Product Description

The stories of three survivors of the Vietnam War. Huynh Van Chinh and Tran Van Phuc, who had been colonels in the Army of Vietnam, lived through the torture of the "reeducation camps" and finally found freedom in America. Le Nguyen Binh tells of his dangerous escape from Vietnam.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2215177 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 135 pages

From Booklist
When the Americans finally pulled out of Vietnam and the last helicopter lifted off the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, those who had fought alongside or cooperated with the American troops were now left in the hands of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong. After a bloody, divisive war, few Americans were concerned about the South Vietnamese men and women who had been on the U.S. side against the Communists. Metzner, who served as a pacification advisor, could not or would not forget his friends among the vanquished. While he doggedly tried to find out what happened to them, his work was in vain--until 1994. Then he found one and would later locate two others who would make it out of Vietnam to the U.S., and it is their stories that he decided to tell. His coauthors, the three men who had worked with and befriended him during his time in Vietnam, tell their stories of "reeducation" in postwar Vietnam. Marlene Chamberlain
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

An important contribution.
These are the stories of two former colonels of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam who were sent to North Vietnamese reeducation camps for thirteen years each after the collapse of Saigon. They had to battle winter chills, starvation, hunger, lack of medications, and exhauting work in the rice paddies.
The only treatment for any illness is tam lien, a local herbal medicine, which instead of helping, worsens their medical illnesses. Malnutrition and manual labor undermine the health of the remaining people. Others were plucked in the middle of the night for intensive and mind numbming interrogations, from which they returned "dazzled, silent, and uncommunicative."
This important contribution to the Vietnam War history underlines the mistreatment and violation of human rights of prisoners by the Hanoi government. I only wish it was more detailed, but the authors have advised us they are warriors not "writers".
I also learn that general Le Minh Dao, commander of the 18th ARVN division, who magnificently repulsed repetitive attacks from five North Vietnamese divisions at Xuan Loc during the last days of April 1975, was also sent to the North for 17 years of reeducation. He is working on his memoirs and everyone is anxiously waiting to read them.