The strong female lead character propels the story for me
Guest Review by Judy George
I started reading “Escape from Saigon” on a Friday and couldn’t put it down until I finished it on Sunday.
As a woman who broke into the male-dominated business world during the Vietnam War, I felt the novel created the perfect archetype of the women’s liberation pioneers with female protagonist Lisette Vo. Lisette is the first female correspondent to become the face of a major US TV network in what became known as, “America’s television war.” She also happens to be a Vietnamese-American, who like many Americans came to Vietnam early on.
Judy George
She is the daughter of a prominent Washington D.C. family of Vietnamese and French heritage, who graduated from Georgetown University in the 60’s and flew to Saigon with no job, but a desire to get at the truth about a distant war that would define our generation. Lisette is smart, tough, knows Vietnamese politics inside-and-out and is accomplished. She also confronts her own struggles and vulnerability throughout the novel, and hints at the future of women in media and the advent of 24/7 cable news in the epilogue.
This story a must for anyone, especially millennials and twenty-somethings, who want to better understand their parents and grandparents and how the decision to “go to war” shapes the lives of ordinary people. While much of the tension is between Lisette, a rising TV talent, and her friend Sam Esposito of The Washington Legend, the novel gives the reader a feel for life in the French colonial city of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. There is a French expatriate bar owner who runs the unofficial watering hole for the press corps, a just-married Vietnamese couple who work for the Americans and fears reprisals, and a GI who returns to rescue his Vietnamese family before enemy tanks roll into the city. There are also diplomats, CIA agents, spies, and countless Vietnamese seeking to escape the desperation of war and decades of misguided decisions by their political leaders.
While the action takes place during the final 30 days of the war, the authors weave historical references through flashbacks and recollections. I not only got a better sense for how it all ended on April 30 of 1975, but also for the decades that led up to a war that dragged on for a quarter of a century and ended with barely a whimper. This a superb novel in which the history is accurately recounted, but does not intrude on the compelling story.
I’m looking forward to reading more about Lisette Vo in the next novel.
Judy George founded Domain Home, a 35-store furniture retailing chain in the 1980s and is the author of “The Intuitive Businesswoman." She lectures on women’s empowerment and is featured on the cover of this summer’s Grand Magazine. Escape from Saigon is available on Amazon and at independent bookstores.
The Continental Palace Hotel figured into "Escape from Saigon." This classic hotel has been modernized but lacks the famous veranda where journalists and diplomats mingled during the War
My coauthor and I are often asked, "Where did the characters in "Escape from Saigon" come from?"
Pat answer. Aside from famous political and military leaders whose names remained unchanged in the novel, such as Ambassador Martin or South Vietnam President Thieu, the characters were created out of whole cloth. They are no more real than Saigon-based journalist Thomas Fowler or CIA operative Alden Pyle in Graham Greene’s Vietnam War novel, The Quiet American,
But the creative process is complicated. Some characters, though bearing no resemblance to actual people, were inspired by snippets of my experience in Vietnam over the years. So I thought it would help to pair a scene in Escape from Saigon, to one of those experiences to illustrate how real life can evolve into fiction.
The incident occurred when I returned to Vietnam years after the war had ended and visited the Cu Chi Tunnels; the subterranean labyrinth of passageways, offices, barracks, hospital, and conference rooms where the Viet Cong were hold up until they emerged during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
During the visit our group sat down in one of the tunnels’ conference rooms for a briefing by a former Viet Cong officer who had lived there during the War. He explained how they subsisted for years, mostly on a root similar to cassava. During the briefing he told us, “We used everything the Americans brought here. If a parachute fell to the ground, we used it for mosquito netting, if a bomb didn’t explode we turned it into a new weapon, we forged metal into everything from bayonets to cooking pots.” He went on, “When we camoflaged the tunnel entrances with leaves and undergrowth we added bits of fabric from American Army uniforms to throw the MP dogs off their scent.”
During the briefing, I realized that he spoke perfect English but with a distinct New Jersey accent. When I asked him about the accent he told me, “I learned English from Armed Forces Radio and TV. Like I said, we used everything the Americans brought here.”
Here is how I played out that real life dialogue in a verbal exchange between our hero, war correspondent Sam Esposito and his North Vietnamese source who called with a news tip for him and his friend Lisette Vo, of NBS-TV.
The Cu Chi Tunnel incident was recast in the novel as an argument over baseball.
From Escape from Saigon - a Novel
“Sam, we’ve done it. We did our job. It’s over. We can go home. You and me. Today. We put on our clothes, walk out the front door and catch a ride to
The Continental Palace Hotel
Tan Son Nhut. We’d be on a flight within the hour. It’s that simple. What do you say Sam? Let’s go home,” Lisette implored.
Sam caught himself smiling broadly over the thought of leaving without a moment’s hesitation, skipping the heartfelt goodbyes and vows to keep in touch. He wanted to be with Lisette. But then a thousand obstacles crowded his mind. He hadn’t been back to the world in ten years. Where would he, they live? Would The Washington Legend want him? But mostly he thought, would covering Washington politics or writing ponderous editorials bore him to death.
All the while he absentmindedly caressed Lisette, and when his eyes met meet hers, it brought him back to the present. He now wondered, am I ready for another go? But just then the phone rang. He fumbled for his glasses and put them on as he clumsily reached for the receiver.
“Hello?”
“Ha, ha, Ong Esposito! You and lady friend have good time?” came the voice on the line. “This your friend from the North.”
“Christ! Don’t you guys have anything better to do than follow reporters around? Who the hell is this?”
“You remember me? This is your news source I gave you a big story tip at the Cyclodrome a couple of weeks ago.”
That got Sam’s attention. “Lise, give me something to write with, quick!” She fumbled around until she located a ballpoint pen and hotel stationery pad and handed them to Sam.
“Yes, I remember you now. What—no more secret meetings? Now you call me? Brave North Vietnamese fellow talking to a decadent American?”
Fenway Park
“Your friend Captain Trung, he wants to say good-bye to you. He gives me instructions. Be at Tan Son Nhut before dusk. Hide outside the fence west of the runway. Take your TV friend with you and tell her to bring her camera. Trung promises to have a present for her, a special show for Walter Conkite, your American uncle you call him Uncle Walter!” Sam covered the mouthpiece and turned toward Lisette.
“Hey, Lise!” he whispered. “He’s got a news tip for you that he says will get you on the NBS Evening News, maybe then Cronkite will know who you are!” Sam then added incredulously, “How is it that these fuckers know so much about us and what we watch on TV, and we don’t know shit about them?”
To prove his point, Sam asked the caller, “Hey, asshole—who’s a better pitcher, Catfish Hunter or Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee?”
“What?”
“Catfish Hunter or Bill Lee. Who is the better pitcher?”
“Of course, Catfish Hunter, he win Cy Young last year. But I still root for Red Sox!”
“How do you know this shit?”
“I listen to your American baseball on Armed Forces Radio and TV.
Learned English, too, from your guy who say ‘Goood Morning Vietnam,’ and DJ Chris Noel—she is one hot babe!” The caller hung up.
Excerpted from Escape from Saigon - a Novel, by Michael Morris and Dick Pirozzolo, Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2017. All Rights Reserved. For more information about this Vietnam War Novel set during the final days of the War. please visit www.escapefromsaigon.com.
“No one ever tells you when the last plane leaves,” ~ Escape from Saigon
Review by Ann Connery Frantz, Correspondent for The Worcester Sunday Telegram
Dick Pirozzolo and fellow Vietnam vet Michael Morris joined forces to write a novel about the final moments of the devastating war. Titled “Escape from Saigon,” it creates fictional characters in very real events — soldiers, civilians and news correspondents trying to cope with the crumbling of the last stronghold before the U.S. evacuated personnel, Americans and Vietnamese sympathizers and the Viet Cong took over the city and signaled the conflict’s end.
Though each of them moved into careers after their return in 1975 - Pirozzolo to journalism, working for the Telegram & Gazette’s Southbridge and Webster news bureaus, and then to public relations and writing, and Morris to writing and editing as a journalist - they met as writers and formed an idea. Pirozzolo, a captain in the Air Force, often worked with the press corps there. “Around the mid-’90s, a movement started to recognize Vietnam and to reconcile with Vietnam. I’ve returned there a number of times, writing about the current state of affairs.” Some of his articles appeared in the Boston Herald and on the op-ed pages of the Washington Times.
“I started working with Mike,” Pirozzolo said. “We wrote two books about home building together. We were both veterans, and we talked about maybe someday doing something about Vietnam.” They realized pretty quickly, though, that a definitive history would be better left to the historians. And, he said, “we would be 90 before that was done. So we settled on the very last 30 days of the war and structured the book day by day, with flashbacks to play with time a little, give readers a chance to see what it was like to live in Saigon before the war, to be a journalist there for 10 years.”
Younger Americans never experienced the first televised war, in which daily videos and newscasts brought slaughtered civilians and soldiers into American homes each evening, terrifying parents and changing many Americans’ minds about the ambiguous jungle war being fought thousands of miles away. It was a horrific, unwinnable war, killing 60,000 U.S. soldiers and countless more civilians and Vietnamese soldiers.
In April 1975, the war was finally collapsing as North Vietnamese troops moved into the last stronghold, Saigon. The city’s fall would end any hope for South Vietnam. As conquering troops moved in, thousands of U.S. personnel and civilians who had worked with them sought to flee rather than be slaughtered by the North Vietnamese. They flooded the U.S. embassy and other departure points, filling military planes and helicopters.
This is where “Escape from Saigon” is set.
They tell the story through the lives of war correspondents Sam Esposito and Lisette Vo, sandwiched between a terse narrative about the final decline of opposition to the north. Sam returns to Vietnam as a Washington, D.C., newspaper correspondent after the Kennedy assassination, wanting to get away from the U.S. He’s remained there for 13 years. Lisette is half-French, half-Vietnamese, and American, working for a broadcast news company. “She portends the rise of women in the media,” Pirozzolo said. They remain until the bitter end because of their work. “They’re journalists,” Pirozzolo said. Read More
November 11. Veterans Day—A day set aside to honor those of us who served in the armed forces. There will be parades, flag waving, speeches, ceremonies dedicated to American military people and there’ll even be free pizza and coffee at chain restaurants.
As well as the occasional: “Thank you for your service,” from fellow Americans.
I can't think of a better way to honor and thank our veterans, than to make sure they come home to a job that recognizes the skills they acquired in the military. Things have changed for the better. When Vietnam veterans returned, we met resistance from potential employers who wrongly claimed military people are too regimented, unfamiliar with latest civilian technology, and can’t think for themselves. Sometimes, opposition to the war resulted in opposition to veterans.
There were also creative ways of calling vets “losers” back then. In one case, a reporter for The Boston Herald wrote that she went to the Pine Street Inn – a Boston homeless shelter — to get “the veterans’ point of view.” Never mind that John Kerry and the CEO of State Street Bank were veterans, who were hardly residing at the Pine Street Inn.
During a job interview, a potential employer discounted my entire military experience by asking: “Don’t you feel your career doesn't really start until after the service?”
It was as if my four years in the U.S. Air Force didn’t exist. Fortunately, I learned my craft, public relations and journalism, in the Air Force through formal schooling, at the Defense Information Officers School (DINFOS), and on-the-job training. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette recognized my capability and hired me right away. A year later the late Jack Star, who headed up PR at Boston University, hired me for the international media relations skills I acquired as an Air Force press officer in Saigon.
In addition to specific job skills, Veterans come home with general leadership and management skills, and other qualities that are a huge benefit to civilian employers.
Leadership. Whether officer or enlisted, the military does not hold back when it comes to putting you in charge and, often in situations that are way above the job description. To be sure, I made plenty of mistakes when I was a second lieutenant, but the most valuable lessons I learned was to listen and learn from the enlisted folks who had years of experience and technical skills far superior to mine.
Military people take an oath. Most folks don’t go around thinking about the oath they took when the signed up, but it underscores commitment. In a nutshell, once a soldier signs up, he or she can’t say, “I quit” and walk out on the boss or colleagues.
Diversity and equal rights. The armed forces are not without problems when it comes to gender and race and, in most cases, commanders deal with sexual misconduct and discrimination quickly and definitively. Nevertheless, the military has been way out in front on race relations that began with the full integration of our armed forces after World War II and ongoing efforts since then that include the integration of the LGBT community into the military.
Simply put, rank matters. Race and sex do not. No one tells the female lieutenant to make coffee or the African-American captain to make photocopies!
The ability to improvise. When a four-man squad goes on patrol, there may be command and control from headquarters, but the squad leader, probably a young 20ish soldier, will make hundreds of life-and-death decisions to complete the mission and return everyone safely.
Completed staff work “Hey boss what do you want me to do now?” Putting the monkey on the boss’s back is no-no in the military as the armed forces adhere to the doctrine of completed staff work .
When a team has a job to do, the job is completed totally before presenting the results to the commander or superior who delegated the responsibility. Of course, not every project goes according to plan and obstacles come up. In those cases, the presentation has to be sufficiently complete so that, if more information is needed, all a supervisor has to do is sign a request.
One of the hard-and-fast rules team members learn is they cannot go directly to their supervisor to get partial approval, or to lobby for their own solution to the problem. This cuts down on a lot of office politicking and backbiting.
Chain of command. This might be anathema to a lot of current management thinking, but the principle avoids a lot of ill will. In the military trying to curry favor with one’s boss’s boss usually ends badly.
Likewise, the military insists that when you give an order it comes from you no matter where it originated. Military folks don’t give whinny orders like: “I wouldn’t make you do this, because I’m nice, and I want you to like me, but the big boss insists soooo ….”
Empathy. The military is often a matter of life and death and people can be together 24/7 where the division between work and off-duty life does not exist. I was always in awe of leaders who could navigate the murky waters of their people’s personal and family issues, while staying focused on the mission. It’s a complex skill that is well taught in the military and applicable to civilian employment.
The Marines often teach leadership through what are called sea stories that underscore the risky decisions and dilemmas one must face in combat such as: do you risk two Marines' lives to bring back few cases of cold Coke, that will improve everyone's morale, or do you not take the chance? The outcome is not nearly as important as opening debate on the leaders' dilemma.
Honesty “I will not lie cheat or steal or tolerate anyone among us who does.” We’ve all heard the mantra, but what it means is that military people learn to both delegate and trust the people who work for them without reservation. If someone says, “I counted all the M-16s and there are 46,” you can, without checking up, sign a document endorsing the count.
Learning in public. From basic to advanced training fellow students may compete for class rank, but they pull everyone up with them. Then the whole team wins.
Can-do spirit. Military folks believe they can achieve anything. After returning from Vietnam, I served with the 253 Combat Communication Group in Massachusetts. We could install all the navigation, air traffic control and communication needed for a temporary airport, while the Navy Seabees, built the runway and erected tents for the whole lot of us. Done quickly and as a matter of routine.
And consider Mike Cotton, who created a surf club at China Beach while serving in Vietnam so that airmen and soldiers could get a taste of home when they were off duty.
It would be great to hear from veterans about their job hunting experiences, how the military helped them with their careers and also from companies looking to hire smart, motivated veterans with a can-do attitude.
After promising a decision by November 1, the VA tells ailing Vietnam vets to keep waiting.
News comes right before Veterans Day
Charles Ornstein, ProPublica
In a ProPublica article by Charles Ornstein, published days before Veterans Day, the Veterans Administration told Vietnam Vets who suffer from bladder cancer, thyroid disease, hypertension and Parkinson's like symptoms associated with exposure to Agent Orange to keep on waiting to find out whether they will be compensated for exposure to the deadly defoliant used throughout the protracted war in Southeast Asia.
Ornstein tells his readers that Vietnam Vets "...have been waiting eight months for a decision to compensate. Yet more than eight months later — and after his department promised a decision by Nov. 1 — the VA essentially punted, issuing a statement late Wednesday saying it would “further explore” the issue and pushing its decision to some undisclosed point in the future."
In an official statement, "The VA said the department would now work with others in the Trump administration to conduct a legal and regulatory review of conditions for awarding disability compensation to eligible veterans." according to ProPublica.
"Many veterans said they thought that was exactly the review that has been ongoing since March 2016, when the National Academy of Medicine, then known as the Institute of Medicine, said there is now evidence to suggest that Agent Orange exposure may be linked to bladder cancer and hypothyroidism. The National Academy also confirmed, as previous experts have said, that there is some evidence of an association with hypertension, stroke and various neurological ailments similar to Parkinson’s Disease," Ornstein continued
Air Force Capt. Dick Pirozzolo on the Saigon River
ProPublica quoted me in an article on the Veterans Administration’s latest stall on expanding benefits to Vietnam Vets who were exposed to Agent Orange. The VA was supposed to rule on linking hypertension, thyroid disease, bladder cancer and Parkinson’s-like symptoms to the deadly defoliant. That’s been kicked down the road.
Ornstein caught me by surprise when called with the bad news. My initial reaction: “'Son of a gun,'” said Dick Pirozzolo, 73, when he was informed of the VA’s decision to delay. Pirozzolo served as an information officer in the Air Force in Vietnam and has had bladder cancer and a thyroid condition called Graves’ disease. 'That sucks,'"
“The politicians all talk a good game about the VA, but then when it comes down to making a decision, they drag their heels.”
Pirozzolo is a Boston Communication consultant, media relations manager for the Michael Dukakis Institute and coauthor of "Escape from Saigon" a novel about the end of the war.
“In Saigon, we don’t ask many questions… where people came from, who they are or …were.” from Saigon Singer by Van Wyck Mason
Saigon, like Casablanca, Shanghai or Istanbul, is a city synonymous with intrigue, mystery, danger and romance.
Perhaps that is why so many novels, movies, theatrical productions and even comic books and graphic novels are set in Saigon—once known as the Pearl of the Orient and celebrated for its Parisian boulevards, French colonial villas, intimate piano bars and of course brothels. Most folks can tick off The Quiet American by Graham Greene, Good Morning Vietnam by Adrian Cronaur, The Lover by Marguerite Duras and the musical classic Miss Saigon. I would hope the Mike Morris - Dick Pirozzolo novel Escape from Saigon will one day rank with the classics.
Additionally, Apololypse Now, the 1979 Francis Ford Coppola Vietnam War allegory, opens with Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard, peering out at a bustling street scene from his seedy Saigon hotel room, as he waits for his mission — assassinate Col. Walter E. Kurtz who is burrowed deep inside the Cambodian jungle.
Good Morning, Vietnam
Though Escape from Saigon includes shades of my personal experiences and recollections from my life in Saigon as a press officer for the Air Force, I always felt a kindred spirit with Good Morning, Vietnam, the 1987 American militarycomedy-drama film, screenplay by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson based on the novel by Armed Forces Radio DJ Adrian Cronauer.
Recounts Wikipedia, “Set in Saigon in 1965, the film stars Robin Williams as a radio DJ on Armed Forces Radio Service, who proves hugely popular with the troops, but infuriates his superiors with what they call his ‘irreverent tendency.’” Cronauer insists he never took such liberties on air, and indeed much of Robin Williams antics are pure ad-lib. Cronauer also goes on to explain that he wrote the book to raise enough money to pay for law school, which he completed and later went into practice. He's told interviewers that potential clients get squeamish when they make the connection between him and Williams thinking he's too wild and crazy to be their attorney
There are plenty of less-well-known works set in Saigon, officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1975, though locals, expatriates and insiders persist in calling their city Saigon. Here is a rundown based on summaries from promotional pieces, Wikipedia and International Movie Database IMDB.
Saigon
Among the classics is Saigon, the Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake noir film set in the French colonial port city. Ladd, as Army Air Corps pilot Larry Briggs, takes on a flying assignment for $10,000 to raise money needed to show his terminally ill friend a good time before he succumbs to his illness. But things go awry when, right before takeoff Susan Cleaver, payed by Veronica Lake, boards his plane. I started watching it, hoping for the perfection of Casablanca—close but not quite.
The Quiet American, Graham Greene’s 1955 antiwar novel about the French Indochina war and genesis of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, was first adapted for the silver screen in 1958. That film turned Greene’s antiwar message into a virtual pro-colonial—anti-communist propaganda film with a heroic CIA agent Alden Pyle, played by WW II hero Audie Murphy. Hollywood was still reeling from the era of blacklisting at the time and Greene was furious over having his novel turned on its head, says Wikipedia.
The 2002 remake was close Greene’s original novel. The film starred Michael Caine, as journalist Thomas Fowler and Brendan Fraser, as the mysterious Pyle, both of whom vie for the heart of the beautiful young Vietnamese woman Phoung, played by Do Thi Hai Yen. There is no shortage of deception, betrayal, and love gone horribly wrong in this film adaptation. Journalist Fowler, who is desperate for his paper to keep him in Saigon, where his character foreshadows the life of the Saigon-based journalists who populated the city during the war—around 400 accredited correspondents at any given time.
The Lover (L'amant)
Based on the autobiographical 1984 novel by Marguerite Duras, The Lover–original title L’amant, is the story of a fifteen and-a-half year old French girl played by Jane March and her older, wealthy and overpowering Chinese lover played by Tony Ka Fai Leung. Though her character is a minor, Jane March turned 18 during the filming thus avoiding legal issues over filming simulated sex with a minor.
Vietnam Historian Tim Doling in Tim Doling’s Heritage Portal has done a masterful job of collecting and posting photos of the locations French director Jean-Jacques Annaud used for the fim. Says Doling, the director went so far as to have a Cyprus-based ocean liner the Alexandre Duma brought to Saigon for key scenes.
Saigon Singer
“In Saigon,” the lovely English girl said, “we don’t ask many questions… where people came from, who they are or …were,” from Saigon Singer
This novel by Van Wyck Mason was first published in a hardbound edition in 1946, and I’ve managed to get a paperback copy on eBay, which I'm now reading. Mason was born into a diplomatic family in 1901. He traveled the world, became an ambulance driver during WWI, joined the French Army and later traded in rugs and antiques. Eventually college professor John Gallishaw, encouraged him to start writing and he found his calling. Mason, who died in 1978, wrote and published 78 novels during his life according to Wikipedia.
From the book jacket, “Saigon where the mysteries of the Orient are hidden beneath a veil of international sophistication…where criminals and traitors of a dozen nations are found and where Major Hugh North came to hunt a beautiful, deadly, unforgettable woman, the Black Chrysanthimum, traitor, spy and blackmailer!”
Escape from Saigon - by Mike Morris and Dick Pirozzolo
The reader is immediately pulled in by the heroes, secret agents, turncoats, romance and danger in Escape from Saigon, the fast-paced saga of bravery, intrigue and the human spirit that follows the lives of diplomats, journalists, CIA agents and Vietnamese refugees who are trapped in Saigon—their beloved city, about to fall to the advancing enemy army.
The action is set during April of 1975, the final 30 days of the Vietnam War as the city's inhabitants look for any way to escape. Among them are Matt Moran, a soldier searching for his Vietnamese wife's terrified relatives; Lisette Vo a Vietnamese-American TV reporter who risks her life to chronicle the events of that fateful time; an American businessman who adopts 300 of his employees in a bid to sneak them out. All this while the enemy army tightens its stranglehold on the city in a novel that reveals the plight of ordinary people swept up by the mistakes and folly of their leaders on all sides of the fight.
Escape from Saigon is ideal for anyone who plans to visit Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, and wants to know how the city evolved from a French colonial oasis to a popular travel destination.
Casey Sherman, The New York Times Bestselling Author of The Finest Hours called the book "... a sweeping saga that places you dead center in the tumultuous final days of the war in Vietnam. Authors Mike Morris and Dick Pirozzolo carry on the tradition of Michener and Clavell in that they make history come alive through rich, compelling characters in a pulsating narrative."
And, Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump notes: "Escape From Saigon brings to life the war-torn lives of the men and women, soldiers and civilians alike, each trying to escape the fall of Saigon before it engulfs them all. A vivid, unvarnished vision."
Escape from Saigon by Andrea Warren
Also under the same banner of Escape from Saigon, comes Andrea Warren’s young adult novel. Her Escape from Saigon tells the story of the over a million South Vietnamese children were orphaned by the Vietnam War. This true account tells the story of Long, who, like more than 40,000 other orphans, is Amerasian—a mixed-race child—with little future in Vietnam. Escape from Saigon allows readers to experience Long's struggle to survive in war-torn Vietnam, his dramatic escape to America as part of "Operation Babylift" during the last chaotic days before the fall of Saigon, and his life in the United States as "Matt," part of a loving Ohio family. Finally, as a young doctor, he journeys back to Vietnam, ready to reconcile his Vietnamese past with his American present according to the author. Available on Amazon.
Graphic Novels
With the city falling, government employees and military personnel raced to escape by foot, by car, by boat — and, in the case of pilots like Ba Van Nguyen, by helicopter.
The story of Ba’s escape with his family is told at the end of Rory Kennedy’s Oscar-nominated documentary “Last Days in Vietnam,” which PBS produced as part of its American Experience series. Recently, WGBH, the PBS member station in Boston, commissioned the artist Eoin Coveney to retell Ba’s tale in graphic form, which is beautifully reproduced in full color by The New York Times
Marcelino Truong's first book about the early years of the Vietnam war, the graphic memoir Such a Lovely Little War was published in 2016 and named "one the best graphic novels" of the season by The New York Times. In the sequel, Saigon Calling, young Marcelino and his family move from Saigon to London in order to escape the war following the assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem, for whom Marcelino's diplomat father was a personal interpreter.
Says the promotional copy, “With its audacious imagery and heart-rending text, Saigon Calling is a bold graphic memoir that strikes a remarkable balance between the intimate chronicle of a family undone by mental illness, and the large-scale tragedy of a country undone by war.
Marcelino Truong is an illustrator, painter, and author. He earned degrees in law at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and English literature at the Sorbonne.
Comic art interpretations of Vietnam abound in the Marvel Database. Here is Tan Son Nhat Air Base, Cartoon art style
The ‘Nam Vol 1 1 we meet Private First Class Edward Marks
Private First Class Edward Marks landed at Tan Son Nhut International Airport when he arrived in Vietnam. In late October, 1996, he returned to the airport with his squad to defend it from enemy attacks. In February, 1967, he finally departed from the air base to return home.
From the Marvel Database: In this issue we follow Ed Marks through his rude awakening of basic training. He then is posted to the 4/23 Mechanized Infantry .
After a misunderstanding over a bribe with the Top Sgt. he is assigned to platoon of Sgt. Polkow and his band of misfits. There he befriends Mike Albergo prior to venturing out on his first patrol where the guys get ambushed by the Viet Cong in a local village. After the shooting dies down Ed vomits after seeing his first dead body.
As they walk back to base, they accompany an armoured column which falls victim to a booby trap. They are then attacked by a sniper from a hidden bunker, which is part of a wider tunnel system. They clear them out with grenades and request helicopter transportation back to base. Ed finds this difficult as he has issues with flying. On their return the guys go to watch a movie, Major Dundee, while the rest of the base comes under rocket attack. Ed panics but Mike reassures him that the VC will not hit the movie screen because they like to watch too, according to the publisher
From ComiXology Commando #5035: Escape Saigon! In the final bloody hours of the Vietnam War, the P.A.V.N. were at the gates of Saigon. The U.S. embassy was the last refuge for the South Vietnamese who worked for the American government. But as the final choppers ferried the last of the workers to safety, Bill Evans realized that his best friend, Van Thieu, would not make it to the facility in time to evacuate - meaning certain death…
By DICK PIROZZOLO with credit to Wikipedia, IMDB, Marvel and publicity material provided by the works covered here.
Tony Mariano came to Vietnam as a teenager to be with his Father, ABC-TV journalist Frank Mariano. Tony finished high school in Saigon and often worked as a sound technician and field producer with network news crews and, as the war came to a close, he was sent to Manila during the massive air and sea evacuation of South Vietnam where he played a pivotal role in transmitting reports of The Fall of Saigon nation’s collapse to the world.
War correspondents are nothing short of heroic as depicted in "Escape from Saigon - a Novel". This is the story of the price one pays to grow up in a family where journalism, and the story, comes first.
Tony Mariano in his words
We were surrounded by total destruction of the buildings especially at the Citadel City of Quang Tri.
Tony, Dad and Ann in Dong Ha in 1974
The images of dozens of amputees and burn victims stayed with me as we continued up to Hue, Quang Tri, Quang Ngai, and finally to the DMZ at Dong Ha. There I saw thousands of NVA soldiers across the Dong Ha river in tents, washing clothes, and hanging around as loudspeakers blared their propaganda and music with the same happening on our side of the river as a few ARVN soldiers stood calmly by their .30 and .50 caliber gun mounts in small towers along the snaking waterway.
Along the way north we stopped at the exact spot where ABC News cameraman Terry Khoo had been killed by a sniper from a “spider trap” hiding space while filing a story the year before. Meanwhile, it was becoming abundantly clear that the suits at ABC News in New York felt the Vietnam story was basically over despite my father’s vehement objections to the contrary.
The network executives figured a cease-fire was in place, all the American troops and POW’s had been returned home and peaceful elections were going to be held in the future. New York increasingly rejected ] story suggestions and then finally the word came: Dad was ordered to close ABC’s bureau on July 14th, 1974. He was beyond flabbergasted as CBS and NBC and the wire services among others remained open with the equipment. It was a big blow to him and his staff, which he had come to admire and respect over the years.
Nonetheless, we packed up our things and through the tears and anxiety we said our “So longs! Good luck!” but not goodbye as it was almost too much to bear. We arrived in Hong Kong in mid-August and moved into a 21-story apartment building on Victoria Peak overlooking the harbor and Kai Tak Airport.
1975
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Dad continued working for ABC, this time shuttling between the ABC bureau in New Mercury house and Phnom Penh, Cambodia with Jim Bennett and others. But my father had become a pariah with the network. After his eight and half years fighting, working, living, loving and covering the war in South Vietnam he had gotten too close to the story and lost his professional objectivity. He even proposed chartering a helicopter to help former ABC employees get out of the country but the executives in New York, turned him down in no uncertain terms—adding that if he tried it on his own he would be fired and sent back to the states.
Ken Kashiwahara replaced my father in 1974 and Canadian journalist Hillary Brown was assigned to cover the impact of the US Congress starving South Vietnam of the funds it needed to survive. Nixon and Kissinger became my father’s nemeses and dad seethed with anger and clenched fist over how Nixon manipulated President Thieu to delay action so he could win the 1972 election. He was even more disgusted over Watergate.
In 1975, ABC’s Kevin Delany arrived in Saigon and became a savior by helping over 70 members of the ABC News family in escape as the enemy advanced and began its precipitous roll southward. The Central Highlands and Pleiku fell with thousands of refugees flooding the roads while the South Vietnamese army began a retreat which then turned into a full out run for their lives.
During South Vietnam’s final month of April 1975, I was in Hong Kong, Dad was covering events in Phnom Penh and Ann was in Saigon on assignment for Associated Press radio. She arrived right after the Operation Babylift C-5A Galaxy plane crashed with over 300 infants and accompanying adults on board including many from the Defense Attaché Office. The crash killed 138 people including 78 children among whom were friends of both Ann’s and Dad’s. Kashiwahara was already there covering the story when Ann arrived on scene. With in days, Dad was safely evacuated out of Phnom Penh with legendary cameraman Yatsune “Tony” Hirashiki and US Ambassador to Cambodia John Gunther Dean on April 12th. They boarded the last chopper out of Phnom Penh and headed to an awaiting Marine helicopter carrier in the Gulf of Siam with our US Embassy flag neatly folded on Dean’s lap.
On April 29th the recording of Bing Crosby's White Christmas began playing over Armed Forces Radio which signaled the beginning of Operation Frequent Wind and the end for the remaining Americans, members of the press, staffs and families in Saigon to get to their prearranged pick-up points around the city to be flown off to the Navy's 7th fleet just offshore in the South China Sea. As the exodus was getting started, a call into the Hong Kong bureau's office from ABC News in New York and I was hired as a Field Producer to go to the Philippines with instructions to manage logistics for the network in Manila. My job: arrange and coordinate a satellite feed for ABC after picking up Ken Kashiwahara at the US Navy base in Subic Bay.
I also was told to cover the first evacuee allowed off the USS Blue Ridge. The TV station was ready and I got word the chief enlisted man had left the ship and I was on my way. I scrambled to an awaiting helicopter at the station and I took a quick flight to Subic Bay to meet Ed Bradley of CBS News who had drawn the lucky short straw for this assignment. The first thing he did was to hand me very heavy Navy duffle bag. It was stuffed with every piece of raw film from every news agency covering the evacuation and mass exodus out to the Navy fleet. The recorded history of the end of an era was in my hands and I it was my responsibility to get it back to New York as quickly as possible for distribution, processing and broadcast. By now I had gone for over three days without sleep as New York and Manila were 12 hours apart I had to work around the clock. I finally was able to find a courier to take the film with him from Manila to New York.
Once we were back at the TV station, we processed 200 feet of 16mm film Ken had shot and selected for his fast-approaching satellite broadcast. Although Ken was obviously very tired he thoughtfully penned his script as the film was processed and converted to video tape. Ken did his voice over to narrate the images. All that was left was to wait for either the PanSat or TeleSat communication satellites to pass overhead. We all watched and listened to Ken’s harrowing tale of chaos, tears, anger and relief during the last moments of our involvement in Vietnam. We all feared for those who either decided to stay or were left behind. All Ken wanted to do now was to get back home to Hong Kong, his family and get some sleep. So I drove him to the airport and when we got to customs he was asked why his entry visa stamp was missing from his passport. He told them he didn’t have one because he had just been evacuated from Saigon by helicopter. We then had to run over to the Foreign Minister’s office to get Ken squared away with his papers and get him on the next flight.
While the advancing NVA were shelling Tan Son Nhut on a regular basis during their march toward the city, Ann gathered her
Frank Mariano ABC-TV News
things into a small case, and boarded the bus to be flown out of the airfield on the morning of the 29th before it became too dangerous. I had returned to Hong Kong on May 1st and slept for the next 24 hours. We were soon reunited with my father, Ann and my sisters again.
When ABC asked my father to interview Hillary Brown about the reporting she did during the last days in Saigon, dad refused to do so saying in part that the story which had consumed him over such a long time was his to tell but not hers.
We then left Hong Kong to arrive in Los Angeles. Dad had gone from being a freelance stringer to bureau chief and was now relegated to doing what he called “Mickey Mouse” stories for ABC at KTLA-TV. Of the more than 3,000 accredited members of the press who covered the Vietnam War, many found themselves in similar situations as my Dad’s or unemployed and unable to find work during the post-war recession. My father realized it was time for him to move on again so he left KTLA to become a teaching fellow at Harvard's JFK School of Government the next semester. He focused on the Vietnam War and the media and addressed the important question of the time: Could our nation ever be able to effectively engage in future conflicts with an unfettered, free press recording it for all to read, listen to and watch?
Epilogue: 1976
Tony recalls happier times in Vung Tau, Vietnam with stepmother Ann and his two adopted sisters Mai and Katie.
While in Cambridge, he thought he was having a heart attack, which is what killed his father 11 years earlier. But it was pericarditis, an inflammation of the heart sac, so his doctor prescribed aspirin to treat it as it was the only anti-inflammatory medication available at the time.
Following Harvard, Dad went to Washington, DC in June and found he was unemployed for the first time in his life. But a few days after watching the bicentennial July 4th celebration in our nation’s capital he came down with a fever. I drove him to George Washington Hospital to meet with his cardiologist Dr. Michael Halberstam who happened to be David Halberstam’s brother - the author of a seminal book on Vietnam - “The Best and the Brightest.” Dad would go into the ICU after a procedure to relieve the pressure squeezing his heart. 5 weeks later he died from complications at 45 years old August 8th, 1976…41 years ago.
He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery with honors and joined only six years later he was followed by his Vietnamese daughter, our sister, Jane Katherine "Buttons" Mariano. AAnn Bryan Mariano continued her career as a writer and reporter with The Washington Post and remarried in 1995 to Robert E. McKay. She passed away in February 2009 at 76 in Belmont, Massachusetts of complications from Alzheimer’s disease and joined by her widower Robert this year at 91. My dear sister Anna, who now goes by Mai, lives with her husband and teenage daughter in Columbus, Ohio. I work in the culinary and hospitality industry in Pebble Beach, California where I recently married my second wife and have two adult children from my first marriage.
Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's recent visit to the White House underscores the importance the United States-Vietnam relationship that has evolved positively over the past four decades.
Vietnam, a nation of 90 million people, is today not only a trading partner but a key ally in the projection of US diplomacy and Naval power in the South China Sea— a region where China's rapacious behavior over shipping lanes, fishing, and other natural resources, as well as China's building of a military runway on the Spratly Islands has created an ongoing threat to peace. During the visit, Phuc told President Trump, the relationship has undergone significant upheavals in history, but that the two countries were now "comprehensive partners."
In this environment comes fresh insight by Anders Corr, PhD in his forthcoming book, Great Powers, Grand Strategies: The New Game In The South China Sea, "This book is relevant to Vietnam, which is especially attentive to shifts in power between global powers in the South China Sea, including China, the U.S., Russia, the U.K., and France."
Anders Corr displays The Philippines Flag off Scarborough Shoals in the South China Sea
The book, Great Powers, Grand Strategies offers the analysis of a dozen experts on big picture approaches to the South China Sea dispute," according to publisher U.S. Naval Institute Press, "By exploring the international dimensions of this regional hotspot, coauthors Bill Hayton, Gordon Chang, Bernard Cole, James Fanell, and others examine how the military, diplomatic, and economic strategies of the major global actors have both contributed to solutions and exacerbated the potential for conflict."
As editor of the volume, Dr. Corr juxtaposes the grand strategies of the great powers to determine the likely outcomes of the South China Sea dispute, as well as evaluate the ways to possibly defuse tensions in the region."
As part of his research Dr. Corr, who is also thepublisher of The Journal of Political Risk visited all South China Sea claimant countries, undertaking field research in Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Brunei. Dr. Corr has also conducted analysis for USPACOM, CENTCOM, and NATO, including work in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Dr. Corr is also and active member of The Boston Global Forum, a think tank with ties to Harvard University Faculty, that focuses on peaceful solutions to global conflicts, including the current tensions that plague the South China Sea.
Dick Pirozzolo is coauthor of "Escape from Saigon - a Novel" with Michael Morris that focuses on the events of April 1-30, 1975, the last month of Vietnam War.
An American Journalist: "Vietnam is growing steadily every day."
By
Nguyen Lan Anh
VietnamNet.Vn
Vietnam Net, Vietnam's largest online newspaper, published an interview with the authors of "Escape from Saigon - a Novel" by Michael Morris and Dick Pirozzolo on the 42nd anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
Their debut novel, published by Skyhorse Publishing, New York is set during the last days of what in Vietnam is known as The American War.
The authors hope this reporter feels that we accurately portrayed Saigon as a sophisticated vibrant city and its people as genuine human beings with complex feelings and relationships—be they Vietnamese civilians, military people on both sides of the conflict or the journalists and other foreign nationals from America, France, Australia and other countries for whom Vietnam became home.
Having returned to Vietnam many times since the war ended, journalist and US Air Force veteran Dick Pirozzolo chose trade, culture and tourism to establish a link between Vietnam and the United States. In so doing he has written articles and editorials on the story of reconciliation between two former foes. Michael Morris was in Vietnam in 1967-1968 as a US Army infantry soldier. Together these two Americans coauthored “Escape from Saigon – a Novel,” published this year by Skyhorse Publishing, New York, USA.
Vietnam Net: Congratulations, you have launched the book "Escape from Saigon - a Novel” in 2017, what can you tell us about this book?
Mr. Dick Pirozzolo: Putting aside the past is a theme running throughout the book whose characters often come in conflict with their ideologies as they try to move forward. Even though "Escape from Saigon" is fiction it hews closely to historical events as it recounts the lives of both ordinary people as well as officials who are trapped in a city once called The Paris of the East.
The Continental Palace Hotel figures into "Escape from Saigon." While this classic hotel has been upgraded and retains its charm, it lacks the famous veranda where journalists and diplomats mingled during the war.
Some of these fictional characters include Lisette Vo, NBS-TV's first Vietnamese-American reporter who chronicled the fateful events of April 1975, Sam Esposito of The Washington Legend who writes about America's involvement and doing so angers US President Richard Nixon, an American businessman desperate to help his employees flee; Jean Paul Pelleran, a French pub owner, who wishes to remain in South Vietnam and continue running his piano bar, and US Ambassador Graham Martin who becomes despondent and disillusioned over the April 1975 events.
Mr. Michael Morris: We concentrated on what happened during the last month when the Vietnam War ended on April 30. While the action occurs at that moment in time, reminiscences at Jean Paul’s bar and old newspaper stories are filled with historical events such as the partition of Vietnam that prompted Jean Paul to leave Hanoi for Saigon in the mid-1950s, or Sam Esposito who, before arriving in Vietnam in 1963, meets his old high school friend Billy Freda for beers at Mory’s in New Haven right after Billy returned from a year in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was a major event in the lives of an entire generation of Americans who witnessed the war firsthand and had to deal with its aftermath. In our case, when we returned to the US we became professionals – I became a journalist in New York, and Dick became a journalist and media consultant in Boston. Even though the War ended 42 year ago, it is a permanent part of who we are.
Vietnam Net: As far as I know, a lot of American veterans have been writing about the war and the events of April 1975. What makes your book different, special?
The former US Embassy in Saigon remained vacant for over two decades before being razed to make room for new development in Ho Chi Minh City
Mr. Dick Pirozzolo: We have gotten a lot of praise for creating a unique work of fiction for example Winston Groom, author of "Forrest Gump," said, "Escape from Saigon offers a vivid unvarnished vision of the war-torn lives of people trapped in the capital.”
Casey Sherman, author of The New York Times Bestseller "The Finest Hours" and "Boston Strong" called, "Escape from Saigon … a sweeping saga in the tradition of Michener and Clavell.”
Llewellyn King, producer and co-host of PBS-TV's "White House Chronicle,” added, "Escape from Saigon is exceptional in its authenticity, with descriptions of Saigon that are in the tradition of American author Graham Greene's TheQuiet American. "
Vietnam Net: You both recently returned to Vietnam with a Boston Global Forum Delegation of journalists and scholars. How did returning to Vietnam make you feel?
Mr. Michael Morris: For me personally, it was a meaningful trip. I did not know what to expect and did not know what my feelings would be. I could not even imagine seeing all that was new since I served in the country in the 1960s. And, finally I felt very satisfied. Like many American soldiers returning to Vietnam, I came here with an eye toward the future and was very happy to see the Vietnamese wholeheartedly welcome us. They are kind, treated me very well, invited me home for dinner. I was very much pleased with the experience.
Mr. Dick Pirozzolo: I have returned to Vietnam many times striving to cement relations between Vietnam and the United States. As part of my work, I became the media representative for Mr. Le Van Bang, Vietnam's first ambassador to the UN and later to the United States. Additionally, I’ve written articles and editorials on United States-Vietnam relationships and how they benefit both peoples.
Children peer into a US tank turret at a war museum in Saigon
During one of my trips to Vietnam I visited the Cu Chi tunnels outside of Saigon. One of the guides spoke in a very distinct American accent, that of New Jersey. When I asked him about it, he explained, “During the war, we took everything the Americans brought here including English which I got from listening to the US Armed Forces Radio and TV.”
A fictionalized version of that tour guide appears in "Escape from Saigon,” arguing with one of the American characters over who in 1975 was the best pitcher in American baseball.
Vietnam Net: “Although we should not be not allowed to forget history we must live for the future.” What do you think of the message?
Mr. Dick Pirozzolo: The war ended 42 years ago, and I am confident that we are on track to further tighten relationships between the US and Vietnam. Those who are 30 years old or younger, know Vietnam only as a developing country, not a war and, overall, two-thirds of Americans were born after the war ended on April 30, 1975. This is similar to the Vietnam where 60 percent of the population was born after that historic milestone.
Since the 1990s, Americans have seen Vietnam as a market to promote brands and as a travel destination. According to government statistics, 400,000 people in the United States and 100,000 people in Canada are expected to travel to Vietnam this year.
Vietnam Net: Did you know that President Donald Trump has announced his visit
Ho Chi Minh City's iconic hotel
to Vietnam in November to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
Mr. Dick Pirozzolo: That is a positive step. I had the opportunity to work with many Vietnamese leaders during the 1990s. At that stage, Vietnam was working to reconcile and begin trade relations with the United States as a Most Favored Nation. I believe we will continue to develop in a positive direction. More and more Americans choose to buy Vietnamese products such as clothes, rice and coffee in large quantities. Moreover, the cultural and academic relations between the two countries are rich and multi-dimensional.
There is no debate, now is an important moment for Vietnam to become a closer partner with the US, playing a greater role in the maintenance of peace and stability in the region and the balance of power in the Pacific
Mr. Michael Morris: Economic relations are a very important bridge in international relations. I know American companies are increasingly looking to Vietnam to do business, and in so doing will help to boost your economy.
More people from our generation, veterans have brought their children and loved ones to witness Vietnam with their own eyes—a country that has a significant place in American history.
“Escape from Saigon – a Novel” is available on Amazon.com.
Trendy shops and cafés are emerging in Ho Chi Minh City
The Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft took off from Clark Air Base, Republic of the Philippines, in the early morning hours of April 30, 1975, enroute to Tan Son Nhut Air Base on the outskirts of Saigon. It was on a mission for which I had no prior experience to draw on. I sat quietly, wondering just what I had gotten myself into but confident that my choice was the right one.
I was on my way back to Vietnam in the hopes that…somehow…I would be able to make my way to Cholon to find and bring my Chinese wife’s family out of the rapidly-deteriorating environment and to safety ultimately in the United States. The effort was the result of several weeks of coordination both with senior officers at Clark and with my wife’s family. Dozens of quick phone calls gave us the assurance that this effort was somehow possible.
There was little idle conversation on the airplane as we made our way westward. I sat and reflected on my first meeting with my soon-to-be relatives in 1971 and the obvious close bond that my wife had with her family. I was grateful for this chance to help them in their efforts to escape the inevitable downfall of their adopted home country.
Suddenly I was aware of someone standing in front of me…the plane’s pilot. The look on his face told me immediately that something had gone wrong.
He quietly asked, “Sergeant, were you going back to Saigon to get your wife’s family?”
I responded, equally quietly, “Yes, sir, I am.”
His next words are permanently etched into my memory: “I’m sorry. We’re turning back. Saigon has fallen.”
I sat fighting a bout of nausea as the words "Saigon has fallen" sunk in. I thought of my relatives and wondered how this was going to affect them. And I feverishly wracked my brain: “How do I tell Margaret that her family members are now trapped in communist-held Vietnam?”
When we landed back at Clark Air Base, I went to my car and drove for what seemed like a lifetime (we lived off-base…a journey of about two miles in actuality) mentally preparing to deliver the worst news I had ever been forced to deliver.
As I drove slowly into our garage, I saw my wife standing at the door. The look on her face told me she knew.
I got out, rushed to her and held her tight, whispering these words: "I am so sorry."
Two years laters my tour of duty at Clark Air Base was completed, and we returned to the United States and an assignment at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. We had no way of communicating with Margaret's family, but held on to the optimistic belief that someday, somehow, they would be successful in their attempt to leave Vietnam.
Then, in 1980 we received a collect phone call. My father-in-law was calling, from California, to say that the family had finally been able to escape as refugees and that all were now in the United States…safe…and free.
Editor's note: Kirk Hazlett, a Curry College professor in Boston and consummate public relations professional, contributed recollections from his Vietnam War experience to the blog for "Escape from Saigon - a Novel" set during the final 30 days of the Vietnam War. Dick Pirozzolo
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