Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War demonstrates the torture that American soldiers experienced with very little consideration to the hardships and struggles of the Vietnamese people. The book gives a crisp explanation of the plight of the Vietnamese people and the difficulties that war can cause. Indeed, the sorrow of war is very much powerful as it is from the point of view of a veteran and has the perspective of the war from a Vietnamese soldier. This novel gives the point of view from the other side with the main character Bao Ninh as the person who can look at the other side of conflict where the Vietnamese people experience extreme suffering and loss.
This paper looks at the facility of memory which is basic to the experience of the war of Kien. His understanding of his experience of the war is quite close to the rest of Vietnamese society. Kien collects bodies for the Missing in Action Remains-Gathering Team after the 1975 war. He returns to the different places where he was in battle most of the time. He also led different encounters that were quite traumatic that are quite unimaginable for people who have never indulged in any battle.
Kien’s memories of the war are quite vivid and we are brought to places where he experiences these again. Some of his writings make readers feel the pangs of pain and misery as he narrates what happens during the battle. These memories are supposed to heal the trauma in his heart, but it is a reminder that he will experience and remember memories of the war for as long as he lives. War and the violence that it entails including scenes of killings, rape, and dying are vividly depicted in the story.
Kien’s point of view is that of a soldier during the Vietnam war. The strategy employed in Vietnam was not congruent with the reality of the situation. Indeed, United States, at that time and present, possessed a massive array of firepower unmatched by any nation, but all these armaments were futile against an irregular army employing unconventional tactics.
It is to be remembered that Vietnam was a country that was unknown to the American people until their history became intertwined with it. America attempted to aid the cause of freedom but it resulted in South Vietnam being very dependent on it upon its very survival. The cause of the Vietnam War is partly because of the policies of the United States in meddling with the affairs of the Vietnam government. This is something that the two other perspectives are neglecting. There is an underestimation of the forces which led to the military support in Vietnam without any clear aim on the part of the United States. There are a lot of sources that point out the experience of Vietnam as a result of the underestimation of the United States on the growing power of the Viet Minh. The main cause of America’s involvement in the innate self-confidence, and technocratic view of the United States military regarding the affair (Reid, p. 541).
Vietnam conflict polarized the nation in 1967 and 1968. During 1966 and 1967, Vietnam became a battle inferno for both sides. By 1968, the Vietnam War had become the longest one in which the United States had been involved. Anti-war protesters were active on every major American university campus, as they burned their draft cards and the American flag. In January and February 1968, the Communist forces launched large-scale attacks against U.S. bases and South Vietnamese cities and villages. The Nineteenth Congress included more Republicans, many of whom wanted federal domestic spending sliced to support the rising costs of the Vietnam War. Expenses in supporting the war unexpectedly escalated.
Kien’s present includes his remembering of the many yesterdays. These are his roots. He draws on them for the lessons they hold and the good feelings he can find there no matter how difficult the circumstances were. The author is a good storyteller because it is full of yesterdays, and tells of them with vitality as they come alive today. Kien’s quality of living in the present includes setting things up for good nows in the future. When one is stuck in living only in the now, one is not using what he learned from the past and not taking stock of where he is today, about where he wants to be tomorrow. Taking stock of what one needs to do for himself now is necessary if he is going to do any planning for tomorrow.
Looking back, one sees the arrogance and self-confidence that could be seen in the lack of counter-insurgency planning. Americans at that time did not know the nature of the war and thus they were not armed with a strategic plan that would help them in fighting against the Viet Minh. The main point is that the American forces lacked the experience of fighting very long years of war. The Americans assumed that they could always do the same streaks of victory that they had accomplished in past wars. The situation in Vietnam came as a surprise. The time-scale that was required in crushing the North was something that was beyond the military experience of the United States.
America’s involvement in the Vietnam War was a result of the long experience of military experience that made them assume that the war was just any other war that they had been through. Without the effort of admitting their faults, and without recognizing that this was a result of their years of imperialistic efforts, Vietnam War would always be a mystery for many Americans.
For Kien, trying to understand everything in terms of memory, the past, and words have had one’s noses in the guidebook for most of their lives. Kien’s present moment is the focal point of his past and future. It is the expression of all that has happened, and the place where one must apply his energy to affect what will be. Many of his memories of yesterday were about tomorrow. It was important for Kien to remember and keep on bringing it up because, in relationships, one can often and easily lock ourselves into the past. People who only look forward to the future hardly ever catch up with it. Somehow, when “later” comes, the good times it promised too often seem to be waiting in another “later” farther on. Every tomorrow becomes today. If one is looking at tomorrow, one may see today when it gets here. One can live the way he wants to live tomorrow only if he starts to live that way today. And one way for Kien to start being there in each moment of his life is by developing a clear awareness of how his mind wanders from the here and now. When, moment by moment, he is fully aware of what he is doing that keeps him from being here, then he is here.
When one looks at the present circumstances of Kien, then, there have been increasing dissents from popular sentiment against the conflict. Sometimes, ground profits have to contend with the growing discontentment of the local populace in Iraq. Although, most are grateful for their newfound freedom from Saddam Hussein’s autocratic rule, the fear of replacing one form of tyranny with another still concern the Iraqi masses. The abundance of oil resources in Iraqi and the dire need for refined oil in the United States when combined can draw out several interpretations. The insurgency forces make use of such rhetoric to gain public sympathy in Iraq and to some extent, it is a potent form of propaganda. U.S. troops are viewed, more recently, as occupying forces rather than vehicles of liberation they intend to be. In like manner, the same difficulty faced American troops in Vietnam during the 1960s. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal further undermined the eroded image of the U.S. soldiers stationed in the country. This paralleled the effect of the My Lai Massacre in 1968 on international and domestic opinion during the Vietnam War.
The memories that Kien, no matter how bleak were what buoyed him up to live a more meaningful life. He is most alive when he feels the importance of the present moment. What was important to remember though, was that when he loses himself in yesterdays and tomorrows, that will ultimately affect his today’s.
Bibliography
- The Sorrow of War. Web.
- Bảo Ninh. The Sorrow Of War: A Novel of North Vietnam. Web.
- Bảo Ninh. The Sorrow of War Study Guide. Web.
- The Sorrow of War. Book review. Web.