Pacific Stars & Stripes: An Authorized Unofficial Publication for the
U.S. Armed Forces of the Pacific Command

Vol. 27, No. 125
Thursday, May 6, 1971

                                A Man of Peace
                              TERRORISTS EXECUTE
                              DEDICATED PACIFIST
                                      by
                            Spec. 5, Steve Conaway

SAIGON -- The report came in as dozens of others terrorist reports come in
every day. National Police accounts said 20 Communist-fired mortar rounds
impacted into the tiny Central Highlands village of Di Linh on April 26,
period.

   It hadn't enough significance to be included in the newspaper account of
terrorist activities for that day.

   A few days later a newspaper wire service carried the story saying that
Communist troops overran the village and that a young conscientious
objector serving two years of alternate service with a church missionary
organization in Vietnam had been slain. Neither account is accurate.

   Ted Studebaker, 25, from a small community outside of Dayton, Ohio, a
man who had never learned how to hate, is dead. He died in a way that can
only add mystery to a war which no one understands.

   Studebaker was a conscientious objector who refused military service. He
chose instead two years of alternate service with the Vietnam Christian
Service (VNCS) serving with their development group at Di Linh, 35 miles
southwest of Da Lat. He recently extended his term for another year,
according to VNCS officials.

   Studebaker was proficient in Vietnamese and Koho, the tribal language of
the Montagnards with whom he worked most closely. the gratitude of the
Vietnamese and Montagnards he worked with was displayed by the numbers who
came to the VNCS house in Di Linh to express their sorrow and regret for
what happened.

   Although Di Linh is generally agreed to be a relatively insecure area,
VNCS has had a program there since September, 1966, VNCS officials said.
There have been a number of attacks on government buildings and
installations in the district, but this was the first time a VNCS worker
had been injured at Di Linh.

   The director of the Di Linh group, Terry Bonnette, said he just didn't
think it could happen to them, although they live without firearms in the
community and not in a protected compound.

   "We never dreamed anything like this could ever be. The Vietnamese had
no better friend in Di Linh than Ted Studebaker. He was completely
nonpolitical. The programs he was operating in no way hindered anyone. He
was there merely to help the people, no matter who they were," Bonnette
said.

   At 1 a.m., April 26, the silence of the night was broken as Communist
B40 rockets impacted near the back of the VNCS house in Di Linh. The four
occupants ran for their bunker on the bottom floor. Studebaker, his Chinese
wife of one week and two other female workers all made it to the bunker
when Studebaker went back to his room for unknown reasons, Bonnette said.

   The Viet Cong threw a satchel charge against the back door and then
charged into the house. Studebaker was caught in his bedroom and after a
brief series of questions the Communists executed him and then ransacked
the house.

   The women in the bunker said they could hear Studebaker's voice and
shots through the wall which separated them from the bedroom.

   One of the terrorists opened the door to the bunker and saw the three
women inside. He paused for a moment and then told them to stay where they
were. He closed the door and left.

   Five hours later the women left the bunker and found Studebaker's body
where the Communists had left it. Ven Pak Lee Studebaker was a widow.

   A police station, an ethnic minorities center and a school near the
house were also heavily damaged in the coordinated raid into the village,
Bonnette said.

   The headquarters and garrison of the 53rd ARVN Inf. Regt., 23rd Inf.
Div., is a few hundred yards up the hill from the police station and the
VNCS house-a mere stone's throw. The women huddled in the bunker said they
could hear the Communists in the house for over 45 minutes. Apparently no
reaction force was sent out from the regiment to give protection to the
village during this time. The Communists eventually withdrew of their own
accord.

   A missionary family living next door to the VNCS house was untouched in
the raid. They are Canadians. The director of the Di Linh VNCS unit had
spent the night in the nearby district town of Baoloc.

   The Viet who ransacked the house took watches, a camera and a tape
cassette deck but did not take valuable medicines sitting in the open in
the nurses clinic, Bonnette said.

   Montagnards in the area reported to the missionaries next door that Viet
Cong political cadremen held a rally in one of the Montagnard villages
bragging that they had killed all the Americans in Di Linh on the 26th and
that the people no longer had to fear American suppression. The
Montagnards, showing very little fear of Americans, had come to express
their sympathy.

   No one understands why the Viet Cong decided to assassinate Studebaker
after he had worked among the people for two years, or why they decided to
attack the VNCS house after it had been in Di Linh for five years.

   Maybe it is as an American adviser in II Military Region once said, "The
politically spirited nationalists, the heroic Viet Cong patriots have all
been killed in years of war. The Viet Cong ranks are now being filled with
rubble, thugs, and punks. The idealism has been drained from them and they
are bitter, hardened and desperate."

   Or maybe Studebaker was cursed with just being an American. Ted
Studebaker was a dedicated Christian pacifist. He came to Vietnam to serve
as a man of peace in a country at war.

   In a recent letter to the States he wrote: "I believe strongly in trying
to follow the example of Jesus Christ as best I know how. Above all, Christ
taught me to love all people, including enemies, and to return good for
evil, and that all men are brothers. I condemn all war and conscientiously
refuse to take part in it in any active or violent way. I believe love is a
stronger and more enduring power than hatred for my fellow man, regardless
of who they are or what they believe."