Reading Guide - "For the Love of Vietnam"
How you can best understand the distinct stories
A short explanation about how my 2023 book, For the Love of Vietnam: a war, a family, a CIA official, and the best evacuation story never heard, tells the complex and fascinating stories about my family’s time in Vietnam.
Because the story has so many distinct parts, I chose to format it this way:
Part 1: James E. Welch, Man on a Mission | Universal third person.
In this section, I write about my father as if I’m reporting for a news periodical; just the facts, ma’am: who, what, when, where, and why.
Part 2: A Family Adventure | First person + historical documentation.
In this section, I blended childhood memories with family history gleaned from my mother’s letters as well as historical information gleaned from a variety of sources. Click here to see my partial annotated bibliography.
Part 3: The Final Days | Creative nonfiction.
This section is written in close third person, meaning I put you right there at my father’s shoulder. I use a technique known as creative nonfiction which I studied extensively while working on my MFA. As I explain in the introduction to this section:
I was not on my father’s evacuation and never heard a cohesive tale of events. However, I’ve read widely, visited the locations in Vietnam, and conducted numerous interviews . . . With all these resources, I have—in what I hope is the best storytelling fashion—written a creative nonfiction narrative of the evacuation.
If you already have a copy, consider buying one for a local library or high school teacher! The more people who are thinking about the 50-year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the better.
