Customer Reviews

Autumn Cloud: From Vietnam War Widow to American Activist (Capital Life)

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Not all Vietnam War students are in the mode to explore the social side of the history of conflict. But it is there and it is important; especially as we look at issues of intelligence, propaganda messages and what sectors of a society under pressure we want to influence or encourage.

Autumn Cloud is a very personal memoir of an exceptional lady of the Vietnamese middle classes, Le Thi Thu Van, now Jackie Bong-Wright. Jackie was born early in WW2 on a Cambodian rubber plantation in 1940 and escaped from Saigon in April 1975, finally settling in the Washington DC area.

This is the story of a frail but unrelenting woman, who has made her presence felt.

Jackie grew up in the middle of the French Indochinese war and describes in considerable detail, how the middle classes worked to give their children modern western education, even as war ate into their financial resources. Bad as the French were as colonial masters, it had a plan for development, and stuck with it after the peace of 1954. Jackie, herself, went from an elite Catholic boarding school to university in Paris, followed by further schooling in England and back home, in Saigon.

Her first husband, Nguyen Van Bong was a celebrated constitutional lawyer and reformer, was assassinated in 1971, when word leaked he was to be named the next prime minister of a Vietnam that was clearly winning its struggle against the National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese Army. At the time, he was head of the National Institute of Administration, training candidates to staff a competent national bureaucracy. He had also launched a political party in a constitutional and reformist spirit. Bong had just made his political party, the National Progressive Movement, a major national force for reform. It was a 1963 speech by Bong, "Political Parties and the Opposition," that helped precipitate the unrest leading to the coup against the autocratic Diem brothers. Communist victory depended on Bong's death and Nixon's Watergate morass.

Jackie was the ninth of 10 children. Her younger brother died heroically in the South Vietnamese Army, early in the war. An older brother died in a Communist re-education camp after over four years of suffering. Two sisters bought into the Vietcong myths of the National Liberation Front.

This is a perceptive woman's memoir, not a heavily footnoted history. Therein lies its strength as a testimony and as an insight into the Vietnamese view of what went on during and after America's Vietnam War. That is why it is worthy reading for many readers. Once you have read her book, you will look at other societies America is engaged with in a different light. And it is important for Americans to understand how to go about looking at the cores of these societies, the middle class men and women who are the backbone of commerce and government. You can understand the Vietnam war without this book, but you'll understand it a whole lot more if you take the trouble to read "Autumn Cloud."

But this is a woman's memoir, so it is a bit different read. I suggest less patient readers of war turn to chapter 4, on page 134 and read to the end, first. The many insights into the Vietnam war and its politics are valuable perspective on why things worked out in the tragic ways they did. Having read about the years 1963-present --including how the Vietnamese exiles resurrected themselves among us, here in the US-- then go back and absorb the difficulties of life under the Japanese and French. Just about every Hollywood cliché about the war is dispelled.

Jackie got her three small children to the US and became an organizing force for rebuilding the Vietnamese middle class communities in America. Here she married State Department officer, Lacy Wright (who had worked under John Paul Vann), and ultimately produced this insightful memoir.

This is a woman's story, not the usual commando stuff. But it is full of the humanity of war, and when we lose sight of that humanity, we lose wars.

Autumn Cloud.....what can I say except clichés: enlightening; motivational; inspirational; powerful; dynamic; poignant. Easy reading because it is so well written. Yet the author explains so much history and culture of the people of Vietnam as she weaves her story. And her story is certainly unique to Americans who live in a free democracy, taking their lives for granted and forgetting that so many others must live daily in war zones and/or under the domination of another country.

I think she has helped me to understand the Vietnam War a little better and to certainly see that war from another perspective. Her own resolve and determination, integrity and character that shaped her life, and those of others, is an inspiration to each and every one of us, and should motivate us. That we might also perform daily to our best ability and reach out helping others as heroically as the author.

Certainly a revealing book and insight into a fascinating and amazing woman and her family, with their valor and human failings. A definite must to read at any time, but I think particularly now in light of the September 11, 2001 disaster and attack on America. We, as a country, are now at war and we, as a people, need to be as valiant and steadfast as the author.

This book is a treasure. We are given an incredible accounting of Vietnam before, during, and after the war--an accounting I have not found in other books. Ms. Bong-Wright's story is itself noteworthy. She is a triumphant lady, who is dedicated to bringing justice and grace to the world. Her activism and diplomacy have made permanent marks in post-war Vietnam and countries throughout the world. We are lucky to have such an individual among us.

The book itself is well-written and will keep you engaged to the end. She writes honestly and openly about the events of her life and is able to apply an elegent tone to the harshest events in her past. There are life-lessons in this book that we should all take to heart.

This is a must read for anyone interested in Vietnam, and/or the era of the Vietnam War. The book follows the author's life- but in doing so offers an excelent portrait of Vietnamese History. The author is a strong and amazing woman, who continues today to advocate for Vietnamese Victims of human trafficking and sexual/labor exploitation within the highest circles of the US government.

Many books and numerous studies have been written about the war in Vietnam, by protagonists,government officials, journalists, scholars and others. But none can compare with the unique perspective and deep humanity of Jackie Bong-Wright. Hers is the moving story of a courageous woman, daughter, sister, wife, mother who lived through the prelude, the war and its aftermath. As the young wife of the most prominent representative of the democratic opposition to the last South Vienamese government - assassinated by the Viet Cong - she came to know all the principal figures involved in this tragic war.
Her insightful reflections on the Vietnamese people, their history and culture are extremely helpful for those of us in the West to better understand and appreciate the Vietnamese people. Despite the numerous obstacles she had to face in her last-minute flight from Saigon with her three small children, Jackie Bong-Wright never lost her detrmination to survive, to overcome, to prevail. Aided in no small measure by her deep faith.
This book is a tribute to the human spirit, to human solidarity, to courage in the face of despair. It is also beautifully written and leaves one with a sentiment of hope, hope in a world torn by the tragedy of violence, terrorism and war. Hope that the world is also made up of persons such as Jackie Bong-Wright who writes: "Life swirls around us - love, hate, joy, suffering, unity, division, failure, success. Each person has to go through them all." And that is precisely Jackie Bong- Wright's unique and compassionate story.
Frank and Alma Tonini, Rapallo (Italy)

This book helped me understand the history of Viet Nam and what led to the American intervention. This book was also historical, as well as personal and I enjoyed learning about the author's family and how they coped during their many trials. She and her people have all been through very difficult times. I now have more respect and understanding for the South Vietnamese people and those who relocated to the United States. A big "Thank you" to the author for contributing to my greater understanding.

I enjoyed this book a great deal as it has helped me to piece together bits and pieces of information from the television news and the newspapers that I saw and read during the war. Being only a teenager at the time the war occurred, this same information looks different now that I am an adult. Also, though I read the paper and watched the news, after reading Autumn Cloud, I realize I did not have the South Vietnames perspetive about the war.

My ex-husband served in Viet Nam from 1969-1970 when we were newly married - I was 18 years old and this book has helped me understand several things he told me when he came back from the war. I would recommend this book to all wives of Viet Nam veteran's.

My daughter gave me a copy of "Autumn Cloud" for Christmas 2002. What a wonderful present it was. I was much moved, crying and laughing, as I made my way through the story of Jackie Bong-Wright's life. We are justifiably horrified by 9/11, and yet many Vietnamese, including the author, braved similar clamities over their lifetimes with resiliance and determination. Despite the havoc and danger, a beautiful spirituality shines through the pages of this personal saga. I agree with the author's analysis of the great tragedy and the cautionary tale that marked and marred the lives of all in Viet Nam and most in the US.

Autumn Cloud is a valuable addition to the small but significant body of personal stories by Vietnamese refugees who have resettled in the United States. The author's early life was privileged with French schooling in Vietnam, a university education in France, and marriage to an intelligent and sensitive man with a bright future in both academia and politics. Her life was shattered when her husband was assassinated as he was about to be appointed prime minister. After the fall of South Vietnam in 1975 she and her three small children were forced to leave their homeland, and they resettled as refugees in the U.S. There she established herself as a community activist helping other refugees, eventually happily remarried, and with her husband represented the U.S. in diplomatic posts abroad.

This is a very readable book. Particularly memorable for me were the descriptions of the author's early life in Vietnam and how the war affected members of her family in different ways. She effectively portrays the trauma and depression of being a refugee and the difficulties in adjusting to life in a new culture, something that not all Americans fully understand. I recommend it highly.

As a Vietnamese, I found the book by Jackie Bong Wright quite
interesting by its accuracy and trustfulness. JBW describes
in detail what happened in South Vietnam in half a century.
As a woman, she suffered all tragedies coming from the Japanese
occupation during world war 2 as well as from the two other wars until
the collapse of Saigon in April 1975. It's interesting especially for the 2nd generation of Vietnamese in overseas to
be able to better understand why their parents had to leave the
country when the war was over. JKB is much qualified by her excellent education in Europe then in America to give us this narrative account about the survival and hope of the Vietnamese people in the twentieth century. This memoirs by a Vietnamese woman could be a reliable document for anyone who wants to understand about Vietnam during and after the fratricidal war.
It's also a delight to read a book of good international standard
English. And I'm very grateful to its author for such a valuable
contribution to the understanding of Vietnam.

This book offers a fascinating perspective on the Vietnam War, telling how one Vietnamese family lived - and some died - through French colonialism, Japanese occupation, conflict involving France and the United States, and finally peace under Communism.

Some of the author's nine brothers and sisters went over to the Communist side, others fought for the U.S. - supported Republic of Vietnam. But family ties remained strong, as seen in the absorbing account of the author at the age of 13 travelling from Saigon to a Viet Cong area of the Delta to visit an older sister. And when the war ended in 1975, a sister on the Communist side whom they had not seen for 20 years returned to Saigon to live with her mother.

Facing up to her trials with typical Vietnamese tenacity and courage, Jackie Bong herself had to deal with difficult times. When her idealistic and respected husband was assassinated by the Viet Cong, she had to find a way to support herself and three young children. A few years later, a new test came in 1975 with evacuation from Saigon on an American military aircraft to a refugee camp on Guam. She persevered, and after a period of hard work found a calmer life as the wife of an American diplomat, Lacy Wright. Jackie Bong-Wright remains today an activist in the Asian community in Norther Virginia, and her three children have gone on to successful lives of their own.

A true story that reads like a novel, and at the same time illuminates Vietnamese culture in vivid and human terms.