Mourning headband for Hue : an account of the battle for Hue, Vietnam 1968

376 Pages·2014·2.05 MB·English

by  Dror

Mourning Headband
for Hue
Mourning Headband for Hue is a personal account of what happened
in Hue during the month-long occupation of parts of the city by
communist troops during the 1968 Tết Offensive, a very bloody
episode of the Vietnam War that inflicted extremely heavy losses
on the civilian population in both human and material terms.
Stranded in Hue where she had come to visit her family, the
author found herself face-to-face with the war. . . . Horrified, she
recounts her experiences day by day as if weeping and wailing
in the remembrance of the atrocities she has seen and heard. It
is indeed a book laden with blood, sweat, and tears but records
events without distorting them. With explanatory information
on many persons and events provided by the translator, the book
is a valuable document for the history of the Vietnam War.
Nguyen The Anh, Rector of Hue University at the time of
the events described in this book; professor emeritus, Ecole
Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris-Sorbonne; and author most
recently of Vietnam: A Journey into History (in French)

Mour ning
Headband
for Hue
An Account of the Battle for Hue, Vietnam 1968
Nhã Ca
Translated and with an Introduction by Olga Dror
Indiana University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis
Frontis: Nhã Ca with a mourning headband, at her father’s funeral on the
eve of the Tết Offensive in Hue.
This book is a co-publication of Information Sciences–Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials,
Indiana University Press ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350 Manufactured in the
1320 East 10th Street United States of America
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu Library of Congress
Telephone [phone] Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fax [phone]
Nhã Ca, [date] author.
© 2014 by Nhã Ca (Trần Thị Thu Vân) [Giải khăn sô cho Huế. English]
and Việt Báo Daily News, Inc. Mourning headband for Hue : an
English translation of Giải khăn sô cho Huế account of the battle for Hue, Vietnam
©1969 by Nhã Ca (Trần Thị Thu Vân) 1968 / Nhã Ca ; translated and with
Translation © 2014 by Olga Dror an introduction by Olga Dror.
pages cm
All rights reserved Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-253-01417-7 (cloth :
No part of this book may be reproduced alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-253-01432-0
or utilized in any form or by any means, (ebook) 1. Nhã Ca, [date] 2. Vietnam
electronic or mechanical, including War, 1961–1975 – Personal narratives,
photocopying and recording, or by any Vietnamese. 3. Vietnam War, 1961–
information storage and retrieval system, 1975 – Campaigns – Vietnam – Huế.
without permission in writing from the 4. Tet Offensive, 1968. I. Dror, Olga,
publisher. The Association of American translator, writer of introduction.
University Presses’ Resolution on II. Nhã Ca, [date] Giải khăn sô cho
Permissions constitutes the only excep- Huế. Translation of: III. Title.
tion to this prohibition. DS559.5.N59613 2014
959.704’3092 – dc23
∞ The paper used in this publication 2014005693
meets the minimum requirements of
the American National Standard for 1 2 3 4 5 19 18 17 16 15 14
In Vietnam, when a person dies, the family members tie
a white crepe mourning band around their heads.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
· Acknowledgments ix
· Note on Translation xi
· Translator’s Introduction xv
· Map of the Key Places Mentioned in the Book 2
· List of Characters 3
· Small Preface:
Writing to Take Responsibility 7
1 First Hours 11
2 The Congregation of the Most
Holy Redeemer 31
3 On a Boat Trip 63
4 Hodge-podge 93
5 A Person from Từ Ðàm Comes
Back and Tells His Story 119
6 Going Back into the Hell of the Fighting 157
7 Story from the Citadel 193
8 Returning to the Old House 229
9 A Dog in Midstream 257
10 Little Child of Hue, Little Child of Vietnam,
I Wish You Luck 293
Acknowledgments
The work you are about to read, Giải khăn sô cho Huế
(Mourning Headband for Hue), was written by a prominent South
Vietnamese female writer, Nhã Ca, and is an account of events as seen
through her own eyes and the eyes of other civilians caught in the midst
of the Tết Offensive in the city of Hue between January 30 and February
28, 1968.
In the course of my work on Mourning Headband for Hue, I consulted
with many Vietnamese who were on both sides of the war and who in
its aftermath have held different views about the book, and this has af-
forded to me a more inclusive, if not comprehensive, perspective on Nhã
Ca’s work and the events in Hue during the Tết Offensive. Some of the
people I consulted are mentioned by name in my introduction, and I
would like to express here my sincere appreciation for their willingness
to share their views. The names of the others I do not provide, not out of
disrespect but in honoring their wishes, as the events in Hue during 1968
are still a highly sensitive topic both in Vietnam and in the Vietnamese
diaspora. While for the readers they remain anonymous, I warmly re-
member all of them as a great source of encouragement for my work and
of knowledge about the country and the language. I also felt their love for
their country and for their countrymen, whether in Vietnam or overseas.
I benefited from anonymous reviewers who supported the publica-
tion and who drew my attention to the places that could be improved.
Shawn McHale of George Washington University, Patricia Pelley
of Texas Tech University, and Dale Baum, Terry Anderson, and Brian
Rouleau, my colleagues at Texas A&M, read and commented on my
ix