Revisionism

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Please tell the fellow-travelers who wrote "Vietnam: What Have We Learned?" (Crimson, April 12) that if the Bach Mai Hospital were destroyed by American bombers, then it must have had only one patient! According to the Vietnam News Agency (Hanoi), only one patient of the hospital suffered any injuries at all. If the hospital was hit, many more than one patient would have been hurt. It seems unlikely that the hospital was the intended target of the air attack since a major oil storage depot, which is a legitimate war-time target, was located nearby. The exaggerations about American "carpet bombing" persisted for several months after the December offensive. However, by May 1973, Drew Middleton of the New York Times concluded that the bombing had, in fact, been almost "surgical" in precision. (The source for this information is Robert F. Turner's "Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development" (Hoover Institution, 1975), which should, be added to your list of recommended reading to dispel the myths contained in the other books--myths perpetuated in your article.) Alvin D. Foran '80