LAST OF THE ANNAMESE

Fiction

Allies to the bitter end

LAST OF THE ANNAMESE
336 pp. Naval Institute Press
By Tom Glenn

Reviewed by William C. Crawford

This enthralling read is an autobiographical novel about the fall of Vietnam to the Communists in 1975. Tom Glenn lived much of the backstory of the ignominious American pullout from the War. His vantage point was as a US intelligence operative. He skillfully overlays a gripping love triangle onto a vivid account of the final days of the American presence in Saigon.

The book provides understated commentary on the bankrupt US foreign policy which first thrust our military forces into Southeast Asia. Then we abandoned thousands of our most loyal indigenous supporters. Annamese is a multifaceted, little-known term in the West having various connotations throughout Vietnam’s poignant history. It is alternately an historical name for the country; a French provincial designation; and in this work, a nod to the mythical sky goddess who was venerated by one prominent character herein. The Communist takeover sadly sounded the death knell for the ancient code of royal Annamese honor and tradition, which had already been severely denuded by the French occupation and decades of war. This dying credo formed a code of conduct for Glenn’s strong character, Colonel Tranh. 

This novel successfully combines a star-crossed love story with the tragic evacuation of Saigon that left scores of desperate Vietnamese loyalists clinging to the skids of departing American helicopters. There is so much corruption, deception, and suffering, readers may feel they are caught up in the vortex of a film noir. 

Glenn’s work is effective not only because it is a wartime novel. It serves up several powerful characters representing diverse actors in the larger Vietnam drama: US military officers, civilian intelligence operatives, royal Annamese nobility, and a brave ARVN officer who stays true to military honor while eschewing rampant corruption.

Glenn’s depiction of the heroic Colonel Tranh provides perhaps the most nuanced character. This plain, decorated officer of the South Vietnamese Army stays fiercely loyal to his country and his American allies right up to the bitter end. Tranh’s estranged, regal wife is the lover of the American intelligence operative who doubles as Tranh’s blood brother and family protector.

The reader is left to wonder just how much of this tantalizing love triangle is actually autobiographical? Was Tom Glenn himself in such a doomed relationship during the final days of Saigon? The reader need not tarry for long over this implicit question.

Certain other themes are far more obvious. This is a novel of healing and redemption. Glenn makes a determined effort to throw off his nagging psycho-emotional damage from the War. He was seriously injured by his service, but he hasn’t quit. His well-crafted characters reflect his own perseverance and resilience. 

This is a highly personal love story set against a grinding civil war which eroded national honor, strained personal loyalty, and reveals the author’s own search for release. The reader probably won’t find a completely comfortable bottom line here. However, my own Vietnam experience tells me that is not what Tom Glenn was after in the first place. There is compelling closure in some respects, but like all matters Vietnamese, painful doubts dominate the ending. 

William C. Crawford is a writer and photographer based in Winston Salem, NC. He was a grunt, and later a photojournalist in Vietnam. His new memoir, Just Like Sunday on the Farm, is available from Amazon.com.