Last Night I Dreamed of Peace
by Dr. Dang Thuy Tram
Published by Harmony Books
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Reviewed by Beth Cummings
Subtitled: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram
(Translated from the original Vietnamese by Andrew X. Pham)
April 8, 1968 is the first date in the diary of Dr. Dang Thuy Tram, a lovely, twenty-five year-old woman from Hanoi, who works as the chief medical officer in a field hospital in the mountains of central Vietnam. It is only two months after the Tet offensive and while hers is a civilian facility, she also treats many wounded soldiers.
Her first entry describes an appendectomy, “Operated on one case of appendicitis with inadequate anesthesia. I had only a few meager vials of Novocain to give the soldier, but he never groaned once during the entire procedure. He even smiled to encourage me.”
Under conditions that were much less than optimal, she strives to give her patients the care she feels they deserve for devoting their lives to the cause of Vietnamese reunification under the banner of Ho Chi Minh’s Party. In North Vietnam, she grew up in a somewhat privileged family and thus works extra hard to become a Party member. Yet she doesn’t give up on the literature and music she was raised with. During nights in underground shelters, waiting for the end of American bombing raids, she discusses the works of Russian novelists with some of her friends. Her diary contains quotes from some of those works as well as quotations from well-known Vietnamese poetry.
Thuy, as she refers to herself, writes poignantly about the soldiers and villagers that she encounters. She also is very real in her musings about her own life – how she misses her parents and sisters who are still back in Hanoi, about her struggle to maintain proper sisterly affection for the young men who profess to love her. She seems naïve about love while harboring a passionate hatred for the Americans who are destroying her country and killing and maiming so many of her countrymen.
This book is not easy. The names and places are difficult to remember. Thuy Tram does not survive the war. This diary was found by an American soldier and returned to her family in March 2005. It was published in Hanoi in July 2005 and surprised everyone by being a major bestseller.
Andrew X. Pham enlisted the help of his father, who grew up in Hanoi, as well as Thuy’s sister Kim Tram, to translate this book as accurately as possible. It also includes family pictures.
Armchair Interviews says: A vivid point of view written by a very sympathetic person.