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"An absorbing and moving autobiography...An important addition not only to the literature of Vietnam but to the larger human story of hope, violence and disillusion in the political life of our era."—Chicago Tribune

When he was a student in Paris, Truong Nhu Tang met Ho Chi Minh. Later he fought in the Vietnamese jungle and emerged as one of the major figures in the "fight for liberation"—and one of the most determined adversaries of the United States. He became the Vietcong's Minister of Justice, but at the end of the war he fled the country in disillusionment and despair. He now lives in exile in Paris, the highest level official to have defected from Vietnam to the West. This is his candid, revealing and unforgettable autobiography.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; 1st edition (March 12, 1986)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394743091
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394743097
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.82 x 7.93 inches
Reviewer: John W
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: essential reading for Vietnamese and American History
Review: I share the view of others who praise this work. It is a shame there isn't a follow up after all the years he's had to reflect on this. This is not the definitive account - there are too many experiences for there to be a single definitive account, but it is an excellent and revealing account of this one person's experience and the insights are very important. Some reviews complain about the lack of analysis - I can see this in retrospect, but I also find this valuable. Having read a number of histories and personal accounts of other insurgencies - Kenya, South Africa, Algeria, Russia, etc.etc. as well as studies of colonialism, this fits in well and is consistent with them. We tend to reduce revolutions to good guys and bad guys at worst, or at least into much clearer lines and much clearer loyalties than actually existed at the time. For example, the scholarship on the American Revolution over the last 50 years shows a much more complex experience than our national mythology likes to portray. So, simply presenting his story as he experienced it doesn't bother me so much. But I still wish he'd follow up. I'd also like to know more about his family and what has happened. There is another level to this story -the deep divisions within families. But perhaps that is too painful to follow up on. Reading this along with Max Boot's recent book on Edward Lansdale is also valuable. Much of what Lansdale worried about. is reflected in Truong's path -especially Lansdale's frustration with Diem's policies.

Reviewer: J. V. Hennburg
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: HEAVY ON POLITICS, NOT ON GUERILLA WARFARE
Review: I gladly award this book a 4-star rating. The author expresses himself well, and certainly has a lot to say about Vietnam's military struggle. He details Vietnam's fight against (1) the French; (2) the U.S.; and (3) North Vietnam and their Soviet supporters.What's missing is a more gritty description of guerilla warfare. As I was reading this I wrote in the column "So who invented the perkinje pit?", and "How effective were the coca-cola cans you guys turned into bombs?" and "How did you convince housewives to become snipers and kill people?" There is nothing like that here. According to the author the Viet Cong were one big, happy family that had fun together when they weren't being tragically bombed by American B-52s.Tang's description of Vietnamese politics is even a bit sketchy. He talks quite a bit about Ho Chi Minh's beliefs in "independence," and what a humble, sweet guy "Uncle Ho" was. He never says what Ho's beliefs about guerilla warfare were. Really, how did this "Sweet guy" resolve to have his people put on black pajamas and become killers?With his high and mighty position in the Viet Cong administration, Tang would have known where the V.C.'s supplies were coming from. He mentions the Ho Chi Minh trail, but nothing about who gave all those poor vietnamese the gear they used. He says that in 1975 the South Vietnamese army (enemies of the Viet Cong) were going to be "outgunned." I remember writing in the column "WHERE'D YOU GET THE GUNS, TANG?"Basically, this is a very good book. It is NOT a definitive account of guerilla warfare, however.

Reviewer: timcon1964
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An Inside Look at the Political Arm of the NLF
Review: This book’s title is somewhat misleading. “Viet Cong” (VC) was a term generally applied to the military arm of the National Liberation Front (NLF). Author Truong Nhu Tang (1923- ) was active in the political work of the NLF and related organizations; he did not take part in military actions. (For a good general account of the military side, see Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series). ) Tang argues that Americans should have a better understanding of internal Vietnamese affairs—in particular, most westerners know little about conflicts within the VC. Tang warns readers that his view of events is “a partial one, . . . that needs to be filled out by other accounts.”Tang came from an affluent Saigon family. His father ran a plantation and a printing business. Tang and his 5 siblings each had a governess. His school lessons were conducted in French, and dealt with French history, not Vietnamese history.When Japan surrendered and withdrew from Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent. In Paris, where Tang went to continue his education, he met Ho, who “had a galvanizing effect on almost all the Vietnamese students in France.” Tang became Ho’s “fervent partisan”—“a turning point in my life.” Tang was active in the movement for Vietnamese independence. His time in France taught him to appreciate its democratic system. But he “was struck by the complete absence of support among the democracies for the colonized and oppressed peoples.”When war broke out between the French and the Viet Minh, Tang joined the anti-war movement in France. Teaching at a provincial school back in Vietnam, Tang found that nearly all the local people favored the Viet Minh; he supported the Viet Minh with medical supplies and agitation. Later, back in Saigon, Tang worked as a bank comptroller and then as director general of the Société Sucrière (the Vietnamese national sugar company). He watched Ngo Dinh Diem warily. Tang hoped for a government representing nationalists, Viet Minh fighters, former pro-French Vietnamese, and disaffected peasants. He looked for eventual reunification of the country. But Diem proved to be a brutal ruler, whose policies presaged “a despotic regime, continued subservience to foreigners, a politically polarized people, and an iron curtain between North and South.” Tang responded by organizing opposition to Diem. This opposition included both Communists and non-Communist nationalists. Many of them looked to Ho for guidance and aid. During these years, Tang helped to create the NLF, hoping for a general uprising that would lead to negotiations between the NLF and the South Vietnamese government. Tang describes his indirect contacts with the generals who plotted the1963 coup; and he devotes an entire chapter to the activities of “master spy” Albert Pham Ngoc Thao.“For better or worse,” Tang writes, “our endeavor was meshed into an ongoing historical movement for independence that had already developed its own philosophy and means of action.” At this time, Tang was not very worried about disagreements between nationalists and Communists. A greater concern was that forcible action against the South Vietnamese government might trigger U.S. intervention; and he did not expect the U.S. to recognize the NLF. Even after the U.S. became engaged in Vietnam, the Vietnamese opposition continued to advocate negotiation. But, as the conflict escalated, political tactics gave way to military strategy, and more northern cadres became involved in both military and political activities.As a result of his work against the government, Tang was arrested, imprisoned and tortured. After years of imprisonment, he was released through a prisoner exchange, and fled to NLF bases in the jungle. Here the NLF came increasingly under the influence of the Communist Party. Perhaps surprisingly, Tang reports that there was “a thriving business” between the NLF and the 5th and 18th Divisions of the South Vietnamese army (ARVN), which supplied the NLF with cigarettes, radios, motor bikes, typewriters, and even weapons and ammunition. Tang gives an interesting account of life in jungle bases. Most feared were the B-52 attacks, which caused “undiluted psychological terror.” But the B-52s produced almost no casualties among the NLF leaders, because Soviet intelligence trawlers in the South China Sea and NLF units in Thailand provided warnings of imminent attacks.As the military conflict escalated, the NLF became more closely tied to the Communists; and the Alliance of National, Democratic, and Peace Forces was created as a political organization with less obvious ties to the Communists. During the war years of conflict, Tang continued to show little concern about possible conflicts with the Communists. In any case, for years, the only support for Vietnamese nationalism came from the Communist International. Eventually, “we were locked in.” In any case, where else could they find allies seeking an independent and unified country?After the Communist victory, Tang and others in the PRG felt their efforts had been subverted. Some observers then and later thought members of the PRG must have known that they were being used as a propaganda front group. But why would they have exposed themselves to imprisonment, torture, and years of life under attack in the jungle merely as pawns in a Communist deception scheme? It appears that most of them were western educated, affluent, urban professionals, motivated by nationalism. Their alliance with the NLF seems to have been a marriage of convenience. In retrospect, they appear to have been rather naïve. But at times, the evident military stalemate raised the possibility of a negotiated settlement, which might result in a coalition government in which they could play a meaningful part. It is worth noting that, in May 1967, Robert McNamara recommended that the U.S. move the South Vietnamese government to “reach an accommodation with the non-Communist South Vietnamese who are under the VC banner; to accept them as members of an opposition political party, and, if necessary, to accept their individual participation in the national government.”Regarding the future of Vietnam, the 1973 Paris Peace Accords were very indefinite. The 17th Parallel was not to be a permanent territorial boundary. Reunification was to be carried out gradually “through peaceful means, based on discussions and agreements.” None of the participants took this language seriously. The North Vietnamese, having fought off and on for two decades after the reunification provisions 1954 Peace Accords were disregarded, were not likely to honor the much more ambiguous terms of the 1973 Accords. Their failure to do so surprised some members of the PRG. But, historically, there had been some antagonism between northern and southern Vietnam. In 1975, some northerners, including those who had lost family members in the war, were seeking revenge. Northerners were conscious that many in the South had been living in relative affluence while civilians in North Vietnam and Communist soldiers in the South had been on very meager rations. And the PRG represented, not just the South, but also what northern ideologues viewed as possible class enemies. Northern cadres gradually took over positions in the new South Vietnamese government and were not sympathetic to the South Vietnamese or the PRG. Tang was appalled by the new government’s arrests, re-education camps, and its “ideological ruthlessness and a contemptuous disregard for human dignity.” He suffered from “devastating disillusionment” and “close to a physical revulsion” for those in the new government. Eventually, he escaped from Vietnam in a hair-raising voyage.Writing in 1985, Tang hoped that his work for “an independent Vietnam at peace with its neighbors, glorying in its own cultural and political diversity, and achieving the dynamic economy its people are capable of creating, has not been completely in vain.” Perhaps he would feel that modern Vietnam has gone at least part of the way toward that objective.Interspersed in Viet Cong Memoir are 4 maps and 46 photographs. The back matter includes a glossary of names, a list of PRG officials, a 10-page index, and copies of the NLF Manifesto and Program (December 1960), the political program of the Vietnam Alliance (July 1968), and the Action Program of the PRG (June 1969).

Reviewer: duncan cameron
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Having read many books on the subject I felt obliged to have a look from the other side. After reading, what sticks in my mind is the tremendous hardshipsuffered by the Vietnamese, and how their hopes and dreams of independance and ensuing freedom were bitterly betrayed.Truong Nhu Tang comes from a wealthy background, something I findhard to relate to. It would have been easy for this man to keep hishead down and cash in on his status and education. However whileappearing to do so he is highly active in the inteligentia wing ofthe Viet Cong and risks his life many times for the cause.Gradually I found myself warming to Nhu Tang and the VC. Don't getme wrong I have a large family living in the U.S.A.This book however really opened my eyes to the brutal realityof Vietnam and has even caused some friction when discussed with mystateside relatives.Ever wondered how it would be on the receiving end of a B52 bombraid, or to be tortured for your beliefs by your own people?Nhu Tang tells his tale with inteligence and honesty and you can't help but feel for his ideals and his nation.The true sufferers of any war are always the innocent and there were many innocent on both sides. For me this book underlines the futility of the entire conflict and desperate waste of humanity.

Reviewer: Ian Hinton
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's not about warfare, but about the politics behind the scenes. I found it fascinating to see how propaganda was created and propagated. Also reading how the vietnamese as a whole wanted their independence, although a large part of the population shunned communism, which created friction among themselves. The author seems quite open in his opinions, and furnishes a huge amount of facts. What makes the whole book more credible is that he finally had to go into exile.If you've ever wondered what "the other side" of the Vietnam war had to say, this gives you a refreshing perspective from the backstage.

Reviewer: Gina Cheyne
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I loved this book. It was the story of the Vietnam War/American War - it has different names from a different perspective from the usual American one. It is really well written and completely honest. Fascinating

Reviewer: Ham-Bap
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Brilliant read. This is the story of a Viet Cong guerrilla based in South Vietnam. He was more of a politician than a fighter. Explains some of the differences between the South Vietnamese guerrillas and the mindset of the North Vietnamese, primarily the South were more democratic thinking than their Northern communist comrades. He met Ho Chi Minh while schooling in France, designed the Viet Cong flag, spent some time in jail tortured by the Diem regime in the South and later some time avoiding US bombing in the jungles. He was also good friends with Albert Thao a double agent working for the Viet Cong whilst in a major military position in the South Vietnam government army, sabotaging the system from the inside.