It was a great weekend in Southern California for me.
I got to meet more Vietnamese refugees than I had previously in my life – all loyal, patriotic Americans who value liberty and understand it's worthy of sacrifice and, in fact, requires it.
I got to see a new movie called "Ride the Thunder," based on an epic book of the same name written by my good friend Richard Botkin and published by one of my companies, that breaks new ground in explaining a very timely and relevant story about just how Vietnam fell to Communist tyranny, horror and genocide because of U.S. foreign policies that are repeating themselves today in the Middle East.
I got to meet dozens of Vietnam vets who see what is happening in our country today with crystal clarity because they saw it happen before in a way that shook their lives.
TRENDING: Jihad against Christians is due to … climate change?
The Vietnamese refugees told me shocking stories of spending as much as 12 years in "re-education" camps where they were forced to work like animals, endured malnutrition, watched helplessly as many of their friends were murdered, but lived for the remotest possibility that they might someday escape to the freedom America promised.
The movie, which, by the way, grossed more box-office revenue per screen last weekend than any other film in America, showed me, a guy who once hung out with the likes of Jane Fonda, that most everything we heard about Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s was a lie – just like so much of what we hear today from the government and the semi-official state media.
The Vietnam vets told stories of betrayal by politicians in Washington, their love for the Vietnamese people and how we haven't really learned much since about how to fight a war to win.
I watched in amazement as thousands of great Americans and heroic Vietnamese refugees gathered around a Westminster, California, theater to rejoice, share tears, pray, love one another, sing and heal.
It all happened because of the triumphant book and movie, "Ride the Thunder," that does some things no other Vietnam book or movie has ever done.
I hope you will get a chance to experience some of what I experienced last weekend – maybe at a theater near you.
All of it – the book, the movie, the outreach to the largest Vietnamese community in America, the rallying of Vietnam vets – was due to a decade of dedicated work by retired Marine Capt. Richard Botkin. He had a vision for telling the story of Vietnam through the heroic characters of Marine Corps officer John Ripley, who died in 2009, and South Vietnamese Marine Lt. Col. Le Ba Binh, who spent 11 years in Communist force labor camps after the war and today lives in Southern California and attended the movie premiere.
Botkin got every grainy detail through multiple trips to Vietnam and lengthy interviews with eyewitnesses. His dedicated research and passion for the project is revealed in both the book and the movie and was evident through the outpouring of support he got from the Vietnamese community and the Vietnam vets.
He and the film's director, Fred Koster, hope to parlay that success into a wider theatrical release.
If they are successful, this movie could prove to be one of the most controversial Vietnam stories ever – especially with the archival footage it employs of Jane Fonda and John Kerry at their very worst, not to mention the first real depiction of the fallout from the U.S. betrayal of the South Vietnamese allies.
Seeing is believing – and the re-enactments of the story, coupled with the interspersing of historical footage make this a gripping and compelling account available to audiences for the first time.
Think you know the Vietnam story? Think again.
Read WND's coverage of the premiere of "Ride the Thunder"
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
|