This is continued from Response to David Willson Review.
(b) Is Xuan Than an authentic and credible advocate of the information he attempts to convey to Morris?
Xuan Than is about five years older than Morris. He explains that he attended college in the United States, — at Northwestern University north of Chicago. This accounts for his fluency in English and his understanding of American culture. Also, he is by self-definition an idealist, and there is no reason in the novel to doubt that he is. He has returned to Vietnam to fight in the 30-year war that both of his parents died in.
As stated in the Chapter 209 notes: Xuan Than is modeled on Nguyen Hung (described in The Century by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster). This was a person with a similar background who went around to American colleges to defend the war.
Xuan Than is also described (in Chapter 211) as being the love partner of a Vietnamese doctor who also died in the war. As stated in the notes for that chapter: Xuan Than’s lover, Mai Thi Li, quoted by him in these last meetings with Jim Morris, is modeled on Dang Thuy Tran, an NVA combat surgeon who died in combat in 1970 in South Vietnam. Excerpts from her diary, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace were obtained from The Vietnam Center and Archive.
Xuan Than says to Morris:
“There are many people in your country who are cynical and filled with greed. They talk of bringing democracy to Vietnam,—democracy and freedom are the key words. But their real interest, major, is in securing my country’s resources. I do not think, however, that you are one of these cynical people. You are a good soldier such as we would be honored to have in our own army. So I know in speaking to you I need only to speak truly regarding social justice, I need only to make the truth known to you as truth, and that is all you will need to see the legitimacy of our cause.”
Morris is won over by this appeal to soldierly comradery (though not to everything presented) which is why he accepts tea and cookies from Major Than in their last meeting.
(c) Agent Orange mention: Would the NVA at the time of Xuan Than’s meetings with Morris have known of Agent Orange, both in its use as a defoliant and in its being called by that name? Here is MIcrosoft Copilot’s answer:
Short answer: The term “Agent Orange” entered wider public discussion in the late 1960s, especially 1969–1970, after U.S. media began reporting on the herbicide program and its potential health risks. By 1970, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong almost certainly knew both the term and the harmful effects of U.S. defoliants, though their understanding of long‑term toxicology (like dioxin) would have been limited.
(5) Willson says: Ellen, the widow of Major James Morris, gives us the agenda of this book. “We made them die for a war we didn’t want to win, ” she says. “We made them die for a war we should not have even started, a war that was a mistake from the start.” I’m not arguing with Ellen, but many would.
My defense: As I said in my first email exchange with Willson: “I would make just one defensive comment. You say that Ellen expresses the book’s “agenda.” In my own mind, the agenda was just to present the historical record. If there is an agenda beyond that, of which I was or was not aware, I agree that that is a flaw.”
More broadly, I would say that not only does Against the War not have such an agenda but rather, as declared in the the novel’s Statement of Purpose: “The case made here is conveyed with a documentary exactness to permit a fair judgment of the ways this generation’s response to the war and building of the counterculture should be emulated or corrected by future generations.”
That is the novel’s agenda, if any: to “present the case,” in a quasi-legal manner for and against the war. Thus, Ellen’s lament in opposition to the war is included, but also the remarks of Gen. Jake Landers, commander of the 101st Airborne, who provides a strong and nuanced defense of the logic of holding back the advance of communism in Southeast Asia, Landers also provides the rationale for putting one’s own life at stake in this struggle: “Some people say nothing’s more horrible than war,” the general said, “but there is something more horrible, I believe. This more horrible thing is a life in which nothing is worth fighting for. It is the life of a man who has nothing that he is willing to give his life for.”
There are also characters like Major Tom Pitt, the true-hearted pilot who dies in combat,–during his second tour of duty,–only weeks after marrying Souphana Vayaphong, his Thai sweetheart, Another example of the total view given is the character, Harold Langerquist, the draft board member who listens patiently and respectfully to Steward’s rationale for refusing to fight in the war while, as later revealed, losing his own son to combat while Steward remains safe in California.
The agenda of this novel is to do justice to all in this great and conflicted era in American history.