Ben Tre
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This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. (June 2012) |
| Ben Tre Thành phố Bến Tre |
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 Ben Tre
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| Coordinates: 10°14′N 106°23′E / 10.233°N 106.383°E | |
| Country |  Vietnam |
| Province | Bến Tre |
| Area | |
| • Total | 65.75 km2 (25.39 sq mi) |
Ben Tre (
listen) is the capital city and the municipality for Bến Tre Province, in the Mekong Delta area of southern Vietnam. The city covers an area of 65.75 km2 and has a population of 143,639 (as of 2009).[1] Bến Tre is 85 km south-east of Ho Chi Minh City and is connected to the surrounding provinces by Rach Mieu Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge which was completed on 19 January 2007. It played a significant role during the Vietnam War on account of its bombing by allied forces.
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History[edit]
The French occupied Ben Tre in 1867.[2]
Vietnam War[edit]
A famous quote from the Vietnam War was a statement attributed to an unnamed U.S. officer by AP correspondent Peter Arnett in his writing about Bến Tre city on 7 February 1968. Arnett cited an unidentified U.S. military official in his report:
'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it', a United States major said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualties, to rout the Vietcong.[3]
The quote became distorted in subsequent publications, eventually becoming the more familiar, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."[4] Victor Hanson, writing for the conservative National Review Online, has called into question the accuracy of the original quote and its source.[5]
Arnett never revealed his source, except to say that it came from one of four officers he interviewed that day. United States Army Major Phil Cannella, the senior officer present at Bến Tre, suggested that the quote might have been a distortion of something he had said to Arnett.[4] The New Republic at the time attributed the quote to U.S. Air Force Major Chester L. Brown.[6]
In Walter Cronkite's 1971 book, Eye on the World, Arnett re-asserted that the quote was something "one American major said to me in a moment of revelation."[7] However, American veteran Captain Michael D. Miller wrote in 2006 that he heard the comment being made by one Major Booris at a press briefing.[8]
Notable people[edit]
- Thach Thi Ngoc - Member of the 1968 South Vietnamese Olympic team
- Sister Chan Khong - Nun who has worked closely with Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh for more than fifty years.
Schools[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Nghị quyết số 34/NQ-CP về việc thành lập thành phố Bến Tre thuộc tỉnh Bến Tre do Chính phủ ban hành (Decision by the Vietnamese government on the establishment of Ben Tre City)
- ^ Thạch Phương, Tứ Đoàn, Phương Thảo Nguyễn Địa chí Bến Tre 1991 "Only in Bao and Minh islets, there had been 70 schools of Chinese characters in 152 villages until the French occupied Ben Tre (1867). That was a very rare proportion at that time. The list of the Ben Tre successful candidates written in the...."
- ^ "Major Describes Move". New York Times. 8 February 1968.
- ^ a b Keyes, Ralph (2006). The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-34004-9.
- ^ Victor Davis Hanson "Misplaced Metaphors", NRO, 24 November 2004
- ^ Braestrup, Peter (1977). Big Story: How the American Press and Television Reported and Interpreted the Crisis of Tet 1968 in Vietnam and Washington, Volume 1. Westview Press. p. 259. ISBN 9780891580126.
- ^ Cronkite, Walter (1971). Eye on the World. Cowles Book Company.
- ^ "Saving Ben Tre". Elk Hunting Wisdom. October 25, 2008.
External links[edit]
- Ben Tre - The third Coconut Festival 2012
- Tuổi Trẻ Bến Tre
- Official website of Ben Tre province (English ver.)
- Michael D. Miller. Saving Ben Tre: American veteran's account of Bến Tre during the Tet Offensive
Coordinates: 10°14′N 106°23′E / 10.233°N 106.383°E
