Dang Thuy Tram (1943–1970)

Một cuốn nhật kí nhặt được bên xác của một nữ Việt Cộng đã suýt bị người lính Mỹ ném vào lửa, nhưng người phiên dịch đã khuyên anh ta nên giữ lại vì "trong đó có lửa". Nhật kí Đặng Thùy Trâm là những ghi chép hàng ngày của một người nữ bác sĩ về cuộc sống của chị nơi chiến tuyến. Cuốn nhật kí là thế giới riêng của người trí thức nhạy cảm mà không yếu đuối, tha show more thiết với cuộc sống mà không hề sợ hãi trước những gian nan. Ở đó ta vẫn gặp những băn khoăn trăn trở trước tình yêu, trước cuộc sống phức tạp hàng ngày, những nỗi buồn, nỗi nhớ nhung, sự cô đơn của một người con gái, nhưng đồng thời chúng ta cũng thấy được một ý chí mãnh liệt, những lời nói tự động viên cảnh tỉnh, một lòng can đảm phi thường - những điều đã làm nên một thế hệ anh hùng. show less

Dang Thuy Tram: Last Night I Dreamed of Peace

Mike picked up this book (and a couple of others) during the family trip to Vietnam in December. He had to work at it to find Vietnamese authors available in English. I couldn't find any when we were in Hanoi in 2012.

Dang Thuy Tram was a doctor who volunteered at the age of twenty-four to work in a Vietcong battlefield hospital. She died at twenty-eight, walking down a jungle trail with three others, ambushed by American soldiers. The diary ended show more up with an American lawyer, Fred Whitehurst, working in military intelligence in the area. His job was to look through captured documents and destroy those of no military value. He almost threw the diaries in a fire, but his translator suggested that they had value and should be kept. Fred took the diaries back to the States. He and his brother, Rob, became obsessed with the dairies and the idea of returning them to Thuy's family in Vietnam. They found the family and everyone met in 2005. Thuy's mother and three of her sisters were still alive. The diaries were published in July, 2005 and within 18 months had sold 430,00 copies in a country where few books sell more than 5,000.

The diaries were unique in presenting for the first time in Vietnam, honest descriptions of the hopes and fears, successes and failures, doubts and commitments of the war against the American "devils" who continued a long line of invasion and war in Vietnamese history. Thuy was a Communist and Vietnamese nationalist and she wanted very much to join the Communist Party to demonstrate her commitment. However, she did not shy from criticism and often commented on self-serving, career-climbing people who put personal advancement paramount, even in the Party.

The universal appeal of the diaries is that they were written by a young woman at the beginning of her professional, adult life, making her way in an incredibly difficult and dangerous world, longing for love and companionship in the midst of the grief of war and destruction. She was disappointed in love. She knew great sadness and self-doubt. She wavered with the loss of friends and colleagues and good friends, but she never gave up belief in the ultimate victory of the North and that the sacrifices were worthwhile to free her country. Thuy certainly did not want to die that sunny morning in June, 1970, but if she could have looked back, she would have accepted the sacrifice and been proud of her role. She was one person among millions in a titanic struggle, but on the personal level, especially as a doctor, she touched many lives, and through the diaries, she has touched many more. show less

In the late sixties, a young woman devotes her skills as a physician to the party she believes in and their cause to reunite Vietnam. This is her diary, with footnotes to clarify some of her statements with historical and cultural background. Thuy is an idealistic and sensitive young woman recording her commitment to the cause, confusion over relationships with comrades and her lover, M., dreams for peace, longing for family, hatred for the enemy, and realistic concerns for the safety of show more herself and those close to her. This is an excellent primary source for scholars as well as a horizon broadening work for American who are not often exposed to this perspective of the Vietnam War. show less

This is the diary of Dang Thuy Tram, a 27 year old North Vietnamese doctor who volunteered to work in the heart of the war in 1968. She was shot to death by U.S. soldiers in 1970. One of the of soldiers secretly kept her diary, a small note book, and 35 years later returned it to her family in Vietnam. She wrote in her diary almost daily. The diary is addressed to herself and bears her soul with beautifully written descriptions of the country and people she loved. Thuy reveals in her diary show more that she became very attached to the people she worked with, many died during the time of her writing. Her idealism seems to have caused misunderstandings in her relationships. She aspired to overcome the stigma of her bourgeois upbringing and become a communist party member. She was finally accepted and recognized for the work she accomplished as a war surgeon. She worked under hostile enemy fire and earth shaking bombings, often hiding in underground shelters. The clinics she worked in were frequently destroyed and often forced to move to safer locations. Cherished memories of her family and the enduring fighting spirit of the soldiers gave her hope for the success of the war and ultimate unification and independence of Vietnam. This commitment to the cause kept her spirit alive but deep in her heart she knew the odds were against her; she would never witness the end of the war or see her family in North Vietnam again. show less