Philip Agee died on 9 January of this year in Havana, Cuba. He was 72.

Agee joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1957 and worked as a case officer in several Latin American countries. He later claimed: “My eyes began to open little by little down there as I began to realize more and more that all of the things that I and my colleagues were doing in the CIA had one goal which was that we were supporting the traditional power structures in Latin America. These power structures had been in place for centuries, wherein a relative few families were able to control the wealth and income and power of the state and the economy, to the exclusion of the majority of the population in many countries. The only glue that kept this system together was political repression. I was involved in this. Eventually I decided I didn’t want anything more to do with that.”

Source

Agee resigned in 1969. His book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, was an instant best-seller and was eventually published in over thirty languages. An Agee interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now is available here.

One very important term often used by our government, military and corporate leaders is one which is almost never clealy defined. It hints at noble ideals. As a naive schoolboy in the ’50s or as an indoctrinated enlisted Marine in the late ’60s concepts such as spreading freedom and democracy, and freeing the world of injustice might have come to mind. The term is “US strategic interests”, or simply “our national interests”.

There are some things one never forgets. I’ll never forget my first, and only, encounter with torture some 40 years ago. Our daylight patrol, some 4 or 5 Marines and probably the same number of Vietnamese Province level militia troops engaged some unseen VC hidden in a tree-line and a firefight ensued. The tree-line held a small hamlet and predictably the village people carrying with them their most valued possessions fled in our direction. The fled because they knew their village would most likely be shelled, strafed or bombed. As it turned out the village was strafed by a couple of passes of a fighter jet spraying the area with 40 mm cannon fire.

Our Vietnamese counterparts detained a young lady they said was a VC, a nurse they claimed. We brought her back to our ragged compound where they bound her, stripped off her shirt and attached wires to her nipples and used a crank operated electrical device to shock her. Needless to say it was thoroughly disgusting. Through it all she refused to talk. I admired her courage. They took her off to the District Hq and we never heard any more about her.

In April 2004, the American public was stunned by televised photographs from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison showing hooded Iraqis stripped naked, posed in contorted positions, and visibly suffering humiliating abuse while U.S. soldiers stood by smiling. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld quickly assured Congress that the abuses were “perpetrated by a small number of U.S. military,” whom New York Times columnist William Safire soon branded “creeps.”

Most Americans became aware of torture when Seymour Hersh broke the story about Abu Ghraib. Where did it all begin? I witnessed torture 40 years ago and have come to wonder why, where and when it all started.

After French soldiers used the technique on Henri Alleg during the Battle for Algiers in 1957, this journalist wrote a moving description that turned the French people against both torture and the Algerian War. “I tried,”

Alleg wrote, “by contracting my throat, to take in as little water as possible and to resist suffocation by keeping air in my lungs for as long as I could. But I couldn’t hold on for more than a few moments. I had the impression of drowning, and a terrible agony, that of death itself, took possession of me.”

Let us think about the deeper meaning of Alleg’s sparse words–“a terrible agony, that of death itself.” As the water blocks air to the lungs, the human organism’s powerful mammalian diving reflex kicks in, and the brain is wracked by horrifically painful panic signals–death, death, death. After a few endless minutes, the victim vomits out the water, the lungs suck air, and panic subsides. And then it happens again, and again, and again–each

time inscribing the searing trauma of near death in human memory.

from: http://www.zmag.org/content/sh…

This essay is obviously not about the presidential primaries, domestic politics, the economy, the occupation of Iraq or foreign policy. The boomers among us will see some historical relevance. For some others it might bring back few special memories. This is a diary about a simple but elegant hat, a hat that some might consider to be symbolic of a poignant era in history, along with some additional words and photos of the flowing ao dai that is often worn together with the hat.

A change of pace here. Light reading and an attempt to provide a few eye-pleasing images and perhaps brighten your day a little bit.

The hats are traditionally known as a nón lá or a nón bài thơ. The former term refers to plain conical hat made with latania palm fronds, the latter refers to a conical hat with poetry and decoration placed between the two layers of leaves of the palm fronds. Bài th&#417 is the Viet word for poem.

The conical hat is a symbol of traditional Vietnamese life. It is practical and fashionable. It’s extremely durable, very light weight and provides protection from the tropical sun and from monsoon rains. It is worn throughout Viet Nam and also appears in rural areas of neighboring Laos and bordering areas of Cambodia. It is worn by farmers, fishermen, merchants, fashion models, students, adults, children, men, women, city-dwellers and country folk. It is seen in the fields, on the streets, in the market places and in traditional ceremonies.

Vietnamese conical hats are made from the dried leaves of the latania, a palm with fan-shaped fronds, layered over 16 brims fashioned from small diameter, cylindrical-shaped strips of bamboo.

Conical hats are made throughout the country. Different regions have their own versions of the basic nón design. The area around Hue, in central Viet Nam, is quite well known for its poem hats, which are light in weight yet very sturdy, and are inlaid with poems and images of well known landmarks in the Hue area. These are among the most favorite souvenir purchases made by visitors to Hue.

A view looking inside of the nón bài thơ (image left) shows a sampling of the inlay work. An image of the Thien Mu Pagoda (there are interesting photos of the actual pagoda at this link) can be seen in the lower left-center quadrant of the hat. Though it is difficult to see in the image, there is a poem inlaid in the lower right portion of the photo. The source of this photo is Google Images. One of the poems used is shown below along with an English translation.

The Vietnamese version of the poem below was provided by my niece. The translation to English is my own.

Making nón bài thơ has been a traditional craft for many generations in the Hue area. In the Phu Cam neighborhood, on the southern outskirts of Hue, many local residents engage in this craft. A large selection of conical hats for sale can be found a the main market-place along the Perfume River near the Citadel in Hue.

Nón bài thơ worn with the traditional áo dài (the pronunciation sounds like “ow yai” in the South and transitions to “ow zai” in the North) brings an aura of charm and grace to those women who wear it. Hue school girls wearing white ao dai and non bai tho have become  an endless source of inspiration for poets and writers.

The colors of an ao dai are an indication of the age and the status of the wearer. Schoolgirls usually wear white symbolizing purity. As they grow a bit more mature they begin wearing pastel shades. Married women wear patterns and darker colors.

In his 1982 novel Saigon, Anthony Grey described the Ao Dai  as  “demure and provocative…women seem not to walk, but to float gently beneath the tamarinds on the evening breezes.” It is often said that the ao dai covers everything but hides nothing.

Every ao dai is custom made, accounting for the fit that creates such a flattering look. Stores specialize in their production and a team of cutters, sewers and fitters ensure that the final product will highlight the figure of the wearer. Thuy, a fitter in Ho Chi Minh City, says, “To create the perfect fit, customers take their undergarments and shoes with them for the fittings.” The pants should reach the soles of the feet and flow along the floor.

Source – Things Asian

The photo in the blockquote above, on the right side, is from a collection by Tanya Truong. Her slide show with larger images may be seen here. Very nice!

More ao dai images can be viewed here including one of George W. Bush at the APEC Summit in Hanoi in 2006. I’m sure there are many other people you’d rather see in an ao dai, and there are a few others – much more pleasing to the senses, on the other end of the link.

In August of 1967 General William Westmoreland claimed to have hurt the enemy so badly that “their major efforts” were limited to the periphery of South Vietnam.

“We have reached an important point when the end becomes to come into view,”  General Westmoreland said in his speech to the National Press Club in Washington on November 21, 1967. “We are making progress…it (success) lies within our grasp, the enemy’s hopes are bankrupt.”

Meanwhile –

General Vo Nguyen Giap explained how and why the Hanoi leders had enticed the American forces to the borders of the South in an extended two-part article published in Quan Doi Nhan Dan (The Army of the People) published in September 1967. Giap cited the fighting along the DMZ and in the Central Highlands as principal examples of Hanoi’s strategy at work.

Quoted from A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan

The Offensive began on the eve of the lunar new year, 30 January 1968. In it’s early hours Westmoreland still contended that the Tet attacks were a diversion and that the real objective was Khe Sanh.