A doctor
in
Vietnam:
hope and
frustration
By MARTY WESTERMAN
Of the Emerald
“I’ve been wanting to do
something like this—going to an
underdeveloped country to help
out medically—for a long time. I
was concerned about the Viet
nam war; and this also gave me a
chance to ‘see the world’.”
Dr. Glen Gordon returned to
Eugene last Saturday from two
months’ work as one of four
American consulting physicians
at a civilian hospital in Da Nang,
South Vietnam. He was par
ticipating in a five-year-old
program called “Volunteer
Physicians for Vietnam,”
sponsored by the U.S. Depart
ment of State and the American
Medical Association.
The volunteer program was
started because of the lack of
Vietnamese doctors. American
doctors volunteered to take care
of the civilians there, and nearly
the entire burden of health care
in South Vietnam rested with
these American physicians.
“Some of the doctors have gone
back up to three times,” Gordon
said. “But I believe we are not
adding anything anymore.” He
recommended in his end-of-tour
report that the program be
phased out because it “is not
worth the effort or time” now.
Glen Gordon is a general
surgeon who has practised in
Eugene for the past 16 years.
Originally from Texas, he at
tended medical school in New
York City before coming out west
to make his home in Oregon. A
trim, tan, 46, he is pleasant and
speaks with just the trace of a
drawl.
His general impression of the
South Vietnamese people was
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good. “There is basically nothing
wrong with the people—when
they are motivated they work
hard as the dickens. But it is
frustrating to try to pressure
them when they don’t want to
work.” He recalled trying to
muster nurses who didn’t feel like
working at his hospital for an
operation. “I was ready to give
up,” he said.
But generally the Americans
and the Vietnamese don’t like
each other. Americans are
snobbish on the whole, and take
on an often superior attitude
toward the natives. They expect
the Vietnamese to learn English,
because “the Americans won’t
learn Vietnamese,” Gordon
asserted. And the natives resent
this. There is very little con
versation between the natives
and the Americans.
“Lack of a common language is
an extremely important problem
we have not solved,” Gordon
explained. It is difficult for either
side to learn the other’s
language. For instance, Viet
namese is a language of tonal
variations.
The better training and
education of American
physicians only makes this
problem more acute. “The ten
dency is to dissociate from the
Vietnamese rather than try to
help,” Gordon added.
Dr. Glen Gordon
“The Alamo-' was in a com
pound surrounded by a fence at
which Vietnamese soldiers
(ARVN) stood guard. But it was
not secure. One afternoon an
American drove his jeep into the
compound and parked it outside
the barracks. He walked into the
building and minutes later the
jeep exploded.
The Americans there
distrust the ARVN’s. Gordon
cited one example in which an
American military compound
was under Vietcong attack. The
Viet Cong killed 31 American
soldiers at that hamlet while an
“JVo matter how much
President Nixon says, nothing
is secure. . . Nobody travels
the roads at night."
American doctors at his
hospital resorted to sign
language and broken French, a
more common Western language
there, in order to find out where
the patients “hurt.”
On the other hand, those
doctors who could speak with the
patients, the Vietnamese doctors
themselves, “are poorly trained,
and they know it,” Gordon said.
He went on to explain that there
are two medical schools in South
Vietnam: one in Saigon, and
another crowded into one
building in Hue. The facilities at
both schools are sorely limited,
and at the one in Hue, doctors do
not do any work until their
seventh, and last year at the
school. The first six years are
taken up primarily by lectures.
“Helping (seventh year) in
terns was the best thing I could
do” at the hospital, Gordon said.
The facilities were minimal,
Gordon went on. “Care and
cleanliness were 50 to 100 years
behind. There were no doors, no
screens, raw sewage was just
outside the building, and there
were flies in the operating
room.” Plumbing and electricity
were also poor.
Conditions were better at his
barracks, however. At the
“Alamo” (‘I liked that name,
being from Texas’) not only were
plumbing and electricity in good
repair, but there was air con
ditioning. “Vietnam is a land of a
million air conditioners,” Gordon
grinned.
adjacent ARVN compound, not
under attack itself, offered the
Americans no assistance. Gordon
noted that this was not an isolated
incident.
“The ARVN is not a fighting
army,” Gordon said. “It is not
enthusiastic. When the moment
of truth comes, I think it is going
to be a paper army.”
For this reason, Dr. Gordon
fears for the Americans still 1?
Vietnam. He believes that the
more troops which are with
drawn, the worse it is exposing
those American troops who
remain to “enemy action.”
“No matter how much
President Nixon says, nothing is
secure,” the doctor asserted. The
Viet Cong can drop something
anywhere. Nobody travels the
roads at night.” Americans
remain in their vehicles for
safety, which “reduces the
amount of conversation with the
natives” even more, Gordon said.
The doctor sat back in his chair
and said, “The people of South
Vietnam are tired of war. The
civilians have suffered the
ravages of 30 years of war and
act like the war is not going on.”
He mentioned that Vietnam has a
tropical climate, and every day
at noon its natives close their
shops and take a two-hour
“siesta.” Only the Americans
work through this time. “The
country is not mobilized for
war,” Gordon added.
Gordon then surmised that
continued American presence
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won't make any difference. It will
only put off the final decision of
when to leave and how the South
Vietnamese will hold up under
the pressure.
“We have the capability to
withdraw all Americans im
mediately,” Gordon explained.
“We should try to help those
(Vietnamese) who want to leave.
For what we’ve done to them (the
South Vietnamese), we owe them
something.” The doctor
suggested re settling the
“friendlies” and collaborators in
this country, much as we did with
Cuban refugees, as those who
would be most likely to emigrate
are generally professional and
managerial people.
“It is not unpatriotic at all to
raise questions about the war—it
is our right and responsibility,”
Gordon said. People should
“keep the pressure up”—such as
through support of the Eugene
anti-war referendum on the
upcoming ballot. “Otherwise, I
don't believe the war is going to
stop.”
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