Nguyễn Mỹ Hà

 The book Một Thời Lửa Đạn (A Time of Fire and Bullets), by southwestern border war veteran Nguyễn Vân Hậu, has been published by the People's Army Publishing House.

It's a 200-page non-fiction memoir by a veteran of the Vietnamese volunteer army who fought to protect the southwestern border against the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime about 50 years ago.

It was a war that was widely controversial internationally, as many Western countries heavily criticised Việt Nam for sending its troops into Cambodia amid horrific crimes against humanity committed by the Khmer Rouge.

Hậu was a soldier from Quảng Trị Province who joined the army in November 1977. He witnessed bravery, camaraderie, cowardice, the loss of friends, the constant battle with hunger, mosquitoes and insects, and the ever-present need to remain vigilant in case Khmer Rouge forces struck at any time.

Hậu tells the story from his point of view, as a soldier on the frontline, where he worked alongside his comrades and followed the orders of his officers. It's not a book about strategy or military tactics; it's about what goes on in the life and mind of an ordinary soldier.

You'll find passages about the agony and pain he suffered upon seeing what had happened to the residents of the border village of Ba Chúc, An Giang Province, and passages about how the soldiers missed their families and homes during Lunar New Year.

Hậu does not shy away from portraying the harsh realities of combat. The frontline soldiers' task became even harder when one of his deputy commanders ran away, while another sought cover in the trenches as his fellow soldiers continued fighting.

From the first paragraph to the last, the memoir paints an intimate portrait of a young soldier trained to go to the front, but who never ceased yearning for peace and for a return to his home.

His love for his country and for his fellow citizens — men, women and children — who were massacred by the Khmer Rouge in Tri Tôn, also in An Giang, filled him not only with anguish over those who had died, but also with regret that the soldiers had not arrived earlier to protect them.

The southwestern war, as it's known in Việt Nam, became part of a prolonged conflict that brought an end to Khmer Rouge rule. Vietnamese volunteer forces advanced quickly and liberated Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. 

But outside Phnom Penh, in smaller towns and villages, scattered remnants of the Khmer Rouge continued to launch attacks on Vietnamese soldiers.

Hậu is not a professional writer, but his first-hand experience as a soldier, combined with the soul of an artist, makes his description of the war lively, immediate and, at times, fiercely and bitterly truthful. Had he had a more demanding editor, the structure and voice of the narrative could have been more compelling. The shortcoming of this book is that there's so little of it. As readers, we want to know more.

This book could be turned into a film as it has all the tension, the decisive moments between life and death, and the human fragility of a population devastated by years of violence.

No sooner had Hậu and his comrades begun to enjoy the newly gained peace, with barely enough time to go home and see their families, than they were transported from Cambodia back to Việt Nam, then all the way to the northern border to fight yet another war, one that devastated areas across six border provinces.

The book provides a first-hand account of bravery and camaraderie among soldiers. It also traces the perseverance of a bright student who had to overcome all odds to make his ultimate dream come true.

Having worked as a farmer, worker, trader and writer, he took night classes to finish college and pursued higher education after initially failing an entrance examination, graduating with distinction at the age of 52.

He later became a college lecturer, fulfilling a dream he had cherished since childhood, inspired first by his village teacher in Quảng Trị, then by high-school teachers from Hà Nội who went to the newly liberated Quảng Trị Province to teach in 1973.

Literary works on the southwestern border war remain relatively few. More authentic voices like that of Nguyễn Vân Hậu deserve to be heard, alongside those of other soldiers of the Việt Nam People's Army. — VNS