ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although I have taken liberties where it suited the storyline of The Man from Saigon, I have tried to remain faithful to the general history of America’s war in Vietnam. I am indebted to those whose books, photographs, websites, films, documentaries, and stories described for me the extraordinary events that took place during the war and its impact on people across many nations.
The characters in this novel are fictional portraits with a few notable exceptions. Georgette Meyer “Dickey” Chapelle was a famous war correspondent and one of the pioneering women in this field. She died from a shrapnel wound while traveling with Marines and her last words have been recorded in many places, including my novel.
Kate Webb, whose work is mentioned in the novel, was a respected journalist working in Vietnam and other war zones throughout her lengthy career. I am grateful for her account of her capture, along with several other journalists, in “Three Week Captivity,” which makes up a chapter in Women War Correspondents 1961-1965 by Virginia Elwood-Akers (NJ and London: The Scarecrow Press Metuchen, 1988), and also appearing in War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam (NY: Random House, 2002J. Ms Webb’s captors took her shoes as well as the shoes of the other journalists and herded them barefoot through the jungle for nine days before, eventually, releasing them unharmed.
Cathy Leroy was one of the most famous photojournalists working in Vietnam. Her essay, “A Tense Interlude,” which appeared in Life Magazine, February 16, 1968, details her own day with the Vietcong during the Battle of Hue and helped me deliver a more historically accurate portrayal of such circumstances.
Several newswomen were, in fact, taken captive by the North Vietnamese at various times during America’s war in Vietnam, though none of them in the same manner as my fictional character Susan Gifford. In addition to Kate Webb and Cathy Leroy, there was also a brave young woman named Michele Ray whose vibrant account of her own three-week experience as a captive of the Vietcong in her memoir, The Two Shores of Hell (London: John Murray, 1967) makes for extraordinary reading. I was delighted to embrace Michele Ray’s opinion of Saigon restaurants and am grateful for her description of setting off booby-traps in military training grounds, which introduced me to such an idea so that I could put my character through the same type of experience. Her account of being in underground bomb shelters during American air raids also helped me evoke some of the terror of such an experience.
I am indebted to Hugh Lunn’s insightful and moving memoir, Vietnam: A Reporter’s War. Mr Lunn covered the October 1967 battle of Loc Ninh and I drew from his account of the battle and its effects on those whose homes were destroyed. His portrayal of the press conferences in Saigon and the military’s excessive use of an acronyms influenced my own portrayal of such events.
I drew from Jonathan Schell’s beautifully written book, The Village of Ben Sue, in describing the conditions for refugees in Vietnam during the conflict. Descriptions of the squalor and food shortages, the bewildered people who had lost their homes, the ever-present public address system, the endless erection of tents and the way prostitutes boarded buses for Saigon in the evening are all drawn from facts observed by Mr. Schell, whose writing forms a rich history of the entire conflict. The Village of Ben Sue is part of a three-book collection called The Real War (NY: Pantheon Books, 1987).
I am very grateful to Keith Walker’s A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of Twenty-Six American Women Who Served in Vietnam, a striking book from which I was able to draw material for the scenes that take place at the 18th Surgical Hospital in Pleiku. I am indebted to the accounts of daily life portrayed by the extraordinary and admirable women interviewed in Mr Walker’s book. I have incorporated into my novel some of the facts of working in a military a hospital as they describe them. However, it is important to say that I have taken some creative liberties and invented practices when it suited the storyline of my book. For example, to my knowledge no patient in real life was ever handcuffed as described in my novel.
I am deeply appreciative of Hilary Smith’s astonishing memoir, Lighting Candles: Hospital Memories of Vietnam’s Montagnards. Though my novel’s portrayal of a hospital serving the Montagnards as well as the portraits of characters within it are a product of my imagination, I have drawn from Hilary Smith’s real life experience as a nurse in a hospital that served the needs of the Montagnard people during the war and am indebted to her in this regard. I have based some of the nursing procedures on real procedures as described in her book and some of the conversations between the staff in my novel were inspired by reported conversations as described by Ms Smith.
I have been inspired by Tim O’Brien’s work and am especially grateful for his excellent memoir, If I Die In A Combat Zone (NY: Broadway Books, 1975) for what it taught me about mines, particularly Bouncing Bettys, as well as being out on night patrols.
My thanks to Joe Galloway for his advice on cameras and his permission to use facts about film from his work, A Reporter’s Journey from Hell.
Thank you to Mr Twining, whose purchase of a character name for the benefit of the charity Autism Speaks enabled me to give a character the same name as his wife, Tracy Flower.
Many thanks to James Robison who offered his advice and support early in the project as he has done so often during my writing career, and to Whitney Otto whose insights and suggestions transformed my approach to the early chapters.
As always I am indebted to my editors, Nan Talese and Clare Reihill, who have guided the novel so brilliantly.
And finally, for all of those whose work has enabled me to write such a novel, who lived or fought or worked in Vietnam during the war and who have recorded their experiences so faithfully, I am full of admiration and gratitude for everything you have taught me.
Marti Leimbach
February 2009
About the Author
Marti Leimbach is the author of several novels, including the international bestseller, Dying Young, which was made into a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts, and the acclaimed Daniel Isn’t Talking (2007), inspired by the story of her autistic child. Born in Washington DC, she moved to England in 1990; she lives in Berkshire with her husband and two children.
www.martileimbach.com
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Also by Marti Leimbach
Daniel Isn’t Talking
Falling Backwards
Love and Houses
Sun Dial Street
Dying Young
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Fourth Estate
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Copyright © Marti Leimbach 2009
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EPub Edition © 2009 ISBN: 9780007330690
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Table of Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Marti Leimbach
Copyright
About the Publisher
The Man from Saigon Page 36
