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Vietnam: A Portrait of its People at War
Here is the story of the *other side* of the Vietnam War--of the Vietcong and North Vietnamese--which has been largely untold until now. In this remarkable piece of oral history, the story emerges of the ordinary people of both North and South Vietnam, of the Vietcong guerrilla fighters and terrorists, North Vietnamese soldiers and cadres, monks, opposition leaders, propaganda chiefs and village secretaries. Vietnam : A Portrait of its People at War provides an account of dedication and heroism at all levels and also of the brutality and trauma faced by a people in the grip of revolution and war.
248 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 3, 2020
I feel pretty much 50/50 on this book.
There were a lot of things I liked about it. I liked how there was an array of different stories, and then there was also a core trio of stories that traced three people through the entirety of the conflict. It was nice to see individual experiences in standalone accounts as well as something with a little more meat to it; it was a good use of perspective. I also appreciated how there were clarifications as to people's identities and roles in brackets right there next to the sentence in question (I have an inexplicable dislike of footnotes), and a timeline at the end of the book that detailed important events. For somebody like me, who knows only the basics about this conflict, it was very useful in keeping everything straight. My only major criticism in terms of clarity was that it wasn't exactly chronological -- everyone's stories were, but they would begin or end in different places, catapulting you around several decades as you went from one account to another. I'm sure someone with more background knowledge than me would likely find it not as much of an issue, but for anyone going in with a basic knowledge, keep that in mind.
The stories that were included were also about 50/50 for me, though I recognise this is personal preference. When it comes to oral histories I'm very much interested in the voices that aren't heard very often, and as this book was operating on the idea that stories about Vietnam are very American-centric and that should change, it seemed like it would work out well. However, perhaps only half of the stories included were people I wouldn't have expected to hear from, or even overly personal stories in general -- and a not-insignificant chunk of this number was made up of the childhoods of people who then grew to become expected voices. I was hoping for a little bit more of the everyday person, who witnessed the war and the regime rather than actively fought on a side. For that matter, the stories were overwhelmingly male, which I don't think provides a very comprehensive view. There were plenty of women involved in various things at this time period -- this was even mentioned by the soldiers interviewed, but the most we saw of women were a few perspectives from wives, and even then, it was still solely focused on the husband's story. This wouldn't have annoyed me as much if it hadn't been for the fact that in the afterword, Chanoff puts this down to the submissiveness of the Vietnamese woman, and how it's apparently impossible to interview them. I'm just... yeah. It didn't sit right with me.
Going on from that, there are gaps in the accounts caused by the distinct absence of personal emotion and experience; many are very dry, almost academic blow-by-blow accounts of battles with military jargon and tactics rather than personal impressions of the event. These gaps are further highlighted in the afterword, where Chanoff explains why a bunch of accounts had to be left out. These accounts sound fascinating. They're exactly what I was hoping to read, but they were left out because at the time the situation was still volatile, and these people still had family in Vietnam. This is obviously fair enough, but it did make me wonder if perhaps waiting might have been better. In order to do something like this justice, you need to take your time. Sometimes patience is better than rushing to fill a gap in the market, and while these are all voices that needed to be heard, I feel that some of the more drier, tamer stories only made it into the book because the other more personal and emotional stories couldn't be included for various reasons. Again, the dryness is put down to a culture difference, which I don't particularly buy. Many times in various parts of this book, we're told the Vietnamese are a poetic people who often use language that Westerners might find too flowery, but then in the afterword we're told that they're secretive and give too many one-word or vague answers, and that makes speaking to them and extracting enough for an account difficult. It's another thing I think could have been easily overcome by spending a little more time on the whole thing -- time to gather stories, time to build trust.
However, the more personal accounts that are there stand out. Xuan Vu's account is very memorable and his language the exact balance of informative and emotional that I enjoy in oral histories -- it probably helps that he's a writer himself, and clearly knows how to recount a story. A lot of the main players -- soldiers, politicians, etc -- have a good balance in their accounts of early life, as well. Soldiers especially have a habit of getting far too technical when it comes to battle recollections, however; as I said, I found it a little dry, all short sentences and practical description and no atmosphere, with limited personal reactions. The accounts dealing with the corruption and impossibility of the regime both before and after unification were also well-written, and full of the frustration and helplessness you'd expect from such a situation. All in all, it's a pretty decent effort for something that came out in the mid-eighties, considering the newness of the topic and the still-complicated issues surrounding it, but I can't help but wonder how much better it would have been had it come out a few decades later.
There were a lot of things I liked about it. I liked how there was an array of different stories, and then there was also a core trio of stories that traced three people through the entirety of the conflict. It was nice to see individual experiences in standalone accounts as well as something with a little more meat to it; it was a good use of perspective. I also appreciated how there were clarifications as to people's identities and roles in brackets right there next to the sentence in question (I have an inexplicable dislike of footnotes), and a timeline at the end of the book that detailed important events. For somebody like me, who knows only the basics about this conflict, it was very useful in keeping everything straight. My only major criticism in terms of clarity was that it wasn't exactly chronological -- everyone's stories were, but they would begin or end in different places, catapulting you around several decades as you went from one account to another. I'm sure someone with more background knowledge than me would likely find it not as much of an issue, but for anyone going in with a basic knowledge, keep that in mind.
The stories that were included were also about 50/50 for me, though I recognise this is personal preference. When it comes to oral histories I'm very much interested in the voices that aren't heard very often, and as this book was operating on the idea that stories about Vietnam are very American-centric and that should change, it seemed like it would work out well. However, perhaps only half of the stories included were people I wouldn't have expected to hear from, or even overly personal stories in general -- and a not-insignificant chunk of this number was made up of the childhoods of people who then grew to become expected voices. I was hoping for a little bit more of the everyday person, who witnessed the war and the regime rather than actively fought on a side. For that matter, the stories were overwhelmingly male, which I don't think provides a very comprehensive view. There were plenty of women involved in various things at this time period -- this was even mentioned by the soldiers interviewed, but the most we saw of women were a few perspectives from wives, and even then, it was still solely focused on the husband's story. This wouldn't have annoyed me as much if it hadn't been for the fact that in the afterword, Chanoff puts this down to the submissiveness of the Vietnamese woman, and how it's apparently impossible to interview them. I'm just... yeah. It didn't sit right with me.
Going on from that, there are gaps in the accounts caused by the distinct absence of personal emotion and experience; many are very dry, almost academic blow-by-blow accounts of battles with military jargon and tactics rather than personal impressions of the event. These gaps are further highlighted in the afterword, where Chanoff explains why a bunch of accounts had to be left out. These accounts sound fascinating. They're exactly what I was hoping to read, but they were left out because at the time the situation was still volatile, and these people still had family in Vietnam. This is obviously fair enough, but it did make me wonder if perhaps waiting might have been better. In order to do something like this justice, you need to take your time. Sometimes patience is better than rushing to fill a gap in the market, and while these are all voices that needed to be heard, I feel that some of the more drier, tamer stories only made it into the book because the other more personal and emotional stories couldn't be included for various reasons. Again, the dryness is put down to a culture difference, which I don't particularly buy. Many times in various parts of this book, we're told the Vietnamese are a poetic people who often use language that Westerners might find too flowery, but then in the afterword we're told that they're secretive and give too many one-word or vague answers, and that makes speaking to them and extracting enough for an account difficult. It's another thing I think could have been easily overcome by spending a little more time on the whole thing -- time to gather stories, time to build trust.
However, the more personal accounts that are there stand out. Xuan Vu's account is very memorable and his language the exact balance of informative and emotional that I enjoy in oral histories -- it probably helps that he's a writer himself, and clearly knows how to recount a story. A lot of the main players -- soldiers, politicians, etc -- have a good balance in their accounts of early life, as well. Soldiers especially have a habit of getting far too technical when it comes to battle recollections, however; as I said, I found it a little dry, all short sentences and practical description and no atmosphere, with limited personal reactions. The accounts dealing with the corruption and impossibility of the regime both before and after unification were also well-written, and full of the frustration and helplessness you'd expect from such a situation. All in all, it's a pretty decent effort for something that came out in the mid-eighties, considering the newness of the topic and the still-complicated issues surrounding it, but I can't help but wonder how much better it would have been had it come out a few decades later.
August 3, 2021
I did what I feared I would do at the beginning of this year, when I started my new reading journey, during my read of this book and that was drop off the horse for a bit. Also there’s no special formatting here because I wrote this on my phone.
But - BUT I got back on and am already enjoying setting the time aside to read again. This book was not the reason for me falling off, anything objectionable about the text wasn’t discovered until after I returned to it from my short hiatus.
Vietnam: A Portrait of its People At War is an incredibly moving book at points and a text that really re-examines the Vietnam conflict through the lens of the people that actually lived in the country. It’s a war that tends to be seen as an American war by our western media but hearing first person accounts of the circumstances surrounding the conflict, it’s history and impact, is the ultimate way to remind oneself that it was their conflict. After all it was the Vietnamese whose country America had invaded.
My personal preference leans to the more emotive stories, stories of real life and the lead up to the conflict are the kind I feel really fascinated by and while there are several accounts, the more strategic militaristic ones, that simply didn’t connect with me and that’s not a detriment to the book- it’s strength lies in the many different voices it has telling what is ultimately the same story of struggle and perseverance.
My only real issues with the text come at it’s very conclusion, when the book reminds that it is an American text after all and makes the authors politics abundantly clear and while I’m sure the accounts are real and I know way object to these peoples lives experiences the novel paints the aftermath of the struggle as a total failure and yet I know there must be more shades of grey to it than that.
But - BUT I got back on and am already enjoying setting the time aside to read again. This book was not the reason for me falling off, anything objectionable about the text wasn’t discovered until after I returned to it from my short hiatus.
Vietnam: A Portrait of its People At War is an incredibly moving book at points and a text that really re-examines the Vietnam conflict through the lens of the people that actually lived in the country. It’s a war that tends to be seen as an American war by our western media but hearing first person accounts of the circumstances surrounding the conflict, it’s history and impact, is the ultimate way to remind oneself that it was their conflict. After all it was the Vietnamese whose country America had invaded.
My personal preference leans to the more emotive stories, stories of real life and the lead up to the conflict are the kind I feel really fascinated by and while there are several accounts, the more strategic militaristic ones, that simply didn’t connect with me and that’s not a detriment to the book- it’s strength lies in the many different voices it has telling what is ultimately the same story of struggle and perseverance.
My only real issues with the text come at it’s very conclusion, when the book reminds that it is an American text after all and makes the authors politics abundantly clear and while I’m sure the accounts are real and I know way object to these peoples lives experiences the novel paints the aftermath of the struggle as a total failure and yet I know there must be more shades of grey to it than that.
February 28, 2017
A fascinating narrative historical book.
This work shows the Vietnam war from a North Vietnamese and NLF perspective, far from the stereotypes produced by the vietnamese communist propaganda. What were the motivations of southern men to rally the northern army ? what did a enrolled north vietnamese boy feel ? What did the life look like in a jungle ?", that's what this book is about. It is also about the life behind the front, the conditions in Hanoi and furthermore in northern Vietnam during the massive bombings by the US Air Force and the South vietnamese pilots or as a militant against the South vietnamese regime during the buddhist revolt for example. Also, though it was not the primary intention of the author I suppose, it is also a way to get familiared with the vietnamese mentality. I reget somehow that the book did not contain any testimony of south vietnamese soldiers, after all they were also "vietnamese at war".
I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the Vietnam war from the "Vietnamese side" and through testimonies of persons that were directly implicated.
This work shows the Vietnam war from a North Vietnamese and NLF perspective, far from the stereotypes produced by the vietnamese communist propaganda. What were the motivations of southern men to rally the northern army ? what did a enrolled north vietnamese boy feel ? What did the life look like in a jungle ?", that's what this book is about. It is also about the life behind the front, the conditions in Hanoi and furthermore in northern Vietnam during the massive bombings by the US Air Force and the South vietnamese pilots or as a militant against the South vietnamese regime during the buddhist revolt for example. Also, though it was not the primary intention of the author I suppose, it is also a way to get familiared with the vietnamese mentality. I reget somehow that the book did not contain any testimony of south vietnamese soldiers, after all they were also "vietnamese at war".
I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the Vietnam war from the "Vietnamese side" and through testimonies of persons that were directly implicated.
May 12, 2024
Half-way completed.
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