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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Breaking silence - Long awaited South Vietnamese perspective, July 31, 2002
Hindsight is always 20/20, especially with over 3,200 published titles on the Vietnam War and its outcome. American journalists, politicians, and veterans have been pointing the finger at the inept South Vietnamese and its shady leaders. "Blame corruption for our loss in Southeast Asia." Without a voice, America's former friends led silent, unremarkable, sometime angry lives in exile since the end of the war. Buddha's Child is an exceptional reflection by one of South Vietnam's top leaders 27 years after Soviet-made North Vietnamese tanks clanked unopposed through downtown Saigon. My family lived across the street from Gen Ky during the waning days of South Vietnam. My father flew with the South Vietnamese Air Force and served under the General for many years. Many revered him. Beneath the flair is a leader of integrity with plenty of loyalists even to this day. His story reveals a young officer serving a divided country led by inexperienced men caught in a middle of a civil war backed by two superpowers. One has to wonder if Gen Ky ever felt safe after the assassination of Pres Diem? Gen Ky also regrets not pursuing better PR in America during the war. It is doubtful that he would have resonated with Americans amid the social turbulence of the time. The book's final pages cover Gen Ky's poignant departure from Saigon and his difficult early years in America. When the war ended, his American peers went home, wrote bestsellers, led corporations, ran for Congress, and retired as four-star generals. Gen Ky had to start his life over in America like the million plus refugees who fled Vietnam. This is a must read book for those who want to understand the mistakes made in Vietnam by all involved.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Opportunity LostSeizing Defeat From the Jaws of Victory, October 19, 2002
This was, in many ways, a painful book to read. I was in elementary school at a school for missionary children in northern Japan when I read in my Weekly Reader that Nguyen Cao Ky had become the new prime minister of South Vietnam. I remember the news gave me a sense of hopefulness about the war, which we were kept informed of by the Far East Network (armed forces radio) and the Voice of America. I can also remember my feeling of confusion when I read that Theiu had replaced Ky as Vietnam's leader. Without belaboring the point, I have long been frustrated by the American handling of the war, which, I believe developed out of our abdication in Korea. I don't want to spend time talking about that, because it is a tired and painful subject. Suffice it to say that this book confirmed my feelings, but added some new insight. For example, this book adds some insight into the resentment that many Vietnamese nationals felt toward the French, whose colonialism was largely exploitive, and financed by the Americans in amounts that Everett Dirksen would call "Real Money." In addition to that, I did not know, until I read this book, that Westmoreland was fully informed of the North Vietnamese intention to stage a major invasion during Tet, but decided to keep this from the South Vietnamese army! This appalling mismanagement of the crisis produced a disastrous and completely unnecessary problem for the Cao Ky, but it was a challenge that the South Vietnamese met and overcame. While Tet had a demoralizing effect on the American public, it was actually a victory for South Vietnam, and a major defeat for the North Vietnamese. The book also addresses some more familiar themes, such as the legendary ineptitude of McNamara, but the most poignant event in this book is Nguyen Cao Ky's impulsive decision to abdicate leadership in favor of Thieu. Nobody (including Nguyen Cao Ky himself) knows why he did this. Perhaps it really was a selfless act of a patriot who had no interest in promoting himself, and was just trying to do what was best for his country. Or, perhaps, he had become bored with the monotony of leadership, and decided to abandon his responsibility, just as he discarded his wives, one after another, when he got tired of them. To his credit, Nguyen Cao Ky takes full responsibility for his fateful decision. And it would not be fair to say that he abandoned his country completely, because he was always ready to serve, and to lead when the chips were down. In that sense, we must give credit where credit is due, and call him a patriot. But this is small comfort for the painful realization that the war effort was doomed by his decision, although I am still not sure if I believe that it was more significant than the moral exhaustion of the American culture, which rendered the Americans all but impotent to save Vietnam. Read this book. Nguyen Cao Ky is a very good storyteller, and a man of adventure who liked to live on the edge. You will almost certainly come away better informed about the first war the Americans lost. It is a sad story, but one which can have a certain measure of redeeming value if we are able to learn from our mistakes, and adapt to the very different place that east Asia has become.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nguyen Cao Ky - a pawn or a man of destiny?, November 9, 2004
In all honesty, I have learned some historical facts that I had not known before reading the book. Before I delve into the content the book, let me say that the book is well written. I enjoyed the audiobook, however, the producer of the audiotape should have consulted with a Vietnamese before attempting the Vietnamese proper names. The reader butchered the names horribly! It is ashamed that such an undertaking of almost 12 hours of taping did not go through this quality check. The publisher must have known that there are more than non-Americans who seek to learn about Mr. Ky and the Vietnam war. I could barely make out the names of the generals and the politicians involved. The names of geographical areas of Vietnam were horrendously mispronounced. It is unfair for me, in spite of the political 'dryness', has some humors and at times quite entertaining.
My. Ky is as boastful as he's ever been. There are endless mea culpas and monday-morning-quarterbackings throughout the book. But one cannot come to any other conclusion that with the leadership of Mr. Ky and his cohorts helped to lose the war in Vietnam.
He painted a picture of mass corruptions, shameless abuses of power, government properties, US aids, etc.. From president Ngo Dinh Diem to Nguyen Van Thieu, with questionable goals and intent, together brought south Vietnam to its deserved fall.
Mr. Ky failed to recognize that what he did during his youthful days was reckless and in a different setting such as the U.S, he would have been indicted on many charges. He was accused of derelict of duties by allowing his pilots to smuggle contrabands into VN not to mention allegations of drug smuggling. He used and abused government properties recklessly to woo girls by hovering aircraft on top of civilian neighborhood. He treated government asset as his own. He claimed that he did not take money from the people but he enjoyed his good life in many other ways. All of this would have been intolerable in western countries.
He conveniently left out the comment on how Hitler is his only hero (while he was in London , 1965). I believe that Mr. Ky did not corrupt the way many other generals did such as Gen. Dang Van Quang and Pres. Nguyen Van Thieu etc.. All in all, he was so wishful to think that he could have done any thing different better to 'save' Vietnam, it's almost laughable!
To his credit, I think Mr. Ky is a man of character, flawed as it is, few would have accomplished what he did during the war. He is an honest man!
Footnote: as critical as I am about this book, I did enjoy reading and did learn something from it. I have also obtained an autograph of the author.
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