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Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars: Memoirs of a Victim Turned Soldier Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, February 7, 2012

by Nguyen Công Luan (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
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This extraordinary memoir tells the story of one man's experience of the wars of Viet Nam from the time he was old enough to be aware of war in the 1940s until his departure for America 15 years after the collapse of South Viet Nam in 1975. Nguyen Cong Luan was born and raised in small villages near Ha Noi. He grew up knowing war at the hands of the Japanese, the French, and the Viet Minh. Living with wars of conquest, colonialism, and revolution led him finally to move south and take up the cause of the Republic of Viet Nam, exchanging a life of victimhood for one of a soldier. His stories of village life in the north are every bit as compelling as his stories of combat and the tragedies of war. This honest and impassioned account is filled with the everyday heroism of the common people of his generation.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    616 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Indiana University Press
  4. Publication date
    February 7, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    6.3 x 1.7 x 8.4 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0253356873
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0253356871
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A dark and fascinating tale...illuminated by...honesty and integrity, which shine through on every page."―VIETNAM MAGAZINE

"This is a first-rate book with perhaps a single downside: It is not a book for someone who has never read anything about Vietnam. It is, however, an essential read for those who seek to understand the complex tragedy of the wars of Vietnam."―ARMY

"Long overdue, this memoir will be a worthy addition to any academic library interested in the tragedy of Vietnam. . . . Essential."―Choice

"This book is of incredible value for anyone interested in Vietnam―its history, politics, and culture―and in the American involvement with Vietnam. It is also a meditation of a Vietnamese patriot on the substance of patriotism during a time of civil war in a context of international alliances. Amid the terrors and harsh imperatives of war, the author's is a rare voice of human decency."―H-Net

"Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars is a dark and fascinating tale. But it is illuminated by Nguyen's story of escape from Communist tyranny to the United States in 1990, and by his honesy and integrity, which shine through on every page."―historynet.com

"An important book. One of the most compelling and thoughtful ARVN [Army of the Republic of Viet Nam] accounts I have ever read. . . . It is an unblinking, unflinching account . . . a very honest book, the author's integrity comes through on every page."―David T. Zabecki, Maj. Gen., U. S. Army (ret.)

"Of all the many books I have read about the Vietnam War, this one pays the ultimate tribute to the incredible sacrifices made by the courageous soldiers and people of South Vietnam. Through the eyes of a true patriot, the history and decisive operations of the conflict are reviewed from the unique perspective of a victim turned soldier. I have known the author for nearly four decades and can attest to his personal courage, his passion for life, and his intense love for his country. This book is a must read for those who want the complete picture and whole truth about a tragic war that consumed the world for over two decades."―Lawson W. Magruder III , Lieutenant General, US Army Retired. Vietnam '70-'71

Review

Of all the many books I have read about the Vietnam War, this one pays the ultimate tribute to the incredible sacrifices made by the courageous soldiers and people of South Vietnam. Through the eyes of a true patriot, the history and decisive operations of the conflict are reviewed from the unique perspective of a victim turned soldier. I have known the author for nearly four decades and can attest to his personal courage, his passion for life, and his intense love for his country. This book is a must read for those who want the complete picture and whole truth about a tragic war that consumed the world for over two decades.

-- Lawson W. Magruder III

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Indiana University Press (February 7, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 616 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0253356873
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0253356871
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.05 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 1.7 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

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Công Luận Nguyễn

Công Luận Nguyễn

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4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth And Nothing But The Truth
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2022
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This book is a very tough read but very, very necessary. I am a Vietnam veteran and have been incensed at the innumerable lies, distortions, and half-truths peddled to the American people for the past 50 years. Luan's book presents in detail the reality of the war, why it was necessary, and why the South Vietnamese fought so hard against the bestiality of Communist rule, only to have the props kicked out from under them by the spineless cowards in the US Congress, who cut off desperately needed aid in the end. Nearly everything the average American thinks he "knows" about the war is wrong, thanks to deliberate and malicious reportage in the American (and much of the foreign) press. The facts are that the war was necessary, the men who fought in it were honorable, and the goal was freedom from oppression. But the American people were sold a bill of goods: that the war was "imperialist," the American forces were anything but honorable, and the Communists were on the side of the angels, when in fact they were devils, as Luan makes clear. This book is a needed counterweight to the lies (as is the essay "How To Lose A War" by Robert Elegant, published in the British journal "Encounter" in 1981). Reading either--or better, both--will change the negative perceptions that have been carefully cultivated and sustained by the Left for the past half-century. Amazon is to be congratulated for listing Luan's very important book on its site.
3 people found this helpful
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Will King
4.0 out of 5 stars An American Advisor to ARVN Review
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2012
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This book brings home the real feelings of the Viet Nam people and provides an excellent, detailed documentation of the political and military history of their amazing struggle to simply be free. It clearly shows the anti-communist attitude of the people throughout the 1940's and up to today. It should make any American who fought for these brave people in any capacity especially proud of that effort; it was worth our sacrifices.

I'm beyond the half-way point and am enjoying hearing the same story that so many of my Viet Nam friends told me. But Luan gives the reader the gut-wrenching feelings of the people who were put upon by so many French, North Viet Nam Communists, North and South Viet Nam Nationalists, Buddhist Hoa Hao, Buddhist Cao Dai, South Viet Nam Viet Cong and the many Ngo Dinh Diem etal regimes. The people were persecuted over and over but only the Americans that lived and fought with them understood; only the Americans could understand the frustration of the farmer who sees the US helicopters as the enemy because they just shot and killed his water buffalo because the farmer lives in a VC-controlled area. Now we hear from the native that can verify what the farmers were feeling.

It is chilling to read the names of Viet Nam soldiers I fought with that stayed to the last and then committed suicide rather than be subjected to phony communist re-education camps. What a shame that this true story can't be told to more people. It is also fun to be reunited by footnotes and off-the-cuff comments with the "Cochin Chinese" dialect language that I spoke so fluently so long ago but is now fading quickly!

An excellent book that reinforces the uniquely American instinct to stick up for underdogs, stay the course and do what is right, even if the politicians so often quickly run out of backbone and abandon that uniquely American value.

Will King, 21st Infantry Division, Army of Viet Nam
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neihtn
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2014
Verified Purchase
The author of this book, Nguyen Cong Luan, was born in North Vietnam in a family of nationalists who had been fighting the French since the 1930s. It is this background which allowed him to recount in full details how Ho Chi Minh and his communist party, in the few years after 1945, coopted the movement for independence and tried to eliminate their nationalist opponents. While some nationalists were assassinated outright, his father was imprisoned in a communist reeducation camp where he eventually perished. What happened then explains why, when Vietnam was partitioned in 1954, one million North Vietnamese, including the author and his family, chose to leave their villages and cities to go South even though their future there was by no means assured.

In simple and clear prose, the author leads us through his life in the South, from his training as a cadet in Vietnam’s military academy to his service in the 22nd Division, and later his running of the Reception Directorate in the Open Arms program. That’s the program that induced an estimated 150,000 communist soldiers to defect throughout the war.

In April 1975, after a training stage at Fort Benning, he chose to return to Saigon less than a month before North Vietnamese divisions finally conquered the South. While military and civilian leaders fled the country, he remained at his post until the very end and spent six years in several concentration camps in South and North Vietnam. His description of those harrowing years is filled with facts but it is surprisingly devoid of rancor.

Throughout the book, he minces no words about corruption and misguided policies taken by South Vietnam and its US allies. Still he remains level-headed, only reserving his harshest criticisms for the North’s leaders who sacrificed millions of Vietnamese lives, only to give the unified nation a government much more corrupt and brutal than the one they overthrew.

This masterpiece of a book is well-researched, with ample footnotes from many diverse sources. However, it represents above all the honest feelings and unique viewpoints of a man who lived through the worst of it and survived to tell the rest of us what nightmare South Vietnam had gone through in the last half of the 20th century.
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

jaappe
5.0 out of 5 stars great story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
..a wonderfull +very interesting book ....quick delivery and very good price .....
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