Unquiet Vietnam

A haunting travelogue to the vanishing cultures of Vietnam and Indochina, this book describes what happens to the soul of a country after it has ceased to be at the top of the agenda of World politics.

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From Michael Herr's classic bestseller "Dispatches" to epic films such as "Platoon, the Vietnamese War" has been dissected in an avalanche of books, television series and films. But what of the Vietnamese themselves as a people and a culture? It is like the war in Iraq - we know of the horrendous destruction that is involved, but not of the human scale of the horror we see inflicted on another nation. Who are the people suffering at the hands of international politics? In this gripping narrative, Ken Murphy describes his visits to modern Vietnam through the people he meets and through their background, which he pieces together from what they tell him. His quest is to retrace the ancient Vietnamese civilisation that is on the brink of finally being extinguished under an avalanche of foreign investment after having resisted a violent mixture of French Colonialism, American imperialism.
Visiting people such as the last remaining member of the Vietnamese imperial family, he becomes intrigued by Indochina's twisted history as the military playground of empires--like the Middle East today--and aims to uncover the truth about a culture struggling to stay alive in an ever-merging global climate before it has disappeared forever. His interest is highly personal. Growing up during the Vietnam War protests that defined the 1970s, Ken Murphy's image of Vietnam had always been defined by its deep emotionally charge--the elder brother he looked up to was one of the last American soldiers to be killed during the war. On a chance first visit, however, he discovered how blinkered this view was, as it left no room for the Vietnamese people themselves. As he once again confronts history he finds himself falling in love with the country through vivid portraits of the people he meets, from the US-educated Khmer to ancient trading families and ordinary citizens trying to recreate their lives after the collapse of Communism, the latest empire to colonise their country.