Title: What Endures
Subtitle: An Amerasian’s Lifelong Struggle During and After the Vietnam War
Author: John Vo
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-5434-8228-7
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 76
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review Star
Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit
Being a child during the height of the Vietnam War, author John Vo (his American name) was born in a world of violence, death, famine and destruction; however when it is the only world one knows, the human factors such as maternal love, survival and the strength of having to endure all hardships shape the core values of individuals. In his impeccably written memoir titled, What Endures – An Amerasian’s Lifelong Struggle During and After the Vietnam War, he recounts the many obstacles which took him from a war-torn village as a child, to eventually becoming a successful professional living in America. This is a “Wow” journey, and a book which was impossible for me to put down, having read it in one sitting.
The literary density of the content is amazing, as each paragraph brings to focus scenes of horrible inhumane actions of survival during an ugly war. John, being born of an American GI father and his Vietnamese mother, clearly showed his mixed heritage with his fair color skin and blonde hair. This made him an obvious outsider and the target for bulling from other children while growing up, as well as being a target for the North Vietnamese army upon their capturing of the South Vietnam region during the end of the war. Anywhere he went, he didn’t fit in. Yet throughout all of the hardships, arrests and imprisonments, victimization of violence, thievery and treacherous actions of others, John somehow managed to stay alive and endure.
Aside from the horrors witnessed throughout his entire youth, John and his mother had a special bond which he did not come to realize until he became a teenager. His mother had birthed four other siblings, each from a different father, yet John had a unique emotional tie with all within his family. For better or often for worse, each of the family’s lives went along paths totally bizarre to what normal American culture would have dreamed plausible for any child; yet for the war zone of Vietnam was quite ordinary. The horrors were unmentionable, yet John Vo writes about them in a matter- of-fact way not to embellish the inhumane killings and violence, but rather to point out this is how it was. This aspect of writing many short paragraphs revealing scores of emotions and logical human reasoning made this book indelible in my thoughts and prevails above the propaganda fed to the American society during the conflict on the Nightly News. The machinations of chronicling the war come to explain the title What Endures.
Another impressive aspect is the attention to detail articulating his eventual escape to America, along with the dozens of charitable and governmental organizations set up to aid in the evacuation of predominantly children victimized by the conflict. As John would have been killed by the Vietcong if he remained in South Vietnam, due to his complexion showing obvious ties with Americans, he was determined to leave for his own survival. Not only does the author explain the passing of various US Congressional acts, such as the Amerasian Immigration Act of 1982 and the Amerasian Homecoming Act in 1988, but he also credits the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and most notably the rescue work of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in Philadelphia. Without these beacons of international cooperation, the death toll of thousands more innocent children born of mixed heritage would have increased.
Within the epilogue of What Endures is a collection of contemporary photographs showing the family gatherings within the lifestyle of their American dream – all with success in business, education and family values. I could not help to think about the dichotomy of John’s childhood to that of his mature business success and how it is a tribute to his hard work, dedication and keeping his love for his family as what certainly endures in his life.
This book runs the gamut of emotions. This would be a great book for someone who wants to know more about the realities of the Vietnam War and all of the people that were affected by it. An honest account of one mans struggles with the horrors of war, and the grace that carried him to a successful life.
