The Green Belt - a novel by NGO THE VINH

by Ngo The Vinh

WORLD NEWS

This book has been released since February 2005 and it should be available at your local bookstores.

THE BATTLE OF SAIGON - Book jacket designed by Khanh Truong, 2004

Jacket designed by Khanh Truong
Front jacket photographs taken by Tim Page

THE BATTLE OF SAIGON (a short-story collection), 200 pages.
ISBN 1-4134-6377-0, Hard Cover
ISBN 1-4134-6476-2, Soft Cover

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AN EXCERPT FROM "THE BATTLE OF SAIGON"

Breaking camp, our unit prepares to return to Saigon. After another military operation laden with several months of hardship, this move makes the troops quite elated. I should feel the way they do, anxiously longing to go back, back to where my loved ones are waiting, to the city which is virtually unaffected by war and death. But somehow my heart is weary and dispirited. I am tired of all changes, including the anticipated complexities of some new role and responsibility.

The Battle of Saigon presents war and post-war traumatic experiences and dreams from the perspective of Vietnamese Diaspora

Previous vague conjectures have turned into reality – the reality that our prospective battlefield will not be the mountains and forests of the Central Highlands; instead, what we are actually to encounter is a battle in the capital city. The first time our unit returned to Saigon, during the Tet offensive of 1968, it was our task and our accomplishment to wipe out with lightning speed important concentrations of enemy troops.

In fact, events which transpired at the subsequently much-mentioned localities – Cây Thị and Cây Quéo – made a legend of our Vietnamese Green Beret unit, officially known as the 81^st Airborne Ranger Group, transforming us into experts in urban counter-guerrilla warfare. Perhaps our reputation in itself was sufficiently sound a reason for the central government's decision to recall us to the capital where there is an electrified atmosphere predisposing to unrest and demonstrations generated by the anti-government movement. NEXT