Book Notes: Shadows And Wind

While in Vietnam I picked up an interesting book about contemporary Vietnam called Shadows and Wind by Robert Templer. It had been photocopied page by page-a pirate copy, if you will, which is a popular way of producing books for tourists. Anyway, after my first trip to Vietnam I read Stanley Karnow’s excellent history, Vietnam, which focuses on the cuses of the war and the aftermath and I felt this might be a follow up of sorts, picking up where Karnow left off. It’s not as contemporary as I’d like-it was published in 1998, but the author has interesting insights to make about the myth of Vietnam, the culture, the generation gap, food, politics, Viet Kieu (exiled or refugee Vietnamese), religion, and everyday life. Albeit the chapters on politics were long and difficult to get through-they came in the middle of the book, which seemed to slow me in my progress. However, I found the opening and closing chapters the most interesting and informative about contemporary Vietnamese society and from what I saw on my last trip to Hanoi-it is still fairly accurate. The Vietnamese are slowing making their way to the usual global consumerism with their pursuit of Honda Dream motorcycles, cell phones, and other consumer goods, but the governement has kept economic expansion moving at a trickle compared to other countries. More than half of the population was born after the war and no one ever gave me grief because I was an American. It'll be interesting to see whether or not Vietnam develops an economic model like China.

Comments

[phatrick]

Pat, if you are interested in a good history of Vietnam and the American War, you should check out "Fire in the Lake" by Francis something or other. It's a great look at the cultural history of the country which shaped the responses to French and then American intervention in both North and South Vietnam.

Re your Fog of War review above, I saw it as well and really enjoyed it. I think that Macnamara went and visited W before the begining of our current war and advised him against it.

[MC]

Funny you should mention Fire On The Lake, it's one of the books Templer cites as creating a mythologized bunk history-reducing the people and history into stereotypes:

"What FitzGerald constructs is essentially the same as the French colonial picture of Vietnam as the dullard offspring of a richer Chinese culture. Vietnam's own complex history of conquest, integration, passivity, and resisitance does not figure here. The rich mix of religions and political beliefs, the evolving and changingsocial structures, the influences of colonialism and Vietnams's neighbors other than China are left out; FitzGerald and many other prefer no to muddy their clear COnfucian vision with any distractions." (Templer 17-18)

[phatrick]

He could be right, I'm certainly no expert, but poking holes in a historical theory for reliance on perceived trend or stereotype is sort of a weak shot. To some extent, history begins with stereotype.

I'll admit, that Fitzgerald does dip into the Confucian well often as an illustration or explanation of a generalized Vietnamese reaction to French and American occupation, but as a fairly unshcooled reader it doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

In any case, it's well written, interesting and informative to the novice in Vietnamese history. Whether or not it is bunk, I don't know. I leave it to the academics.