Customer Reviews

Buddha's Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Came the moment, came the man. Nguyen Cao Ky was a 34-year-old Air Force pilot with no experience as a politician when his fellow generals asked him to take the thankless job of prime minister and run South Vietnam.

Ky accepted the job, not out of ambition but out of his sense of duty. Over the next 18 months he welded together a phalanx of feuding warlords into an efficient, relatively honest and effective government. He made serious efforts to stamp out corruption, he put down a rebellion that threatened to tear his country apart, and he found time to fly combat missions against the enemy.

"Buddha's Child" is the story of how the right man came to power at the right time -- and failed, because he was just too nice. Yes, this is the same man who turned down millions in bribe money and allowed the richest Chinese in Saigon --one of the most corrupt and venal of a notably greedy and meritritious group -- to be tried, convicted and ultimately shot for his crimes. It is the same man who secretly moved thousands of Vietnamese Marines from one end of his country to the other to put down a revolt by troops loyal to a warlord instead of him. But in the end, betrayed by what he calls his "Buddha heart," he stood aside and allowed his most vexing political rival the opportunity to become president. Had Ky been ambitious or had he sought wealth, he would never have allowed Nguyen Van Thieu to take power.

But Ky is open about his mistakes, open about his lack of experience in politics. He stands up and takes responsibility for allowing things to go wrong.

This is a sweeping tale of personal valor and high adventure and dripping with the names and inside stories of some of the past century's most famous and powerful figures. Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, William Westmoreland, Maxwell Taylor, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. -- Ky knew them all, and well. Yet this man who walked with captains and kings emerges as a wise, avuncular figure who seems to know exactly how to navigate the currents of history. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

This is the long-overdue story of a most unusual man. If top US officials like President Lyndon Johnson and Gen. William Westmoreland had listened to Nguyen Cao Ky when he was prime minister of South Vietnam, the war would have ended years earlier and with far less loss of life on both sides. Told in Ky's no-bull, straight-from-the-heart conversational style, this book has an arc and an epic sweep that ought to be adapted for the screen.

The book describes the adventures of a strong, brave and very smart man as he tries to run a country, fight a war and make the lives of his countrymen a little better. Unfortunately, he was surrounded by thieves, jerks and politicians, each with his own agenda, and he must deal with them in addition to all his other problems. . Had Ky been a little more experienced in the ways of the world, and had he paid less attention to his heart, which looked for the good in people, and more to his head, which saw very clearly what needed to be done, he might have succeeded in turning South Vietnam into a functioning state in equal partnership with America.

Instead, he allowed himself to be persuaded into turning the country over to a man whose overriding ambition was to enrich himself. A lesser man might make excuses, but Ky is very frank about his own shortcomings.

By turns a hair-raising action-adventure story and a political thriller, in the end this dramatic story ends in tragedy for Ky, for the people of South Vietnam, and for the U.S.

Anyone who seeks to know just what went wrong in the long struggle to stop the communist takeover of Vietnam needs to read this book. I couldn't put it down, and when I came to the part where Ky descibes his flight into exile, I had to cry.

As well as its own reward. Thus the exiled Premier Ky kept his integrity and good name but ended up working 14 hour days in a liquor store in Orange County to support his children while the likes of Thieu made millions and lived the rest of their lives in luxury.

It is difficult to understand the history of the Vietnam war without hearing the other side. Sadly, the 'other side' consists not of our enemies but our former allies.

Ky was naive enough to suppose that America was represented by the president and his ambassadors, rather than the media. Had he courted the press and Hollywood the war might have ended differently, or, at least, while the NVA had AK47's and the US troops M-16s the ARVN might not have been saddled with M-1s.
Rifles so old even the U.S. National Guard didn't want them.

Is his point regarding P.R. exaggerated? Well let's see; quiz show time. Name 10 films about Vietnam. Hmm...there's Platoon, of course, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Hanoi Hilton, Good Morning Vietnam, Born on the Fourth of July and I'm sure that given the time we could think of more, as there are over a hundred, easily.

Now who could name ONE film in which a South Vietnamese soldier are presented as either brave, patriotic or honest?

For that matter can you name a film in which they're presented as more than extras? Background fillers or , to use Ky's term "little brown men." Unimportant, really.

Why is it that you'd have far better luck finding noble Germans and Japanese in a WWII flick?

Required reading.

It is hard to know where to start in writing a review about this book; in one weekend, you will learn over two decades of intricate history; so few Americans, including myself, understood the VietNam Conflict. After you read this book, you will want to go and meet the authors; it is like they are talking to you in your living room. The book is a fair review of the corruption on the South and the brutality of the north. It has numerous pearls about leadership and life as well as a great historical read.

It is the first time a known-Vietnamese dared to publish a book/story about the Vietnam war, and did not get protested loudly by the Vietnamese in Orange County; THIS would tell you that he somewhat was telling the truth. Eventhough the book was written before General Minh and Thieu's deaths and released after, I wonder if there were things added or changed. Dead people can't talk, you know.
Everyone who is writing about ownself always tries to make self looking good, and certainly, he is not perfect.
I always admire him for mostly straight talking, and the courage he had at the time (I was only a lieutenant when he was PM). If we had more leaders like him, we might not loose the war; or at least, not in 1975. Who knows...

How could it be anything else being written by one of the players. I think Cao Ky Nguyen confirmed many truths and it was important for that to come from a South Vietnamese leader. All that you need to do is keep in mind that he is trying to portray himself in a more favorable light than he deserves as he was just as politically immature as the rest of the inept leaders he comments on.

The American lessons from Vietnam in essence are the old sayings that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, and that if you want something done right do it yourself. When you put Nguyen's rationalizations in a more accurate perspective, he makes this clear.

After reading his book, it occurred to me that perhaps Nguyen Cao Ky has faulty memory of many events that happen during his tenure as the Prime Minister of South Vietnam such as the Buddhist Rebellion in Central Vietnam in 1965. In this book, Ky claimed that he formulated the plan to put down the Buddhist rebellion in Central Vietnam in 1965, this is incorrect. In 1965, there were two different Buddhist group vying for power in South Vietnam. One was the An Quang branch headed by the militant Thich Tri Quang, the other is the non-violent Vietnam Quoc Tu branch headed by Thich Tam Chau. The An Quang branch was the violent, "militant" branch who wanted to create a government headed by monks, many of the monks in the An Quang group armed themselves with sub machineguns, they block the roads using Buddha statues and they were able to entice thousands of soldiers from the 1st ARVN Division to desert and joined their cause. Libraries were sack by the militant Buddhists, books were burned and people of different religious faith were beaten. It was at this time that Cao Van Vien the Chairman of the ARVN Joint Chief of Staff formulated a plan of using the Vietnamese Marines to quell the unrest, Vien pretended to withdraw the Marines from their area of operation in Binh Dinh to Saigon then on the day of the withdraw, other Marines battalions were airlifted to the Quang Ngai airfield under the command of General Ngo Quang Truong and Truong was able to use the Vietnamese Marines to subdued the rebellion. Aalthough Ky did not play an important role in this event, Ky claimed that it was he who formulated the plan to put down the rebellion.

There were a few important events that some how was missing in Ky's book. On the last few days of April 1975, with the NVA closing in on Saigon, Ky made an appearance at Ho Nai, standing in front of thousands of people Ky encouraged people to "fight on to the last men" and that Ky will stand by them to the end. Hours after his speech, Ky flew out to the American carrier abandoning the very people he has asked to fight to the death. Recently Ky went back to Vietnam to work for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam government. In one of the recent interview to Viet Weekly, Ky was asked about the current rampant corruption in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, especially the PMU18 scandal where government officials who made only $200 U.S dollars a month bet on horses to the tune of $2 million U.S dollars each month for the last 10 years. Ky said that such corrupt government officials should not be prosecuted and should be allow to keep all the money they have stolen from the people as long as these officials would not take bribes again. Ky comment tells you all you need to know about him as a former Prime Minister of South Vietnam and as a person.