Folk singer Joan Baez has recently returned to Hanoi, Vietnam for the first time since December 1972 when American B-52s were raining bombs during the U.S. war there. She recently spoke to the Associated Press.
40 years ago, Baez was on a peace mission to North Vietnam where her bunker had been hit mercilessly by bombs.
"That was my first experience in dealing with my own mortality, which I thought was a terrible cosmic arrangement," she said to the AP. "It is OK for everyone else to die, but sure there was another plan for me?", she joked.
Her last visit was during the U.S.'s heaviest bombing raids since World War II against targets in North Vietnam, mostly in Hanoi, over 11 days during the Christmas season in 1972. On her peace mission, Baez brought delivery mail to U.S. prisoners being held in Hanoi. After the war, Baez spoke out against human rights abuses by the Communist government of Vietnam.
"I felt this huge warmth," she said of her feelings about being back in the same bunker, which is now a rather luxurious hotel. "It was gratitude. I thought I would feel all these wretched things about a bunker but it was love that it took care of me."
On her return from Vietnam in early 1973, she released an experimental album, "Where Are You Now, My Son?" The record features taped, spoken-word recordings taken from the bunker and the hotel and the sounds of Hanoi, including air-raid sirens and dropping bombs, AP reported.
Baez has always placed her social activism ahead of her musical career. As a stalwart pacifist, she has been a leading voice in the civil rights movement and then the anti-Vietnam War protests. Since then, she has supported all sorts of campaigns dealing with poverty, racism, environmental degradation, and anti-war causes.
At 72, Baez, known for her angelic singing voice, has recently added painting to her artistic repertoire, curtailing her music tours worldwide.
In her AP interview, she spoke of the importance of personal "little victories" to set against the inevitable "big defeats," such as climate change and the unchecked pace of arms sales around the world.
