NMT : How does life at present, always with a tight schedule, affect your creative writing?

NTV : After 1975, in Vietnam, even as one always talks about eight precious hours of labor everyday as exemplified by model workers, it seems that there's still enough spare time at one's disposal, more so than is the case here in the U.S.  Americans don't seem anxious to become model workers.  They work only to wait for the coming of Fridays – when 'TGIF_ Thanks God It's Friday' is uttered in great relief – and to welcome long weekends.  Trying to assimilate ourselves into this mainstream, we seem to have the impression that we have less time for what we love to do or need to attend to.  Our pleasure of watching coffee drip leisurely through a tiny one-cup filter every morning has been replaced by instant coffee consumed unfeelingly while driving a car to work, just before plunging into the eight precious hours of labor. 

NMT : Let's return to the '60s when you were with the magazine Tinh Thuong and engaged in student activities.  What do you think about the role of the magazine as well as that of various student-and-youth movements during those turbulent years?

NTV : The time spent at the Faculty of Medicine truly constituted "youthful years" in my life.  I was preoccupied not only with my studies, but also with extracurricular activities: functioning in student representative committees and working with friends for care of Tinh Thuong.  That magazine was born in the special time and circumstances immediately after the November '63 dramatic event which put an end to President Diem's regime.  Almost all other faculties of Saigon University also published periodicals during that time.  We students at the Faculty of Medicine took that name for our magazine because "compassion" is the sentiment suitable to the mission of medical doctors.  We started with a rather large editorial staff featuring Pham Dinh Vy and Nguyen Vinh Duc as the first publisher and editor-in-chief, respectively.  It must be said that from the beginning to the end when the magazine was suspended, there appeared many different tendencies or inclinations among us.  Counted among adherents to the academic tendency were Nghiem Si Tuan (who was a Red Beret M.D. killed at Khe Sanh after graduation), Ha Ngoc Thuan and Dang Vu Vuong.  Politically-oriented were Pham Van Luong, Pham Dinh Vy, and Truong Thin, whereas Tran Xuan Dung and Trang Chau leaned toward literature and the arts.  I myself covered student activities.  There were many more of us writing on diverse topics: Tran Xuan Ninh, Le Sy Quang, Tran Dong A, Tran Doan, Vu Thien Dam, Dang Duc Nghiem, Nghiem Dao Dai, Do Huu Tuoc, Duong Thien Dong.  And mention must also be made of articles contributed by writers from other faculties.

Even though Tinh Thuong was called a student magazine, it was not infrequent to see appear in it contributions by faculty members like Dean Pham Bieu Tam, professors Tran Ngoc Ninh, Tran Van Bang, Nguyen Dinh Cat, Ngo Gia Hy... Layout was done and cartoons provided by two talented home-grown artists, Liza Le Thanh Y and Kathy Bui The Khai, while very beautiful covers were contributed by artist Nghieu De.  Initially, the magazine depended for its existence entirely on advertisement fees collected from pharmaceutical companies, and on its sales within the medical student population.  But later, when the readership expanded beyond the student circle to the general public, it became financially self-supported.  We even had our own office on Nguyen Binh Khiem street where the editorial board worked and held meetings, where we received visiting international student delegations and foreign correspondents.  Among them I still remember Takashi Oka, who was a reporter for The New York Times in Vietnam at that time.  Moreover, within our modest means, the magazine was able to send reporters like myself to Central Vietnam, to the Central Highlands for special on-the-spot reporting.  Some memories connected to those field journeys are imprinted in my mind: Quang Ngai in white mourning shrouds after the biggest ever flood in Central Vietnam; the first U.S. Marine unit landing in Le My – ‘Tears of the Americans' as the name is literally translated – in Da Nang; life in the ancient capital of Hue when students occupied the city's radio station; and especially my several trips to Pleiku, Kontum, and Ban Me Thuot, to follow closely the uprisings of the Thuong who belonged to the FULRO movement – Front Unifié de Lutte des Races Opprimées, or United Struggle Front for the Oppressed Races. 

NMT : Being a medical student heavily burdened with your studies, how did you manage to have time for those projects outside the medical school?

NTV : Truth to tell, at that time I was not exactly a model medical student in the conventional sense of the word within academia.  I should have graduated earlier.  But even in my fourth year I still had the intention of dropping out so as to devote myself full-time to journalism, which I was very passionate about.  Recalling it now, I cannot but thank my elder brother for having advised me to finish up the remaining two years of medical school.  His argument was that upon graduation no one could prevent me from doing what I would like to do.  And so I completed medical school, and subsequently fulfilled the duties of a doctor while still having an opportunity to pursue writing. 

NMT : As you mentioned before, it seems that during that period, one could not find any faculty within Saigon University that did not publish a magazine or bulletin: from the one published by the Faculty of Pharmacy to the others produced by the Faculty of Letters and the Faculty of Law, and by the General Union of Students…Do you have anything more to add about the student magazine Tinh Thuong?

NTV : In my opinion, that the magazine survived for a length of time was itself our primary success, even though we had our share of problems in internal operations and relations among the editorial staff, in addition to pressures from the outside meant to manipulate it.

With regard to the content of the magazine, now, when having a chance to look back, I recognize that besides regular columns on current affairs which addressed political, social and cultural concerns of the time, there existed also works of more enduring value which were serialized in all issues, but which were incomplete because Tinh Thuong was suspended in August 1967.  I still remember the names of some of those works, like "History of Medicine" by Ha Ngoc Thuan, a translation of a well-known short story collection from German by Nghiem Si Tuan and Nguyen Vinh Duc, and "Nuoi Seo" (Nursing a Scar), a social novel by author Trieu Son of which the only copy left after his death in the 1940s had been kept by Professor Tran Ngoc Ninh – which unfortunately is now lost.

It's incredible that almost thirty years have gone by since the suspension of Tinh Thuong.  If the magazine has produced an echo and borne some fruit, such success should be credited to all medical students in the aggregate, and not to any particular individual person.  Indeed, the most precious experience which we gathered during that time was the democratic way of operation and unity among us in the spirit of university autonomy.  In the internal situation of the editorial staff, there existed many different leanings which at times were in opposition to one another, leading to arguments and even overt polemics that were thought capable of causing a break-up, but thanks to our mindfulness of responsibility toward the survival of the magazine – a symbol of democratic activities – we eventually reconciled to a common denominator: the magazine as an open forum, a free platform for expression of different opinions on all issues, political, educational, and social.

I cannot forget the extremely chaotic times during the years following 1963, marked by a series of street demonstrations, one provoking the next.  The compound of the Faculty of Medicine was a cradle for activism.  Typical were the polemics, which I remember well, taken up by two men among the editorial staff.  While Bui The Hoanh advocated operation in a peaceful manner, Ton That Chieu was inclined to support agitation movements.  Both presented sharp and persuasive arguments for their positions.  Their war of words spread to the press outside of the Faculty.  Neither won, even as each commanded a following.  And to me that truly was an instance of democratic working.  At present both men live in the United States.  There seems to be a rapprochement of sorts between them in terms of their views and evaluations of the current situation of Vietnam. 

NMT : How would you describe the student and youth movements at that time?  Was there any controlling or manipulating power behind them?  What sort of lesson would you cull from the 1960s?

NTV : In my view, thanks to honest motives, anywhere and any place student and youth movements easily draw people's support, and their role is always like an enzyme that vivifies society.  In Vietnam, the various movements did not constitute a political force in the proper sense of the term, but they were truly a pressure that impelled progress on the road toward democracy.  In general, these movements demanded democracy, university autonomy, and social equality.  All formulas of action were experimented with.  Though their impact on society was limited, there's no denying the positive aspect which is that those young people's strength and will were put to test, and I was not surprised to see that so many years later they still found it easy to come together and work for a common cause.

However, as you can imagine, at any time and under whatever circumstances, there was no shortage of "young opportunists".  Though of a small number (they were either seduced by others to join the movements, or they joined them on their own initiative), ironically this minority was the strongest divisive element causing loss of faith among the general public.  Perhaps one needs to draw lessons from the student and youth movements during the most confusing years after 1963, which, with lots of anger and agitation, ended like an unfinished dream. 

NMT : Having gone through so many changes, at this moment do you have any thoughts that differ from what you held in that time now in the past?  Do you still like to write about that war?  And do you view it as a page of history that has been turned, or do you still consider it an issue of pressing concern for us nowadays?

NTV : That war has been relegated to the past for more than twenty years now.  It's not exactly wrong to say that it's like a page that has been turned.  But the issue that can be raised is: What lesson have we derived from that page drenched with blood and tears?  Naturally we want to orient ourselves toward the future, but the point is, How do we step onto a new page of history, without repeating the mistakes that we and our younger generations are paying for?  And how can we say that the Vietnam War has been assigned to the past completely?  From my own experience, not a day goes by without one or more Vietnam veterans being among my patients: there were wounds inflicted by shrapnel of the B40 and bullets of the AK being lodged in their jaws and throats, wounds that are still causing them pain after more than twenty years.  They still remember and talk about Khe Sanh, Loc Ninh, Cua Viet, places where raged fierce battles they survived.  A few vaguely recall phrases that entered the GI vocabulary like 'dinkidau', crazy and mad, derived from the Vietnamese dien cai dau, which was perhaps learned by American GIs from Vietnamese bar girls in establishments that mushroomed around American barracks back then.  Some patients even refuse to let me examine them, for fear of flashbacks of horrendous experiences they went through in Vietnam.  Looking at them, I can not but think of former ARVN soldiers and disabled veterans who still live in our home country, who are completely disregarded if not maltreated by the new regime.  Their pain certainly is a thousand times sharper and deeper because of that.  So, as you can imagine, in no way one can truly leave the war that is thought to have gone into oblivion more than twenty years ago.

As to my thoughts and view at present, they're not dissimilar to what I held during that time in the past.  The only difference is, I view the war more calmly and want to explore more deeply the reasons behind it.  It's not correct to say that I like to write about that war.  On the other hand, memories of it will haunt me for the rest of my life.  Reading and writing to me means an exploration of The Vietnam Experience.  When reading articles in the press about the time past, I have a habit of collecting them if I find in them a few details that may shed light on nagging questions concerning the Vietnam War.

Let me digress here.  Maybe you remember the 1954 refugee migration from North to South Vietnam.  I was only thirteen then, and perhaps you were even younger.  There was impressed upon me the image of the young American doctor named Tom Dooley who, newly graduated, volunteered to go to Vietnam where, from 1954 to 1955, he dedicated himself to serving refugees in transitional tent camps in Hai Phong port, those refugees waiting to depart for the South.  The image was as beautiful as that of an idol.  His work entitled "Deliver Us from Evil", published after his return to the U.S., was a bestseller, touching the hearts of Americans.  Afterwards, Dooley again volunteered his services, this time in northern Laos, where he built a hospital to care for poor and disabled children.  At that time he appeared no less than a version of Schweitzer in Asia, a shining idol in the eyes of young generations about to step into the field of medicine, myself included.  That idolatry continued until 40 years later when those who had collaborated with Dooley revealed that he was but a doctor discharged from the American navy when his homosexuality was discovered.  Then he volunteered to become one of the first tools of the CIA in a large-scale strategic system which was designed to spread propagandistic false information in preparation for the U.S. to subsequently embark on her adventure into a turbulent area of Asia.

Another example comes to mind.  More than forty years after Tom Dooley's arrival in Hai Phong, we had to witness the scene of McNamara walking unsteadily over pavements of Hanoi on his way to see General Vo Nguyen Giap to whom he posed the question of whether or not there indeed had been the claimed incident of attack against the American ship named the Maddox.  After a million Vietnamese and about sixty-thousand American soldiers had been killed, he came around admitting that he himself and America as a whole had been wrong, very wrong in interfering in the affairs of Vietnam.  So where was the truth behind the Vietnam War?  Hypocrisy and false propaganda are the essence of communism, but how about our allies?  If we do not engage in looking backward – “In Retrospect”, to use McNamara's words – and meditate on past events, won't we again be faced with the irony that Vietnam, after having once experienced the tragedy of being an outpost of the free world, in a future not far from now may again be honored, for a second time, as an outpost to prevent Chinese expansionism?

As you can see, on the page of history that has been turned is deeply buried "a death of illusions", which our generation and future generations cannot but seek to understand.  Post-Vietnam syndrome doesn't pertain to the Americans alone; it applies to us Vietnamese as well.  "No More Vietnams", "Vietnam Never Again" should be a constant reminder for the younger generations of Vietnamese leaders in the future, both inside and outside the country. MORE

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