Tom Hayden (Photo: gettyimages) Hanoi (VNA) – A ceremony in commemoration of Tom Hayden, an American antiwar and civil rights activist, took place in Hanoi on October 28.
Speaking at the event, Vice President of the Vietnam Peace Committee Nguyen Van Huynh said the death on October 23 of Tom Hayden, a long-time friend of Vietnam, is a great loss for his family and his supporters in both the US and Vietnam.
The Vietnam Peace Committee, the Vietnam-US Society and many Vietnamese people have sent condolence messages to Hayden’s family.
Former Vice President and Chairwoman of the Vietnam Peace and Development Foundation Nguyen Thi Binh wrote in her letter that Vietnam shares the loss with Hayden’s family and Americans.
“Since early 1960, Hayden was among the first American who knew Vietnam as a nation and a country, not a war,” Binh noted in the letter.
“Hayden will always be with us for the friendship between Vietnam and the US, for peace and justice in Vietnam, in his hometown and in the world,” stated Huynh at the ceremony.
Born on December 11, 1939, Tom Hayden began his activist campaigns as a college student. He wrote many articles and nearly 20 books on peace, human rights and environmental protection, including three specifically about Vietnam. Hayden served a combined 18 years in the California State Assembly and State Senate (1982-2000).-VNA
