Customer Reviews

Kontum Diary: Captured Writings Bring Peace to a Vietnam Veteran

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Remembering the first, or the reinstatement of that first Lottery Draft was one of the most difficult times of my teenage years. We all had heard of a war and knew of even a few of our friends that had gone to serve and some that had died. Civics class was full of discussions and debate that paralleled those raging in our own Congress. It seemed so strange to be fighting a war when there was this huge debate on whether we should be involved or not. I met or knew few people that wanted to die somewhere in Southeast Asia that many had never even heard of or could even spell.

Paul Reed gives an honest and straightforward story of the events that led to his enlistment, training, and volunteering to go and fight in Vietnam. It's hard to imagine the reality of a life in the jungle for an entire year. If the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan's gutwrenching, muscle steeling attack on one awaiting there own demise is the only experience you can call on to imagine what war is about, then this first hand description is available. It's not Homer or Shakespeare, but a straightforward accounting by a well trained boy and his observations as a soldier.

I did not want to go to Vietnam. I did not want to fight somewhere or die somewhere that could not be agreed on by a government that rules us all. We should have gone to win or not gone. Those that went, either by draft or by conviction, are to be commended not only for their bravery, but for their sense of duty and the fact that they merely obeyed the call of their country. Their heroism was displayed when they put the uniform on and put themselves in harms way. Not that they showed some action in duties "above and beyond", but that they were there, they were ready, while those of us, myself included, holding lottery number 311 did not have to go at all. I was merely lucky.

I cannot imagine the carnage of war or the ability to remove those sights and sounds from my mind. I do not think it can be done. Veterans must be much stronger than those of us who stayed behind, to be able to cope with their lives after such a war and to go on as if it did not happen. Paul Reed's account describes the process by which he chose to open his eyes and see the humanity of his enemy through a captured diary and to allow the forgiveness of our Creator to come into his life and that of Nguyen van Nghia and extend the gift of freedom to those of us who did not go and fight those terrible battles in that terrible war.

The poetry of the diary is not complex, but it has been translated. What may rhyme in English or structurally be wonderful is sometimes lost when translated into other tongues. In this case, what was written in Vietnamese may lose something in its translation into English, but the message comes through beautifully.Nguyen van Nghia's words speak for themselves:

Love bears no grudge ... Do not rush love in order to enjoy it... Handle love with care... Calm yourself, listen to the world speak... Show the way for the younger generation...

For this person that stayed behind, Kontum Diary showed me for the first time that a mistake had been made in entering that war. Those that died did not die in vain, for they answered their country's call. For those us of who did not or did not have to, I am, and we should all be eternally grateful. Read this with book with an open mind and see if you too find it a bit easier to exclude the prejudice, hatred, and the stupidity from our lives that make it so difficult to grow and become what it is that we desire to be.

As a fellow Vietnam veteran, I found Paul Reed's diary memorable and moving. All of us should be thankful his mother saved his keepsakes which motivated Paul Reed to follow his heart and reconcile not only with the man who wrote the diary but also with himself. The book is well written and reflects the author's courage in facing an incendiary time in his life and the life of the nation. His book contributes to the healing process.

The Kontum Diary was the beginning of a journey for me. Reading about Paul's experience in Viet Nam and the years that followed touched a deep chord inside. My first husband died young after his own tour of duty there in the sixties. He was exposed to agent orange which exaserbated the heart attack which eventually killed him. He also suffered from post traumatic stress syndrom, although it didn't have a name then. The Kontum Diary inspired me to write a song which, for me, was a catharsis, a way that I could personalize what I had read in Paul's book and understand what my husband had struggled with. I could, like Paul, let go of the pain and become healed. This is a book that goes far beyond the documentary of two men's lives and the way they came to bury their swords. It is an inspirational story of hope and sends a very strong message about letting go of prejudice and fear and embracing a path of love and friendship.

Ignore the Publishers Weekly review. This book's "detached" narrative style makes the horrors of what Paul Reed experienced all the more chilling. Publishers Weekly's negative characterization of Reed is also idiotic -- the book does NOT, in my opinion, give a "simplistic" portrait of Reed. Someone must have paid the PW reviewer to trash this book. War is horrible, and this book conveyed that to me better than many others. Get it. Read it.

I totally agree with Eric, ignore the ridiculous Publishers Weekly 'review'. This is a unique record of one of the most profound human interest stories to come out of the Vietnam War. Of any war.

As for criticisms of Nghia's poetry, this was the work of a combat soldier out in the field, not some prissy university type who never had to get his hands dirty. Besides, I think it's rather good...

I CANNOT WAIT IN VAIN

My darling, I can't take this anymore.

I only know my little life.

A diamond reveals its full worth

When shining in the darkness,

Inflaming sweet happiness.

I only want to hear poetry as the sun sets;

I promise I will be loving, faithful.

Our laughter will ring out in every direction.

I only want to watch the autumn sun set,

Your heart beating next to mine.

Our renewed life will arrive on the morning wind,

Once the clouds pass by.

I can totally understand Paul's need to go back and to seek some kind of reconciliation. Many of my Nam Vet friends have made similar journeys, from Chuck Ward's magnificent Vets With A Mission projects, to Colonel Janis Nark, who went with a team taking the Sons and Daughters of KIA service personnel, to Bernie Duff, Kath Fennell and author/poet Kerry Doc Pardue's work with the Sharon Ann Lane Memorial Clinic (Sharon was the first Army Nurse to be killed in Nam by enemy action - 312th Evac, Chu Lai, 1969.)

Kontum Diary is one of those rare books that humanizes The Enemy and shows that in any war, young men and women who have no quarrel with each other often have to take each other's lives.

These brave young men served their countries with honor, and I am very pleased that they have found a meeting place in which healing and understanding can grow and develop.

I'm sure this book would be very helpful for the many Vets who are still struggling with their own healing journeys, if only because it puts a sensitive, vulnerable human face on the dark entity we only ever think of as The Enemy.

May our children and our children's children never have any war stories to tell.