Book description
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.
"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
Nguy?n Công Lu?n was born in 1937 and grew up in northern Viet
Nam. Following the 1954 Geneva Agreement, which divided the nation in
two, he moved south and enrolled in the Republic of Viet Nam Military
Academy, then served in the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam until
1975. Incarcerated for 6 years 7 months in communist prison camps, he
immigrated to the United States in 1990. He was an associate editor of
The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War.
