different countries, many different nationalities and backgrounds, who see that it is possible to set aside our differences and work together for something that is positive.