US activist Merle Ratner to rest in peace in Việt Nam

Merle Ratner’s husband Dr Ngô Thanh Nhàn and Vietnamese Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Việt Nam to the UN in New York Đặng Hoàng Giang lit up incenses in tribute of the deceased Merle Ratner. — VNA/VNS Photo

NEW YORK — The cremated ashes of Merle Ratner, a left-wing and anti-war US activist and a friend of Việt Nam, left New York for Việt Nam at a ceremony held by the Permanent Mission of Việt Nam in New York, her relatives and friends on August 7.

At the event, Ambassador Đặng Hoàng Giang, head of the mission, affirmed that Vietnamese leaders and people always bear in their mind Ratner’s love for the country – her second homeland, and her devotion to the struggle for the nation’s independence, reunification, development and international integration.

The Vietnamese Party and State are waiting to welcome Ratner home, he said, adding her cremated ashes will be scattered on Đồ Sơn sea in the northern city of Hải Phòng in a ceremony held by the Party Central Committee’s Commission for External Relations, in coordination with relevant organisations and the authorities of Hải Phòng on August 10.

Dr Ngô Thanh Nhàn, Ratner’s husband, and US friends expressed their appreciation of the Party and State’s concern as well as the meticulous preparation for her journey home by relevant agencies.

Merle Evelyn Ratner was born into a Jewish-American family in New York City in 1956. At the age of 13, she actively took part in the anti-war movement and showed her support for the National Front for the Liberation of South Việt Nam. At that time, the public in the US and the world were impressed by a small girl climbing the Statue of Liberty and waving the red flag with a yellow star and slogans calling for an end to the wrongful war.

She used to say that images of the destructive war in Việt Nam and the stories about napalm bombs and toxic chemicals killing a large number of people had urged her to take to the streets to do something meaningful to help Vietnam.

Inspired by the sympathies and love for the S-shaped country, Ratner sought to read documents and writings about President Hồ Chí Minh, General Võ Nguyên Giáp, and the just struggle of the Vietnamese people. The more she learned about Việt Nam, the more strongly she supported the fight for independence, freedom, and national reunification of its people.

After the re-unification of Vietnam in 1975, with her stronger love for Việt Nam, Ratner campaigned for the normalisation of the Việt Nam – US relations and supported many international activities of Việt nam. During 1976 – 1979, she and her husband promoted the establishment of an association of patriotic overseas Vietnamese in the US to call on the US Government to normalise the relations with and lift the embargo on Việt Nam.

She used to visit the Southeast Asian country for many times and work with mass organisations, the Việt Nam Fatherland Front, and the Hồ Chí Minh National Academy of Politics.

Ratner was a co-founder and coordinator of the Việt Nam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC) in the New York region. She worked tirelessly to appeal to organisations and individuals to support Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and to the US Government to compensate the victims. Over the past years, she collected tens of millions of signatures via the internet to help Agent Orange victims of Việt Nam to launch lawsuits.

Ratner was awarded the Friendship Order, the “For the Development of Vietnamese Women” insignia in 2010 and the “For Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange” insignia in 2013 in recognition of her enormous contributions.

She passed away in a traffic accident in New York on February 5 evening. — VNS