The Ashes of War

In this powerful work about the tragic aftermath of the Vietnam War, author MH Murphy presents the stories of Vietnamese people who fled their beloved country and those who stayed behind and endured, creating a new life in their ever-changing country. The Ashes of War begins in Saigon, in April of 1975, just before its surrender to the Communists. With the war over, the victors set about punishing the vanquished. The policies, rules and laws, enacted by the new government, made many South Vietnamese feel targeted, and lit the fuse for an exodus unlike any other. Over two decades more than two and a half million Vietnamese people fled their country, some overland, but most by water in anything that would float. This created the greatest humanitarian crises in modern history and coined a new term recognized all over the world, “Boat People.” Those who stayed behind to create a new life in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam endured unthinkable hardships, changes, and re-education. Charged, controversial—and incredibly prescient, and this book tells stories of the Vietnamese people at the end of and after the war. It speaks for the millions of Vietnamese who have had little voice, and still—decades later—suffer the fate of what happened after “Black April,” April, 30, 1975. Read more