Rating: 
Summary: The Other Side of A 5 Sided Coin !!
Review: " A Viet Cong Memoir" is an intriguing historical account of the "other side" of the Vietnam War. Mr. Truong was a member of the National Liberation Front, as opposed to an actual military guerilla. The media always referred to the NLF as "the political arm of the Viet Cong". That always struck me as a dark, typical Vietnam type mystery. With "VCM", the NLF has a human face to go with the mystery. Right from the outset, any Vietnam vet as myself must take a story told by a VC with several grains of salt! Mr. Troung is beyond a doubt engaging in a bit of revisionist history, painting the indigenous (Southern) Vietnamese NLF in a fairer light than the more taciturn, hard core Communist Northern invaders. (...) A decent awareness of the conflict is needed to fully appreciate the book. With all these constraints aside, "VCM" rates as 5 star history. This should be required reading for serious students of the War, almost on a par with Bernard Fall's epic "Street Without Joy". The reasons are many: Troung is an excellent writer, both at once engagingly formal yet abidingly down to earth. Well educated, well connected and intelligent, he was involved with the NLF from the early 1950s-the French era of the War. The reader senses Troung's commitment to Ho Chi Minh's cause right from the time he meets "Uncle Ho" as a student in Paris. I believe that he believed in Ho's aphorisms- "liberty sweet liberty", "victory great victory", etc. Since Troung was not a jungle guerilla, the military side of the conflict is not emphasized here. Four major aspects of the War are mentioned; these are the book's strengths. 1) The reader will understand how the nation of South Vietnam ran and eventually disintegrated. The author paints a grim picture of a string of venal, petty and authoritative Saigon regimes. Troung came from an upper class Southern family and was well placed to report accurately.He even does time in a dank Saigon prison. Typical for Vietnam, his wife springs him with a bribe! 2) For a foreigner, the author had an excellent (!) grasp of the American political scene. The Vietnamese must have seen the U.S. letting the War slip away long before we did. 3) "VCM" is the only place I have read a fair, balanced and nuanced version of the back room deals at the 5-year debacle known as "The Paris Peace Talks". There was actually an ebb and flow, a system of sorts. Did Henry Kissinger blink? Was he outfoxed? Or, as the author seems to suggest, were he and Nixon just out of maneuvering room? 4) Critically, Troung takes pains to paint the South Vietnam oriented NLF as a kinder, gentler "third way" between the real bad guys (the Saigon regimes and their American cronies) and the hard core Marxists from Hanoi. The NLF wanted to set up a quasi-independent government in Saigon that would allow for the obvious differences between the 2 Vietnams. The infighting was intense and the "good guys", if that's what they really were, got stiffed good and hard. I chose to take Troung at his word; other readers may disagree. As a finale, "VCM" offers a rare, poignant, and touching chapter on the refugees known as the "boat people". I used to think that "Vietnam" consisted of that remote, little dusty Engineer camp I lived in for a year. Then I started reading other folk's far (!) more earthy accounts of RVN. 30 years after coming home, I continue to be ASTOUNDED by how many stories and sides there are to this foggy and mysterious place. "VCM" makes some sense out of the mystery. Then again, this being Vietnam, it may deepen it! Night always did fall quickly over there.
Rating:
Summary: The Other Side of A 5 Sided Coin !!
Review: " A Viet Cong Memoir" is an intriguing historical account of the "other side" of the Vietnam War. Mr. Truong was a member of the National Liberation Front, as opposed to an actual military guerilla. The media always referred to the NLF as "the political arm of the Viet Cong". That always struck me as a dark, typical Vietnam type mystery. With "VCM", the NLF has a human face to go with the mystery. Right from the outset, any Vietnam vet as myself must take a story told by a VC with several grains of salt! Mr. Troung is beyond a doubt engaging in a bit of revisionist history, painting the indigenous (Southern) Vietnamese NLF in a fairer light than the more taciturn, hard core Communist Northern invaders. (...) A decent awareness of the conflict is needed to fully appreciate the book. With all these constraints aside, "VCM" rates as 5 star history. This should be required reading for serious students of the War, almost on a par with Bernard Fall's epic "Street Without Joy". The reasons are many: Troung is an excellent writer, both at once engagingly formal yet abidingly down to earth. Well educated, well connected and intelligent, he was involved with the NLF from the early 1950s-the French era of the War. The reader senses Troung's commitment to Ho Chi Minh's cause right from the time he meets "Uncle Ho" as a student in Paris. I believe that he believed in Ho's aphorisms- "liberty sweet liberty", "victory great victory", etc. Since Troung was not a jungle guerilla, the military side of the conflict is not emphasized here. Four major aspects of the War are mentioned; these are the book's strengths. 1) The reader will understand how the nation of South Vietnam ran and eventually disintegrated. The author paints a grim picture of a string of venal, petty and authoritative Saigon regimes. Troung came from an upper class Southern family and was well placed to report accurately.He even does time in a dank Saigon prison. Typical for Vietnam, his wife springs him with a bribe! 2) For a foreigner, the author had an excellent (!) grasp of the American political scene. The Vietnamese must have seen the U.S. letting the War slip away long before we did. 3) "VCM" is the only place I have read a fair, balanced and nuanced version of the back room deals at the 5-year debacle known as "The Paris Peace Talks". There was actually an ebb and flow, a system of sorts. Did Henry Kissinger blink? Was he outfoxed? Or, as the author seems to suggest, were he and Nixon just out of maneuvering room? 4) Critically, Troung takes pains to paint the South Vietnam oriented NLF as a kinder, gentler "third way" between the real bad guys (the Saigon regimes and their American cronies) and the hard core Marxists from Hanoi. The NLF wanted to set up a quasi-independent government in Saigon that would allow for the obvious differences between the 2 Vietnams. The infighting was intense and the "good guys", if that's what they really were, got stiffed good and hard. I chose to take Troung at his word; other readers may disagree. As a finale, "VCM" offers a rare, poignant, and touching chapter on the refugees known as the "boat people". I used to think that "Vietnam" consisted of that remote, little dusty Engineer camp I lived in for a year. Then I started reading other folk's far (!) more earthy accounts of RVN. 30 years after coming home, I continue to be ASTOUNDED by how many stories and sides there are to this foggy and mysterious place. "VCM" makes some sense out of the mystery. Then again, this being Vietnam, it may deepen it! Night always did fall quickly over there.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting book with valuable insights not generally known
Review: "A Viet Cong Memoir" by Truong Nhu Tang (Former Minister of Justice) offers some rare glimpses into the Vietnam War. I haven't finished reading the book just yet, but did scan the last chapter to read the punch line. Truong Nhu Tang, fed up with the mismanagement of Vietnam, he 'lost the faith' and became disavowed, and fled to Paris, France in 1978. Albert Pham Nooc Thao, a close friend of the author and fellow Communist, was Chief of Security for South Vietnams armed forces when Diem was in power. Albert worked hard to institute programs in Vietnam to anger the civilians and make them more prone to blame the government and join the NLF. He also bird dogged and acted as Diem's bloodhound to locate officers and officials who didn't support Diem. What a Trojan Horse! I wonder how many other high ranking RVN officials also were on the other side, using their positions to spy, bring charges of corruption on the RVN gov't, get rid of competent officers and officials by McCarthyism (accusing them of being communists) and cause general confusion?
Rating:
Summary: Interesting book with valuable insights not generally known
Review: "A Viet Cong Memoir" by Truong Nhu Tang (Former Minister of Justice) offers some rare glimpses into the Vietnam War. I haven't finished reading the book just yet, but did scan the last chapter to read the punch line. Truong Nhu Tang, fed up with the mismanagement of Vietnam, he 'lost the faith' and became disavowed, and fled to Paris, France in 1978. Albert Pham Nooc Thao, a close friend of the author and fellow Communist, was Chief of Security for South Vietnams armed forces when Diem was in power. Albert worked hard to institute programs in Vietnam to anger the civilians and make them more prone to blame the government and join the NLF. He also bird dogged and acted as Diem's bloodhound to locate officers and officials who didn't support Diem. What a Trojan Horse! I wonder how many other high ranking RVN officials also were on the other side, using their positions to spy, bring charges of corruption on the RVN gov't, get rid of competent officers and officials by McCarthyism (accusing them of being communists) and cause general confusion?
Rating:
Summary: A moving personal account and important view
Review: A have read more than a few books on Vietnam (both the country and the war) and I would have to say that this is the most engaging. Unlike so many other books on the subject, it is not an academic exercise or attempt at justification. It is a personal account from a man who was a prime motivator in the NLF, but was not Communist. As such, he has a refeshing objectivity that is not too clouded by his first-hand knowledge of the events. This combination of objectivity and first hand knowledge is a rare find.The objectivity, however, is not perfect and there is at least one point with which the author seems unable to come to grips -- He readily criticizes US administrations for "overestimating" the control Hanoi had over the NLF/VC/PRG. But in the end it seems that the US estimation of that control was closer to the truth than his own assessments were.
Rating:
Summary: Insights from the other side
Review: America's defeat in the Vietnam war was to me a bitter experience. And although I am not given to 'enthusiasms', I believe that the author and his translators have produced a remarkably significant book. The author is a man of intelligence, strength, sensitivity and integrity and he provides insights at many levels. Thru his eyes we see the importance of personal and family connections in Vietnamese society. We witness Ho Chi Minh's magnetic personality and galvanizing importance. We see how difficult it is for left humanist liberals to keep their ideals when they side with communists and, by implication, how hard it is for anti-communists to distinguish left liberals from communists. We see how for many patriotic South Vietnamese, southern nationalist feeling found no outlet with the Western allies and got channeled to the communist side. We are given an insider account of how highly placed individuals such as the author and his friends worked to undermine resistance to the Vietcong and subvert institutions from within. There is a harrowing account of the author's time in prison, his torture and isolation. The book has many photographs of sincere and intelligent people who worked so hard for communist victory. We learn about political organizing, front groups that co-opt the non-communist opposition, transport along the Ho Chi Minh trail, the layout of jungle headquarters, and instructions on how to make a campfire with no smoke. The terror and destructiveness of B-52 raids is made clear as is the usefulness of the Vietcong's early warning network and their evasion tactics. And that's just in the first part of the book. The writing has a casual, easy to read quality. The reader can take away a variety of 'lessons' depending on the opinions and convictions he brings to the book. But the author's honesty and understated directness will have a big impact.
Rating:
Summary: Insights from the other side
Review: America's defeat in the Vietnam war was to me a bitter experience. And although I am not given to 'enthusiasms', I believe that the author and his translators have produced a remarkably significant book. The author is a man of intelligence, strength, sensitivity and integrity and he provides insights at many levels. Thru his eyes we see the importance of personal and family connections in Vietnamese society. We witness Ho Chi Minh's magnetic personality and galvanizing importance. We see how difficult it is for left humanist liberals to keep their ideals when they side with communists and, by implication, how hard it is for anti-communists to distinguish left liberals from communists. We see how for many patriotic South Vietnamese, southern nationalist feeling found no outlet with the Western allies and got channeled to the communist side. We are given an insider account of how highly placed individuals such as the author and his friends worked to undermine resistance to the Vietcong and subvert institutions from within. There is a harrowing account of the author's time in prison, his torture and isolation. The book has many photographs of sincere and intelligent people who worked so hard for communist victory. We learn about political organizing, front groups that co-opt the non-communist opposition, transport along the Ho Chi Minh trail, the layout of jungle headquarters, and instructions on how to make a campfire with no smoke. The terror and destructiveness of B-52 raids is made clear as is the usefulness of the Vietcong's early warning network and their evasion tactics. And that's just in the first part of the book. The writing has a casual, easy to read quality. The reader can take away a variety of 'lessons' depending on the opinions and convictions he brings to the book. But the author's honesty and understated directness will have a big impact.
Rating: 
Summary: a clear explanation of the war, but a little too political
Review: even though this book was assigned to me for class reading, i could not bring myself to loathe it. it was confusing for me at first because it was clearing away years of misconceptions about Vietnam. i was not alive for the war however my parents were and i found the memoirs to clarify all the politics and views that had never made sense to me. coming from the post- nam generation, i have always been confronted by the relic of the war as well as the spectre of the sixties movement, but i have never really received an explanation to it all. the best most people of my age can atest to is one sided activist views that were more based on the feelings of the period than a actual fact. this book offered not only an indepth reasoning and incentive behind the conflict, but a view that i believe too few americans realize. it really did allow me to understand a time that seemed to me and many my age, a time of care-free activism with some kind of conflict standing in the back ground. my only complaint is that he sometimes gets a tad carried away with his personal politics and the names present a trial to the memory (Dang's, Dung's, Ngyuu's, and others), none of this is his fault of course, but over all it is a necessity for Vietnam study.
Rating: 
Summary: A Biography, with little analysis/explanation of the NLF
Review: I chose to read this book because of my interest in the Vietnam War. I like a balanced approach, and wanted to see what the opposition had to say, other than the official Communist party line. While the author is impressive, and lead an interesting life, I ws dissapointed by the book. Its mostly his biography, with little analysis. What I was looking for was a book by someone from the COmmunist side on the forming, organisation, and running of the NLF. What were their concerns, difficulties etc. A few pages address this, but the vast majority are about the author and some of his friends. As a biography its fine, but as a book on the NLF theer isnt enough there. It could have been cut by 2/3.
I can't recommend it for students of the Vietnam War.
Rating:
Summary: A Biography, with little analysis/explanation of the NLF
Review: I chose to read this book because of my interest in the Vietnam War. I like a balanced approach, and wanted to see what the opposition had to say, other than the official Communist party line. While the author is impressive, and lead an interesting life, I ws dissapointed by the book. Its mostly his biography, with little analysis. What I was looking for was a book by someone from the COmmunist side on the forming, organisation, and running of the NLF. What were their concerns, difficulties etc. A few pages address this, but the vast majority are about the author and some of his friends. As a biography its fine, but as a book on the NLF theer isnt enough there. It could have been cut by 2/3.
I can't recommend it for students of the Vietnam War.
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