A novel by Ngo The Vinh
| THE GREEN BELT 1 2 3 |
REVIEWS - page 1 |
Ngo The Vinh began to write prose when he was still a student. From 1963, together with a number of friends at the School of Medicine, he ran a monthly magazine called “Compassion”, a periodical which served as a platform for thoughts and ideas oriented toward humanism, in the then current connotation of the term, and toward an ideal society based on that orientation and devoid of any "ism". Even as a student reporter, very early on, he was concerned with the issue of Thuong people.
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After graduation from Medical School, Ngo The Vinh plunged into real life, served as a Green Beret M.D., and was assigned to an Airborne Ranger Group whose field of operations was the thick jungle zones of the Central Highlands. |
The Green Belt offers a perspective on the Vietnam war seen from that same highlands area, depicting real scenery and real people, and the even-more-real suffering endured by Thuong ethnic groups during the war and even into postwar circumstances. And we cannot possibly forget how tragic peace is for the losers, peace that comes after an ideological war.
The Green Belt is a work of conscience and of courageous moral engagement. Upon its first publication, it was highly acclaimed by the intellectual circle in South Vietnam and widely received, but at the same time denounced by the GVN authorities as subversive.
Presently, almost thirty years after the end of the war, this excellent English translation of the novel by Nha Trang and William L. Pensinger will surely be widely received, because the matter of survival of the Thuong peoples in the Central Highlands as depicted in The Green Belt very much remains an issue of the day.
For Vietnamese, the tragedy of our times is that all and every war now and in the future carries a seed of internecine conflict, a typical example of which is the multi-faceted and multi-leveled war as described in The Green Belt. Those Thuong peoples have not been given a voice. When will their subdued quiet voice actually be heard?
Prof. TRAN NGOC NINH, Institute of Vietnamese Studies, Author of "The Snow of Yesteryear”
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“In the whirlwind that swept
over the Vietnam quagmire, many observers themselves
inadvertently became part of the situation by keeping their
own biased viewpoints. Ngo The
Vinh was fully involved, and his
book lets us face all the facts." |
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 More
than thirty years have gone by, but the condition of those ethnic groups
has undergone almost no change, if not to say that it is far worse at
present. NHAT TIEN author of "The Restless Night" |
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“I am impressed with the
knowledge, foresight and sympathy that Ngo
The Vinh
displays in ‘The Green Belt’ which he wrote more than thirty
years ago already. Although the novel is a piece of fiction,
many of the events alluded to are historical.. The
dynamics and dilemmas depicted were real dilemmas for various
parties involved and especially for the
Thuong (highland) people who are portrayed as victims
of various policies and conflicts.”
Dr. OSCAR
SALEMINK,
fsw.vu.nl/english/salemink
Free University, Amsterdam,
author of "The Ethnography of Vietnam's
Central Highlanders"
“It’s a fiction with true
feelings and engaged compassion. It invites the readers to
plunge into the undisclosed twist-and-turn details. This
fascinating story presents an insightful, moving, and
sensitive look at what destructive emotions did to a country
and its minority ethnic groups.”
Dr.
PHONG T. NGUYEN,
Ethnomusicologist, NEA National
Heritage Fellow
“Historians, journalists,
politicians, military strategists ,
and novelists have written many books on the Vietnam War.
‘The Green Belt’ is a powerful,
compelling, and original novel written by a Vietnamese
physician and writer that explores the human impact of the
Vietnam War especially on the Thuong
ethnic minority. They used to live isolated in the Central
Highlands of Vietnam and were discriminated against. This
territory became a strategic area during the conflict and
their peaceful lives changed forever. The human rights
conditions of the Thuong minority
needs international attention.”
JOSE
QUIROGA, M.D., Director Program
for Torture Victims, Los Angeles
"Read The
Green Belt, and you will find that more than three decades
ago, Ngo The Vinh was already
able to insightfully capture the situation in the Central
Highlands of Vietnam, caught as it was in all the tragic
circumstances of wartime, and to expose the roots of
insecurity, while shedding the light of compassion on the
fate of its inhabitants, the Thuong
people. More than thirty years have gone by, but the
condition of those ethnic groups has undergone almost no
change, if not to say that it is far worse at present. The
civilized world seems not to have fully recognized the
consequences of the erroneous fixed ideas which contributed
to the tragedies experienced by the
Thuong people.
NHAT TIEN,
author of "The Restless Night"
Perhaps for hundreds of years, the Montagnards in Vietnam had
believed they were safe in their native lands separately from
the Vietnamese in the low land, politically and culturally,
socially and economically. From their point of view, the
power conflicts between Vietnamese people as well as between
Vietnamese people and their invaders had never affected their
way of life. This was not so until the establishment of the
French Indochina, and especially during the Vietnam War - at
the time significantly marked by the escalation of American
involvement. This is clearly discussed in The Green Belt; a
novel that won the National Prize for Literature ironically
saw its author in court, contradictory to the governmental
institution that recognized its contribution and merit.
Dr. NGUYEN QUYNH,
Towson University, Maryland
tudogallery.com/NguyenQuynh/
I read The
Green Belt with great interest. It brought back memories of
the Central Highlands in the 1960s and the events surrounding
the Buddhist and student unrest during that period.
It’s clear
that Ngo The Vinh learned a great deal about the highland
people and their plight during the war and post-war world.
What news I now get from the highlands is very sad. The
montagnards are facing a worse threat to their way of life
than at any time previously. The Americans (like the French)
used the montagnards and coldly abandoned them. All one can
do is to keep trying to bring it to the attention of American
leaders in Washington. Still one hopes against hope.
Dr. GERALD C. HICKEY,
author of “Window On A War,
an anthropologist in the Vietnam conflict”
"THE GREEN BELT" IS PUBLISHED BY IVY HOUSE PUBLISHING GROUP. THE BOOK HAS BEEN OUT SINCE MARCH 2004 AND SHOULD BE AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORES.
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