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The Sympathizer
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ARCHIVE - JUNE 2017 - THE SYMPATHIZER - GLOSSARY THREAD (Spoiler Thread)
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November 4, 20162:47 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air - NPR
http://www.npr.org/2016/11/04/5005343...
Source: NPR
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Vietnam The Fall of Saigon April 30, 1975
Link: https://youtu.be/DoaeB-NCMXU
Source: Youtube
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By 1974, the North Vietnamese troops had violated the Paris Peace Accords and had renewed their attack on the south. It was clear the Republic of Vietnam would fall. In April of 1975, as North Vietnamese troops approached the southern capital of Saigon, President Ford ordered the evacuation of all Americans from the country. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage, a first-person account from a United States Marine helicopter pilot participating in the evacuation, and reflections on the era from an Iowa news reporter.
Link: https://youtu.be/0BVRhsqHE5M
Source: Youtube
Thank you, this is an excellent source and very well done.
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Thanks very much for the wonderful discovery and continued...
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You are most welcome.
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Discovery Channel
Link: https://youtu.be/5RCVspcB3i8
Source: Youtube
Note: There appears to be a telephone number and an ad for the dvd in the middle - just wait through the ad and the video continues with the documentary.
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An amazing story
Link: https://youtu.be/3C7dwBlF61c
Source: Youtube
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From Wikipedia:
One objective of the communist government was to reduce the population of Saigon, which had become swollen with an influx of people during the war and was now overcrowded with high unemployment. "Re-education classes" for former soldiers in the ARVN indicated that in order to regain full standing in society they would need to move from the city and take up farming. Handouts of rice to the poor, while forthcoming, were tied to pledges to leave Saigon for the countryside. According to the Vietnamese government, within two years of the capture of the city one million people had left Saigon, and the state had a target of 500,000 further departures.
Following the end of the war, according to official and non-official estimates, between 200,000 and 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to reeducation camps, where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor.
April 30 is a public holiday in Vietnam, known as Reunification Day (though the official reunification of the nation actually occurred on 2 July 1976) or Liberation Day (Ngày Giải Phóng).
The evacuation
Whether the evacuation had been successful or not has been questioned following the end of the war. Operation Frequent Wind was generally assessed as an impressive achievement—Van Tien Dung stated this in his memoirs and The New York Times described it as being carried out with "efficiency and bravery". On the other hand, the airlift was also criticized for being too slow and hesitant, and that it was inadequate in removing Vietnamese civilians and soldiers connected with the American presence.
The U.S. State Department estimated that the Vietnamese employees of the American Embassy in Vietnam, past and present, and their families totaled 90,000 people. In his testimony to Congress, Martin asserted that 22,294 such people were evacuated by the end of April. Of the tens of thousands of former South Vietnamese collaborators with the State Department, Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. military, and countless armed forces officers and personnel in risk of reprisal, nothing of this subject matter is known. In 1977, National Review alleged that some 30,000 South Vietnamese had been systematically killed using a list of CIA informants left behind by the US embassy.
Source: Wikipedia
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Last Days In Vietnam full movie
Link: https://youtu.be/SzjPc9S4LIw
About the making of the documentary:
LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM Best Documentary Nominee with Rory Kennedy - the Back Story
Link: https://youtu.be/JSac4zFHzWs
Another live performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e5AU...
Source: Youtube
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Hồ Chí Minh (/ˈhoʊ ˈtʃiː ˈmɪn/; Vietnamese: [hò tɕǐ mīɲ] , Saigon: [hò tɕǐ mɨ̄n; Chữ nôm: 胡志明; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung,[2][3][4] also known as Nguyễn Tất Thành and Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader who was Chairman and First secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam.
Hồ was also prime minister (1945–55) and president (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Việt Cộng (NLF or VC) during the Vietnam War.
He led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the Communist-ruled Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at the battle of Điện Biên Phủ.
He officially stepped down from power in 1965 due to health problems, but remained a highly respected inspiration for those Vietnamese fighting for his cause—a united, communist Vietnam—until his death. After the war, Saigon, the former capital of the Republic of Vietnam, was renamed Hồ Chí Minh City.
Remainder of article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_...
Link to Biography Video: https://youtu.be/iN60XZ6T83s
Sources: Wikipedia, Youtube, Biography Channel
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Hello, my name is Portia.
I read this book with another group last year and was extremely impressed by it. I am the age of the young men who went to Vietnam Nam. I remember waiting on the phone with my boyfriend to learn what his draft number would be. One story line that stuck with me was of the general who ended up running a mom-and pop grocery story in California. Of course, the absolute best section was the filming of "Apocalypse Now." I felt the book sort of went down hill after that. II need to skim the book so I can better participate.
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Here it is:
Hi, I'm Victor and I'm from Romania. I have had no contact with Vietnam beside being born and raised, up to 8 years old in 1989, into a [hardcore] communist country (as opposed to Poland or other east European countries which were of the "softer" variety of communism) and so I understand very well, now, living in a profoundly corrupt capitalist country, the two minds the author speaks about. It's not out of sympathy that he picks both of the mindsets but out of defeat.
The title is but a self-criticism of the variety that the communists regime enjoyed to bestow upon their cadres. In all communist countries was a constant hysteria of anti-revolutionary and sabotage accusations and self-criticism of not being empowered enough by the values of socialism, of the working class, during the Party meetings on all levels and all locations. There were Party meetings in schools, factories, agricultural societies (CAPs - agricultural production cooperative), basically everywhere where people had to work together there was a commissary and a "security" officer, the two pillars of the communism "the party" and "the [not so] secret police".
So I say it's out of defeat for both of the two interpretations:
- because the main character delivers (view spoiler) a critic to the rotten western and imperialist society, satisfying his commissar and the commander and identifying himself as a sympathizer in the most communist meaning of the term (close to a saboteur and a counter-revolutionary);
- or because he IS a sympathizer of both regimes and really picks both mind sets to try to understand and come to terms with both the horrors of human kind that split the world and his country during the cold war (I've wondered myself many times while reading the The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 and other books about communism why did Roosevelt didn't obliterate Stalin's Russia while he had the upper hand, definitely Churchill would have agreed to oust the mad man).
Eventually my choice, knowing what I know now, being similar to the author's, even if imperfect, would be to still pick capitalism and America but my country wasn't torn between two beasts.
This is how the books should be cited:
by
Barbara W. Tuchman
by
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Published 12:16 p.m. ET May 27, 2017 | Updated 12:27 p.m. ET May 27, 2017
Lt. Commander Frederick Crosby
Crosby family photo (Courtesy of Crosby photo)
Link: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/new...
Link: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/m...
Link: https://vvmf.wordpress.com/2017/05/05...
Sources: The San Diego Tribune, York Dispatch
Beside each name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a symbol designating status. The diamond symbol denotes a service member’s death is confirmed. The cross represents a service member remains missing. When a service member’s remains are returned or accounted for, the diamond is superimposed over the cross.
Bentley wrote: "Author Viet Thanh Nguyen Discusses 'The Sympathizer' And His Escape From VietnamNovember 4, 20162:47 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air - NPR
http://www.npr.org/2016/11/04/5005343......"
In reference to soft propaganda promulgated by Hollywood films I would like to say that the weight of their influence is not so engendered as song or poetry is. I felt for the author as he described rooting for the Americans until they started shooting Vietnamese people. It must have felt like something straight out of "The Twilight Zone".
It is really ironic and sad that The young lady who stayed behind is the one who learned to have fun. I get the impression however, that his parents would not agree. When I meet or hear about conservatives like his parents I wonder how they respond to their western conservative counterparts.
I like that he did not change his name. I am proud of the reason why he did not change his name. I think along these lines when I sing to myself my son-in-law's native name. Keep in mind that his family or his Mom is not hear to call his name. I don't even think that his fellow countrymen call his name.
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The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Zimmermann Telegram (other topics)The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (other topics)
The Sympathizer (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Barbara W. Tuchman (other topics)Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (other topics)
Viet Thanh Nguyen (other topics)
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