Tears before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam

681 Pages·1990·3.64 MB·English

by  Larry Engelmann

Tears Before the Rain
TEARS BEFORE THE RAIN
An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam
LARRY ENGELMANN
Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1990 by Larry Engelmann Published by Oxford
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10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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without prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Engelmann, Larry.
Tears before the rain : an oral history of the fall of South Vietnam
Larry Engelmann.
p. cm. ISBN 0-19-5053869
1. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975—Personal narratives.
I. Title. DS559.5.E45 1990 959.704′38-dc20
89-26629
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For My Mother
Delores Barnett
I don’t want my memories to be lost, like tears in the rain. So I will tell
you my story. Then you can tell it to others. Maybe if enough people
know what happened to Vietnam, then my memories will never be lost.
Maybe then they will be like tears before the rain. So listen. This is very
important. This is what I remember. This is what happened to me. These
are my tears before the rain.
Duong Gang Son
Preface
During the last days of January in 1975 an unusually large swarm of
bees descended on Saigon, the embattled capital of South Vietnam. The
bees settled on two small apartment buildings. The terrified inhabitants
of the buildings ran away. A few dauntless residents, however, soon
returned to assail the swarm. They decided to use smoke to dislodge the
bees.
But before the smoke was used, other people who had heard about the
bees suggested that they had been sent to Saigon to convey a warning.
The many seers and mystics of the city who were adept at deciphering
fantastic and arcane phenomena announced that the arrival of the bees
indicated that in a short time the Vietnamese people themselves would
be like the bees. “And as we treat them,” the mystics and seers said, “so
will we in turn be treated.”
The conviction that the bees were a sign gained popular acceptance
quickly. No smoke was used to dislodge them. From around the city
people came to gaze at them and to wonder. No one entered the
buildings. And then, only a day after they had first appeared in Saigon,
the bees departed. They fled to the southeast in the direction of Vung
Tau and the South China Sea. And although no one could say for sure
what was meant specifically by the revelation that the people of Vietnam
would be like the bees, many people wondered and worried more than
ever about the future.
Only a few days after the bees abandoned Saigon, another unusual
swarm appeared; this time near Phan Rang, northeast of Saigon. A vast
army of caterpillars materialized, seemingly out of nowhere, and
migrated to the southwest, blanketing the roads and fields. At first cars
and cyclists simply drove over them and people walked on them. They
were nothing more than a nuisance. But once again the mystics
cautioned that the caterpillars should be regarded as a divine omen and
should not be harmed. “Soon we shall surely be like the caterpillars,”
they warned, “and as we treat them, so in turn will we be treated.”
Then, like the bees, the caterpillars disappeared.
By the time the bees and caterpillars had appeared, South Vietnam
was engaged in the second year of what President Nguyen Van Thieu
termed “the Third Indochina War.” In that war the armed forces of South
Vietnam continued to fight against the insurgent Viet Cong and their
North Vietnamese allies. But missing from the conflict was the United
States. More than a decade earlier President John F. Kennedy had talked
about making power credible and defending freedom and had concluded
that “Vietnam is the place” to do both. In 1973, however, the American
people and their leaders had decided that Vietnam was not the place. No
more Americans should die for Vietnam, they decreed.
And so, early in 1973, after more than four years of negotiation in
Paris, the United States finally came to terms with North Vietnam and
signed what was called “An Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring
the Peace in Vietnam.” South Vietnam signed the agreement only
reluctantly and after prolonged pressure and threats of an aid cutoff
from the United States. The agreement provided for the disengagement
and withdrawal of American combat forces from South Vietnam and an
exchange of all prisoners of war. It also provided joint commissions for
monitoring the release of prisoners and the withdrawal of American and