Over There and Back Again: Việt Nam and Mỹ: A Story of War, Peace, Love and Family

by Douglas Young

Doug Young— wounded veteran, infantry officer, patriot—saw enough blood and courage during the war in Vietnam to last two lifetimes. But this is not just another “My Year in the ‘Nam” book, like the dozens already out there. This book Why, after such a disastrous war, would a veteran return again and again to Vietnam, even live there for a while, and learn to deeply love the country and its people?Young’s story goes deeper than most and introduces different lessons few Americans ever hear about. In parallel with events in Vietnam, his biography becomes a history lesson. What led to the war? How did a young man raised in a non-violent home become a professional soldier? How did America get involved in its most divisive conflict since its own civil war? Why did Doug avoid other Vietnam vets? Do the Vietnamese hate Americans today? Is Vietnam still the same poor country people saw in the 1970s news stories?Doug and his wife Cindy, also a veteran of the war serving in the Army Nurse Corps, returned in 2005-06 for another “tour of duty,” surprising both themselves and those who knew them. They lived in the city of Hue, teaching English at the university, and becoming part of modern Vietnam. Cindy and Doug created a new future for themselves from the structures of the past.Doug’s entire life is centered around Vietnam. He fought there. His son was born while he was there. He met his future wife there and they have adopted two Vietnamese daughters.Can good things arise from the evil that is war? This upbeat book says yes. And those good things can happen to the most ordinary of men.Douglas Young is also the author of “Same River Different A Veterans Journey from Vietnam to Việt Nam.”

Kindle Edition

Published July 2, 2021

Reviews

[Mel Schenck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doug Young states at the outset of his book about Viet Nam and America that it is not a history book. It is not an academic history book, but it is a history book — about him and his life in American and Vietnam, and the family and people he came to know and love in Viet Nam and America. This personal history became intertwined with world history due to the innovative organization for the book that Mr. Young used — snippets of history that illuminate the reasons and motivations behind America’s entry into the Indochina Wars as well as his own.
This is important to many of us who served as American veterans in Vietnam, because we did not know and understand this history at the time of our entry into the war and our own participation in it. Much of this history has now come to light in the many academic as well as personal books that have been published over the past decades. Mr. Young accomplished a comprehensive research into this history in preparation for writing this book, and therefore he also adds history from the northern Vietnamese side that is not as well known yet.
But the real value of this book, especially for those of us veterans who now live in Viet Nam, is his account of how America and Viet Nam became intertwined in his life, and the young Vietnamese students that he and his wife Cindy added to their family. Mr Young’s story is extendable to all Americans and Vietnamese who can face a productive future ahead together as we build the kind of bridge between our cultures that Doug Young has accomplished.

[Daryl Coffey · Rating 5 out of 5]

well researched and written

I enjoyed the format of past and present events alongside extensive historical research . This book would be a good study on both traumatic stress and the power of faith.CPT Youngs experience left me feeling better about making negative life experiences into positive feelings for others .