Soldier On: My Father, His General, and the Long Road from Vietnam

by Tran B. Quan, Lewis Sorley (Foreword)

As the Vietnam War was beginning to turn towards its bitter end, Le Quan fought under beloved general Tran Ba Di in the army of South Vietnam. An unlikely encounter thrust the two men together, and they developed a mutual respect in their home country during wartime. Forty years later, the two men reconnected in a wholly unlikely a family road trip to Key West. Soldier On is written by Le Quan’s daughter, who artfully crafts the road trip as a frame through which the stories of both men come to life. Le Quan and Tran Ba Di provide two different views of life in the South Vietnamese army, and they embody two different realities of the aftermath of defeat. Le Quan was able to smuggle his family out of Saigon among the so-called boat people, eventually receiving asylum in America and resettling in Texas. General Tran Ba Di, on the other hand, experienced political he spent seventeen years in a re-education camp before he was released to family in Florida. A proud daughter’s perspective brings this intergenerational and intercontinental story to life, as Tran herself plumbs her remembrances to expand the legacy of the many Vietnamese who weathered conflict to forge new futures in America.

240 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2021

Reviews

[Don Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very nice story. The author's parents, with their two young children, managed to get out of Viet Nam, and settle in the United States. Their lives, after fall of South Viet Nam to North Vietnamese forces, were difficult, as father had been an officer in the army, and spent some years as a political prisoner. Their passage to America was difficult and dangerous, and their ultimate success in making themselves a happy life here exemplified courage and resolve.

Their story was interwoven with that of the father's commanding general. He, too, settled in the US, after many years of imprisonment and ill treatment, as a former senior military officer. The two men reunited, decades after their service together. It was particularly nice, that the author conveyed the story, blending the past with the present, and developing the personal histories of all the parties, during a road trip all of them took together from Orlando to Key West. It was a moving story, very well put together and written.

[Joe Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book! I couldn’t put it down once I started. I read 30 books this year and this was easily one of, if not the best book I read for the year.