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Madam Nhu Trần Lệ Xuân - Quyền lực Bà Rồng
Đây là lần đầu tiên sách Madam Nhu Trần Lệ Xuân - Quyền lực Bà Rồng - về cuộc đời bà Trần Lệ Xuân (bà Nhu, 1924-2011) - ra mắt ở Việt Nam. Bà là vợ của ông Ngô Đình Nhu, cố vấn chính quyền ở miền nam Việt Nam trước đây.
Sách được dịch giả Mai Sơn chuyển ngữ từ tác phẩm đầu tay của tác giả Mỹ Monique Brinson Demery. Tên tiếng Anh của sách là Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu. Sách được Nhà xuất bản PublicAffairs phát hành vào tháng 5/2013. Đây cũng là cuốn sách đầu tiên về chân dung bà Trần Lệ Xuân phát hành trên thế giới.
Sách được dịch giả Mai Sơn chuyển ngữ từ tác phẩm đầu tay của tác giả Mỹ Monique Brinson Demery. Tên tiếng Anh của sách là Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu. Sách được Nhà xuất bản PublicAffairs phát hành vào tháng 5/2013. Đây cũng là cuốn sách đầu tiên về chân dung bà Trần Lệ Xuân phát hành trên thế giới.
355 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
Monique Brinson Demery
2 books14 followersMonique Demery's first book, Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu, will be published in September, 2013 by PublicAffairs Books.
Monique graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and received a Master's degree in Asian Studies from Harvard University. She lives with her family in Chicago, IL.
Monique graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and received a Master's degree in Asian Studies from Harvard University. She lives with her family in Chicago, IL.
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August 27, 2016
"Another focus of the article was on Madame Nhu--a woman who seemed to be a fascinating character to the journalists of the time as I found several references to her in more than one Newsweek article, and as many pictures of her in fashionable dress. It's reported that Diem is little more than the puppet of Madame Nhu and her husband, Ngo Dinh Nhu. She's portrayed as an almost comic book like villain--an Asian femme fatale known as 'the dragon lady' by journalists in Saigon. She is described as being 'imperious and iron-willed,' 'a devious, chain-smoking intellectual with a low, rasping voice,' and 'molded into her . . . dress like a dagger in its sheath.' While she's acknowledged to be a serious threat to the United States, much focus is placed on insignificant details about her life. I found it unbelievable that the author of this article made constant reference to how dangerous she was, yet never bolstered these statements with any concrete fact. More time was devoted to her romanticized childhood and her couture clothing than her politics. It made me curious--was the lack of information because she was simply a woman and her dress was more interesting than her politics, or was there a lack of specific information about her involvement in the crimes being committed by the government?"
So, yes, I've quoted myself here. This is from a paper I wrote in response to a Newsweek article entitled Getting to Know the Nhus from September 9, 1963. One of my favorite assignments in my Literature of the Vietnam War class was the personal reaction papers that sent us scurrying to the library and pulling the old bound periodicals from the shelves and reading articles from magazines like Time and Newsweek. Others would simply grab a book, photocopy the first Vietnam article they came to, and trot off to write their paper. Me? I spent hours flipping through the yellowed pages and photographs before I settled on one for my article. And that was how I first encountered the petite dynamo that was Madame Nhu.
While she certainly piqued my curiosity, it quickly became obvious that learning about the real Madame Nhu was virtually impossible due to the obvious negative bias of the press, as well as Madame Nhu's own role in crafting her image. So when Monique Brinson Demery's book about her personal relationship with Madame Nhu was released, I was excited by the prospect of finally meeting the "real" Madame Nhu.
And did I? Well, yes and no.
This is not a criticism of the book, but rather a reflection of the fact that Madame Nhu was the product of endless contradictions. Born in another time, another culture, another economic class, she certainly could have been a shrewd and intelligent politician. However, her arrival as an unwanted and unloved middle daughter (her mother always suspected she had been "switched" with a common child while she was left in the care of her paternal grandmother) created a keen sense of inferiority that she railed against her entire life (a defiant streak nurtured by a fortune-teller's prediction that "Her star is unsurpassable" and that the young girl was destined for greatness). Her upper-class family had both royal and colonial ties, leaving her oblivious to her Marie Antoinette-like disconnect from the common people (even commenting that she would she would clap her hands as Buddhist monks "barbecued" themselves). Raised in a Buddhist and Confucian household, her later conversion to Catholicism was embraced with a zealot's fervor--and a hurried convert's misapplication of principles (her morality laws banning contraception, polygamy, dancing, gambling, and, of course, the evils of the underwire bra quickly turned her people against her, despite her belief that she was protecting women in particular with many of these edicts).
It's no wonder that the girl who should have been a boy, the Vietnamese woman who couldn't understand the Vietnamese people, the Buddhist who became the dogmatic Catholic, the very embodiment of the collision of East and West, would become such a polarizing and often confusing historical figure.
Demery embraces these contradictions and presents Madame Nhu as a flawed woman with extraordinary potential--a woman desperate to blaze her own trail, yet restricted by her time, her gender, and her own misconceptions about the world. Demery's portrait does not shy away from the vain, arrogant, and manipulative aspects of Madame Nhu's personality. Indeed, we see Madame Nhu baiting Demery with promises that she will release her memoirs to her, as well as controlling and dictating the terms of their relationship. Demery becomes exasperated with Madame Nhu's machinations, but holds out in the hope that their continued exchanges will reveal something genuine about the woman history has both fairly and unfairly maligned. And she succeeds in this. While Madame Nhu is never exonerated by Demery's story, Demery does succeed in creating some sympathy for a woman who, behind closed doors, was pained by the failure of her marriage, desperate for love and approval, and denied the ability to help her husband and her brother-in-law, President Diem, sidestep some of their more foolhardy missteps.
Compelling and readable, Finding the Dragon Lady does not attempt to put Madame Nhu on a pedestal, but rather to dust away some of the misconceptions that have settled over the years on the legacy of the dragon lady.
Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder and at Shelf Inflicted
So, yes, I've quoted myself here. This is from a paper I wrote in response to a Newsweek article entitled Getting to Know the Nhus from September 9, 1963. One of my favorite assignments in my Literature of the Vietnam War class was the personal reaction papers that sent us scurrying to the library and pulling the old bound periodicals from the shelves and reading articles from magazines like Time and Newsweek. Others would simply grab a book, photocopy the first Vietnam article they came to, and trot off to write their paper. Me? I spent hours flipping through the yellowed pages and photographs before I settled on one for my article. And that was how I first encountered the petite dynamo that was Madame Nhu.
While she certainly piqued my curiosity, it quickly became obvious that learning about the real Madame Nhu was virtually impossible due to the obvious negative bias of the press, as well as Madame Nhu's own role in crafting her image. So when Monique Brinson Demery's book about her personal relationship with Madame Nhu was released, I was excited by the prospect of finally meeting the "real" Madame Nhu.
And did I? Well, yes and no.
This is not a criticism of the book, but rather a reflection of the fact that Madame Nhu was the product of endless contradictions. Born in another time, another culture, another economic class, she certainly could have been a shrewd and intelligent politician. However, her arrival as an unwanted and unloved middle daughter (her mother always suspected she had been "switched" with a common child while she was left in the care of her paternal grandmother) created a keen sense of inferiority that she railed against her entire life (a defiant streak nurtured by a fortune-teller's prediction that "Her star is unsurpassable" and that the young girl was destined for greatness). Her upper-class family had both royal and colonial ties, leaving her oblivious to her Marie Antoinette-like disconnect from the common people (even commenting that she would she would clap her hands as Buddhist monks "barbecued" themselves). Raised in a Buddhist and Confucian household, her later conversion to Catholicism was embraced with a zealot's fervor--and a hurried convert's misapplication of principles (her morality laws banning contraception, polygamy, dancing, gambling, and, of course, the evils of the underwire bra quickly turned her people against her, despite her belief that she was protecting women in particular with many of these edicts).
It's no wonder that the girl who should have been a boy, the Vietnamese woman who couldn't understand the Vietnamese people, the Buddhist who became the dogmatic Catholic, the very embodiment of the collision of East and West, would become such a polarizing and often confusing historical figure.
Demery embraces these contradictions and presents Madame Nhu as a flawed woman with extraordinary potential--a woman desperate to blaze her own trail, yet restricted by her time, her gender, and her own misconceptions about the world. Demery's portrait does not shy away from the vain, arrogant, and manipulative aspects of Madame Nhu's personality. Indeed, we see Madame Nhu baiting Demery with promises that she will release her memoirs to her, as well as controlling and dictating the terms of their relationship. Demery becomes exasperated with Madame Nhu's machinations, but holds out in the hope that their continued exchanges will reveal something genuine about the woman history has both fairly and unfairly maligned. And she succeeds in this. While Madame Nhu is never exonerated by Demery's story, Demery does succeed in creating some sympathy for a woman who, behind closed doors, was pained by the failure of her marriage, desperate for love and approval, and denied the ability to help her husband and her brother-in-law, President Diem, sidestep some of their more foolhardy missteps.
Compelling and readable, Finding the Dragon Lady does not attempt to put Madame Nhu on a pedestal, but rather to dust away some of the misconceptions that have settled over the years on the legacy of the dragon lady.
Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder and at Shelf Inflicted
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August 11, 2016Mình đọc quyển sách này với nền tảng kiến thưc lịch sử chắc chỉ bằng một đứa tiểu học. Chưa đọc bản gốc nên không biết dịch ra sao nhưng mình cảm thấy ổn (không có lỗi chính tả lỗi ngữ pháp ngớ ngẩn aha), đoạn viết về cuộc đảo chính rất hay và giàu cảm xúc. Tác giả không khai thác cụ thể sức ảnh hưởng của bà Nhu lên hệ thống chính trị (mà chắc các sách khác đã nói nát cả rồi) mà thể hiện bà ở những khía cạnh con người hơn, phụ nữ hơn một cái tên trên giấy. Hồi xưa mà chăm chỉ đọc những sách này chắc sẽ thấy lịch sử thú vị lên nhiều lắm.
November 1, 2023
The story of Madame Nhu that Monique Demery tells is a timely one. Madame Nhu's role in the Diem government needed to be explored at some depth. And Demery manages to pull it off through apparently making friends with Nhu some six years before the former "First Lady" of South Vietnam died in 2011. Demery also appears to have gained access to Nhu's early diary as well as her memoirs.
The biography is quite readable. It's pitched to a general audience, so its remarks on the general historical narrative are largely conventional. What is important, here, is the context it supplies to Madame Nhu's specific history. But one of the drawbacks is that Demery is sometimes a bit breezy in her descriptions of significant events in South Vietnam, such as referring to "the Buddhist mess." It might be better phrased as "the Buddhist crisis," which gives a more objective and value-free ring to the history.
Being "value-free" isn't, however, what Demery is after in this book. While I judge it to be fair in its presentation, Demery's fondness for Madame Nhu often gets the better of her. Making Nhu into a feminist pioneer in Southeast Asia is to look at things through too much of an American lens. Had Demery spent more of an extended time throughout the entire region, she might have discovered that there were and are many "Dragon Ladies" at various levels of society, from hi-so to village matriarch. Indeed, the picture of Southeast Asia presented through foreign and Western eyes never quite seems to understand how thin is the line between the spirit world (and consequently dreams) and the everyday material world in this part of the world. It's something that would have played a dominant role in Madame Nhu's life, whether she be Roman Catholic or Buddhist. It is integral to the culture and its way of connecting to the past. It fueled while at the same time restricted Nhu's achievements.
All of that is to pick at the little things. The fact is that this is a good work. I like the way it shifts from historical narrative in the past to Demery's then-current conversations with Nhu and survivors from South Vietnam come to America. The first part of the biography is a bit jerky and abrupt. But it soon settles into a smooth flow. And Demery is quite good at creating little cliffhangers to pull the reader to the next section or chapter.
The biography is quite readable. It's pitched to a general audience, so its remarks on the general historical narrative are largely conventional. What is important, here, is the context it supplies to Madame Nhu's specific history. But one of the drawbacks is that Demery is sometimes a bit breezy in her descriptions of significant events in South Vietnam, such as referring to "the Buddhist mess." It might be better phrased as "the Buddhist crisis," which gives a more objective and value-free ring to the history.
Being "value-free" isn't, however, what Demery is after in this book. While I judge it to be fair in its presentation, Demery's fondness for Madame Nhu often gets the better of her. Making Nhu into a feminist pioneer in Southeast Asia is to look at things through too much of an American lens. Had Demery spent more of an extended time throughout the entire region, she might have discovered that there were and are many "Dragon Ladies" at various levels of society, from hi-so to village matriarch. Indeed, the picture of Southeast Asia presented through foreign and Western eyes never quite seems to understand how thin is the line between the spirit world (and consequently dreams) and the everyday material world in this part of the world. It's something that would have played a dominant role in Madame Nhu's life, whether she be Roman Catholic or Buddhist. It is integral to the culture and its way of connecting to the past. It fueled while at the same time restricted Nhu's achievements.
All of that is to pick at the little things. The fact is that this is a good work. I like the way it shifts from historical narrative in the past to Demery's then-current conversations with Nhu and survivors from South Vietnam come to America. The first part of the biography is a bit jerky and abrupt. But it soon settles into a smooth flow. And Demery is quite good at creating little cliffhangers to pull the reader to the next section or chapter.
June 6, 2015
He said, “Meet my sister, Madame Nhu,/the sweetheart of Dien Bien Phu.”
– Phil Ochs, ”Talking Vietnam Blues”
That's not fair, of course: Madame Nhu may have had a hand in various unpleasant things, but Dien Bien Phu was not one of them. It was just a good rhyme for a folk singer perhaps too angry to be interested in fairness. However, it gives you a good idea the profile of Madame Nhu in her day – easily recognized and lampooned.
This book is not quite a success because it ran up against Madame Nhu's unstoppable contrary cussedness, which apparently did not become any less intense with age. Nhu seemed to have a gift for throwing a spanner into the machinations of others, a talent I really respect. But to be really effective, you sometimes must leave the spanner unthrown, and rely on other talents.
If I'm understanding correctly, then, the author got to read some, perhaps all, of Nhu's autobiography. However, she did not seem to get permission to quote from or attribute to this document, instead must skirt the edge of actionable activity through paraphrase. So when there are moments of maddeningly unfootnoted vagueness – like when (on p. 151) Jacqueline Kennedy is quoted as saying she “wouldn't be surprised” if Madame Nhu and Claire Booth Luce were lesbians – I was left wondering if there was any evidence for attributing this remark to Kennedy, or was the attribution just a product of Madame Nhu's rage-filled (if understandable) paranoia.
I think the author went a little easy on Nhu, who, let's remember, outlawed divorce in an entire country to spite a philandering family member, and drained the finances of a country in dire distress in order to form and outfit an all-woman paramilitary, whose main purpose seemed to be to reviewed on parade by Nhu. Authors often end up sympathizing with their subjects after spending many years pursuing them – perhaps this happened here. Or maybe the author thought the hero of the book must be as sympathetic as possible (while still staying within shouting distance of what really happened) if you want the big-name publishing houses to play ball.
On the other hand, when compared to the mayhem and slaughter that came after her, she seems comical, almost harmless, so the inclination displayed here to say nothing ill of the departed is probably the correct attitude to take.
The book: not too long, easy to read, worth a look.
– Phil Ochs, ”Talking Vietnam Blues”
That's not fair, of course: Madame Nhu may have had a hand in various unpleasant things, but Dien Bien Phu was not one of them. It was just a good rhyme for a folk singer perhaps too angry to be interested in fairness. However, it gives you a good idea the profile of Madame Nhu in her day – easily recognized and lampooned.
This book is not quite a success because it ran up against Madame Nhu's unstoppable contrary cussedness, which apparently did not become any less intense with age. Nhu seemed to have a gift for throwing a spanner into the machinations of others, a talent I really respect. But to be really effective, you sometimes must leave the spanner unthrown, and rely on other talents.
If I'm understanding correctly, then, the author got to read some, perhaps all, of Nhu's autobiography. However, she did not seem to get permission to quote from or attribute to this document, instead must skirt the edge of actionable activity through paraphrase. So when there are moments of maddeningly unfootnoted vagueness – like when (on p. 151) Jacqueline Kennedy is quoted as saying she “wouldn't be surprised” if Madame Nhu and Claire Booth Luce were lesbians – I was left wondering if there was any evidence for attributing this remark to Kennedy, or was the attribution just a product of Madame Nhu's rage-filled (if understandable) paranoia.
I think the author went a little easy on Nhu, who, let's remember, outlawed divorce in an entire country to spite a philandering family member, and drained the finances of a country in dire distress in order to form and outfit an all-woman paramilitary, whose main purpose seemed to be to reviewed on parade by Nhu. Authors often end up sympathizing with their subjects after spending many years pursuing them – perhaps this happened here. Or maybe the author thought the hero of the book must be as sympathetic as possible (while still staying within shouting distance of what really happened) if you want the big-name publishing houses to play ball.
On the other hand, when compared to the mayhem and slaughter that came after her, she seems comical, almost harmless, so the inclination displayed here to say nothing ill of the departed is probably the correct attitude to take.
The book: not too long, easy to read, worth a look.
February 24, 2020
Giọng văn và giọng dịch hay, cách viết lôi cuốn, cách sắp xếp nội dung theo trình tự thời gian là hợp lý. Đúng như kỳ vọng trước khi đọc sách, nhiều câu chuyện liên quan tới quá trình thành lập và phát triển của nền Đệ nhất VNCH được mô tả dưới góc nhìn của "người trong cuộc". Đây cũng có thể xem như một cuốn sách "nhập môn" và giải đáp kha khá thắc mắc dành cho những người quan tâm tới Chiến tranh Việt Nam.
Tuy nhiên phần lưu vong hơi quá ngắn so với kỳ vọng, có lẽ vì lựa chọn cuộc sống ẩn dật của nhân vật chính nên nó ko được nhắc tới nhiều hơn chăng? Một điểm trừ nữa dành cho phiên bản sách giấy đó là giá bìa quá cao (165.000) cho một cuốn sách hơn 300 trang, mặc dù chất lượng in và chất lượng giấy khá tốt.
Tuy nhiên phần lưu vong hơi quá ngắn so với kỳ vọng, có lẽ vì lựa chọn cuộc sống ẩn dật của nhân vật chính nên nó ko được nhắc tới nhiều hơn chăng? Một điểm trừ nữa dành cho phiên bản sách giấy đó là giá bìa quá cao (165.000) cho một cuốn sách hơn 300 trang, mặc dù chất lượng in và chất lượng giấy khá tốt.
March 10, 2014
History and politics are my favorite topics for nonfiction reading. This biography of notorious Madame Nhu enticed me from the moment it was discussed in a program segment on NPR. Since so little is known of the Dragon Lady of Vietnam, the biography is fascinating. I must extend caution, however. Demery claims she is in possession of Madame Nhu's memoirs, though it does not seem from the author's commentary that much of these memoirs made it into her biography of Madame Nhu. Demery also talks considerably of documents and photographs that never materialize in the pages of this book -- most notably Madame Nhu's diary, which was smuggled out of the palace shortly after the coup. The biography would have been made stronger if these images and detailed excerpts would have been (could have been?) included. I can only hope that Demery thought it best to first present the bare bones of Madame Nhu using their personal (if tenuous) relationship as the backdrop to the narrative. Once interest swells, I hope she has planned to follow this first biography with a more comprehensive view of the archives in her possession.
March 30, 2016
Cho ba sao vì chưa đọc bản gốc, sẽ dành thời gian để đọc bản tiếng Anh. Nội dung bản dịch tạm ổn, nhưng ghét nhất chữ Dragon Lady lại dịch thành Rồng Cái ở một vài chỗ.
Story line hấp dẫn, cầm sách lên chỉ muốn đọc cho đến hết.
Story line hấp dẫn, cầm sách lên chỉ muốn đọc cho đến hết.
January 15, 2017
Một thước phim ngắn lướt qua các sự kiện lịch sử từ 1802 đến 1995 trong đó bà Nhu là nhân vật chính. Một đệ nhất phu nhân không chính thức của Việt Nam Cộng hoà, một bộ óc lớn bên trong một con người nhỏ bé.
Một phụ nữ khôn ngoan, lạnh lùng, khát khao quyền lực, tạo ảnh hưởng ghê gớm đến lịch sử Việt Nam. Mạnh mẽ, kiên định nhưng vẫn ẩn khuất đâu đó nỗi buồn về một tuổi thơ bị cha mẹ hắt hủi và một cuộc sống gia đình thiếu hạnh phúc.
Cuốn sách này nếu xếp loại mình sẽ xếp loại vào sách về lịch sử và cũng có thể xếp vào loại khuyến khích nữ quyền. Theo mình, khá dễ đọc vì cốt truyện khá hấp dẫn, cho mình cảm giác đang xem tường thuật trực tiếp, những sự kiện lịch sử lướt qua óc nhẹ nhàng, để lại những cảm giác khó tả.
Đọc xong cuốn sách, mình cũng biết đc thêm nhiều thông tin và hiểu kỹ hơn lịch sử thời đó, dạng nếu như đọc những cuốn sách lịch sử thông thường thì mình sẽ biết what? (cái gì đã xảy ra), còn đọc cuốn này sẽ biết thêm why and how? (Tại sao và như thế nào?).
Cuốn sách, ngoài lời dẫn và thông tin từ tác giả, còn được trích dẫn những lời kể từ bà Nhu, đan xen những lời tự sự vốn được trích từ cuốn nhật ký của bà. Xấu tốt thế nào mình không bàn đến, vì khi đọc sách bạn sẽ có cảm nhận của riêng bạn.
Mình cũng khá thích cuốn sách này, tuy nhiên, cũng có một lỗi mình khó có thể bỏ qua, đó là ở gần cuối đoạn văn nằm giữa trang 234 có viết về sự kiện nhà sư Thích Quảng Đức tự thiêu rằng "Thích Quảng Đức đổ người tới trước, ngã lăn ra, và bất động."
Vì mình đã tìm hiểu về sự kiện lịch sử này trước đó khá kỹ, nên khi đọc đến mà có chi tiết sai mình cảm thấy rất khó chịu. Đó là chi tiết thầy Thích Quảng Đức "đổ người tới trước" khi tự thiêu.
Như hình ảnh và tất cả các tư liệu lịch sử khác ghi lại "Sau 3 lần cúi sấp, nhục thân của Bồ-Tát Thích-Quảng-Ðức đã bật ngửa ra sau đem đến niềm tin thắng lợi cho cuộc tranh đấu vì đạo pháp của toàn thể Tăng tín đồ Phật-Giáo."
Trên cả câu chữ, đó là sự thật, trên cả sự thật, đó là lời tiên đoán về một tương lai của phật tử Việt Nam lúc bấy giờ mà nhà sư Thích Quảng Đức phải ngã xuống để chứng minh.
Nếu ai đã đọc qua về sự kiện này, có thể đã biết trước khi tự thiêu, thầy Thích Quảng Đức đã dặn lại với các sư thầy có ở đó rằng:
"Một là, sau khi thân tôi thiêu thành tro bụi sẽ còn lưu lại một vật gì đó cho đời, thì đó là kết quả tốt đẹp về lời Phát nguyện của tôi hiến dâng thân này cho Ðạo Pháp và đó cũng là thành quả đời tu hành của tôi.
Hai là, khi tôi thiêu, nếu tôi chết trong tư thế nằm ngửa thì nguyện vọng Phật-Giáo sẽ thành công, các Thầy cứ tiếp tục tranh-đấu. Ngược lại nếu tôi chết nằm sấp thì quý Thầy nên tìm cách đi ra các nước Miên, Lào, Thái, v.v… để mà tu, nguyện vọng tranh đấu của Phật-Giáo sẽ không thành.
Ba là, ngày di quan tài của tôi, nếu các Thầy có cảm thấy triệu-chứng gì lạ lạ, có thể là ngủ mộng thấy, có thể là cảm giác hay triệu chứng gì thì nên đình chỉ ngay, dời việc di quan qua ngày khác."
Ba điều Hòa-Thượng Quảng-Ðức nói đêm trước ngày tự thiêu đều hiển ứng:
1. Thân thể Ngài thiêu thành tro, mà quả tim của Ngài vẫn còn đỏ hồng như trái xoài chín dưới sức nóng 4.000 độ; nóng đến nỗi lò thiêu An-Dưỡng-Ðịa đã phải nứt nẻ.
2. Khi ngọn lửa thiêu thân vừa lặn tắt, ba lần cuối đầu xá về hướng Tây, liền ngay khi đó, Ngài bật ngửa nằm im trên mặt đất giữa ngã tư đường Phan-Ðình-Phùng và Lê-Văn-Duyệt trong tiếng niệm Phật vang dội của hàng trăm chư Tăng Ni đang ngồi vây quanh chấp tay thành kính. Tư thế viên-tịch đúng như Ngài huyền ký lại, làm cho Tăng tín đồ tin tưởng vào sự thành công nguyện vọng bình đẳng tôn giáo mà quyết tâm dấn thân hơn. Chung cuộc chánh nghĩa đã thắng.
3. Ai sống trong thời 1963, nếu có lưu tâm đến thời cuộc đều nhớ ngày di quan của Hòa-Thượng Quảng-Ðức ra An-Dưỡng-Ðịa để thiêu. Theo chương trình là 10 giờ sáng. Dân chúng ở hai bên đường Phan-Thanh-Giản và đường Minh-Mạng lập hương án để tiễn đưa Ngài; nhưng mọi người đợi mãi đến hơn 12 giờ trưa mà vẫn chẳng thấy đâu. Sau đó mới nhận được thông báo của Ủy-Ban Liên Phái Bảo Vệ Phật-Giáo cho biết dời ngày di-quan. Dân chúng lúc bấy giờ vô cùng bàng-hoàng kinh ngạc. Khoảng 2 giờ chiều hôm ấy, người ta thấy năm bảy người mặc sắc phục đen lặng lẽ từ dưới bờ ruộng bước lên gở những quả mìn đã được chôn từ lúc nào trên quãng đường đất dẫn đến lò thiêu của An-Dưỡng-Ðịa.
Nguồn:
http://sachhiem.net/TONGIAO/tgL/Lichs...
http://thuvienhoasen.org/a17129/anh-h...
Nói chung là vì sự kiện đó sai nên mình ko biết tính xác thực của các sự kiện khác ntn, dù sao cũng là một cuốn sách đáng đọc.
#MybookMyreview
#MadamNhuTranLeXuan
#BookLover
Một phụ nữ khôn ngoan, lạnh lùng, khát khao quyền lực, tạo ảnh hưởng ghê gớm đến lịch sử Việt Nam. Mạnh mẽ, kiên định nhưng vẫn ẩn khuất đâu đó nỗi buồn về một tuổi thơ bị cha mẹ hắt hủi và một cuộc sống gia đình thiếu hạnh phúc.
Cuốn sách này nếu xếp loại mình sẽ xếp loại vào sách về lịch sử và cũng có thể xếp vào loại khuyến khích nữ quyền. Theo mình, khá dễ đọc vì cốt truyện khá hấp dẫn, cho mình cảm giác đang xem tường thuật trực tiếp, những sự kiện lịch sử lướt qua óc nhẹ nhàng, để lại những cảm giác khó tả.
Đọc xong cuốn sách, mình cũng biết đc thêm nhiều thông tin và hiểu kỹ hơn lịch sử thời đó, dạng nếu như đọc những cuốn sách lịch sử thông thường thì mình sẽ biết what? (cái gì đã xảy ra), còn đọc cuốn này sẽ biết thêm why and how? (Tại sao và như thế nào?).
Cuốn sách, ngoài lời dẫn và thông tin từ tác giả, còn được trích dẫn những lời kể từ bà Nhu, đan xen những lời tự sự vốn được trích từ cuốn nhật ký của bà. Xấu tốt thế nào mình không bàn đến, vì khi đọc sách bạn sẽ có cảm nhận của riêng bạn.
Mình cũng khá thích cuốn sách này, tuy nhiên, cũng có một lỗi mình khó có thể bỏ qua, đó là ở gần cuối đoạn văn nằm giữa trang 234 có viết về sự kiện nhà sư Thích Quảng Đức tự thiêu rằng "Thích Quảng Đức đổ người tới trước, ngã lăn ra, và bất động."
Vì mình đã tìm hiểu về sự kiện lịch sử này trước đó khá kỹ, nên khi đọc đến mà có chi tiết sai mình cảm thấy rất khó chịu. Đó là chi tiết thầy Thích Quảng Đức "đổ người tới trước" khi tự thiêu.
Như hình ảnh và tất cả các tư liệu lịch sử khác ghi lại "Sau 3 lần cúi sấp, nhục thân của Bồ-Tát Thích-Quảng-Ðức đã bật ngửa ra sau đem đến niềm tin thắng lợi cho cuộc tranh đấu vì đạo pháp của toàn thể Tăng tín đồ Phật-Giáo."
Trên cả câu chữ, đó là sự thật, trên cả sự thật, đó là lời tiên đoán về một tương lai của phật tử Việt Nam lúc bấy giờ mà nhà sư Thích Quảng Đức phải ngã xuống để chứng minh.
Nếu ai đã đọc qua về sự kiện này, có thể đã biết trước khi tự thiêu, thầy Thích Quảng Đức đã dặn lại với các sư thầy có ở đó rằng:
"Một là, sau khi thân tôi thiêu thành tro bụi sẽ còn lưu lại một vật gì đó cho đời, thì đó là kết quả tốt đẹp về lời Phát nguyện của tôi hiến dâng thân này cho Ðạo Pháp và đó cũng là thành quả đời tu hành của tôi.
Hai là, khi tôi thiêu, nếu tôi chết trong tư thế nằm ngửa thì nguyện vọng Phật-Giáo sẽ thành công, các Thầy cứ tiếp tục tranh-đấu. Ngược lại nếu tôi chết nằm sấp thì quý Thầy nên tìm cách đi ra các nước Miên, Lào, Thái, v.v… để mà tu, nguyện vọng tranh đấu của Phật-Giáo sẽ không thành.
Ba là, ngày di quan tài của tôi, nếu các Thầy có cảm thấy triệu-chứng gì lạ lạ, có thể là ngủ mộng thấy, có thể là cảm giác hay triệu chứng gì thì nên đình chỉ ngay, dời việc di quan qua ngày khác."
Ba điều Hòa-Thượng Quảng-Ðức nói đêm trước ngày tự thiêu đều hiển ứng:
1. Thân thể Ngài thiêu thành tro, mà quả tim của Ngài vẫn còn đỏ hồng như trái xoài chín dưới sức nóng 4.000 độ; nóng đến nỗi lò thiêu An-Dưỡng-Ðịa đã phải nứt nẻ.
2. Khi ngọn lửa thiêu thân vừa lặn tắt, ba lần cuối đầu xá về hướng Tây, liền ngay khi đó, Ngài bật ngửa nằm im trên mặt đất giữa ngã tư đường Phan-Ðình-Phùng và Lê-Văn-Duyệt trong tiếng niệm Phật vang dội của hàng trăm chư Tăng Ni đang ngồi vây quanh chấp tay thành kính. Tư thế viên-tịch đúng như Ngài huyền ký lại, làm cho Tăng tín đồ tin tưởng vào sự thành công nguyện vọng bình đẳng tôn giáo mà quyết tâm dấn thân hơn. Chung cuộc chánh nghĩa đã thắng.
3. Ai sống trong thời 1963, nếu có lưu tâm đến thời cuộc đều nhớ ngày di quan của Hòa-Thượng Quảng-Ðức ra An-Dưỡng-Ðịa để thiêu. Theo chương trình là 10 giờ sáng. Dân chúng ở hai bên đường Phan-Thanh-Giản và đường Minh-Mạng lập hương án để tiễn đưa Ngài; nhưng mọi người đợi mãi đến hơn 12 giờ trưa mà vẫn chẳng thấy đâu. Sau đó mới nhận được thông báo của Ủy-Ban Liên Phái Bảo Vệ Phật-Giáo cho biết dời ngày di-quan. Dân chúng lúc bấy giờ vô cùng bàng-hoàng kinh ngạc. Khoảng 2 giờ chiều hôm ấy, người ta thấy năm bảy người mặc sắc phục đen lặng lẽ từ dưới bờ ruộng bước lên gở những quả mìn đã được chôn từ lúc nào trên quãng đường đất dẫn đến lò thiêu của An-Dưỡng-Ðịa.
Nguồn:
http://sachhiem.net/TONGIAO/tgL/Lichs...
http://thuvienhoasen.org/a17129/anh-h...
Nói chung là vì sự kiện đó sai nên mình ko biết tính xác thực của các sự kiện khác ntn, dù sao cũng là một cuốn sách đáng đọc.
#MybookMyreview
#MadamNhuTranLeXuan
#BookLover
March 7, 2016
Ba sao cho cuốn sách (thật ra định cho 2 sao nhưng tác giả viết cũng hấp dẫn và có 1 số chi tiết khá thú vị). Một sao cho bản dịch.
April 2, 2022
Madame Nhu is one of the more fascinating characters of the Vietnam War. She was the most visible figure of the Diem regime, far more colorful than the shrouds of secrecy around her husband Ngo Dinh Nhu, or the strident moralizing of President Diem himself. Nhu was always ready to defend her family and her government, the two being one and the same. Madame Nhu was universally despised by American government officials for reasons both good and bad. She was undoubtedly a proud and difficult person who's abrasiveness worked against her cause. Her comment on the Buddhist monks' self-immolation, that if they wished to throw a barbeque, she would bring the gas and a match, was an entirely self-inflicted wound, and one infamous enough to permanently stain her reputation. But at the same time, the sexist and racist world that she lived in couldn't accept a Vietnamese woman who sought to wield power.
Demery was fascinated by Madame Nhu, who had essentially disappeared from history following the coup that killed her husband and brother-in-law. A chance interview on a Vietnamese blog mentioned that Madame Nhu was still alive, living in an 11th floor apartment in Paris with a view of the Eiffel tower. There are few enough apartment buildings that meet that description that Demery was able to confirm Nhu's address and give the old woman her card via old fashioned leg work. What followed was five years of frustratingly evasive phone calls and an odd sort of friendship, as Demery became Nhu's biographer, and the means of her last statement to the world.
Madame Nhu was born into an aristocratic family in colonial Vietnam. Her father was the foremost Vietnamese lawyer under the colonial government, her mother a royal princess. However, she was an unwanted female middle child, and no one expected much of her marriage to an older Catholic man with an unimpressive library degree. That man, Ngo Dinh Nhu, was often absent from their house in the fraught years of the Japanese occupation and the First Indochinese War between the Viet Minh and the French, organizing a covert anti-Communist party that would put his brother Diem in charge of government.
Diem was handed a bad set of cards from the start. The French, bitter after their defeat, worked covertly against him. Ho Chi Minh and the Communists were genuinely more popular with the people, and thousands of dedicated cadres had stayed behind in the south. Gangsters and staunchly independent sects were lumps of opposition. A million refugees from North Vietnam had to be integrated into society. American aid was a double edge sword, enabling infrastructure and security projects, but also casting the new government as colonial puppets. In this environment, it's not surprising that Diem turned to his religion and his family for support. Not surprising, but a fatal flaw.
While Nhu had a backbone, she was profoundly disconnected from the people. She was an internal voice for a hardline stance against opponents of the government, which worked in the battle against gangsters and coup plotters, but also made her many enemies. As an elected official, Madame Nhu pushed for moral reform laws which were broadly unpopular. In perhaps a microcosm of her views on politics and family, she initiated a national ban on divorce to prevent an embarrassing breach of decorum from a sister-in-law seeking to leave an unhappy marriage.
As the Buddhist crisis escalated in 1963, Madame Nhu made an American tour to shore up support for her government. This probably saved her life, since she was in Los Angeles recovering from minor surgery when the coup occurred, and her husband and Diem were murdered by an American-backed conspiracy. She and the children fled to Europe, living mundane existences in Paris and Rome as history passed them by.
Demery paints a fascinating picture of Madame Nhu's life, including ordinary days at the top of the South Vietnamese government, and the messianic purpose which drove her.
Demery was fascinated by Madame Nhu, who had essentially disappeared from history following the coup that killed her husband and brother-in-law. A chance interview on a Vietnamese blog mentioned that Madame Nhu was still alive, living in an 11th floor apartment in Paris with a view of the Eiffel tower. There are few enough apartment buildings that meet that description that Demery was able to confirm Nhu's address and give the old woman her card via old fashioned leg work. What followed was five years of frustratingly evasive phone calls and an odd sort of friendship, as Demery became Nhu's biographer, and the means of her last statement to the world.
Madame Nhu was born into an aristocratic family in colonial Vietnam. Her father was the foremost Vietnamese lawyer under the colonial government, her mother a royal princess. However, she was an unwanted female middle child, and no one expected much of her marriage to an older Catholic man with an unimpressive library degree. That man, Ngo Dinh Nhu, was often absent from their house in the fraught years of the Japanese occupation and the First Indochinese War between the Viet Minh and the French, organizing a covert anti-Communist party that would put his brother Diem in charge of government.
Diem was handed a bad set of cards from the start. The French, bitter after their defeat, worked covertly against him. Ho Chi Minh and the Communists were genuinely more popular with the people, and thousands of dedicated cadres had stayed behind in the south. Gangsters and staunchly independent sects were lumps of opposition. A million refugees from North Vietnam had to be integrated into society. American aid was a double edge sword, enabling infrastructure and security projects, but also casting the new government as colonial puppets. In this environment, it's not surprising that Diem turned to his religion and his family for support. Not surprising, but a fatal flaw.
While Nhu had a backbone, she was profoundly disconnected from the people. She was an internal voice for a hardline stance against opponents of the government, which worked in the battle against gangsters and coup plotters, but also made her many enemies. As an elected official, Madame Nhu pushed for moral reform laws which were broadly unpopular. In perhaps a microcosm of her views on politics and family, she initiated a national ban on divorce to prevent an embarrassing breach of decorum from a sister-in-law seeking to leave an unhappy marriage.
As the Buddhist crisis escalated in 1963, Madame Nhu made an American tour to shore up support for her government. This probably saved her life, since she was in Los Angeles recovering from minor surgery when the coup occurred, and her husband and Diem were murdered by an American-backed conspiracy. She and the children fled to Europe, living mundane existences in Paris and Rome as history passed them by.
Demery paints a fascinating picture of Madame Nhu's life, including ordinary days at the top of the South Vietnamese government, and the messianic purpose which drove her.
May 26, 2017
I came to this book in a rather indirect way. Some years ago, I heard a radio interview with the author, Monique Brinson Demery, in which she described her ongoing efforts to meet the mysterious Madame Nhu (1924-2011) and earn her trust. It was a fascinating story. One that stimulated some part of my memory that contained a scrap of knowledge as to whom Madame Nhu was and her role in the leadership of South Vietnam between 1954 and 1963.
The Vietnam War, though the American phase of it largely took place within my lifetime, I knew little about. Nor did I for many years have an interest in trying to understand that war. I was but an infant when LBJ first committed U.S. military forces to South Vietnam in March 1965. And by the time our POWs had been repatriated from North Vietnam and the U.S. had washed its hands of Vietnam, I was in elementary school. Another couple of decades would pass before I began to look into the factors, personalities, and events that led to Vietnam being engulfed in what was a civil war between 1945 (when the French - the former colonial master - returned, intent on reasserting its authority in Indochina) and 1975, when the Communists triumphed and reunified the country. Reading "The Best and the Brightest" by David Halberstam in the mid 1990s was my starting point.
Demery tells a story that gives the reader access into the life of Madame Nhu, her family (who had long figured prominently in Vietnamese history), Demery's own relationship with Madame Nhu (who could be both kind and intransigent when it suited her), and the history of Vietnam from the late 19th century to November 1, 1963 (when both Madame Nhu's husband and her brother-in-law the President of the Republic of Vietnam were murdered in a coup).
For anyone curious to know why Vietnam continues to impact itself upon the American psyche, this is a book well worth reading.
The Vietnam War, though the American phase of it largely took place within my lifetime, I knew little about. Nor did I for many years have an interest in trying to understand that war. I was but an infant when LBJ first committed U.S. military forces to South Vietnam in March 1965. And by the time our POWs had been repatriated from North Vietnam and the U.S. had washed its hands of Vietnam, I was in elementary school. Another couple of decades would pass before I began to look into the factors, personalities, and events that led to Vietnam being engulfed in what was a civil war between 1945 (when the French - the former colonial master - returned, intent on reasserting its authority in Indochina) and 1975, when the Communists triumphed and reunified the country. Reading "The Best and the Brightest" by David Halberstam in the mid 1990s was my starting point.
Demery tells a story that gives the reader access into the life of Madame Nhu, her family (who had long figured prominently in Vietnamese history), Demery's own relationship with Madame Nhu (who could be both kind and intransigent when it suited her), and the history of Vietnam from the late 19th century to November 1, 1963 (when both Madame Nhu's husband and her brother-in-law the President of the Republic of Vietnam were murdered in a coup).
For anyone curious to know why Vietnam continues to impact itself upon the American psyche, this is a book well worth reading.
December 14, 2013
This biography documents the author's search for and connection to her elusive subject. Tran Le Xuan, who became Madame Nhu, goes in and out of Monique Brinson Demery's radar.
With all that has been written on Vietnam, it is surprising how little attention Madame Nhu has received. This could be due to her gender, her unofficial role (other than hostess) in her brother-in-law's government or her being on the losing side of history. The book shows the pivotal role she played. She used her position and influence to create unpopular policies in Vietnam, fan the authoritarianism of her in-law's regime and build US support for the quagmire known as the Vietnam War.
As a child her parents left her with their parents who left her in the care of the groundskeepers (forced labor convicts) on their estate. Her parents were summoned when she became critically ill... could it have been that their own child had died, and this child was substituted to cover the result of neglect? This was the first of many surprising personal facts I learned about this difficult person.
The book is a quick read. One that takes the reader back before the tragedy unfolded. Seeing Madame Nhu, close up and personal like this shows all the reasons she and her in-laws should not have been in control of a town, much less a country. The oldest brother of this family was an Archbishop in the Catholic Church who, on p. 219 might just define the clan.
While the author is sympathetic to her subject, it is hard to look beyond Madame Nhu's sense of entitlement. Like the Bourbon's, Hapsburg's and Romanov's before her, she conflates her own family's fate with that of her country. Their respective fights for power had disastrous results for hundreds of thousands of people.
While the cover design makes this look like a pulp novel, there is credible research here with a personal narrative that keeps it light and engaging. This book is a starting point for examining the life and significance of Madame Nhu.
With all that has been written on Vietnam, it is surprising how little attention Madame Nhu has received. This could be due to her gender, her unofficial role (other than hostess) in her brother-in-law's government or her being on the losing side of history. The book shows the pivotal role she played. She used her position and influence to create unpopular policies in Vietnam, fan the authoritarianism of her in-law's regime and build US support for the quagmire known as the Vietnam War.
As a child her parents left her with their parents who left her in the care of the groundskeepers (forced labor convicts) on their estate. Her parents were summoned when she became critically ill... could it have been that their own child had died, and this child was substituted to cover the result of neglect? This was the first of many surprising personal facts I learned about this difficult person.
The book is a quick read. One that takes the reader back before the tragedy unfolded. Seeing Madame Nhu, close up and personal like this shows all the reasons she and her in-laws should not have been in control of a town, much less a country. The oldest brother of this family was an Archbishop in the Catholic Church who, on p. 219 might just define the clan.
While the author is sympathetic to her subject, it is hard to look beyond Madame Nhu's sense of entitlement. Like the Bourbon's, Hapsburg's and Romanov's before her, she conflates her own family's fate with that of her country. Their respective fights for power had disastrous results for hundreds of thousands of people.
While the cover design makes this look like a pulp novel, there is credible research here with a personal narrative that keeps it light and engaging. This book is a starting point for examining the life and significance of Madame Nhu.
February 4, 2014
Interesting look at a person and a time and place I didn't know much about. Reading this book, I realized that I knew very little about Vietnam in the lead up to the Vietnam War. More even then the story of Madame Nhu, I found this information interesting. Madame Nhu herself was definitely a worthy subject for a book, but not a particularly likable one. Though I could admire her for being ahead of the times as far as feminism, she really didn't seem like a good, kind person, but rather a very egotistical one. That being said, the book also gave me a much worse view of Kennedy, with his horribly misogynistic comments about Madame Nhu. Maybe I should have know this about him, but it was shocking.
Aside from the subject of the book, the author's style made me a little crazy. She was overly expressive in her commentary at times, seemingly adding her own views to made the writing more interesting. This tendency to exaggerate and impose her views was most evident in the photos in the book. For example, at one point, she describes a photo of Lady Bird Johnson and Kennedy's sister Jean Smith viewing Madame Nhu's tiger skins. She says of Jean Smith that she "seems unable to tear her eyes from the tiger hides surrounding her feet--not even to look up for the photograph--as though afraid they might spring to life and attack." Ummm, no. When I look at that photo what I see from Jean Smith is a patronizing, tight-lipped smile, as if she is trying very hard to be polite in the face of something important to Madame Nhu but likely that she finds outside the realm of the proper. She does this often. It irked me and made me less likely to trust her interpretation of many of the events that she's describing.
I liked the book--interesting info that I wasn't aware of. But, despite the author adding the flourishes I described above, not as compelling as I would have like it to be.
Aside from the subject of the book, the author's style made me a little crazy. She was overly expressive in her commentary at times, seemingly adding her own views to made the writing more interesting. This tendency to exaggerate and impose her views was most evident in the photos in the book. For example, at one point, she describes a photo of Lady Bird Johnson and Kennedy's sister Jean Smith viewing Madame Nhu's tiger skins. She says of Jean Smith that she "seems unable to tear her eyes from the tiger hides surrounding her feet--not even to look up for the photograph--as though afraid they might spring to life and attack." Ummm, no. When I look at that photo what I see from Jean Smith is a patronizing, tight-lipped smile, as if she is trying very hard to be polite in the face of something important to Madame Nhu but likely that she finds outside the realm of the proper. She does this often. It irked me and made me less likely to trust her interpretation of many of the events that she's describing.
I liked the book--interesting info that I wasn't aware of. But, despite the author adding the flourishes I described above, not as compelling as I would have like it to be.
March 22, 2016
Sách đem lại cái nhìn tổng quát về cục diện thời tổng thống Ngô Đình Diệm ở miền Nam Việt Nam một cách khá bất ngờ. Đã quá quen với cách nhìn một chiều của lịch sử và truyền thông Việt Nam cũng như của những bên chống đối, mình rất thích cách nhìn khách quan và trung lập của tác giả. Vì là người nước ngoài, tác giả đã điểm lại những sự kiện lịch sử và đưa ra nhận xét hai chiều và rõ ràng. Đây là điểm cộng lớn nhất của quyển sách này.
Nhưng đến khi khép lại quyển sách, mình vẫn chưa hài lòng với hình ảnh của Madame Nhu được khắc họa. Mình không bất đồng với những nét tích cách tác giả tả về Madame Nhu, nhưng cảm thấy bức chân dung vẫn mơ hồ với những đường nét chưa thật tỉ mỉ và sắc sảo.
Mình mong chờ khá cao về quyển sách này khi thấy nhiều người có gu chia sẻ về việc đã mua/ đang đọc , nhưng lại quên để ý số lượng review của người đã đọc... Vì vậy nên mình có phần không thỏa mãn. Tác giả hình như cũng chưa nắm bắt được tính cách của Madame Nhu. Xuyên suốt sách, tác giả cố gắng phác họa tính cách rất đàn bà của Madame Nhu thông qua những tư liệu lịch sử liên quan. Phần đánh giá này có phần chưa thông suốt khi liên kết những nhận xét nhiều thời điểm từ lúc Madame Nhu là cô dâu mới về nhà chồng cho đến khi là Bà Rồng khét tiếng. Mình không thật sự nhìn thấy được sự phát triển tính cách của một người phụ nữ và sự ảnh hưởng của những người đàn ông/ môi trường xung quanh đến bà.
Có lẽ Madame Nhu giống như con lươn mà tác giả và những người xung quanh cố gắng nắm bắt. Đôi lúc tưởng như sắp bắt được, nhưng lại vẫn bị trượt khỏi tay.
Nhưng đến khi khép lại quyển sách, mình vẫn chưa hài lòng với hình ảnh của Madame Nhu được khắc họa. Mình không bất đồng với những nét tích cách tác giả tả về Madame Nhu, nhưng cảm thấy bức chân dung vẫn mơ hồ với những đường nét chưa thật tỉ mỉ và sắc sảo.
Mình mong chờ khá cao về quyển sách này khi thấy nhiều người có gu chia sẻ về việc đã mua/ đang đọc , nhưng lại quên để ý số lượng review của người đã đọc... Vì vậy nên mình có phần không thỏa mãn. Tác giả hình như cũng chưa nắm bắt được tính cách của Madame Nhu. Xuyên suốt sách, tác giả cố gắng phác họa tính cách rất đàn bà của Madame Nhu thông qua những tư liệu lịch sử liên quan. Phần đánh giá này có phần chưa thông suốt khi liên kết những nhận xét nhiều thời điểm từ lúc Madame Nhu là cô dâu mới về nhà chồng cho đến khi là Bà Rồng khét tiếng. Mình không thật sự nhìn thấy được sự phát triển tính cách của một người phụ nữ và sự ảnh hưởng của những người đàn ông/ môi trường xung quanh đến bà.
Có lẽ Madame Nhu giống như con lươn mà tác giả và những người xung quanh cố gắng nắm bắt. Đôi lúc tưởng như sắp bắt được, nhưng lại vẫn bị trượt khỏi tay.
May 21, 2020
Đọc xong cảm thấy Madame Nhu có sự đa nghi của Tào Tháo, ăn vạ của Chí Phèo, nóng nảy của Trương Phi và ương ngạnh của Lã Bố =))). Không phủ nhận bà Nhu là điển hình của tấm gương vượt khó vươn lên nhưng ngôn từ đốp chát của bà quả gây nên quá nhiều tai hoạ =)))
January 25, 2021
Summary: A biography of Madame Nhu, part of the ruling family in Vietnam (1954-1963) based on the author’s personal interactions with Madame Nhu before her death, allowing her to obtain memoirs and a diary of her life.
She grew up in a distinguished Vietnamese family in Hanoi under the French, receiving the typical French education, with the expectation of being married off into another distinguished family. At nineteen Tran Le Xuan married Ngo Dinh Nhu, in the middle of World War 2 as the Vichy French enjoyed an uneasy relationship with the Japanese. At the end of the war, the French assumption that they could resume control of the colony was upset by nationalist forces under Ho Chi Min and the Viet Minh. Madame Nhu engages in a harrowing flight with her children, only reunited with her husband later. They take refuge in the mountain retreat of Dalat while war goes on between France and the Viet Minh. The French lose a decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu, resulting in a division of the country into north and south with Madame Nhu’s brother-in-law Ngo Dinh Diem heading the government with her husband as his right hand man.
At first it seems the model family, buttressed by Diem’s austere integrity. Madame Nhu raises children and leads efforts to help women while the men run the country. Increasingly as dissatisfaction arises and Communist insurgency by the Viet Cong grows, Madame Nhu asserts herself increasingly at points where the two men waver, sometimes courageously against opposition. She becomes known as the Dragon Lady, not to be crossed. When Buddhists use self-immolation to protest government restrictions on their religious freedom, she tells those threatening to go ahead and she would bring the matches. Her efforts to strengthen the government lead to the disaffection of the people, and confounds the US Kennedy administration, now committed to the success of the Republic of South Vietnam. Increasingly the conviction is that the Diem government must go, and the Kennedys and ambassador Lodge conspire for a coup to bring down the government, succeeding at the end of October 1963 when Nhu and Diem both are killed. Madame Nhu, touring the US to drum up support for the government escapes death to live in exile for the rest of her life.
One may find much of this in any history. The unusual element of this book is Monique Brinson Demery’s narrative of her attempts, beginning in 2005, to connect with Madame Nhu to hear her side of the story. After numerous efforts received no response, she got a call one day laying down strict conditions. Then more calls in which Madame Nhu tested her to see if she could be trusted. There were invitations to meet. Madame Nhu never showed up. Meanwhile the author obtained a diary in Madame Nhu’s hand from a serviceman, filling in more of her personal narrative and leading to more questions. Madame Nhu dangled a manuscript of a memoir in front of her in exchange for more favors and more strict conditions. Finally she obtains it, a manuscript in very unfinished form that she must publish as is.
In 2011 Madame Nhu died. The author didn’t publish the manuscript but instead this book of her search for and interactions with Madame Nhu, interleaved with a biography of her life, informed by research and the new materials in Madame Nhu’s hand she received. What emerges is a portrait of a woman in an unhappy marriage longing for so much more who eventually finds it in the cause of the Diem government. We see a mother who loves her children, who acts with courage, but also with ruthlessness, and who pushes the boundaries of what women could do in her society. One also has the sense of a family increasingly isolated from the aspirations of the people, confounding American support, and yet also the first step into the developing American tragedy that was Vietnam. Like Iraq, they were eliminated with no replacement in sight, resulting in a series of weak governments, a growing American involvement propping up that government and the fall of the south to the Communists in 1975.
Demery offers a concise retelling of this tragic history through Madame Nhu’s eyes while remaining objective and able to see her faults, faults that contributed to her family’s downfall and the unraveling of the country. Even in her old age, in her interactions with Demery, we see a woman who uses manipulation to try to tell her story her way, against the grain of reality. She tells the story of a woman alone, fighting to the end to validate her life as meaningful.
She grew up in a distinguished Vietnamese family in Hanoi under the French, receiving the typical French education, with the expectation of being married off into another distinguished family. At nineteen Tran Le Xuan married Ngo Dinh Nhu, in the middle of World War 2 as the Vichy French enjoyed an uneasy relationship with the Japanese. At the end of the war, the French assumption that they could resume control of the colony was upset by nationalist forces under Ho Chi Min and the Viet Minh. Madame Nhu engages in a harrowing flight with her children, only reunited with her husband later. They take refuge in the mountain retreat of Dalat while war goes on between France and the Viet Minh. The French lose a decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu, resulting in a division of the country into north and south with Madame Nhu’s brother-in-law Ngo Dinh Diem heading the government with her husband as his right hand man.
At first it seems the model family, buttressed by Diem’s austere integrity. Madame Nhu raises children and leads efforts to help women while the men run the country. Increasingly as dissatisfaction arises and Communist insurgency by the Viet Cong grows, Madame Nhu asserts herself increasingly at points where the two men waver, sometimes courageously against opposition. She becomes known as the Dragon Lady, not to be crossed. When Buddhists use self-immolation to protest government restrictions on their religious freedom, she tells those threatening to go ahead and she would bring the matches. Her efforts to strengthen the government lead to the disaffection of the people, and confounds the US Kennedy administration, now committed to the success of the Republic of South Vietnam. Increasingly the conviction is that the Diem government must go, and the Kennedys and ambassador Lodge conspire for a coup to bring down the government, succeeding at the end of October 1963 when Nhu and Diem both are killed. Madame Nhu, touring the US to drum up support for the government escapes death to live in exile for the rest of her life.
One may find much of this in any history. The unusual element of this book is Monique Brinson Demery’s narrative of her attempts, beginning in 2005, to connect with Madame Nhu to hear her side of the story. After numerous efforts received no response, she got a call one day laying down strict conditions. Then more calls in which Madame Nhu tested her to see if she could be trusted. There were invitations to meet. Madame Nhu never showed up. Meanwhile the author obtained a diary in Madame Nhu’s hand from a serviceman, filling in more of her personal narrative and leading to more questions. Madame Nhu dangled a manuscript of a memoir in front of her in exchange for more favors and more strict conditions. Finally she obtains it, a manuscript in very unfinished form that she must publish as is.
In 2011 Madame Nhu died. The author didn’t publish the manuscript but instead this book of her search for and interactions with Madame Nhu, interleaved with a biography of her life, informed by research and the new materials in Madame Nhu’s hand she received. What emerges is a portrait of a woman in an unhappy marriage longing for so much more who eventually finds it in the cause of the Diem government. We see a mother who loves her children, who acts with courage, but also with ruthlessness, and who pushes the boundaries of what women could do in her society. One also has the sense of a family increasingly isolated from the aspirations of the people, confounding American support, and yet also the first step into the developing American tragedy that was Vietnam. Like Iraq, they were eliminated with no replacement in sight, resulting in a series of weak governments, a growing American involvement propping up that government and the fall of the south to the Communists in 1975.
Demery offers a concise retelling of this tragic history through Madame Nhu’s eyes while remaining objective and able to see her faults, faults that contributed to her family’s downfall and the unraveling of the country. Even in her old age, in her interactions with Demery, we see a woman who uses manipulation to try to tell her story her way, against the grain of reality. She tells the story of a woman alone, fighting to the end to validate her life as meaningful.
October 31, 2025
Very interesting. Feel like the Vietnam war is always kind of glossed over in history class so this look at what was happening in Vietnam through the then first Lady Madame Nhu was very captivating. She was a very layered woman.
May 29, 2022
Tính cho 3 sao mà thôi trừ thêm 1 sao vì bản dịch dở quá. Nhiều đoạn đọc tối nghĩa như dịch word by word luôn. Cảm giác cuốn này tác giả viết không được khách quan mà hơi ưu ái bà Nhu quá. Nội dung cũng hơi hời hợt, chưa khắc họa rõ nét được hình tượng “Rồng Cái” của bà. Nửa đầu có vẻ thú vị vì tập trung kể về cuộc đời bà Nhu từ lúc sinh ra đến khi trở thành Đệ Nhất Phu nhân Việt Nam Cộng Hòa; nửa sau thì có vẻ hơi lan man, không nói nhiều về vai trò của bà Nhu trong chế độ Ngô Đình Diệm hay đi sâu vào tâm lý của bà. Không biết bản dịch tái bản có đỡ hơn không nhưng mình nghĩ nếu có thể thì nên đọc bản gốc tiếng Anh chắc sẽ hay hơn.
February 19, 2019
Monique Brinson Demery has written a book, which is scholarly and also an adventure. Demery , a bold and curious student took a semester abroad, not in Italy, Australia or South Africa, but in Hanoi. She became fascinated with the enigmatic and iconoclastic, Madame Nhu , 29 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
The young author not only spent years researching the Nhu and Diem families, but the wars which began decades before she was born. Her explanations of how the ruling family got to the top and stayed there with Madame Nhu’s charm, cunning and cold-blooded, single-mindedness are clearly presented and assiduously footnoted.
Reader, don’t be frightened. Demery breaks up the sometimes complicated narrative which follows Madame Nhu from a privileged Vietnamese child planted in a bourgeois French/Vietnamese neighborhood, from Buddhism to Catholicism and from Asia to the US and Europe by interjecting the fearless author’s own trips to many of these same places as well as climbing up 80 year old , Madame Nhu’s own doorsteps. We listen in on their many phone conversations.
In my opinion, (I’m a “child of the 70’s” , which make me 66) Nhu , Diem, the Americans and the French, all perpetrated crimes against the Vietnamese for their own greedy reasons. This biography not only explains how and why, but humanizes the mastermind behind the bloody regime.
Picture a biography of Tony Soprano. Although Tony was clearly a villain, he was human if not humane. Now picture that last scene, the frame that just goes dark. Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Madame Nhu shows the reader that next scene. Madame Nhu did not fall in the bloody coupe with her husband and brother in law, but got out and got her children out.
The sleuth author, picked up Nhu’s cold scent , chased down, or at least found the reclusive old Nhu, and , revealed many of her encrypted secrets.
- [ ]
June 8, 2013
I attended the BEA show in NYC May 29 to June 1 of this year. Passing through a crowd one day, I came upon a book giveaway and so, I got a copy. Settling into my seat on my flight back a day later, I dug in to read.
I grew up during the Vietnam conflict. Though very young at the time, I remember hearing the news and seeing the pictures flash across the television screen. I remember especially, Malcolm Browne's photo of the burning monk. When I went to college, I studied political science and philosophy, and I concentrated some of my studies around the history and people of what was then the Soviet Union. Readings and discussions of the Vietnam conflict came up from time to time. Even so, I knew little more than the average person about the origins of the conflict, the history of this land and its people, or the key figures leading up to the conflict in which the U.S. became engaged. Finding the Dragon Lady helped to answer some of those questions.
I especially admire Demery's pursuing this legendary and controversial figure and because of her efforts, the opportunity I was granted to gain some insight into Madam Nhu and what motivated her. In the end Madam Nhu does not seem a particularly sympathetic figure, but Demery was able to weave some of Madam Nhu's personal stories into this historical account that did lend a hand to my understanding this controversial figure somewhat better.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history and political intrigues of this era.
I grew up during the Vietnam conflict. Though very young at the time, I remember hearing the news and seeing the pictures flash across the television screen. I remember especially, Malcolm Browne's photo of the burning monk. When I went to college, I studied political science and philosophy, and I concentrated some of my studies around the history and people of what was then the Soviet Union. Readings and discussions of the Vietnam conflict came up from time to time. Even so, I knew little more than the average person about the origins of the conflict, the history of this land and its people, or the key figures leading up to the conflict in which the U.S. became engaged. Finding the Dragon Lady helped to answer some of those questions.
I especially admire Demery's pursuing this legendary and controversial figure and because of her efforts, the opportunity I was granted to gain some insight into Madam Nhu and what motivated her. In the end Madam Nhu does not seem a particularly sympathetic figure, but Demery was able to weave some of Madam Nhu's personal stories into this historical account that did lend a hand to my understanding this controversial figure somewhat better.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history and political intrigues of this era.
December 28, 2013
I have to give credit to Monique Brinson Demery for her incredible tenacity, spending over 10 years researching this historically reclusive woman. But therein lies the problem. Monique spent much of the book detailing her problems in getting interviews. She never met Madame Nhu in person and had to piece this book together from the erratic phone calls she received.
Madame Nhu is the dragon lady, the woman who used her feminine wiles to influence the Diem regime, leading to its downfall and America's entry into the Vietnam war. She was certainly a despicable character who cheered the barbeque at the monk's ritual suicides. She forbade dancing, divorce, etc. but didn't feel like she had to obey her own rules. She always felt she was destined for great things, a sense of entitlement that was totally divorced from reality.
She was certainly a product of her times, born into a royal family with French colonial connections. But, she was a middle child and a girl, so she was left with grandparents and entered into a loveless marriage. When her brother-in-law, Diem, was elected Prime Minister, she and her husband joined the administration. Since Diem was unmarried, she acted as first lady. But she saw herself as the only one who knew how to rule and exerted influence way in excess of her role.
It was certainly an interesting look back at history. It is too bad, the author did not have a more sympathetic character to write about.
Madame Nhu is the dragon lady, the woman who used her feminine wiles to influence the Diem regime, leading to its downfall and America's entry into the Vietnam war. She was certainly a despicable character who cheered the barbeque at the monk's ritual suicides. She forbade dancing, divorce, etc. but didn't feel like she had to obey her own rules. She always felt she was destined for great things, a sense of entitlement that was totally divorced from reality.
She was certainly a product of her times, born into a royal family with French colonial connections. But, she was a middle child and a girl, so she was left with grandparents and entered into a loveless marriage. When her brother-in-law, Diem, was elected Prime Minister, she and her husband joined the administration. Since Diem was unmarried, she acted as first lady. But she saw herself as the only one who knew how to rule and exerted influence way in excess of her role.
It was certainly an interesting look back at history. It is too bad, the author did not have a more sympathetic character to write about.
November 27, 2014
I found this book revealing a tiny bit more of the elusive and very private Madame Nhu. I seriously doubt we will ever know this woman, and frankly I believe she orchestrated this plan. She strikes me as a woman thoroughly taking pleasure in being an enigma, mysterious to the end and even loathed.
Demery confirms this woman possessed a thirst for power, her authoritarian demeanor very apparent, and barbed tongue gained her the title of "Dragon Lady." She never allowed males to control or dictate to her, her actions were of her own accord. After the assassination of her husband and brother-in-law, she entered seclusion for over thirty years, again encouraging the veil of mystique and curiosity for many.
Demery attempts to connect the dots with Madame Nhu life through her self imposed isolation with questionable success. Nhu supposedly granted Demery access to her diaries, obviously a connection developed between the two.
I doubt the essence of Madame Nhu will ever be known, I doubt those closest to her every fully understood this formidable creature or her talents, honestly I don't believe she ever revealed herself to anyone fully, only she new her authentic self.
Interesting, shedding light on a controversial woman during a turbulent and chaotic time in history. Madame Nhu will forever remain an unappealing question mark.
Demery confirms this woman possessed a thirst for power, her authoritarian demeanor very apparent, and barbed tongue gained her the title of "Dragon Lady." She never allowed males to control or dictate to her, her actions were of her own accord. After the assassination of her husband and brother-in-law, she entered seclusion for over thirty years, again encouraging the veil of mystique and curiosity for many.
Demery attempts to connect the dots with Madame Nhu life through her self imposed isolation with questionable success. Nhu supposedly granted Demery access to her diaries, obviously a connection developed between the two.
I doubt the essence of Madame Nhu will ever be known, I doubt those closest to her every fully understood this formidable creature or her talents, honestly I don't believe she ever revealed herself to anyone fully, only she new her authentic self.
Interesting, shedding light on a controversial woman during a turbulent and chaotic time in history. Madame Nhu will forever remain an unappealing question mark.
December 31, 2017
Quyển sách cuối cùng của năm 2017 chưa nhỉ?
Một quyển sách hấp dẫn, văn phong lôi cuốn, chuẩn bị tài liệu công phu.
Tác giả dành 10 năm để phỏng vấn và viết về cuộc đời của một trong những người phụ nữ quyền lực nhất của Việt Nam.
Đọc sách khi trong đầu mình đã găm hình ảnh bà Nhu khi mình xem phim hồi còn bé. Xinh đẹp, mỏng manh, kiêu hãnh, tài năng nhưng đầy quyền lực.
Một người phụ nữ quyền lực, vô cùng mạnh mẽ. Đọc sách thấy bà hiện lên rất “đời” và tinh thần không sợ hãi.
Câu chuyện chính trị thì có rất nhiều góc khuất. Để hiểu một người phụ nữ đã quá khó, hiểu một người phụ nữ như bà Rồng còn phức tạp hơn nhiều.
Đọc sách lịch sử thông qua cách viết hồi ký thế này rất dễ đọc và lôi cuốn.
#madamnhu:quyenlucbarong #Monique_Brinson_Demery
Một quyển sách hấp dẫn, văn phong lôi cuốn, chuẩn bị tài liệu công phu.
Tác giả dành 10 năm để phỏng vấn và viết về cuộc đời của một trong những người phụ nữ quyền lực nhất của Việt Nam.
Đọc sách khi trong đầu mình đã găm hình ảnh bà Nhu khi mình xem phim hồi còn bé. Xinh đẹp, mỏng manh, kiêu hãnh, tài năng nhưng đầy quyền lực.
Một người phụ nữ quyền lực, vô cùng mạnh mẽ. Đọc sách thấy bà hiện lên rất “đời” và tinh thần không sợ hãi.
Câu chuyện chính trị thì có rất nhiều góc khuất. Để hiểu một người phụ nữ đã quá khó, hiểu một người phụ nữ như bà Rồng còn phức tạp hơn nhiều.
Đọc sách lịch sử thông qua cách viết hồi ký thế này rất dễ đọc và lôi cuốn.
#madamnhu:quyenlucbarong #Monique_Brinson_Demery
November 16, 2023
đợt xem xong The Vietnam War mình rất tò mò về người phụ nữ được mệnh danh là Rồng Cái này là ai mà những nhà báo nhà quân sự lại có một sự e dè khi nhắc đến bà như vậy. thì cuốn sách này gần như giải đáp toàn bộ thắc mắc đó của mình.
4 sao cho cuốn sách, trừ 1 sao vì bản dịch có những đoạn rất tối nghĩa.
4 sao cho cuốn sách, trừ 1 sao vì bản dịch có những đoạn rất tối nghĩa.
July 12, 2016
Very engaging and a nice, fast read. Recommended for those who are as fascinated by Vietnamese history as I am:)
February 25, 2021
I was surprised when I first read this book that it didn't arrive with more fanfare. Re-reading it now, I am still amazed it wasn't talked about more since it really is a tour de force. Demery is writing a book about the infamous dragon lady, who needs no introduction. I suppose the former de facto first lady of South Vietnam is most famous for the time she was asked what she thought about the monk in Hue that monk burned himself alive to protest against the Diem government. What did she say? “Let them burn.” President Kennedy would go on to infamously call her a bitch. Demary tells the story of her life from her privileged childhood to her marriage to the brother of South Vietnam's President Diem to the coup that cost her husband his life and her life in exile. Madame Nhu's life is wonderfully told. But it is the other story told by Demery that really stayed with me, and that was the story of Demery tracking Madame Nhu down in Paris and undertaking a many-year long telephone relationship with the Madame, who was holding out her memoirs to Demary if Demary would jump all the hoops laid out for her. That was truly was fascinated me about the story and the book. Highly recommend this. I loved learning about how this relationship overlapped Demery's life as a young mother. Her fascination with Vietnam and her life in general. Fabulous book!
#2021 Re-read
#2021 Re-read
June 24, 2024
A heck of an angle on one of the most well-trodden patches of history. Madame Nhu was married to Ngo Dinh Diem's younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, and wielded outsize influence with her brother-in-law, even remarking notoriously, that she wanted to see more Buddhist monks barbecued, so outraging JFK (whose own wife, Demery notes, boasted of her "Asiatic" marriage) that he demanded she be silenced. Madame Nhu herself seems to have saved the doomed Diem government on three separate occasions, though she was on a US tour when a coup she could have done nothing to stop toppled the regime and killed her husband and brother-in-law. She honestly sounds like more than a bit of a nut, prone to long, incoherent (and apparently also dull) political rants and stringing Demery along for years with promises of a set of memoirs that, from one brief description early on, sound wholly useless. (I was somewhat surprised that they actually a) did exist and b) made their way to the author, since this story had all the hallmarks of one of those failed quests to obtain something from a vain, formerly famous person now condemned to obscurity and fiercely grasping the smallest shred of relevance and narrative control.) Demery's ultimate judgment seems fair-minded--Nhu was not especially perspicacious politically (Stanley Karnow remembers that she had no connection to nor sensitivity to popular will), nor was she a deep thinker, nor did she do anything to steer the country in democratic directions (the Commies were behind everything, she remained certain), but she was fiercely assertive, resistant to cultural rules and stereotypes that aimed to hold her down, and sure of her own role as an agent of history. In sum, more than the "Marie Antoinette with a gun" simplification that the cover photo captures.
July 26, 2018
Finding the Dragon Lady is divided into two parts interspersed throughout the book, half is the author’s quest to meet with and speak to Madame Nhu, the other half is a biography of Madame Nhu; the general consensus definition of a Dragon Lady is a woman who schemes is deceitful and uses her feminine wiles to her benefit. What makes this book unique is the slow revelation that in fact in is the author who is the Dragon Lady; she manipulates Madame Nhu to hand over her memoirs; in lieu of sex appeal it is her Motherhood status and her newborn that she leverages over Madame Nhu; The author is duplicitous and doesn’t actually try to be Madame Nhus friend but is manipulating her to gain her memories and write a book; portraying Nhu is a completely different way than the author says she will to Nhu. A fascinating book where the author actually becomes the subject matter, maybe even unknowingly.
September 4, 2017
Là 1 người Việt đọc sách lịch sử Việt Nam do 1 người nước ngoài viết, ít ra mình không có cảm giác gượng ép như đọc sách giáo khoa.
Thực tế là cuốn sách khá dễ đọc. Nó được viết dưới văn phong kể chuyện, đôi lúc còn mang chất thơ. Có lẽ tác giả những mong điều ấy sẽ làm mềm dịu đi sự sắt đá & cương nghị của nhân vật chính: Madam Nhu.
Câu chuyện của bà Nhu quả là 1 thiên sử thi bi kịch.
Xen lẫn cuộc sống cá nhân & tổng thể thời cuộc, tác giả đã thành công trong việc khắc hoạ Đệ Nhất Phu Nhân của Việt Nam Cộng Hoà 1 cách hài hoà, bớt định kiến hơn (so với quan điểm của phương Tây về bà Rồng Cái)
Dù lịch sử đã trôi qua cả nửa thế kỷ, nhưng những biến cố, bài học & quan điểm từ cuốn sách có thể vẫn còn được học hỏi cho ngày nay.
Nếu bạn thích Lịch sử, thích bình đẳng giới, thích hồi ký hoặc chỉ đơn giản là thích khám phá thể loại sách mới, thì "Finding the Dragon Lady" là cuốn sách dành cho bạn.
Thực tế là cuốn sách khá dễ đọc. Nó được viết dưới văn phong kể chuyện, đôi lúc còn mang chất thơ. Có lẽ tác giả những mong điều ấy sẽ làm mềm dịu đi sự sắt đá & cương nghị của nhân vật chính: Madam Nhu.
Câu chuyện của bà Nhu quả là 1 thiên sử thi bi kịch.
Xen lẫn cuộc sống cá nhân & tổng thể thời cuộc, tác giả đã thành công trong việc khắc hoạ Đệ Nhất Phu Nhân của Việt Nam Cộng Hoà 1 cách hài hoà, bớt định kiến hơn (so với quan điểm của phương Tây về bà Rồng Cái)
Dù lịch sử đã trôi qua cả nửa thế kỷ, nhưng những biến cố, bài học & quan điểm từ cuốn sách có thể vẫn còn được học hỏi cho ngày nay.
Nếu bạn thích Lịch sử, thích bình đẳng giới, thích hồi ký hoặc chỉ đơn giản là thích khám phá thể loại sách mới, thì "Finding the Dragon Lady" là cuốn sách dành cho bạn.
November 7, 2017
I come to this book after finishing 13 episode documentary about Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick because I want to understand each party's motive in Vietnam war - there were 3 of them. This book, I think, is a good reading for this purpose. Who else could talk about that better than the first lady of the Southern government? This document match well with my expectation before starting it :)
However, I think this one is more suitable for anyone who already has some knowledge about Vietnam war, not for the beginner because there are quite plenty of crucial milestones and events in the book that requires some background knowledge.
However, I think this one is more suitable for anyone who already has some knowledge about Vietnam war, not for the beginner because there are quite plenty of crucial milestones and events in the book that requires some background knowledge.
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