Havens in Hell

[Vũng Tàu, 8/21/26]

In 2017, Hữu Thỉnh invited Phan Nhật Nam back to Vietnam, but the latter declined. Both are famed writers in their 80’s. One, though, is much celebrated inside the country. The other has been living in exile since 1993. Both were soldiers, but on opposite sides. Hữu Thỉnh fought at Khe Sanh and Quảng Trị in 1968, southern Laos in 1972, and was involved in the final push towards Saigon in 1975. As an ARVN soldier for eight years, Phan Nhật Nam must have been in some of the same battles as Hữu Thỉnh. Brothers in a geopolitical chess match controlled by much larger players, they were but the tiniest pawns, positioned to kill or maim each other, until those biggest boys decided to move on.

Saigon fell in 1975. Capitalist Coca Cola opened its first plant in Communist China in 1979. In 1984, Beijing Automotive Group Co. began cooperating with American Motors Corporation to make jeeps, that iconic US military vehicle much employed in the Vietnam War. Soon enough, just about every famous American brand, Apple, Nike, Dell, Gap and even Barbie Dolls, was made in China. Satanic Trump’s overpriced bibles are made in China.

From 1975 to 1989, Phan Nhật Nam was in a Communist reeducation camp. Like other ARVN soldiers left behind by their US allies, he had to pay for all those war crimes committed by American GIs. The grunts, gone, couldn’t be punished. Those who may have been kept as bargaining chips are certainly dead. Those guys from Iowa, Idaho or Mississippi were also the tiniest pawns. Many are still rotting at Walter Reed.