Distant War

Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by Marc Yablonka is a newly edited collection of articles covering some 18 years of his freelance reporting on the aftermath of the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. He became interested in Vietnam through the refugees he met in Los Angeles as an adult education teacher and during his five trips to Southeast Asia. He is not a war correspondent but as he notes became a chronicler of war by telling the stories of those who had “been there.” He has written for Reuters, Agence France Presse, and been published in the Army Times, Stars and Stripes, and Vietnam Magazine to name a few.

His post-war visits to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia chronicle the lives of those who were left to face an oftentimes grim situation. Their interviews and stories bring back forgotten stories of sacrifice and suffering. He also writes about the challenges faced by Vietnamese refugees who reconstructed their lives in the United States. I particularly found his story about Nick Ut, a Vietnamese photojournalist for the AP, very interesting. Most of us are familiar with Nick Utʼs photo of the “napalm girl” which became an icon of the war and its tragedies. Yablonka also tells us the story of that girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, and her long and painful journey of recovery.

The book also presents interviews with a wide variety of military and civilian Americans including former Red Cross girls, Air America Pilots, photographers, combat journalists, civilian doctors and orphanage workers, exploring their exploits, trials and regrets. All of their stories are interesting but it is the story of Cherie Clark who worked in the orphanages, flew out with the children as Saigon fell, and returned to Vietnam to continue her work that I found the most touching. Those of you who visited orphanages and those kids during your tour know what I am talking about.

To say there are many untold stories of the Vietnam War is an understatement. The war was a many faceted conflict that involved soldiers serving their country, and a wide variety of American and Vietnamese civilians. Yaklonka’s articulate and sensitive reporting brings the personal stories of these men and women alive on the page, providing a very interesting retrospective of that distant war.