Vietnam star defends work

Vietnam disputes the historical basis of We Were Soldiers

A Vietnamese actor who was labelled a traitor for taking part in the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers has written a letter to his sons in which he defends his work.

Don Duong, once one of Vietnam's top stars, was put under virtual house arrest after Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information branded him a traitor.

Authorities seized Duong's passport after viewing two films in which he appeared - Vietnam war movie We Were Soldiers and Green Dragon, a film about Vietnamese refugees.

The culture ministry has recommended that Duong be forbidden from leaving the country and banned from acting for five years.

Duong lives in Ho Chi Minh City

Duong, 45, lives in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, with his two sons, aged 11 and 16.

He wrote the letter to his children so they "can know the truth, to affirm that I am always and forever not a traitor", according to a letter which Duong's family made available to the Los Angeles Times.

Duong's sister, Susie Bui, who lives in the US, received the letter and released it with Duong's permission.

She said he had not been allowed to give his side of the story in the Vietnamese press, which the state owns.

Disputed

We Were Soldiers portrays the battle of la Drang - the first major engagement in the Vietnam war in which 400 US soldiers were surrounded by 2,000 from the North Vietnamese army.

Many earlier film hits about the Vietnam War, including Apocalypse Now, show an uneasiness about the US intervention in the region.

But We Were Soldiers was seen as a flag-waving portrayal of American soldiers as heroes.

Vietnam has disputed the film's version of the battle.

Similarly, the Vietnamese Government has objected to Green Dragon, based on the story of Vietnamese refugees housed in camps across the southwestern US in the mid-1970s.

Although both films are officially banned in Vietnam, pirate copies are widely available.