Recalling Don Luce, the high-profile Vietnam War critic who did PR for a Falls soup kitchen

Dec. 10—During one of the most turbulent periods in U.S. history, Don Luce came to be known as one of the most vocal critics of the Vietnam War.

Luce, who passed away on Nov. 17 at the age of 88, led a more mild-mannered life in later years, working as a professor of sociology at Niagara County Community College in Sanborn and as the public relations director for Community Missions of Niagara Frontier in Niagara Falls.

In the wake of Luce's death, his husband, Mark Bonacci, recalled "his Don" as an unassuming yet extraordinary man who led an extraordinary life.

So extraordinary, in fact, that several of the top publications in the world, including the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe, all published stories that documented his passing while celebrating his life and his work.

"I know this sounds corny, but he had a deeply rooted sense in ethics and what was right," Bonacci said. "He always fought against injustice. He believed in human rights. He was always fighting for the underdog."

FROM A DAIRY FARM TO VIETNAM

Born on Sept. 20, 1934 in Vermont where his father ran a dairy farm and his mother worked as a teacher, Luce earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont and a master's degree in agricultural development from Cornell University.

In the late 1950s, he went to Vietnam as a civilian aid worker. While there, Luce served as a member of a humanitarian group called International Voluntary Service. After witnessing the impact the war was having on the Vietnamese, the NYT reported that Luce and others resigned in protest from the I.V.S., penning a letter to U.S. President Lyndon Johnson that was critical of the war effort and describing America's involvement as "self-defeating."

"Vietnam: The Unheard Voices," co-written with a former I.V.S. colleague, John Sommer, described their disillusionment with America's involvement in the war, arguing that the actions of U.S. military forces were actually working to "create more Vietcong than they have destroyed."

In 1971, Luce was expelled from Vietnam by both the Vietnamese and American governments.

Of Luce, Time magazine would later write: "Don Luce is to the South Vietnamese government what Ralph Nader is to General Motors."

Upon his return to America, Luce helped form the Indochina Mobile Education Project, an organization that played a key role in the anti-Vietnam War movement.

In its article on Luce's passing, the NYT quoted former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Graham Martin as blaming the Indochina Mobile Education Project for helping to turn American sentiment against the war, which ultimately ended in America's defeat in April 1975.

During his address before Congress, Martin referenced Luce by name.

"The main organization, I think, is the Indochina Resource Center," Martin said during a congressional hearing in 1976, "and I really think that another principal element would be the multifaceted activities of Mr. Don Luce."

Luce's position on the war did not make him popular in some circles.

Bonacci recalled a time in the 1970s when someone firebombed an apartment they were living in, leaving behind fire-damaged books and a green telephone that looked more like a sculptured piece of art after it partially melted during the blast.

Bonacci said the owners of the apartment building asked them to leave after that episode, which was not the first instance where someone tried to murder Luce.

"He was a controversial figure. They tried to kill him in Vietnam a number of times," Bonacci said.

One memorable attempt on Luce's life came when he returned to an apartment in Saigon to find something curious — his bed fully made with the sheets pulled up tight. When a suspicious Luce pulled back the sheets, he found a poisonous snake underneath.

"He said 'I never made my bed so I knew something was up,'" Bonacci recalled.

"To his dying day, Don felt bad about having to kill that snake," he added.

WORK AS A JOURNALIST

In 1970, while working as a credentialed journalist, Luce helped uncover an imprisonment camp on Con Son Island. Inside the camp, the South Vietnamese held political prisoners in cramped conditions known as "tiger cages." Using a map acquired from a former prisoner of the hidden camp, Luce helped guide a congressional delegation to its location. The trip produced a photo essay that was published in Life magazine on July 17, 1970.

In its story about Luce's passing, the NYT referenced part of his written account from the visit:

"I remember clearly the terrible stench from diarrhea and the open sores where shackles cut into the prisoners' ankles," Luce wrote. "'Donnez-moi de l'eau' ('Give me water'), they begged. They sent us scurrying between cells to check on other prisoners' health and continued to ask for water."

Luce's husband, Bonacci, said his work in uncovering the tiger cages is a prime example of the sort of work his husband felt compelled to do despite the potential dangers involved.

"He took it so matter-of-factly, in that Don way of thinking," Bonacci recalled. "He would say 'any human being given the map of this terrible prison by someone who had been almost tortured to death would want to go and find the prison and get this people released.' I would think, 'no, a lot of people would not take the risk.'"

His risk-taking nature and his interest in telling impactful stories led Luce on many adventures throughout his career. Bonacci said his husband counted Ayatollah Khomeini, the former supreme leader of Iran, and Pol Pot, the former prime minister of Cambodia, among his lengthy list of interview subjects.

In the 1980s, while in the Philippines, Bonacci said Luce found himself stuck in a hotel room in Manilla for 48 hours while he and 30 other journalists waited for a military escort out of the country as it was undergoing a coup.

"He was certainly not an easily frightened person," Bonacci said.

LIFE AND LOVE IN NIAGARA COUNTY

In its story this week on Luce, the NYT referenced a quote taken from an interview he gave for an article that was published online in 2017.

The quote spoke to Luce's need, in his 30s and 40s, to step away from the idea of changing national politics and perspectives to focus instead on having an impact on his community "from a Niagara Falls soup kitchen perspective."

"Now, I try to concentrate on helping a few people have an easier life," Luce said at the time.

While his adventures during the Vietnam era brought him more notoriety, Bonacci said Luce viewed his work at NCCC and with the community mission as no less important.

"Wherever he was, whatever it was there to do, he just loved it," Bonacci said.

Christian Hoffman, Community Missions of Niagara Frontier's current spokesperson, who worked with Luce for several years before Luce's retirement in 2018, credited him with putting the mission on many of the public relations and fundraising paths that it still follows today.

"Don's fingerprints are all over what we do here," Hoffman said.

Like Bonacci, Hoffman said Luce was often a quiet and unassuming guy who did not engage in a lot of conversations about his past adventures.

Hoffman described Luce as being at his best when he was doing what he liked best: helping others.

"If you knew Don, you knew whatever the situation was he would always find a way to help and he always advocated for people who needed help and weren't able to help themselves on their own," Hoffman said.

Bonacci met Luce in Manhattan in 1979. Over the years, the couple enjoyed many of adventures traveling together. In his spare time, Bonacci said Luce enjoyed doing crossword puzzles, putting together traditional table-top puzzles and spending time with animals of all kinds, especially dogs.

The couple shared a love for antiquing and looked forward to an art and antique sale Luce helped coordinate as a community mission fundraiser each year.

Bonacci said he was glad, in the months prior to his death, that Luce was able to reconnect with several old colleagues and friends, including Tom Harkin, the former Iowa senator who was one of the people who accompanied him on the dangerous trip to uncover the horrors of the South Vietnamese tiger cages.

While Bonacci said he's been a "train wreck" since Luce's passing, he's also been comforted by an outpouring of love and support from many well wishers who have written letters from locations across the country and around the globe, including France and Vietnam. In Luce's home state of Vermont, Bonacci said one group planted a row of trees in his honor.

"It's just really moving," Bonacci said. "He touched a lot of people."