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It is probably dangerous for self-preservation to philosophize too much while in a war, but every once-in-a-while, through the fog of my fatigue the question arose: What are we doing here?
A great war novel taps into the universal tragedy that runs deeper than any biased account of heroics on one side versus evil soldiers on the other. At the heart of war is a haunting ache that festers long after the acts of brutality necessary for survival cease. War taints the soul. It goes deeper than the “kill or be killed” rationale that many believe absolves participants of blame. It is not that simple.
As news of the so-called reeducation camps ebbed out of Vietnam, it became apparent that the communist ideologues had gained control of governing the country. For a fascinating inside glimpse of how deep the purge went, I would recommend A Viet Cong Memoir by Trương Như Tảng. Even loyal Viet Cong who had spent years fighting the Americans were viewed with suspicion by leaders from the north who quickly consolidated their power. Fearful that these southern patriots were not sufficiently communist, many were excluded from meaningful government positions in the new regime.
Many thanks to those who attended the Edmonton book launch of Poisoned Jungle on September 12. Thirty-five arrived despite a cool and overcast day. The rain that fell lightly earlier in the morning lifted and allowed the event to proceed. Held outside due to Covid-19 considerations where social distancing could be followed, the crowd fit nicely into the yard of Kimberley and Henry Howard. A special thanks to them for hosting the event.
Both friends also wrote about the war. In Gene’s case, I have an unpublished manuscript that I find brilliant. Broader in scope than the Vietnam War, through a series of thematically related short stories, he connects the diversity of the lives in his pieces to the broader consequences of war. Interspersed with biographical details of his own life, a broad number of voices, diverse on the surface, flow together as a woven tapestry.
Many codes were broken in the war, lies spoken, cover-ups pursued. The degree to which that occurred set a bad precedent for governance in the United States. So many lives were lost because of a failure of leadership at so many levels. In my view, the United States has not healed from the divisions created during the war, domestically and internationally.
The five-year-old boy in the photograph is Tran Van Hay. I did not know his name until a friend still in Vietnam sent me the newspaper clipping after I’d returned from the war. When I first saw Tran, his abdomen was ripped open and his intestines were exposed and dangling outside of his abdominal cavity. I didn’t think he would live.
In my view, the war was unwinnable. The Vietnamese had been there before with foreign invaders. That’s what we were to many Vietnamese. To this day I hear talk of tactics among the revisionists. If only the war had been fought better strategically, we could have won. In reality, we made many of the same mistakes as the French. We failed to learn from their miscues or our own. The Vietnamese were steadfast and patient in their resistance.
Writers become attached to some of their characters more than others. A favorite in Poisoned Jungle was Yardly, third platoon’s Montagnard Tiger Scout. Through his depiction in the novel, I hoped to convey part of the complexity of the situation for the Montagnard people in Vietnam. Portrayed as a boy soldier of sixteen who had seen his first combat at fifteen, I witnessed Montagnard soldiers as young as thirteen after a battle near the Seven Mountains. After treating many wounded in a mass casualty situation, I began asking an interpreter the ages of the youngest soldiers.
I did not expect to find Max Boot’s book as impressive as I did. I approached the work with an open mind but anticipated a revised history of the war. Instead, his documented details rang true with so much of what I experienced on the ground in Vietnam. The author’s thoroughness in deciphering the decision making behind the war, including the personalities of the powerful men responsible for them, exhibited a sensitivity rare for one who was not involved directly with the war. As a veteran who still seeks understanding of how and why the war took on the dimensions that it did, I appreciate such a detailed work of scholarship.