In May 1965, vice president Hubert Humphrey declared that “the Viet Cong has committed the most unbelievable acts of terrorism the world has ever known.” And throughout the long conflict in Vietnam, Americans similarly demonized the enemy fighters as reds, gooks, and fanatical killers. Offering a radically different view of these supposedly savage soldiers, Mekong Diaries presents never-before-published drawings, poems, letters, and oral histories by ten of the most celebrated Viet Cong war artists. These guerrilla artists—some military officers and some civilians—lived clandestinely with the fighters, moving camp alongside them, going on reconnaissance missions, and carrying their sketchbooks, ink, and watercolors into combat. Trained by professors from the Hanoi Institute of Fine Arts who journeyed down the perilous Ho Chi Minh Trail to ensure a pictorial history of the war, they recorded battles and events from Operation Junction City to Khe Sanh to the Tet Offensive. They also sketched as the spirit moved them, rendering breathtaking landscapes, hut and bunker interiors, activities at base camps, troops on the move, portraits for the families of fallen soldiers, and the unimaginable devastation that the conflict left in its wake. Their collective record—which Sherry Buchanan skillfully compiles here—is an extraordinary historical and artistic document of people at war. As such, it serves as a powerful response to the self-centeredness of American accounts of Vietnam, filling a profound gap in our national memory by taking us into the misunderstood worlds of those whom we once counted among our worst enemies.

Mekong Diaries: Viet Cong Drawings and Stories, 1964-1975

Arts & Photography

Buchanan, Sherry

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

Tran Trung Tin depicts in a contemporary style never before seen in Vietnam, what he calls the "optimistic tragedy" of the twentieth century. His pictures are the visual diary of one man's struggle for survival and self-expression amid war and poverty, forces that have scarred his country's recent history. A boy soldier in the Resistance against French colonialism, an idealistic film actor in the early days of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and a resident of Hanoi during the Vietnam War, Tin became disillusioned with the socialist realist art practiced at that time. Self-taught and using whatever materials he could find, he developed a powerful and original style in his own painting. His images of girl soldiers, orphaned children and broken buildings are balanced by tender depictions of lovers, mothers and spiritual renegades, and his remarkable use of colour suggests the resilience as well as the vulnerability of the human spirit.

Tran Trung Tin: Paintings and Poems from Vietnam

Asia Ink

War has never looked quite so lovely. Armed with sketchbooks, small pieces of paper, pencil, Biro, magic markers, pastels, brushes, Chinese ink, and watercolors, Vietcong artists captured the beautiful images of war reproduced here. With roots in 19th-century French neoclassicism, Vietcong art offers a vision so at odds with familiar images of the Vietnam War that it astonishes. According to Alan Riding from The New York Times, "Propaganda Art was only the most visible face of Vietnamese art of this period; artists were also painting lyrically . . . With a poetic realism introduced by their French colonial teachers." These artists played on the contradiction between unchanging, beautiful natural surroundings and the reality of suffering and bloodshed, in order to provide a lyrical artistic statement of what was a gruesome reality. Moving with fighters and living in tunnels, caves, and holes, they produced documentary and didactic watercolors in vivid hues, and black and white. With a disinclination toward depicting the macabre--due to a mix of censorship and sensitivity to their fellow soldiers--the Vietcong artists instead painted portraits that express the camaraderie the soldiers shared. Shown here are intimate scenes of men in uniform reading, playing cards, and listening to music that, were it not for the AK-47 lying nearby, could have well been executed in times of peace. During the Vietnam War, the Vietcong employed 100 official war artists, of which 20 are included here. Born in the 1920s and 30s, the Vietcong artists were graduates of the Hanoi Institute of Fine Art, and the works here were created between 1964 and 1975 in the south of Vietnam. Watercolors, drawings, and sketches by these artists are in the collections of the Ho Chi Min City Museum and the British Museum in London. Edited by Toan Thi Nguyen and Sherry Buchanan. Foreword by Neil Jamieson. Hardcover, 9.5 x 11 in./200 pgs / 200 color.

Mekong Diaries: Vietcong Drawings from the War 1965-1975

Nguyen, Toan Thi

Jamieson, Neil

Part travelogue, part history, and part reflective meditation on conflict and reconciliation, Sherry Buchanan's new book offers both a personal and historical exploration of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, highlighting the critical role&nbsp;women militia and soldiers played in defending&nbsp;the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. Accompanied by two travelling companions, Buchanan winds her way from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in the south. Driving through the spectacular scenery of Vietnam and Laos, she encounters locations from the Truong Son mountains, the Phong Nha Caves, ancient citadels and Confucian temples to the Khmer Temple of Wat Phu at the western-most point of the Trail in Laos. Buchanan records her interactions--both scheduled and spontaneous--with those who experienced the Vietnam War firsthand, and these conversations with combatants and civilians provide new perspectives on the War. She listens to the women who defended the Trail roads against the greatest bombing campaign in modern times, walks through minefields with the demolition teams hunting for unexploded ordnance, and meets American veterans who have returned to Vietnam with an urge to "do something." Buchanan weaves informative, and often humorous, tales from her journey with excerpts from the accounts of others, situating the locations she visits in their historical and political context. On the Ho Chi Minh Trail brings together geography, history, and personal accounts to readdress the culture of indifference to the War, bringing to light the scale of the tragedy, its lasting legacies, and our memory of it.

On The Ho Chi Minh Trail: The Blood Road, The Women Who Defended It, The Legacy

History

Asia

A mix of travelogue, history, and mediation on a journey through the Ho Chi Minh Trail that reveals the critical role women played in defending it. Offering both a personal and historical exploration of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, this book highlights the critical role the Trail and the young women soldiers who helped build and defend it played in the Vietnam War. Accompanied by two traveling companions, Sherry Buchanan winds her way from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in the south. Driving through the spectacular scenery of Vietnam and Laos, she encounters locations from the Truong Son mountains, the Phong Nha Caves, ancient citadels, and Confucian temples to the Khmer Temple of Wat Phu at the western-most point of the Trail in Laos. &nbsp; Buchanan records her interactions--both scheduled and spontaneous--with those who experienced the Vietnam War firsthand. She listens to the women who defended the Trail roads against the greatest bombing campaign in modern times, walks through minefields with the demolition teams hunting for unexploded ordnance, and meets American veterans who have returned to Vietnam with an urge to "do something." Buchanan weaves informative, and often humorous, tales from her journey with excerpts from the accounts of others, situating the locations she visits in their historical and political context. On the Ho Chi Minh Trail brings together geography, history, and personal accounts to reveal the scale of the tragedy, its harmful legacies, and our memory of it. Buchanan challenges American exceptionalism and calls for redress for those harmed by US military actions during the Vietnam War and America's subsequent wars.

Rarely viewed by the outside world, this collection of posters from the 1950s to the present encompasses a politically significant period in Vietnamese history. With their boldly rendered images of Ho Chi Minh and local heroes; guerrilla fighters, tanks and bombers; factory workers and the urban and rural landscape, these posters-many produced in small numbers under economically adverse conditions-reverberate with vibrant colors and innovative graphic language, revealing much about the country's cultural and political climate. An overview of the collection shows how imagery from indigenous folk art, the work of French-trained nationally acclaimed artists, as well as Russian and Chinese propaganda styles have all influenced the unusual, graphically diverse styles of these posters. This collection offers a deeply resonating, visually arresting social history of a country during times of peace and war.

Vietnam Posters: The David Heather Collection

Heather, David

Prestel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Buchanan, Sherry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Buchanan, Sherry

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Buchanan, Sherry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mekong Diaries: Viet Cong Drawings and Stories, 1964-1975

Tran Trung Tin: Paintings and Poems from Vietnam

Mekong Diaries: Vietcong Drawings from the War 1965-1975

On The Ho Chi Minh Trail: The Blood Road, The Women Who Defended It, The Legacy

On The Ho Chi Minh Trail: The Blood Road, The Women Who Defended It, The Legacy

Vietnam Posters: The David Heather Collection