dragon fish , a novel by vu tran ( b & n review 14- 8- 2015)
A READING LIFE
d r a g o n f i s h
by vu tran
Dragon Fish, Vu Tran first novel, is story of exile and loss strapped into the cockpit of a thriller. Robert Ruen, the first- peson narrator, is a forty-five-yer-old Okland policeman, two years divorced from him his Vietnamese wife, Suzy, a woman who left him the day after he stugged her in the face. Five months ago to learned that she had been thrown down a fight of stairs by her new husband, Sonny Van Nguyen -- restaurateur, smuggler, gambler, and all- around bad actor. The new sent Robert bombing off to Las Vegas. Sonny' s home base, to wreak vengeance, exacting some but receiving his own portion of hurt. Now, back to the present -- if only briefly -- he receives a visit from a couple of Sonny' s gun- toting sidekicks, who tell him that. Suzy has dissappeared and it' s up to Robert to find her. The incentives is a videotape of Robert assaulting Sonny, which they intend to turn over to the authorities unless he follows their directions -- so off they all go, back to Las Vegas.
But who is this Suzy? In the first place her real name is Hong, but, as Robert reports " it sounded a big piggish the way Americans pronouncd it, " so he dubs her " Suzy", the name of his first girlfriend. Although it is not exactly the main element of the story, Robert's take- change attitude suggests that he suffers from a familiar brand of male obliviouness as, say, represented by his insisiting, against Suzy' s wishes, that the couple take a road trip to San Diego for their honeymoon. The journey is marked by his forgetting, " the cooler with all the drinks and snacks she prepared, " her becoming violently carsick, and his bringing her to eat, ,as he tell us, to "a place I once took a girlfriend years ago. " There they had an expensive meal she didn' t want and couldn' t eat. Shr storms off, he rolls his eyes and admits, " I' d had women do this to me before." I had to laugh.
Still, it is clear that Robert loved Suzy and still does, and that, despite his fit of violent rage, he wants to do right by her. Suzy, it is also clear, was drawn, to marry him less out of love and more out of his being a source of safety and stability. It wasn' t enough. Her character, her history, and her attendant self- loathing and yearning for something -- she hardly knows what -- plunge her into episodes of depression and vicious ill temper. Robert knows she escaped by boat to Malaysia after the fall of Saigon, but she has never told him the details of that terrible voyage, or what happened in the refugee camp in Malaysia before she made it to America. Most astoundingly, she has also kept secret the fact that she had a daughter whom she abandoned to relatives in Los Angeles when the girl was five. All this we learn from long excerpts from her secret journal that appear intermittently throughout the book.
Suzy is an exile and traumatized survivor, but she is also, and perhaps as a consequence, crarzy, possessed of an explosive temper, and tormented by an endless, unappeasble, and contradictory yearning for both freedom and attachment. Tran shows us Robert' s pinability to understand his wife, not only because she cannot be reduced an explanation -- but also because, even if she could be, he' s probalbly not the guy to do it. That dosen' t make him bad : it makes him a twenty- year- veteran of the Okland police force, married -- then unma-
rried -- to a woman who doesn' t know what she wants.
Robert learns more of Suzy' s story as he moves through an extremely curious and violent plot, the main ingrdient of which is his meeting Suzy' s daughter, Mai, and taking her along in the search for her mother. Also involved is a suitcase containing $100.000, an unlucky Vietnamese card dealer called Happy, back- stories from Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as knives, guns, murder, mayhem, another videotape, and a couple of ghosts. Though this fast- moving, engine- gunning rattletrap of a plot keeps the reader whipping through the pages, it has too many gears and levers, and sits oddly with Tran' s fine precision of prose style.
He evokes setting with economy and vigor : the overcrowded, stinking boat waking its perilous nine- days voyage to Malaysia, the refugee camp and its way of life, a super- down- market Las Vegas hotel/ casino. His rendering of this dismal etablishment and its habitués doesn' t lexuriate in the phantasmagorial luridness that so many depictions of
Las Vegas do but still perfectly captures its peerless crumminess. The building reveal " its age during the day, with its big- bulbed signs flashing sixties glamour, its fat, crusty walls a world away from its mirrored splendor on the Strip. "At the registration desk is " an overweight family besieged by luggage and cigarettes smoke the two parents puffing away as their sniggering tons took turns punching each other in the arm." Inside the poker room is "l lit like some foodless cafeteria", populated some by collage- age cludes in baseball caps and sunglasses, their white- haired elders in plaid and khakhis, and the solitary middle - aged woman with her purse in her lap.
Every description has its little grace notes, small or observations that give unique life to the scene. Here, as a final example, is Robert showing up at Sonny' s restaurant, asking the Mexican sweeping the patio to get his boss, though it's the son who appears:
The Mexican, for some reason handed me his broom, and dissappeared behind two giant mahogang doors. A minute later a young Vietnamese woman late twenties, brightly groomed, dressed in a spendidly tailored tan suit a precise pind- tie appeared in his place. He smiled at me, shook my hand tenderly. He relieved me of the broom and learned it aganist one of the wooden pillars that blanket the patio." How may I help you, sir? he held his hands behind his back and spoke with a slight accent, his tone as formal as if he'd ironed it.
Everything is prefect there, those quiet little gamishes of diosyneratic detail are gifts,
both amusing and full of character Tran 's novel is filled with this sort of inspired
meticulousness and reading it is to enter its world.
[]
( viet-studies)
the ordeal of an american militiaman by the phong / translated by dam xuan can / dai nam van hien books, saigon, 1970
the ordsal of an american militiman - 5 -
dai nam van hien books. saigon 1970
THE ORDEAL OF AN AMERICAN MILITIAMAN
by THE PHONG
TRANSLATED BY DAM XUAN CAN
chapter 3
FROM POLITICAL ACTION
to
RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
From the beginning of 1966 the various training camps of Political Action cadres were officially integrated in the Rural Development Program. Lieutenant Colonel Le van Thinh was appointed Commanding Officer and my old friend, Captain Le became Deputy Com-
manding officer. Captain Xuân was called back from Pleiku to assume the duties of Training Director. There was a ruror that Captain Xuân had been involved in the Fulro (*) Movement, and the new post was to keep him away from thje trouble spot. Captain Van was still Assistant in charge of Operations and Head of the Trainees. The first training course for Rural Development cadres began in earnest,
---
* FULRO was the abbreviation of FRONT UNIFIÉ POUR LA LIBÉRATION DES RACES OPPRIMÉES . (TR)
When I first met the Lt Colonel Thinh Commmanding Officer, I immediately hold he was a bon papa type like Mr. Courage. I pleasantly plump chap, he was all smiles most of the time. He took command on the 19 th of February. Nothing spectacular happened.
Enginner Thanh won the trust of Captain Deputy Commanding Officer. Kha Lun found his prestige slipping. Duong was promoted to the position of Head of Polirtical Affairs Section. Chung acted as the extraordinary representative of the Deputy Development Program and the newly born Rural Deveolpment concept. San fled to Saigon after being awarded the so- called 13 th month salary. He was no longer in a position of trust as far as the Deputy Commanding Officer was concerned. Two other members of his group. Lawyer Th. and 'White Dung' also quit. In a meeting, Captain Le said, " Enginner Thanh help high degrees and yet be always said degrees only worsen people. I throughly agree with him. Look at Dinh Bach Dan (*). An artist, he is a bit nuts, but he is extremely dedicated . He never faied to fullfill any job assigned to him. "
---
* DINH BACH DAN is the author of thie reportage.
THE PHONG is his better known pen name which he used to sign this work. (TR )
Aha! Good Havens ! The chap being praised so warmly was presently in Dalat for the wedding. His working day feel on the 30 th of January and his leave ended on the 31 st.
As a matter of fact, he turned up five days later. The Deputy Commanding Officer gave him a severe brush,
" You are punished."
" Yes, Sir. My fault is entirely mine. I have no excuses! .
" What is the reason for your be lated comeback?"
" I decline to say it, Sir. How can I defend my position when no one will hear it. Sir, I am very proud to accept whenever punishment which will fall on me."
' Why is that?"
" Because one marries but once. My stay in Dalat was all the more precious to me, because it had been obtained at such great risk!"
" You can go and have a shower I must go to attend a meeting."
" Thank you, Sir. Goodbye!".
I few minor changes had been carried out in the syllabus of the school. For example, the lecture 'Theory and been es Practice of Rural Development' had been established in the place of the old lecture entitled 'The Need for Political Action, What did the Nationalists and the Communists do to the Fatherlnad in the last Twenty years'. This change was not very happy because the author, a long time Đai Viêt Party member, was very awful. These lectures were all scraps. Every time I came into class, my heard came up to my throat. I liked and respected Nghia as a man but what he wrote was all rubbish.
Duong did not think good command of a foreign language was a big asset, but frankly I thought we should take profit of all that had been written in other languages. Without doing research, how could a white collared politician refuse Communists persuasion convincingly enough? Oh, I did not know. How many trainees cadre would be sacrified as guine a pigs to convince the instructors of the need through study research ?
The old man of Captain Le were still very much in charge. Captain Xuân, the Training Director, only carried out the old plan. A new face named Minh Manila came but all he did was to quarrel with Chung and Duong. All of them did not a damn thing which could be reasonnably described as real good.
Old good Thịnh still humed the soap opeara song stanza which ran something like this,
" I am a relative of the Deputy Commanding Officer, and you can see I have never asked him any favour ."He simply wanted to impress the newly recruited instructors. Not before long, the number of instructors increased to many hundred, so I gave up the body of learning their names. But I still rewmember a few. Instructor Hoa must be rated number one favorite. He was chosen to escort Lieutenant Colonel Le văn Thinh in his regular gambling trips to Vung tau. Once he earned as much as 200. 000 piasters. I found his exploit worth mentioning.
These days the Yanks needed rocks to build the runways and roads Contractors ran after the Mayor of Vung tau to get permission to dig a rocks from Nui Lon to furnish to the Yankee authorities, They approached Hoa who put up a threatening boast,
" Men, I knew the Mayor well. We often play 'xì- phé' (*) with each other. What do you men precisely want ?"
---
* a sort of card game). (TR)
Impressed by the revolutionary man armed with a Browning even the Aussies envied who was often seen driving Bronco Jeep, hatless and wearing glasses and talking extremely well, they betted their lots in him. Hoa was given a big sum of money for the purpose of lobbying. In the 'xì-phé' party with the Mayor, he played not to win but to lose. After losing some ten thousand, he crooned plaintively,
" My God! My dear Lt Colonel Mayor I am broke now!"
And he took the occasion to ask the permission to take rocks to sell to teh Yanks. The Mayor okayed and tough, Hoa got 200. 000 piasters for conceding the permission to the contractors. A very profitable deal, wasn' t it?.
A few days before the graduation day, Captain Le was promoted to the rank of Major. Any of us who knew of the promotion business knew at once this meant Major Le would be awarded a much higher position or he would be finished not before long. Air Vice Marshall Nguyen cao Ky presided at the graduation ceremony on the 19 th of May, 1966. He was surrounded by a great number of pressmen, both foreign and local. At midday, the Major Deputy Commanding Officer gave interviews to ABC and BBC radios. At one time, the questions focused on the Viet Cong raid on Bach Viet Camp (formely known as the Ridge Camp) in which tow cadres and a few cooks lost their lives. It was on the 12 th of last March. The Viet Cong had carefully planned the raid. They chose Saturday when the instructors got the day off and the trainees only had rifles without ammunition. At 8 : 15 PM they began shelling the runways and the top end of Bach Viet Camp. A couple of Viet Cong armed with AK rifles boldly approached the gate of the camp, opening fire in the most disorderly manner. Although seriously wounded, a trainee cried at the top of his voice,
" Du Me you bastards! I would have killed all of you, had I had live ammunition."
Saying that, he collapsed, bleeding profusely. The Major used the story as a proof of the genuine anti- Communist spirit of the trainees. Major General Thắng (*) was present, but he was not buying the shaky nation program designed by these amateurs. But he did not say a word. His spokeman, a certain lieutenant Colonel Tran ngoc Châu loudly expressed his grave doubts about the efficiency of the school to many of us.
Obviously, Chung, the self- appointed joint theorist of Political Action and Rural Develop-
ment did not know that. He said to me,
" Dinh Bach Dan, you did not know I succeded magnificiently. Without me, the Deputy Commanding Officer would have been a flop. I tell you what, the generals were so impressed !"
He smiled gracefully and looked very proud. I did not feel like laughing and could not find anything to be proud of . My trouble with me was my willingness to hear and hear and hear. Chung continued,
" Lt Colonel Le van Thinh did not do anything for Duong, Thanh, Cu, Kha Lun, as he thought they were the protégés of the Majot Commanding Officer. They had to go to Thủ Đức (*). What a apity ! They are good mates !"
---
* The Reserve Officer Training School . (TR)
Major Le was practically in command of almost everything. Swayed by the beautiful faces of the Camp female trainees, the chaps coming from the Ministry of Rural Development had nothing but high praises of the Camp.
But the 'bon papa' , Lt Col Thinh Commanding Officer was to be relieved from his post soon, giving place to Lt Colonel Tran ngoc Chau. This took place in June, 1966.
Talking of the two words 'Muôn năm' (*), I recalled one 'Two Trưng Sisters Days' when Madam Ngo dinh Nhu, the wife of the Supreme Adviser to then President, delivered a speech on the days in front of the Saigon Town Hall. She cried,
" Phụ nữ Việt nam muôn năm !" (**)
---
* Litterally, a thousand years. Means Long Live .
** Long Live Vietnamese Women .
Litterally, to want lie down .
Used figuratively, this expression either means to go to bed or to be sacked. (TR))
but she spoke with the Huế accent, the two last words sounded like, " muốn nằm" whose meaning was a most outright obscene, and the least disturbing.
Major Le was warmly hailed 'muốn nằm' . I softly sang to myself,
" All of us the Training Centre are grateful to Major Le. Alas, Major Le won' t be long with
us ! "
During one meeting session in Cat lo Camp, Thu winked to me, whispering,
" We must stage a 'coup d' état' today. I heard a certain Lt Colonel Trần ngoc Châu from the Ministry of Rural Development is about to take over the school. It is most likely that a purge will be carried out. There has been already a rumor that anyone who sides with him will be awarded a Honda motorbike".
This chap had a bunch of yellow hair on his head. We called him Dung- Haired- Thu. An enthusiastic man, he was always prepared to work very hard. But he was very existable and keen on girls. Thu also made a name for himself for his talent to win the effections of the female cadres easily, rated as good as that of Kha Lun and Duong. A Southerner, Thu was born in Búng ( Lái Thiêu) , the native town of Revolutionary Phan van Hùm. Thu was very good to us and I knew him pretty well. Upon hearing Thu' s words, Tôn Nhái (*) winked back, saying to me,
---
* FROG TÔN. A diminuitive man with a big voices. (TR)
" The bastards will settle old sores today. Don' t you know? "
I nodded. That chap knew everything in this centre. Sometimes he knw even things he did not actually knew. Because he was very outspoken, Major Le was not very happy with him. The chap who broughtTôn here was enginneer Thanh. When seeing Tôn wanted to use a gun in a quarrel with Thanh, the returnee, Thanh was afraid and said to Major Le he could not longer be responsable for any of Tôn' s acts. I had to interfere save Tôn by exhorting his good nature and integrity.
In answer to Tôn' s enquiry about the side I would be in this power struggle I said,
"i could not care less about this lousy business. All I want now is to have a sound sleep at my room !."
published
In these btween- the- courses days, a seminar was held. The guest speakers were a few politically- minded Saigon lawyers and poet Đằng Phương, (or Nguyễn ngọc Huy), a lecturer in politics in the National Institute of Administration. Taking advantage of the situation, Thu rushed to the stage to match the microphone, shouting,
" May I apologize Mrr Lawyer. I have a very important announcement to make to the instructors and guides of this centre. Lt Colonel Thinh and Major Le are going to be removed. The newcomers hve threatened to purge us. We are patriote, we are anti- Communist, we have done a lot of this centre, why should we be treated like that ? The New Order also said he who cooperated with them would be awarded a Honda. The rest will be sacked."
The expressed himself like a Northerner but he spoke the Southern dialect. After Thu finished, Chung rose up to movethe masses more scientifically. The next spaekaers were the other protégés of Major Le like Captain Xuân and Van, and Phan chu Tê.
I knew Te when both of us were still in Hanoi, Tê being a proof reader for Thân dân Daily and I being a free- lance journalist. (Tê always said he was the nephew of Revolutionary Phan chu Trinh). In 1964, Tê fooled quite a lot of people. The Ao thả vịt Column ( written by Chu Tử writer) in Sống Daly that year published an anouncement that the Sống Daily Staff would continue the gold search in the site where Đinh xuân Câu had failed. Among the prospec-
tive gold diggers were Hoàng anh Tuấn poet, The Phong writer ... It was Phan chu Tê who sold the 'fake' gold mine map in Dalat to Đinh xuân Câu for a reasonable price of 300.000 p[iasters. Đinh xuân Câu spent a couple of million piasters in the project which did not bring him even one ounce of gold. At one time, Phan chu Tê was a Lieutenant in the Army of Secret agents of Dr Trân kim Tuyên to infiltrate in the execuitive commiteee of the Association of the Communists' s Victims (*) of Ngô trong Hiêu. When Phan chu Tê came to this centre, Major Le gave him the salary of a first rank instructors. (while someone of his qualifications only get a third rank salary).
---
* The Vietnamese sentence read, "."Hội nạn nhân Cộng sản. (TR)
Phan chu Tê didi not go to the stage. He mingled among the bulk of the guides and instructors to exhort them to show their support of major Le. Chung succeeded in getting through a motion to invite Lt Colonel Thinh. Major Le, Catain Xuân to speak out. I had to say that the majority in the meeting hall were the old Political instructors Lt Colonel was a comer but he supported the Old Order,
" I frankly don' t know what is going on. I did not know why I waqs appointed Commanding Officer. Now I do not know why I should go. Anyhow, I thank you all for your support so generously shown towards me."
Major Le refused the invitation to speak. Captain Xuân, a rich man politician, talked lengthily about his political frustations. Captain Van was to shy to speak in public. His con-
solation, and it was freat, was that he would be getting married to Miss Thuong, the rich daughter of the food supplier.
The show went on noisily until its logical climax : Chung asked all to sign a resolution requesting the continued service of Lt Colonel Thinh, Major Le, Captain Xuân and denouncing the New Order. Now I go out after saying to a friend of Chung,
" I am like others. Now I must go home."
As I reached the entrance door, I still hear the historic statement of Thu,
" As all of you have seen: Lt Colonel Le van Thinh has disclosed he did not know anything about his removal, Major Le has done a great deal for this centre and Captain Xuân and Van too. If they will no longer be here with us, I will resign to become an ice- cream seller."
Major Le was obviously pleased by the support shown towards him. The persons packing the meeting hall were singing the Political Action Theme Song and raising their hands up.
The sky was cloudy thatd ay. After arriving at my house in Rach dua, I said to my wife,
" Let us have a good sleep, don' t give them a damn. I did not owe anybody anything. If they mean business they must come to the Military of Rural Development to plead the authorities to reconsider the matter. Believe me, they will be in derious trouble very soon, because of what they have just done ..."
Chung succeeded in winning Litte Hai, Medical Training Chief, and Dong, a military instructor to the side of those to resist the imminent takeover of the Centre. There was a lull in their fight after Major Le came to Saigon, apparently to request the intervention of some high ranking officials in the American Embassy. Two days later, he came back to the Centre, looking dejected. The Headquarters of the 'Rebels' moved to Bach Viet Camp. The supporters (or sympathisers) of the rebels instructors were the Cat lo guardsmen and guides.
The Chinese guardsmen directly recruited and paid by the Yanks for two camps Bach Viet and Phu Dong, were totally non- committal. These bastards were real cowards. In the Viet Cong raid on the Bach Viet Camp, they were the first to drop their rifles and take to their heels.
Chung was the leader assisted by Thu, Dong and Little Hai. Little Hai did not have the slightest idea of what all the fuss was about; He simply wanted to show his loyalty to Major Le in his time of need. Major Le used to think Little Hai only carried out orders by Frallic, American Adviser. Little Hai enjoyed a good name among the Vietnamese. He always tried his best to project the Vietnamese aganist the criticism of Frallic. When a new medical istructor came, he was intensely hated by everyone after only one month. His name was Bang. He was only a senior medic, but many addressed him as Doctor Bang.
As for me, I always referred to him as Bảng Bia Đá (*). To Frallic, he was a crawler. In his absence, he turned all his venom to him, criticising his lewdness towards Vietnamese girls. Ironically, all the girls did not like him better because of this. Once when I came to the camp dispensary to ask for some headache tablets, I heard T. speaking to Y. like this,
" ... Watch him carefully, will you ? He is a lustful old man. Last night he came to the orderly room again. -- " Oh dear ! It is raining. I bet you' re freezing. Since my coming here, the lives of all the girls here have been better off than over, don' t you think? I did my best to protect all of you against the complaints of Frallic. Recently, he threatened to fire one, only my strong words deterred him from doing so ." -- " Who is that girl, Doctor? -- The old man thought I was impressed, tried to exploit the situation, his nose dilating, his eyes winking and his black lips blackening -- I want to keep her name a secret. My position does not allow me to disclose her name, Morever, I' d better not to say for to shake of disinterest. I could not bear his hyprocrisy, so I decide to send him away. -- With all due respect, Sir, may I ask your permission to go to sleep. Anyway, I must rest so that I can be alert to lend help to anyone who may require it. He slid away without delay. Beware of him. He is a most unreliable man, you should not critise Frallic in his presence. The little mischief- maker would report to Frallic and you will be in serious trouble. I hate kinky married men like him".
---
* Stele. (TR)
i
After hearing all the story, I came in. T. asked me,
" Did you hear what I said? "
I assured her that I would not say it to anyone, but I promise to mention Bảng Bia Đá in a tentative reportage titled 'The ordeal of an American militiaman' . Miss T. smiled and gave me more tablets than I asked for. The first day I came here, I told her of my profession. She asked whether I knew a Parachutist Captain who has also a writer named Trần hoài Châu.
I said yes and she had been treating me extremely well there after.
I was positive chaps like Dr Bảng Bia Đá abounded in this place. Most Northerners talked very well, so the worst flatterers (or crawlers) were among them. (When Lt Colonel Tran ngoc Châu was still in power, Dr Bang supported him and denounced Major Nguyễn Bé, when Major Nguyễn Bé became of the new Boss with the same ferociousness). Allow me to leave him here to discuss further the power game in the Centre.
In many days the MP' s were on guard on the road from Vung tau to Phu Đong camp. Any instructor not in permission of a pass signed by Lt Colonel Trần ngọc Châu was arrested. When a friend of mine, Cao Thế Dung, came to see me from Ban Mê Thuột, I drove him on a car to Vung tau township. I was wearing civilian dress, but when we approached the Communications Post, the MP' s stopped me. A MP seargeant asked,
" Are you an instructor at the Cadre Training Centre ? Could you show me your pass ?"
He intended to arrest me. I pleaded I simply wanted to show my friend to Vung tau and I did not play any role in the 'coup'. The MP sergeant gave back my old pass and said,
" All right for now. But you' d better go back to your place".
I stayed in my room reading. A dangerous situation was developing fast. I received the news that Major Le was virtually under house arrest in his room in the third storey of the Headquarters building of the Camp Phu Dong.
Chung, Duong, Hoat Diminutive Dung and Little Hai were also detained. Only Thu was still free. In a visit to me, Thu said to me in a shaking voic,
" I feel we are finished this time. All the roughnecks have been detained !".
I pointed out that they did not act in accordance to basic principals. They had done some-
thing close to rebellion. Major Le was established by the Americans, but he was still under the furidiction of the Vietnamese Government. As such, there was little they could do if the Govwernment definitely wanted him to be removed.
After that, I camw to see Thuy (Chung' s wife) and her children at Vung tau. I advised her of the latest development. I was very worried, not knowing whether Chung' s name was still on the payroll or not. Moreover Thuy was going to givew birth child. I was sure Chung and his friend would be released not before long.
One morning I came to attend a meeting presided over by the just arrived Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colobnel Trần ngọc Châu. After the meeting he former driver of the Major Le said to me,
" The Mjor has been flown to Saigon in a helicopter. His furnished room has been assigned to an American adviser. Upon departure, he waved his hands to us anf said, " Goodbye to all my friends. When peace comes to our country, I will see all of you in freedom."
Head down, I pondered over his words. My dear leader (I always think happen to fall under your eyes. I deplore your fall, but the blame is mainly yours because you were overcon-
fident in the foreigners. According to Newsweeks,major General Nguyễn đức Thắng was quoted as saying that you were removed because you were a CIA agent .(*).
---
* Central Intteligence Agency. (TR)
Chung was brought to Saigon for investigation and was sent back to teh School to take up his old job. My friend Thu who had vowed not to serve under the new leadership now get along very well with the new Commanding Officer. Thu came to Aux Delices every
evening. Once Miss TITI showed me one of his letter to her. (*) I said,
" My friend wants to do big things. He really need a wife who are both rich and noble like you."
" Come on. You' re a bit cheeky today, Mr The Phong ."
She looked at me with her wide open round, big eyes going in the inner room.
I was left alone sipping black coffee, looking out to the street. I sadly thought of many instructors who had been dismissed because of one or another reason. The plaques with the motto 'We Will Win Through Compassion and Earnestness' on the elongated S mounted in front of the flagpoles in the camps Cat lo, Phu Dong nad Bach Viet had been demolished, giving place to laques with the words People and Fatherlands on a broken S.A new era had began.
I was one of those left to witness the ensuing change.
---
* Now Thu has been killed in a car accident on the Saigon- Biên hoa Highway. O Tran trung Thu, I mourn your death. I am writing your full name to preserve your memory. Alas ! ( Author' s note)
Boarding the Caribou 544 Y of Air America for Saigon, with a leave permission in my hands, I knew my days in the school were numbered. I would be quitting very soon to enlist in the Army. The Negro pilot said to me,
" If this aircarft flies to Hanoi, will you be happy to come along? "
I answered without any hesistation,
" Why not ? If you come along, I will go too".
This meant in the depth of my being I believed the reunification of our country was bound to happen . And I sincerely wished the South would fulfill this historic mission in due course, as it had happened so many times in the past
.
The aicraft effected a stop over in Go cong Province. I helped to carry the ammunition alloted to this place.
Now I had to admit one thing. We are all prisoners of Fate. Lt Colonel Trần ngọc Châu, the man of the New Order had defeated Major Le. My Major Nguyễn Bé, the middle man, happened to be the victor, I knew very well that he had not worked to get the post at all. He was the author of the book 'Studies on Constancy' . (*) He expounded the view that CONSTANCY was the cardinal virtue of all those wishing to rebuild the nation. He was pretty good man, but I was very curious to know whether he would survive the dirty tricks that Fate might play against him.
---
* The Vietnamese reads ' Chung thủy' (TR).
EPILOGUE
IT is clear Rural Development is the key for te nation- salvation? It is revolution from the basic unit of our society - the village . But the very word 'REVOLUTION' does not mean much to the ordinary people. In the past, the Communists claimed they made a revolution, while all they did was tp repress the people.
To the man in the street revolution simply means the improvement of the standard of living. If yesterday a peasant had not enough rice. Today we must hope his family will have more than enough. The people now are very practically- minded. They have been deceived so many times they cannot be easily fooled now. I think the most efficient way of enlightening then is to give them rice and education, both political and general. With rice they can have a decent life; education will enable them to understand the wrongs of Communism.
In an encounter with Nguyễn văn Trung [1930- ], a Saigon University Professor of Philosophy, at Vung tau, I was convinced of the need to use writers and artist in the anti- communist drive in the rural areas. He said,
" I feel that to the writers and artists whose life is confined to the urban areas there are only a few subjects like the tearoom, public park, and nightclub. If they write well about these, that' s fair enough. But these subjects are trivial, compared with the problem that has been consuming us for more than twenty years, war. To remedy this situation all artists and writers should be sent to the countryside for at least two months so that they can write about the real problems of the bulk of the population. I am sure the relatives will open their eyes to something other than the evening in the park, the hospital at dusk of their personal lots. The war is the only important issue at this moment ! "
I answered,
" I think you know that from 1945 to 1950 the Communists used artists and writers for propaganda purpose in the countryside and on the battlefields. But artists and writers have no freedom of choice under a Communist regime. In a free country like ours how can we have artists and writers notively taking part in the Government pacification efforts in the rural areas ? I have a frank question to ask you. Take your case for example. If you are asked to resign from your post to go and live in the countryside what will you do?"
He said,
" I come to villages and write books. But who' ll print them for me?"
The answer was to have an efficient Government agency to promote cultural affairs. At the time of our talking there was not a Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
Now we do have such a Ministry. But what did it achieve in the past ? It just organised conferring of literary awards ceremonies. And that' s it. Even the recipients were very critical of these lousy awards. Alas out of hunger, their secret wish was that the awards should have been bigger ! .
There was one writer who hired a chap to represent him at the ceremony while he stayed at home. Only a few people like Nguyễn hiến Lê and Giản Chi who said blunty they declined to receive the awards because they felt unhappy with the presence of 'illiterate' chaps in the jury. When Mrs Trần thị TUÊ MAI , another recipient, and a speech about the stalemate of arts and letters in South Vietnam, she said she only wanted to shook all to the knowledge of a state of affairs which so many people tented to take for granted.
Only recently, Kha Trấn Ác ( or Chu Tử writer) gave a warning in Sống Daily to the Vice Minister of Cultural Affairs, Doctor writer Nguyễn tuấn Phát, threatening to bring him to a kangaroo court in the vent of his failure to bring about a significant change to the literary life here. I frankly did not understand Scholar Nguyễn đức Quỳnh when he stubbornly protested against the idea suggested by Uyên Thao that all cultural activities should be regimental for the sake of greater efficiency. Writer Nguyễn đức Quỳnh agreed that we should not use Hanoi Communist tactics. I would like very much to know what motivated him to forget his master plan to organise writers in 1961- 1962.
I also want to know the Vice- Minister of Cultural Affairs reaction to Prime- Minister Nguyen cao Ky' s wish to see writers working in the countryside.
I think the background of the Vice- Minister would be a matter of general interest to the readers. A doctor, he has the author of 'Imppressions and Thoughts of a a Doctor and my poems' ; last but not least, he was a very keen reader. He particularly like the novel 'Notherly' (*) in which Linh Bao attacks the corrupt regime of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communist regime with much tactful effectiveness.
---
* The Vietnamese reads, Gió bấc. (TR)
I have craved for his plan to promote the efficiently of our literary activities in both rural and urban areas. Even in the country so far from us like Australia, North Vietnamese books like 'Tây bắc Stories' by Tô Hoai nd' Việt bắc' by Tô Huu abounds ...
What do we plan to do counter these influence?
Should we make English translations of your typical books available.
Books worth translating are beyond any shade of doubt these informing the world or life in the South and the determination of the people to improve the country they love so much and so well.
The Rural Development Program sums up all our commendable efforts. The Government is trying to carry out elections for grass roots officials in the village. Thousands of Rural Devopment Cadres are braving dangers to improve the life of the people. Are they trained well? After graduation, are they properly managed by the Provincial Team Chief?
I mention a typical case. In Tuyên Đức [Lam Dong Province] , the team chief eto the Province Chief that his men were doing a magnificent job. Alas ! when the Province Chief was flown in, by helicopter, to see for himself, only four were on duty, the rest of a 59- man team were on leave. The same man ask his men to make sacrifice, to work even on holidays, but he himself devoted all his time to platying card. Leadership is vital to maintaining the morale of the cadres. Even in the training period, if the trainees detected any sign of divisiness between the HQ and the teaching staff they would not study properly.
But when the cadres worked and fought hard, their shinning examples should be brought to the knowledge of the people everywhere. Who will be doing this, if not the writers?
The thing is the writer could not do this at all if they did not enjoy the realistic support of the Government. What has the Government done so far ? Practically nothing ! Individuals have the credit for the small achievements that have been the very first efforts in the field.
A couple of reportage in Sống Daily, a statement by Air- Vice Marshall Nguyen cao Ky, a few articles signed Nguyễn Tú in Chính luận Daily. Many more are urgently needed : reportage, diaries ... ( Whether these are badly written or nor is not important at this stage). This is the only way to enlighten the people on the problem of Rural Development Program, the activities of the cadres and the faults of the leaders in charge.
Many foreigners are also keen in helping us. I have met many Americans who can speak Vietnamese fluently like David E. Brown, a person concerned with the Rural Development Policy and John Keller of Dalat, an official of JUSPAO .(*)
---
* Joint United States Public Affairs Office. (TR)
The success of the program wholy depends on the cadres. Otherwise it will suffer the fate of the Strategic Hamlet Program in the past. The cadres are not superman. Their efforts should be recognised, or their endevour to serve will falter. The writers living with them are in the position to do this. As a matter of fact they only believe in writers who are sincere, rugged, stubborn without a trace of affectedness. Money may spoil many of them, but we should not worry too much about this, because the ones living by money will be destroyed by money.
Before concluding, I relate here some remarks on the Rural Development Program of foreign correspondents when I acted as an official host for the School.
J.Decornoy of French Daily Le Monde asked me,
" As an instructor, could you tell me whether the cadres 'thingking are somewhat changed after 3 months' training ?"
" In what aspect? "
" About the hopes of building a new, viable society."
An American reporter asked me through an interpretor,
" You have been serving in the School in nearly 2 years. Could you tell me whether you still like the job or not ?"
I choose not to put down my answer to this query here. The American reporter continued,
" Could you tell me the number of instructors serving in the School ? "
" One thousand".
"Are they all still working ? "
" Three hundred have left recently, either on their own will or because they are no longer wanted."
" Thank you very much for your help. Could you tell me your real name? "
A correspondent of Luxembourg Liberty Station Number One asked me,
" Would you mind explaining in French, the Rural Dvelopment Program for our listeners , specially its mutations since the beginning up to now ?"
I said I was only acting as an official host, not a spokeman. I could only discuss this sort of question with the permission of Major Nguyễn Bé, my Commanding Officer. But we could not contact Major Nguyễn Bé that time."
Recently, international correspondents- American, French or Belgian wanted to go and see the Cadres Training Center at Vung tau. This center is the starting point of our efforts towards reconstructing our society. One German- born American, Andrew Braun of the ABC Television was very open- hearted and very interested in understanding the Vietnamese people. He spoke French fluently, so I could talk with him. I thought he sympa-thised with us because he was like us, coming from the divided country.
French correspondent like J. Decornoy did not give a damn to the American efforts in Vietnam, much less to the Vietnamese themselves.
The real American correspondent were anxious to know the truth, even the material damaging to the Allies.
I now wish to express my gratitude to Major Nguyễn Bé, who assigned to me the job of official host in several occasions. My only regret was that may command in English was inedequate. I think the task of enlightening the foreign correspondents of our natiuonal problems is very important.
We will suffer if they write wrongly about us. On the contracy, the word will be on our side if they write impartially. Overseas information service should become a national priority now.
I have not given the conclusion that I promised, Frankly, I have no definite assessment to offer. The only thing I can say is that everyone should make appropriate contribution to the vastly important Rural Development Program. The great task of making the villages new should be the concern of us all, whether military or civilian, old or young, male or female, North or Southern born. The key to our victory over the Communists is the pacification program.
Every aspect of life in the country must be improved. Any appropriate action to be taken be based on reports filled by individuals as well as those of government agencies.
I am looking forward to the day when the barriers dividing official and non- official people will be a thing of the past, The Rural Development Program should seek the advice and help of a 'think tank' along the lines of the Rand Corporation in California and the Asia Foundation.
As for myself, I pledge to work under any circumstances at all of contribute to the magnanimous job of bringing genuine peace and real prosperity to our war- town land. []
VUNG TAU, SAIGON 1966- 67 .
THEPHONG
