Sông2Sea’s Statement at the Resist U.S.-Led War Rally and March

Hello, we are Sông2Sea, a grassroots organization for people with ancestral connection to present-day Vietnam and Asia Pacific. 

As people living in the Puget Sound Coast Salish area, we know that Boeing has a special relationship with this region. We have grown up being told that Boeing is a “local” company that provides our refugee and immigrant families with stable jobs and opportunities to start a new life; we have been told that it builds airplanes to help us reunite with loved ones.

While being indoctrinated to achieve the American dream myth, we are rarely told about the other side of Boeing as a weapons manufacturer, a part of the military industrial complex, and a war profiteer; one which directly profited from military violence on our own ancestral homeland. 

This military violence has devastated the land, and killed, disabled and displaced many of our people. Agent Orange was sprayed directly upon millions of Vietnamese, over 20% of the jungles, and up to 36% of the mangrove forests. Its detrimental effect continues to this day.

So, we want to take this opportunity to talk about that Boeing, and share with you the story of Operation Linebacker II, a U.S. bombing campaign that targeted northern Vietnam in December 1972. Also known as the Christmas Bombings, this was the most modern and brutal aerial bombing ever conducted by the U.S. Air Force. 

Here is a description from CNN, a mainstream media:

“Operation Linebacker II saw more than 200 B-52 bombers drop over 20,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam over a period of 12 days… in a brutal assault aimed at shaking the Vietnamese “to their core,” in the words of then US national security adviser Henry Kissinger.”

The aim of this operation was also to force the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to sign the Paris Agreement according to the conditions set by the United States, while threatening national liberation movements around the world. 

In Hanoi, in one night on the street of Kham Thien alone, 287 people were killed and 2,000 buildings destroyed. 

All told, the United States dropped over 5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, more than twice as much as it did in all of World War II.

If you already have anti-imperialist politics, stories like this are probably not new to you. But you might not have family in Hanoi, or you might not have seen a B-52 bomber in person before. So let us share with you this account from one of our co-founders: 

“It’s hard to describe how big a B-52 is. Its wingspan is 185 feet, to use an American reference, the width of a football field is 25 feet shorter. When I stood in front of the wreckage of one — even though it’s just a sprawling pile of burned metal today — I still wanted to destroy it once more, as I thought of two hundred of these dropping 20,000 tons of bombs overhead.

My family lives in Hanoi. My uncle came here in 1954 after the Geneva Conference. Vietnam was going to be independent and united as one country after French colonial rule and division, but the United States intervened. It would not be 20 years later that my uncle could come home to find his family in the South. Sometimes I take our family meals for granted. Sometimes I choke up just thinking about the enormous cost to each Vietnamese family in order for our country to be unified, and how extraordinary it is to be able to simply eat together with my cousins.”

The U.S. Airforce states plainly: “For more than 60 years, the B-52s have been the backbone of the strategic bomber force for the United States.” Boeing, of course, profits from this. Its Defense, Space & Security division accounts for 39% of its overall revenue, whereas its Commercial arm accounts for 32%. 

This so-called “local” company exploits the surplus labor of hundreds of thousands of workers while fueling US military aggression globally. This is a vicious cycle that we are trapped in until we resolve the main contradiction of U.S. imperialism.

Today, with ongoing perpetual war, while supplying weapons to Ukraine and refusing to negotiate for peace, faced with the prospect of *not* being a dominating world hegemonic power, the U.S. is stoking tension for a military confrontation with China. We resolutely oppose this warmongering. 

We know that resisting US-led war has been and continues to be a very long struggle. So we want to end with this quote from a Vietnamese revolutionary to keep igniting our collective fire:

“They can use thousands of airplanes and intensify the destruction of North Vietnam. However, they …cannot shake the iron-will and the determination of the brave Vietnamese people. The war can last 5 years, 10 years, 20 years or longer… There is nothing more precious than independence and freedom. When the day of victory arrives, our people will rebuild our country and make it more beautiful and splendid!”

Dear friends, family, community, and comrades, a more beautiful and splendid world is possible. Let’s keep building and working together. If you have ancestry in Asia Pacific and want to be a part of that building process with us, please get in touch at email.song2sea@gmail.com or @song2sea on Instagram.