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Vietnam 1962-1996

A Silver Thread Shining Through

Speaking in general conference in 1962, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley drew the analogy of a tapestry to illustrate the growth of the Church in Asia. He said, "The Lord is weaving the tapestry of his grand design in those foreign parts." Six years later, after seeing the Vietnam War escalate and following a number of visits to Vietnam, he borrowed from the same analogy. He called attention "to that silver thread, small but radiant with hope, shining through the dark tapestry of war." He was speaking of the "bridgehead," small and weak, that would one day grow and "spring forth a great work affecting for good the lives of large numbers of our Father's children who live in that part of the world. Of that I have certain faith."1 Spoken at the height of the Vietnam War, these were words of faith and courage.

Even at the end of the twentieth century, to most Americans the word Vietnam recalls unhappy memories that are best forgotten. The decade of the 1960s, during which the Vietnam War was at its height, was a time of domestic turmoil and discontent in the United States as well as in Vietnam. The spiral of economic inflation that continued into the 1980s had its beginning during the Vietnam War. Other problems in America and abroad also had their origins at that time. Never in the history of the United States, with the exception of the Civil War, had the American populace been so divided regarding an issue. Never before had so many Americans refused to serve in the armed forces during a time of war. Debate and argumentation were abundant wherever people met. The nation was almost rent apart by strong disagreements among honest people. In addition to these problems, the war brought brutality, pain, and suffering in Vietnam.

But while the war in Vietnam grew in intensity during the early 1960s, among those who were sent there was a small number of LDS servicemen who acted as advisers to the South Vietnamese forces. On June 30, 1962, President Robert S. Taylor of the Southern Far East Mission organized the first LDS servicemen's group in Saigon, with Cecil L. "Bud" Cavender as group leader, Reed A. Prestgard as first counselor, and Maurice H. Lee as second counselor. Cavender, along with five other men, had held what was probably the first LDS Church service in Vietnam at Tan Son Nhut Air Base on February 25, 1962.

The group had grown since then. The work of this small group of fewer than fifty Saints was impressive. They not only taught the gospel to American service personnel but also shared the message with their Vietnamese associates. On November 3, 1962, Captain John T. Mullennex of the U.S. Air Force was baptized. He was baptized by his friend, Captain Maurice H. Lee.2 Soon after, on February 3, 1963, two Vietnamese women, Duong Thuy Van and Nguyen Thi Thuy, joined the Church.3 They, as well as Mullennex, were baptized in a font made from a fivehundred-gallon water purification tank.