Ngô Kha, Vietnam’s Civil Wars, and the Need for Forgiveness
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: This article describes Ngô Kha, a teacher, poet, army officer, and anti-government activist from Huế who was seized by undercover policemen in February, 1973, and never seen again. It describes his teaching, writing, friendship with Trịnh Công Sơn, and his antiwar activities, including his participation in a breakaway unit of the Sài Gòn army that fought Nguyễn Cao Kỳ’s forces in 1966. It highlights the sadness of Vietnam’s civil wars and the difficulty, in reconstructing wartime events, of finding unbiased sources. It concludes by proposing that “pure forgiveness,” discussed by the Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, may be the only way to end perpetual war.
Source: Journal of Vietnamese Studies
Author: John C. Schafer
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2794113259