Dang Thuy Tram was born in Vietnam on 26th November 1942. At the young age of 25 she was already working as surgeon in the battlefield during the Vietnam War. She was however a civilian doctor but many are the times that she operated of wounded soldiers. It is during this time as a surgeon in the battle field that she secretly wrote down the encounters and the events of the Vietnam War in her diaries of which two were burned by United States soldiers. Her war time encounters as well as the story of her diaries are now well documented in the book Last Night I Dreamed of Peace.
Thuy Tram traces back the period the war began to the Vietnam’s declaration of independence in 1945. This was after the Vietnamese had defeated Japan their former colonial master to the point of entry of the United States ground troops around 1965. She asserts that Vietnam had already been at war for 20 years. She recounts the year of the great famine where people from the rural areas moved to the cities in large numbers in such of food. It is reported that the French were hording rice in North Vietnam, while the Japanese troops were burning rice farms as the Americans were bombing virtually all means of transport to prevent the progression of the Japanese troops. These occurrences resulted to massive Vietnamese deaths in the north.
In the book Last Night I Dreamed of Peace, the loyalty, bravery and determination of the freedom fighters from Northern Vietnam are given a more vivid description. The diaries themselves bring out the experience and the perspective of the Vietnam War as seen and experienced by the North Vietnamese (Dang 23). The diaries are a direct reflection of what it was like to be a civilian or a soldier from Northern Vietnam. They tell the stories of the North Vietnamese which for many years have been blurred.
There several lessons drawn from these diaries. If these diaries were never revealed or made public, the world would never know the real experience encountered by the Viet Congs in the War. The world would never know actually the experiences encountered by women and children in that war. The only account of this war was and has always been through the perspective of the Americans and the South Vietnamese who were US allies. Their perspectives as compared to these diaries have been biased as they only revealed the war experience with the North Vietnamese being negatively branded.
The diaries thus shade new light to the Vietnam War as experienced by the North Vietnamese people. The diaries reiterate what it was like to fight for the people as a woman, child or soldier (Dang 56). M or rather Khuong The Hung had to sacrifice and give up all of life’s joy to fight for the people. He also lost the love of his life Thuy since he was more focused on attain freedom for his people as a whole rather than settling for marriage and love. His love was far much for the greater good than for himself.
The diaries also teach the value of optimism and maintaining positivity in times of calamities, difficult and trying situation. Thuy gave up her comfortable life and volunteered to serve her country as a battlefield surgeon. She was just among the many Viet congs who sacrificed their comfortable lives for the sake of their people. Despite their feeble force as compared to that of their aggressors, the Viet congs held on to their beliefs and their ideals and fought hard to sustain and maintain them. The Americans military force was so strong as compared to the Viet congs who were already severed by the previous 20 year war period of independence against the French (Dang 72). It is estimated that the American forces dropped approximately 30 million bombs in the little country yet they continued to fight relentlessly. It is this determination and optimism for victory and independence that kept the Viet congs fighting on rather than their military superiority.
The diaries teach means with which people can have and maintain some complicated relationships. Thuy had three “brothers” Thuan, Nghia and Tan all of whom they developed close relationships as a result of experiencing similar life situations. They held to one another and offered each other hope in the times of difficulties during the war. There were times in which Thuy feared how other viewed her relationships with the Thuan (Dang 83). To her she was like a younger brother who needed to be shown affection and love. She thus did this without fear and made clear that hers was a brotherly love.
Their relationships also teach the means with which to cope with the loss of loved ones. Thuy and the other characters lose family members during the war. They however give each other hope and never frail in their quest to attain their independence despite their losses. Tram shows how they remained strong despite the devastation caused by the war and the disorientation that should have been expected as a result of the war.
The value and importance of peace is also reiterated in these diaries. The diaries vividly describe the adversaries of the war. They show the unimportance of the Vietnam War and try to display how important maintenance of peace would be to humanity (Dang 124). Before the war, the Vietnamese people lived in peace and harmony. The introduction of baseless ideologies only served to disturb this peace and tranquility.
It is important also as Thuy illustrates for humans to lead their lives in a self less manner. Thinking and placing others before one’s self is a value that really gave hope and inspiration to the North Vietnam people. It is what held them together as every person felt they had a responsibility of the other person.
Work cited
Dang, Thuy Tram. Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. Translated by Andrew X. Pham. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007. Print.
