The National Endowment for Democracy in Vietnam. 

   On 14 august 1995, Vietnam sentenced nine pro-democracy activists,
including two U.S. Citizens, to prison for subversion.
One was Nguyen Dinh Huy who led a U.S.-based group
called the Movement to Unite the People and Build Democracy.
Huy, was a former newspaper editor and activist in the zealously 
Anti-communist Dai Viet Party (A Dai Viet Party was funded by the CIA 
during the war).  His group organized a conference on development and 
democracy to be held in Hanoi in 11/93. He and six others were arrested
the day before the conference was to begin. Two other
defendants were arrested this year. 

   The conference enraged Vietnam's leadership because some of 
the top U.S. officials during the war were invited: William Colby
(of CIA's Phoenix Program), General William Westmoreland and 
retired General John Vessey. The Washington Times 8/15/95 A1,6.October 2, 1995

   No I am not saying that human rights violations listed by Amnesty
International do not exist. The National Endowment for Democracy is using
human rights violations as a catch phrase for intervening in other
governments for the purpose of modifying or overturning those governments
-- just as NED's counterpart the CIA used "communist conspiracies" as an
excuse to overthrow even anti-communist governments.  NED is most rigorous
in its operations where the U.S. has a key interest in changing targeted
governments. 

   In the past the CIA removed popular governments in Iran, Guatemala, Chile,
and numerous other countries while proclaiming it operated to fight the
"International Communist Conspiracy," or related themes -- and then
empowered despotic rulers which were horrendous in their violations of
human rights. We did not generate an outcry of human rights violations
once we achieved our goals. 

   I do not include a case by case statement which is well-documented in
William Blum's book, "Killing Hope," and in other numerous studies. 

   The evidence is all there, but an open mind and the courage to examine old
perceptions is required as well as the determination to penetrate the
ideological fog of generations of propaganda. 

Ralph McGehee