โNo one asks poor people if they want war. Nor had anyone asked these poor people if they wanted to die of thrist and exposure of the coastal sea, or if they wanted to be robbed and raped by their own soldiersโ
49 years ago, the Vietnam war ended yet there are still everlasting effects of the aftermath. Some of you around here perhaps lived through that era and witnessed some intriguing stories, myths and even fictions written about it. Perhaps, it was also filled with personal stories, from the people you personally knew.
๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ญ๐บ, ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฃ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ญ๐บ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ ๐ช๐ด "What book would you most recommend to someone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of war? ". ๐๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ : ๐๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต #312
The younger generation, like myself, thought it was just some distant war. I grew up playing Viet Cong, a video game that basically sets in Vietnam featuring American soldiers fighting against the communist guerilla. That was all I knew and even when I was in Laos a year ago, the story of the bombing was something that was still hard to understand. Why was the war started? The ideological differences of it all were so hard to comprehend up until last week.
Perhaps, itโs me who hasnโt read so many war stories but to my eyes, the stories of wars these days are dominated by the tale and references to WWII, mostly about Nazi occupation. I am sure you have read or watched things like boys in striped pajamas, etc etc.
Today, let me introduce you to a historical fiction The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen that won a Pulitzer award. This story is written by a Vietnamese voice, the narration from the other side. You might have heard of a quote โ History is written by the victorโ but in this case, there are complexities of it all. The writer isnโt necessarily on the winning side. Heโs a south Vietnamese, born on the losing side of the war but he also has roots of the north as his family was from that side of Vietnam. This is why this book is fascinating. Despite fiction, in the end of his book he also writes references where he draws his ideas, like the Fall of Saigon that marked the downfall of the American during the Vietnam war.
The story uses quite an unreliable narrator called โ The Captainโ. He is a spy for the north, the communist side of Vietnam. He is working as the aide-de-camp for the Generalโs of the Southern side. The Captain is Eurasian, a love child between his mother, a Vietnamese woman with a pastor. He lived his life being called a bastard and is having a hard time, living in dualities, as an Asian but also European. Now, even more when he works as a spy for the communist cause.
The captain is well-versed in American culture and could speak just like an American. He studied in the US and during his time, he was exposed more to the US ideologies and ways of living. This makes him easier to mingle with the southerners who were the US allies in this war. As the war draws closer and the southern side is almost losing the war they wanted America to send them more money to fund the war as they had first given it as an aid. The offer was rejected and it was the start of the fall of Saigon.
โ Having given us the needles, they no perversely no longer supplied the dope. Nothing is ever so expensive as what is offered for freeโ
There are parts that really question the complexities of American involvement in this war. There are also CIA agents somehow monitoring and orchestrating this war. Itโs almost like Vietnam was just a puppet just so communism didn't invade all of southeast asia and became the prominent ideology in the region.
What was it like to live in a time when oneโs fate was not war, when one was not led by the craven and the corrupt, when oneโs country was not a basket case kept alive only through the intravenous drip of American Aid?
The story also involves themes like the complexities of friendship and how the war affected it. The Captain has two best friends, Bon and Man. Bon is an anti-community soldier from the south who was motivated to avenge his father who was brutally murdered by the Viet cong. Meanwhile Man is committed to the commonest cause, he works as a dentist and he is also the captainโs handler as he has higher ranks within the communist party.
They never talk about their ideological differences and kept it on the low, Man and the Captain wanted to make sure that when Saigon is liberated, Bon would be out of the city. However, things take turns when eventually, the Captain still has to work for the communist cause, being the spy for the General who escaped to the US. He now navigates life as a war refugee and spy in the US and somehow, even there, he was still being watched and spied on by his comrades.
The harrowing experience he faced through the war and the things that he witnessed, somehow changed something in him. The captain was a complex character, he was a man that existed in both worlds witnessing the things from both sides. In the story, he did a mission back to Vietnam, only to be sent to re-education camp and that his comrade loses trust in him.
Man now rose to even more as commissar, he told the narrator that going back to Vietnam was a mistake. He shouldโve just stayed in the US with Bon. But The Captain was extremely loyal to the cause that it was something he would be willing to do, a mission to aid the anti-communist that was merely a trap. There was no way at that point, the southern is going to resurrect, the northern was too powerful by now.
The mindblowing part was during the time in the re-education camp. In some of the last chapters, you begin to questions if anything the Captain wrote was true or it was something forced just so he was able to be freed of the torture. So, Iโll let you discover it.
The Sympathizer is a pretty complex yet compelling novel. It was a door to view the Vietnam war through other lenses. The lens that involves the vietnamese voices. Even more so, with the narrator that acts as a two-faced man. I do not know much about the writer but clearly, there was a balance of both, that there was criticism aimed towards the American but also showed us that communism can be an ideology that is far from what it was supposed to be by its theorizer.
Let this novel be some type of reminder that war is complex and it affects all lives differently. Thereโs really no black and white about it all & one very important quote that I really love is that โnone asks poor people if they want warโ as well as this one. This one though unrelated to the current war that the character went through, somehow captures the essences of this ideological war itself.
โHe buried them by the thousands, brave young men enmeshed in the cobwebbed eulogies spun by spidery politiciansโ
This novel has an HBO adaptation too. I watched it and it was fantastic as well. Although itโs almost closely based on the novel, there were parts that I think we're missing yet if they captured the whole idea of it, it was 8 out of 10. It was known as a series where Robert Downey Jr played almost a few different characters that really gets you confused especially if you read the novels. It really makes you think that those characters are the same and part of the symbolism in the novel that the CIA is everywhere and can be anything but really, in the novel it was a different tone. Iโll let you read this one and see you next week!
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๐๐ข๐ค ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง-๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐ซ๐ข & ๐ค๐ฐ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ถ๐ณ . ๐ ๐ต๐บ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ, ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ญ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด, ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต. ๐๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฏ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ค๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ค๐ถ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐บ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ! ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ท๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ. ๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ-๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฐ. |