Say Goodbye to Saigon


Book Description

It is April 1975. The long Vietnam War is ending as the North Vietnam Army moves in on Saigon, the capitol city of the South. Millions of South Vietnam citizens have fled their homeland ahead of the advance of ruthless NVA soldiers. In the final days, Bull Saturn, his beautiful Vietnamese wife and a crew of three close friends on Guam have devised a plan to evacuate her extended family from Saigon Harbor by way of Malaysia and the Philippines. Their unusual vessel of choice is a large ocean going tugboat. Accomplishing the mission leads them into a gun battle with a NVA patrol boat and a number of other unexpected dangers which must be overcome. This story was inspired by the true adventure of an American man living on Guam.




Destination Saigon


Book Description

Get a taste of the real Vietnam and its people on a sometimes funny, always fascinating journey from the bustling cities to the out of the way villages, into Buddhist monasteries and along the Mekong - a real delight for armchair travellers and those contemplating their own adventure.




Inside Out & Back Again


Book Description

Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.




Saigon to San Diego


Book Description

"When I was 12, I didn't think I would get past ninth grade. When I was 14, I didn't think I would live to my twentieth birthday. For me to be here today is a dream beyond my comprehension." Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War's aftermath, this memoir tells the story of Trinh Do, a boy fighting for survival in newly unified communist Vietnam. Trinh Do was born in Saigon in 1964. His father, a soldier in the South Vietnam Army, was taken to a re-education camp after the communist victory in 1975. His family was thrown out of their home, and Do took care of his mother and younger brothers. He struggled to stay in school; because of his father, Do faced constant prejudice from the communist administration. He was expelled for refusing to betray his classmates in 1978; soon after, his mother arranged for him to escape Vietnam in a fishing boat. After a perilous journey, he landed in Malaysia, where he spent six months in a refugee camp, and then made his way to the United States. His parents attempted a similar escape four years later and were lost to the South China Sea. This memoir tells the story of Do's generation coming of age in a brutal period of Vietnam's history and is illustrated with family photographs. Framed within a complex historical setting, it reveals the cruelty inflicted upon the populace by the Vietnamese communists for the purpose of "internal security." An intimate portrait of daily life under communist rule and an examination of the political and military situation, Do's memoir describes the propaganda and repression through the words of a Vietnamese schoolboy.




Goodbye, Vietnam


Book Description

Thirteen-year-old Mai and her family embark on a dangerous sea voyage from Vietnam to Hong Kong to escape the unpredictable and often brutal Vietnamese government.




Unspeakable


Book Description

If you fly like a nightbird into the Mekong Delta jungle near Saigon, you will find The Killing School. Required studies: Mind Control, Persuasion Techniques, Pharmaceutical Interventions. Those afraid of the darkness of humanity need not apply. In a CIA dark ops house of horrors, aka The Killing School, Ghost Soldier Jerry Prince aces every subject as the experimental model for elite future warriors. Programmed for killing efficiency, his stunning physical, emotional, and psychological transformation is the work of a brilliant scientist employed by the world’s dirtiest diplomat, Ambassador Phillip Jordan. But when J.D. Mikel, the CIA’s most valuable assassin, goes rogue, and internationally renowned war photographer Isabelle Chen is sucked into an affair where death, love, and The Killing School brutally intertwine, the race against time and the enemy within go far beyond the perils of a long bloody war speeding toward its cataclysmic end. Because when no one is who you think they are... When you don’t even recognize yourself... Even the most innocent players can become part of something—UNSPEAKABLE. From the bestselling author of Unbreakable: There Will Be Killing and Unknowable: Making A Killing comes the shocking conclusion to the Murder on the Mekong Series of psychological thrillers. Publisher's Note: Readers should be prepared for death and graphic violence consistent with the true nature of the notorious Pheonix Program and the School of the Americas during the Vietnam war. Unspeakable: The Killing School is a tightly woven psychological thriller that reflects the real-world experience and knowledge of veteran, author, and psychotherapist John Hart, creator of the Murder on the Mekong series. Fans of Jonathan Maberry, Thomas Harris, Maximilian Uriarte, Peter Straub, and L.T. Ryan will not want to miss this riveting fiction series. “A riveting journey into the perils of war and the darkness of the human heart.” –Tara Janzen, New York Times Bestselling author of the Steele Street series Murder on the Mekong Series Unbreakable Blindspot Unknowable Unspeakable Meet the Authors: Hart Rivers is the pen name for bestselling co-authors John L. Hart and Olivia Rupprecht. John, Creator of the Murder On The Mekong series, has been a practicing psychotherapist for over 40 years, starting in Vietnam where he was a psychology specialist. He received his doctorate from the University of Southern California, is an internationally respected lecturer, has been a consultant to the nation of Norway for their Fathering Project, and maintained a private practice in Los Angeles for twenty years. His time is divided between Hawaii--where he enjoys snorkeling, stand up paddle boarding, and is a featured artist at the Mauna Kea Hotel—and Vancouver Island, B.C., where he is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Olivia is an award-winning author whose novels have sold worldwide, and Series Developer of True Vows, the groundbreaking series of reality-based novels from HCI Books. She lives in a historic tavern on a lake in Wisconsin.




Highways to a War


Book Description

“A gripping tale . . . A convincing, page-turning evocation of recent history.”—The New York Times Ray Barton travels to war-ravaged Southeast Asia to search for his missing friend Michael Langford, a brilliant, risk-taking combat photographer who was stolen into Khmer Rouge Cambodia on a mysterious mission and disappeared. The search illuminates Langford’s heroism, his fierce loyalties, and the personal highways he has traveled to war. Langford’s empathy for the brave but poorly commanded Cambodian troops and his love for a young Cambodian woman have led him in the end to put down the camera and take up the gun in a foreign struggle he had made his own. Koch richly evokes Indochina—from the deceptively tranquil rice paddies of South Vietnam to the corrupt, doomed pink-and-white city of Phnom Penh. Highways to a War is a story of intense relationships forged in a dangerous and hallucinatory land that continues to haunt the American soul. “An absorbing, deeply moving . . . tale of love and heroism. . . . The evocation of the Cambodian landscape . . . is truly haunting.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highways to a War ranks among the best of the . . . literature that has come out of the agony of the wars in Southeast Asia.”—The Orlando Sentinel




The Lost Mandate of Heaven


Book Description

Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, possessed the Confucian "Mandate of Heaven", a moral and political authority that was widely recognized by all Vietnamese. This devout Roman Catholic leader never lost this mandate in the eyes of his people; rather, he was taken down by a military coup sponsored by the U.S. government, which resulted in his brutal murder. The commonly held view runs contrary to the above assertion by military historian Geoffrey Shaw. According to many American historians, President Diem was a corrupt leader whose tyrannical actions lost him the loyalty of his people and the possibility of a military victory over the North Vietnamese. The Kennedy Administration, they argue, had to withdraw its support of Diem. Based on his research of original sources, including declassified documents of the U.S. government, Shaw chronicles the Kennedy administration's betrayal of this ally, which proved to be not only a moral failure but also a political disaster that led America into a protracted and costly war. Along the way, Shaw reveals a President Diem very different from the despot portrayed by the press during its coverage of Vietnam. From eyewitness accounts of military, intelligence, and diplomatic sources, Shaw draws the portrait of a man with rare integrity, a patriot who strove to free his country from Western colonialism while protecting it from Communism. "A candid account of the killing of Ngo Dinh Diem, the reasons for it, who was responsible, why it happened, and the disastrous results. Particularly agonizing for Americans who read this clearly stated and tightly argued book is the fact that the final Vietnam defeat was not really on battle grounds, but on political and moral grounds. The Vietnam War need not have been lost. Overwhelming evidence supports it." - From the Foreword by James V. Schall, S.J., Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University "Did I find a veritable Conradian 'Heart of Darkness'? Yes, I did, but it was not in the quarter to which all popular American sources were pointing their accusatory fingers; in other words, not in Saigon but, paradoxically, within the Department of State back in Washington, D.C., and within President Kennedy's closest White House advisory circle. The actions of these men led to Diem's murder. And with his death, nine and a half years of careful work and partnership between the United States and South Vietnam was undone." - Geoffrey Shaw, from the Preface




"I Must Live!"


Book Description

On April 30th 1975, South Vietnam fell into the hands of the Communists from the North. Countless Southerners from various backgrounds were being herded into concentration camps. The author was one of them. “I MUST LIVE!” was the loudest scream I had ever made, which activated my survival instinct when I was tortured to the point of death. Thanks to these three words, I was able to survive in order to recount the painful and horrifying experiences to share with the readers. It was a type of experience that the readers could not possess and no one wished to have. In short, this is my experience: HUMAN COMPASSION HAS ITS LIMITS, BUT HUMAN EVIL IS BOUNDLESS, ESPECIALLY WHEN THAT EVIL IS INCITED AND INDOCTRINATED BY THE VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST REGIME. I hope the book I MUST LIVE! will give readers a deep insight into the darkest side of life, at the same time as to realize that they are the most fortunate people on earth compared to the life of the author.




Gandhi & I Are Saying Goodbye


Book Description