This past Monday was the anniversary of the official end of the Vietnam War – April 30, 1975. It is a day that, for Americans, should shame us. For the residents of South Vietnam, however, it will always be a day of unfathomable sorrows.
Of course, as we all know, Vietnam was a watershed moment in the United States. Endless debates continue to this day as to whether the war was ever justified. While some feel it was a necessary effort to prevent the spread of communism (the Domino Theory), others feel it was a senseless war we never should have gotten into.
Regardless, we entered the war. And then we left.
Estimates of American casualties range from 40,000 to 100,000, with overall casualties on all sides somewhere between 1.2 million to 3.2 million.
Despite the military successes of the combined South Vietnamese and American forces, the U.S. eventually retreated from the conflict, largely in response to growing domestic opposition.
Perhaps especially after the draft was ended in January 1973, Americans lost virtually all interest in Vietnam and the fate of its people.
Yet, after the war, the conflict did not stop for South Vietnam. Nor did the suffering of its people. Many former South Vietnamese military and government officials were sent to “reeducation camps” where they were starved and tortured. One scholar estimates as many as 1 to 2.5 million people were placed in these camps, with as many as 150,000 of them ultimately losing their lives.
More broadly, a relentless propaganda campaign was forced onto the South Vietnamese people by their Viet Cong captors. Massive and systematic campaigns of revenge and retribution became the norm. Families were torn apart. A proud people was forced into poverty, ill-health, and starvation. The cruelties are simply too numerous and egregious for most of us to fathom.
It was during this time that the phrase “boat people” came into our vocabulary. It is estimated that some 800,000 refugees sought escape by sea over a period of two decades. The lucky ones found freedom. Many, however, drowned in the perilous waters of the South China Sea or were captured by pirates and forced into slavery and prostitution.
A friend and former parishioner, Dave Bushy, has written a compelling account of Quoc Pham, a former South Vietnamese naval officer, reeducation camp survivor, and captain of one of the boats that made it safely, in this case, to Singapore. He eventually settled in the United States.
Quoc’s story reveals the depths of the horrors faced by the South Vietnamese during the war’s aftermath, a reality we’ve either forgotten or, more likely, never knew anything about.
Dave’s book, The World Looked Away: Vietnam After the War, is a remarkable and compelling account of Quoc’s struggles not just during his time in various reeducation camps, but as the captain of an impossibly overcrowded boat that carried over 50 people to freedom.
This true story, based on extensive interviews with Quoc over years, and lovingly told, is almost impossible to believe. At each turn, things look hopelessly bleak for him and his family. Dave’s account brings to light the extraordinary love, faith, courage, ingenuity, strength, and almost inhuman endurance of Quoc and his family (as well as many of his compatriots).
I couldn’t help but think, after finishing the book, how at any point in this saga Quoc’s survival and eventual escape would not have occurred had things not happened precisely as they did. It is simply an astonishing and altogether sobering account of the absolute best and absolute worst of humanity.
This uplifting book, for its part, is well-written, well-paced, and draws the reader in. In fact, when I turned to the last page, I actually had a physical start, so surprised and disappointed was I that the book was over. I wanted more.
Ultimately, Quoc’s story is a story of the triumph of the human spirit. And the kind of love capable of enduring and overcoming the seemingly impossible.
Please do yourself a favor and read Dave’s book.