Dang Thuy Tram

LAST NIGHT I DREAMED OF PEACE is the moving diary kept by a 27-year-old Vietnamese doctor who was killed by the Americans during the Vietnam War, while trying to defend her patients. Not only is it an important slice of history, from the opposite side of DISPATCHES and APOCALYPSE NOW, but it shows the diarist - Dang Thuy Tram - as a vibrant human being, full of youthful idealism, a poetic longing for love, trying hard to be worthy of the Communist Party and doing her best to look after her patients under appalling conditions. She wrote straight from the heart and, because of this, her diary has been a huge bestseller in Vietnam - 350,000 copies sold in 2005 alone. Now Rider brings the first English translation, in book form, to the Commonwealth markets. But there is more: how the diary came to light is also an unusual story in its own right. Fred Whitehurst was a US intelligence officer on the scene just after Dang Thuy Tram was shot. He came across the diary and, instead of burning it there and then, took it home. His brother translated it and so began an odyssey that took 35 years, to find Thuy Tram's family in Vietnam, and return the small brown book to them. Remarkably, in 2005, Fred Whitehurst tracked down the young doctor's mother who graciously accepted it from this former GI who, as a result, was able to complete his own journey of reconciliation after years of bitterness as a Vietnam vet.

An international bestseller, this book presents the remarkable diary of a young North Vietnamese doctor killed by American troops in 1970. Written between 1968 and her death, Trams writing speaks poignantly of her devotion to family and country, the horrors of war, and her struggle to attain her political ideals. At the age of twenty-four, Dang Thuy Tram volunteered to serve as a doctor in a National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) battlefield hospital in the Quang Ngai Province. Two years later she was killed by American forces not far from where she worked. Written between 1968 and 1970, her diary speaks poignantly of her devotion to family and friends, the horrors of war, her yearning for her high school sweetheart, and her struggle to prove her loyalty to her country. At times raw, at times lyrical and youthfully sentimental, her voice transcends cultures to speak of her dignity and compassion and of her challenges in the face of the war's ceaseless fury. The American officer who discovered the diary soon after Dr. Tram's death was under standing orders to destroy all documents without military value. As he was about to toss it into the flames, his Vietnamese translator said to him, "Don't burn this one. . . . It has fire in it already." Against regulations, the officer preserved the diary and kept it for thirty-five years. In the spring of 2005, a copy made its way to Dr. Tram's elderly mother in Hanoi. The diary was soon published in Vietnam, causing a national sensation. Never before had there been such a vivid and personal account of the long ordeal that had consumed the nation's previous generations. Translated by Andrew X. Pham and with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner Frances FitzGerald, "Last Night I Dreamed of Peace" is an extraordinary document that narrates one woman's personal and political struggles. Above all, it is a story of hope in the most dire of circumstances--told from the perspective of our historic enemy but universal in its power to celebrate and mournthe fragility of human life.

Last Night I Dreamed of Peace is the moving diary kept by a 27-year-old Vietnamese doctor who was killed by the Americans during the Vietnam War, while trying to defend her patients. Not only is it an important slice of history, from the opposite side of Dispatches and Apocalypse Now, but it shows the diarist - Dang Thuy Tram - as a vibrant human being, full of youthful idealism, a poetic longing for love, trying hard to be worthy of the Communist Party and doing her best to look after her patients under appalling conditions. She wrote straight from the heart and, because of this, her diary has been a huge bestseller in Vietnam - 350,000 copies sold in 2005 alone. Rider brings the first English translation, in book form, to the Commonwealth markets. But there is more: how the diary came to light is also an unusual story in its own right. Fred Whitehurst was a US intelligence officer on the scene just after Dang Thuy Tram was shot. He came across the diary and, instead of burning it there and then, took it home. His brother translated it and so began an odyssey that took 35 years, to find Thuy Tram's family in Vietnam, and return the small brown book to them.Remarkably, in 2005, Fred Whitehurst tracked down the young doctor's mother who graciously accepted it from this former GI who, as a result, was able to complete his own journey of reconciliation after years of bitterness as a Vietnam vet.

Diario de una joven vietnamitaEn lo profundo de la selva una joven doctora norvietnamita empieza un diario... la envuelven el eco de las bombas, los gemidos de los heridos, y el penetrante olor de la polvora... estamos en el corazon de Vietnam, en el corazon de la guerra. Este diario recoge las vivencias reales de la joven y apasionada doctora Tram durante dos años (hasta que es asesinada por las fuerzas de asalto norteamericanas); en el habla tiernamente de su devocion a la familia y a los amigos, de los horrores de la batalla, de su anhelo por reencontrarse con su amado, y de su lucha por probar su lealtad a su pais... Es, en fin, un dibujo fiel de la fragilidad y al mismo tiempo de la fortaleza del ser humano, un retrato de la guerra, que como la misma guerra resulta a veces crudo y a veces poeticamente bello.Conservado hasta nuestros dias gracias a la osadia de un oficial norteamericano que lo guardo clandestinamente, este diario es un extraño documento que remonta los tiempos y transciende culturas para dejar testimonio de lo que es verdaderamente la lucha; no en vano, el traductor vietnamita que acompañaba al soldado que descubrio el diario y que tenia orden de eliminar todo aquello que no tuviera valia militar, le advirtio antes de que este lo lanzara a las llamas: No lo queme... ya hay fuego en el. Tenia razon... y hoy vuelven a arder sus palabras.

El apasionado testimonio de una joven vietnamita. La joven doctora Tram trabaja en un hospital de campaña durante la guerra del Vietnam, y en sus pocos ratos libres escribe sobre su devoción a la familia, el anhelo de reencontrarse con su amado y la lucha por probar su lealtad a su país. Conservado por la osadía de un oficial norteamericano, llega hasta nosotros, remontando el tiempo y trascendiendo culturas.Este diario es un documento real, y su importancia histórica es comparable a la de El diario de Anna Frank o Suite francesa. Historia épica en la que se aúnan pasión y drama. La protagonista es una mujer que rompe moldes, es valiente, romántica e inocente y dio su vida por sus ideales.