52 pages • 1 hour read
Dust Child
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Background
Literary Context: Literary Representations of Wartime Việt Nam
There is a long history of literature written in English about the war in Việt Nam that dates back to the earliest days of the conflict. Much of this work, geared toward Western audiences, centered the experiences of Americans during the war: Soldiers, as well as journalists and medical personnel, were at the heart of these narratives. Although post-traumatic stress disorder and an attempt to come to terms with the horrors of war are common threads within many texts written about the war in Việt Nam, authors for many years ignored the way that the war impacted Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.
For instance, Michael Herr’s Dispatches, which details the author’s own experiences as a war correspondent in Việt Nam, is a canonical work of literature written about the war that is still taught in many college classrooms, as are Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato, each of which tells the story of young, American soldiers who undergo harrowing experiences while fighting in Việt Nam. Even Graham Greene’s seminal The Quiet American, which delves into the way that French colonial occupation of Việt Nam divided the country and set it up for the war, is told from the perspective of a British journalist styled after Greene himself. One notable exception within the old canon of work about the Việt Nam war is Bảo Ninh’s 1991 novel The Sorrow of War, which initially shocked American audiences: It is an account of the war told from the perspective of a North Vietnamese soldier—the “enemy” whom the United States fought against. In Dust Child, after Dan reads this book, he comes to the realization that the Vietnamese are just as complex and worthy as he is, and he begins to wonder if the stories he was told about their lack of humanity were racist lies.
However, in recent years, there has been a marked shift within the canon, and a new generation of texts has emerged, providing new perspectives about the war in Việt Nam. These works effectively reframe the conflict by centering the experiences of Vietnamese people and actively questioning Western involvement in Việt Nam. They place blame for the violence and destruction of the conflict on French colonization and also argue that American involvement was fundamentally racist and ultimately unnecessary. Dust Child joins Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s other novel The Mountains Sing in its focus on interrogating the French occupation and illustrating the way that France’s colonial project caused famine, instability, and division that ultimately grew into a civil war in Việt Nam.
Both of these works are in dialogue with authors such as Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and who, like Quế Mai, is interested in showcasing the profound impact that the war in Việt Nam had on the Vietnamese and holding Western powers accountable for the role that they played in the conflict. Another author who explores these themes in Cecile Pin, whose novel Wandering Souls depicts the way that postwar displacement created a diaspora of (mostly Southern) Vietnamese nationals looking to escape communist persecution of individuals seen by the government as enemy collaborators. What all these works (and many others) share is an interest in shedding light on the often-untold stories of Vietnamese people during the war. They also openly discuss the role of the United States in the war, showing that it was not interested in “saving” the Vietnamese, as it claimed, but rather used the country’s civil war as a way to stop the spread of communism. Dust Child is part of a generation of texts that tell the story of how the United States did more harm than good to the Vietnamese people during the war in Việt Nam.
Historical Context: French Indochina and the Wars in Việt Nam
French imperialism played a big role in the origins of the war in Việt Nam and in the oppression of its people, and this is an important thematic focal point within Dust Child. Many Western works of literature that depict the Việt Nam war begin their narratives in the 1960s, during the period of American involvement in the conflict. However, the war of the 1960s and 1970s had its roots in the French occupation of territories that included present-day Việt Nam, and that history contextualizes Dust Child as well as the war in Việt Nam.
Between 1887 and 1954, Việt Nam was part of a Federation of French Colonial Possessions known as French Indochina. It included portions of what would become Việt Nam, Cambodia, and Laos. French involvement in the region began during the 17th century with the arrival of Jesuit missionaries, but it was largely limited to religious activity and trade until the 19th century, when the French began fighting to protect their interests in the region. After the establishment of official French occupation, relations between the occupying forces and the locals were uneasy, and the colonial period was marked by conflict, uprisings, and rebellion. The French often suppressed opposition violently, and they destabilized the region to such an extent that famine was rampant, and Việt Nam struggled with poverty and underdevelopment.
World War II brought further conflict to the region when the French Vichy government (which was allied with the Nazis and came to power during Germany’s occupation of France) collaborated with the Japanese and allowed Japanese occupation of its territories in Southeast Asia. Japan’s surrender at the end of the war created a power vacuum in this region, and bickering arose between French, American, and British forces about who would control Việt Nam. The situation reached an inflection point in 1946, and a coalition of communists and Vietnamese nationalists, led by Hồ Chí Minh, fought to regain control of their country. They were ultimately successful, and the French were officially defeated in 1954. In the West, this conflict is known as the First Indochina War. (In Việt Nam, it is known as the French War.)
Because Hồ Chí Minh’s agenda lacked country-wide support, the nation remained mired in conflict. Hồ Chí Minh’s forces represented the north of Việt Nam and were opposed by the Republic of Việt Nam, a southern regional government whom the United States supported as part of its general anti-communist foreign policy. Initially, this support was financial in nature, but by the mid-1960s, American troops had arrived in South Việt Nam to lend military support. In 1969, the United States initiated a draft, requiring American men over the age of 18 to register for a lottery determining eligibility for service in Việt Nam. The draft was unpopular and was widely protested. The United States sent multiple waves of military personnel to Việt Nam, and the last American troops did not leave until 1973.
Dust Child shows that although soldiers such as Dan were told that they were protecting freedom and performing a valuable service, American involvement in the conflict was ultimately little more than interventionist meddling in the affairs of a sovereign country and an attempt to preserve the balance of anti-communist Western power. The novel points out that American troops did horrific damage not only to Vietnamese soldiers but also to civilians. One scene in the novel shows that chemicals such as Agent Orange led to lifelong health issues for many Vietnamese. Vietnamese women were sexually exploited—like Trang and her sister in the novel—and an entire generation of Amerasian children was born into a society that largely refused to accept them. The years following the war were difficult for Việt Nam and its people. Although Americans in school learn about “the Vietnam War,” in Việt Nam, the conflict is still known as “the American War.”
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