Drawing Under Fire - (The Vietnam Collection) by Pham Thanh Tâm (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A poignant and rare--perhaps the only--contemporaneous Viet Minh diary of the siege of Dien Bien Phu that marked the end of French colonial rule in Indochina and the start of direct US military intervention in Vietnam that led to the Vietnam War (1946-1954).

Written from an anti-colonial perspective, the diary of Phạm Thanh Tâm is a humane and moving account by a young war reporter and artist coming of age during "a sanguinary battle that has since turned out to have immense historic importance." On May 7, 1954, the Vietnamese forces fighting for independence, the communist Viet Minh, won an unexpected victory at the battle of Dien Bien Phu against the French colonial forces who were receiving massive US military financial aid and air support to fight the expansion of communism in the region.

Drawing Under Fire, discovered by journalist Sherry Buchanan and first published in hardback in 2005 in the United Kingdom and in 2011 in France, fills a gap in history as the first English translation and critical edition of one Viet Minh's diary of life and death at Dien Bien Phu. Both sides suffered such huge casualties that US journalist Bernard G. Fall described the siege as "hell in a very small place."

During the First Indochina War or French War (1946-1954), the twenty-two-year-old Phạm Thanh Tâm, armed only with his Waterman pen, pencils, and a Chinese ink bottle, joined the Viet Minh heavy artillery division besieging the French military camp in the remote mountain valley of Dien Bien Phu. He wrote his diary at night, under relentless French aerial bombings, napalm strikes, and tank shelling. He describes in vivid detail how his fellow soldiers lacked food, clothes, and ammunition; how they managed to move one-ton guns to hilltops to surround the French; how they built fortified gun emplacements twenty feet deep into the hills and slept underground next to their cannons; how they camouflaged the guns that remained undetected by French surveillance planes; and how sappers scooped the earth out with their bare hands to dig miles of tunnels to protect the infantry's advance.

Through his words and sketches, Phạm Thanh Tâm gives a voice and a face to his fellow soldiers, their youthful bravado, and their determination to win, but also to their tears and their suffering. He confides in his diary his patriotic enthusiasm to free his country from the French who bombed his home; his admiration for the bravery of the fighters; his trauma witnessing his fighter-friends blown to pieces; his love of beauty and nature when he discovers a tranquil stream untouched by bombs; his unrequited love for an actress in a frontline theatre group; and his hopes for an end to the war.

On May 7, 1954, the night of the French surrender, an emotional Tâm penned a poetic note in his diary, "grateful to be alive" when so many had perished: "Tonight, as I lie under the stars, I feel both calm and excited. I try to forget all the nights when the bombings shook my entire body. I'm sure I'll fall asleep right away. I'm worn out and grateful to be alive."

As the prominent French journalist Jean Guisnel commented, "This is a must read for the strength of the account told without hatred."

Review Quotes

"Drawing Under Fire is the Vietnamese equivalent of Graham Greene's The Quiet American. A unique wartime diary, more exciting than fiction with extraordinary drawings and sketches done during the battle of Dien Bien Phu."
-- "Philip Dodd, BBC Radio 3"

"In this poignant and elegant book, Phạm Thanh Tam records the events of the battle of Dien Bien Phu from the Vietminh soldier's perspective. Hundreds if not thousands of books have been written on the Indochina War, the first great conflict of French de-colonisation, that lasted from 1946 to 27 July 1954. The French defeat at Dien Bien Phu on 7 May 1954 remains one of the most traumatic events in French military history. The majority of the accounts of the battle are by French veterans shocked at their defeat against a Vietminh adversary who fought for their homeland under the communist banner. Only a few rare accounts by the victorious enemy exist. This is why Phạm Thanh Tâm's diary is of such significance... This is a must read, for the strength of the account told without hatred."
-- "Jean Guisnel, Lepoint.fr"

"Phạm Thanh Tam's Drawing Under Fire is an amazing book. Tam was fifteen when he joined the resistance against the French after his home was destroyed in the 1946 French bombing of Haiphong. Living under cover, he sketched and reported what he saw. In 1954 he covered the historic battle of Dien Bien Phu. Later, during the Vietnam War, he was an official artist throughout the Tet offensive. His is an incredible story; his illustrations and reportage are equally memorable."
-- "Tim Teeman, The Times"

"There is an extensive bibliography of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the epic event that in May 1954 signaled the death knell of French Indochina. However the rarity of Viet Minh contemporaneous accounts of this momentous battle makes this recently discovered diary of a twenty-two year-old soldier all the more precious. Phạm Thanh Tam was a student at the Hanoi Fine Arts institute when he enlisted with the artillery division as a war reporter...The revolutionary scribe writes, "Going up in the flames and black dense smoke of the fire were bits of parachutes and steel and wood fragments from the forts." Tam's precious diary is crammed with detail. As a revolutionary scribe, above all he records the courage of his comrades. Yet going beyond military censorship, he also expresses their sadness and suffering. The artist is ever present, showcasing his text with drawings and watercolours. Portraits of soldiers, artillerymen in action and dark landscapes of war are contrasted with bucolic scenes that he sketches elegantly between steel deluges of airpower."
-- "Le Figaro"

About the Author

Phạm Thanh Tâm (1932-2019) was a prominent war correspondent and artist. Born in Haiphong, at the age of fifteen he joined the League for the Independence of Vietnam or Viet Minh. During the First Indochina War (1946-1954), he was a war reporter and artist at the historic battle of Dien Bien Phu that ended French colonial rule in Indochina. After the war, he joined Nhân Dân (The People), the communist party newspaper, and continued his art studies at the Hanoi Institute of Fine Arts, graduating in 1962. He was a war correspondent and artist during the Vietnam War (1964-1975) and the Sino-Vietnamese War (1979). He retired from the People's Army with the rank of colonel. His drawings are in several museum collections including the British Museum and the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum.