Let the Vietnamese boat people in – we have that obligation

Why are there two boat loads of Vietnamese refugees on the way to Australia? Trung Doan, a spokesman for The Vietnamese Community of Australia, told Steve Liebmann on the Nine Network's 'Today' show that they were escaping political persecution.

The truth is they are escaping a form of government that has proven brutal, corrupt and uncompromisingly dictatorial. And how did a brutal communist dictatorship assume power in Vietnam? The answer is simple and well-known: they were given a free ride there by a treacherous corrupt Western media who instead of reporting on their brutality and corrupt political system spent their time in providing a forum for their lying communist propaganda. The Western media ensured the Vietnamese communist dictatorship won the propaganda war.

The Australian people owe the Vietnamese people who have managed to escape the persecution they were condemned to, the security of life in Australia. That is the least that can be done in making up for one of the great injustices of the twentieth century.