Recommended Vietnam’s History (Before and after 1975) Books
Studying Vietnam’s history for more than 12 years in school cannot compare to 12 days reading one of these books. You may think that I am exaggerating. Yes and no. These books discuss about significant and unique events in Vietnam before and after 1975 which still leave a lot of impacts in Vietnam’s society today. And more important, you cannot find any of this information in any Vietnamese history textbooks.
I found myself travelling back in time reading pages to pages. Then I started to answer questions that I have always ask myself for all those years growing up in Vietnam being untold about the history before 1975, witnessing events which related to this time period but was not explained by any Vietnamese documentary or press.
I wrote this article without any offend. My purpose is to introduce the historical documentary book before 1975 that some may have interest to learn about.
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel “The Sympathizer” is a New York Times best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and other countless honor awards.
The emotional charge of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s extraordinary debut novel “The Sympathizer” will keep your heart pounding and your blood chilled. His book owns the patent for his haunting insights and revelations of the Vietnamese experience from both sides of the conflict. In this case, the unnamed narrator is, indeed, the sympathizer, a Communist spy with the self-proclaimed talent that can understand all aspects of his country’s complexity and demise.
Starting with his escape on one of the last flights out of Saigon to his exile in the United States, the story leads from one spellbinding adventure to another. Using an array of lenses, the narrator puts the politics, machinations, and history of the unmerciful war under intense scrutiny, and he gives the Vietnamese people their voice of identity and a deserved sense of nationality as he examines their unwavering strength and sacrifice.
The narrator’s blistering honesty and keen intelligence combines sorrow and compassion with dark humor to deliver a sometimes shocking and an altogether breathtaking tale of tragedy and survival. Making the book all the more remarkable is Nguyen’s electric prose. His language has a lush and scintillating quality that makes for an unforgettable reading experience. Having won the Pulitzer, the book now has its immortality, but it’s not an exaggeration to call it a masterpiece.
2) When Heaven And Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip:
“When Heaven and Earth Changed Places” is a heart wrenching story that pulls no punches and left me on numerous occasions wiping back the tears as I walked alongside little miss Le Ly in the midst of the Vietnam War not knowing whether the next day would see her enduring worse atrocities than those of her early childhood.
Through it all, Le’s story is presented in all its complexity: as complex as the war, history and life itself. There are no superficial emotions. As someone who spent time on and knew intimately both sides of the conflict, the perspective and presentation of her experience is unique. She knew the horror of the war, but also the humanity underneath the brutality. And she came to realize the war’s insanity for all involved.
Perhaps the most unforgettable characters were Le’s parents, through whom Le illuminates the various facets of Vietnamese culture: respect for ancestors, family roots in her village and the Earth, and familial duty.
Buy it because you want to know what it was like for a young Vietnamese woman to live through “The American War” as she called it. Buy it because you want to learn something about Vietnamese culture and it’s history. You will learn much more about Vietnam and it’s culture with this book than others about the war that I have read so far.
3) Madam Nhu Tran Le Xuan — Quyen Luc Ba Rong by Monique Brinson Demery:
“Even people who are familiar with Vietnamese history will still be amazed by Nhu’s strange situation. Monique Demery has traced the mighty Dragon, who confessed to be weak and melancholy. Crushed but not taking responsibility for her role in the war that ruined many of her country’s and American lives. “ — Elizabeth Becker — author of “When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge”.
This book is to good to put down! After reading the book, all it left is the respect and admiration for Madam Nhu’s talents and national spirit. No Vietnamese woman in the twentieth century can compare. From the political style, how to think wisely, how to judge critically, how to overcome the pain to the assertiveness and innovation of costumes still worth learning seriously and respectfully.
Although Madam Nhu’s efforts did not save the collapse of the First Republic of Vietnam, what Madam did for Southerners is still remembered. The tragic period of the nation is over, she has also lost thousands of revenue, her family but the image of her is still in the heart of the Southerners with admiration that no one can replace.
