An almost unbelievable story

This is possibly the best book on the Vietnam War that I have ever read. Vietnam Labyrinth Allis, Enemies, & Why the U.S. Lost the War is a story about the personal journey of Tran Ngoc Chau starting in 1943 as a teenager in the National Salvation Youth group resisting Japanese occupation until his escape from Vietnam as a boat person 36 years later eventually making it to America in the fall of 1979. Chau and his brother are intertwined in the war, the politics and the intrigue during the entire saga of the Vietnam War from the end of the French colonial days until the North Vietnamese communists takeover the south in 1975. It’s hard to envision how one person could have been involved in both side of this conflict at such high levels and lived to tell about it.

The book was published in 2012 by Texas Tech University Press and is the work of Tran Ngoc Chau and Ken Fermoyle with a forward by Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame. It is well documented and researched and an excellent historical narrative besides being a very interesting story of someone that could have made a big difference to the eventual outcome of the conflict if only others had listened.

The Asian portion of WW II starts with the invasion of China in 1937 by Japan, although they had taken Manchuria in 1931 and by 1940 they were in control of most if not all of the former French Indo China and that is where the story starts.  Ho Chi Min having been previously introduced to communism in France and later China used the Japanese occupation of Vietnam as an excuse to start a resistance movement and help the allies against the Japanese. The OSS helped Ho and as the Japanese were defeated Ho though he could get the allies to keep the French from recouping Vietnam and the rest of Indochina.  Ho using many aliases hides his true intentions very well to gain his objective of a United Communist Vietnam.

By the end of WW II Chau and his brother were both in the Viet Minh, Chau thought he was fighting for the freedom of his people while Ho kept his communist goals secret. Ho was also able to eliminate most of his rivals such that as the French came back in after the German defeat and hired the remaining Japanese to help them reestablish that control the battle for the country had begun.

The first 8 chapters are about Chau’s rise through the ranks of the Viet Minh fighting the French from a foot soldier to a leader in the movement.  In 1949 he is faced with a major decision as his superiors want him to join the Communist party, Chau a very principled man and having seen some of the atrocities that the Communists were doing elected to leave the movement instead and he ending up back home in 1950 where he decided after talking with his farther to side with the other side, the French supported Vietnamese, becoming an officer in the South Vietnamese army. By 1955 the French are gone the country is divided into North and South and the American replace them; and Chau begins another life change that lasts until chapter 16 in 1963 with the coup that brought the military to power.

From Chapter 16 until till the end of Chapter 24 Chau rises in the military developing many powerful friends especially in the CIA. His prior experiences with the Viet Minh gave him a perspective not many had and it’s unfortunate that those above him did not listen to him more for his ideas could have worked and resulted in a very different outcome.  By the end of Chapter 24 Chau is a respected member of the National assembly and the 1968 Tea offensive by Hanoi has been beaten back. All though this period Chau’s brother Tran Ngoc Hien, now high up in the Communist leadership have kept in tough (with the permission of the U.S. CIA) both trying to convince the other to switch sides and passing proposed for ending the war to each other.

In Chapter 25 in mid 1969 Chau is arrested after his brother Hien is Captured and tried.  He spends the next 5 years in prison or confinement but just before the collapse of the South Vietnamese in 1975 he is released. But his trials and tribulations are not finished and shortly after the Communists take over Chau was arrested as an enemy of the state and placed in a re-education camp. Chapter 27 the last is how he resisted the indoctrination and managed to get out of the country with his family in 1978 as one of the boat people. The Chapter ends in October 1979 as he boards a plane for the U.S. after his American friends find him and get him authorization to come to America.

This book is an amazing story of personal courage, integrity and survival.  I recommend this book as a must ready to understand the Vietnam War from the prospective of a Vietnamese who had fought on both sides and been imprisoned by both sides a truly unique set of experiences.