VietNamNet Bridge – “Letters from the battlefield” (in Vietnamese: Thu chien truong), a Vietnamese-English book featuring letters of local veteran author/literacy critic Ngo Thao and Donald C. Lundquist, Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S Army, to their wives and children during the Vietnam War hit the shelves today, June 23.

Authors Ngo Thao and Jacqueline Lundquist show the book “Letters from the battlefield” in a meeting with The Saigon Times Daily last Monday.

The book published by the Writers’ Association Publishing House helps audiences understand more about the war, love and responsibilities of two men in opposite fighting lines towards their countries and families.

The book was born when three children of author Ngo Thao, named Ngo Thi Bich Hien, Ngo Thi Bich Hanh and Ngo Vinh Hoang, aimed to make a surprise gift for their parents on the occasion of the 50th wedding anniversary. Hien shared the book idea with her friend,

Jacqueline Lundquist, the only daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Lundquist who served in the army in 1967 in Vietnam.

Previously, Jacqueline published the book “Letters from Vietnam: A Daughter’s Search for Her Father” in 2011 in the U.S. Her book had a preface written by Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the U.S. “To have the opportunity to get to know one’s father so many years after his death is truly a remarkable gift. Jacqueline’s careful and loving collection of her father’s letters and then her own journey to Vietnam to see for herself where they were written is a wonderful tribute to a man she longed to know and came to know through his own words. It is a reminder of the importance of communicating with those you love in ways that endure beyond texts, emails, and phone calls. Having talked with Jacqueline over the years about growing up without a father, I am very proud of her for taking and completing this journey.”

The joint book with writer Ngo Thao just consists one third of Lundquist’s original version. “It took me about 30 years to have courage to read all my father’s letters after my mother gave them to me. My dad died of a heart attack a year after he returned from the war. I was just a three-year-old kid and I was angry with him for leaving me and depriving me of a daddy,” Jacqueline Lundquist told the Daily in an interview.

Her three trips to Vietnam to find the materials for the book and an upcoming movie expected to be released in the next two years help her understand and love her father even more. “It is so wonderful as everywhere I go here in Vietnam I feel my dad still alive,” she added.

“As the editor for ‘Letters from the battlefield,’ I have a chance to read all the letters of author Ngo Thao who was a literature major student entering the battlefield. I can feel his misery and helpless feeling witnessing the fierce war that he thought would be a subject for his works. But he couldn’t write anything and kept blaming himself as an incompetent person. I wish I were there to encourage him and told him how talented he is,” said Lundquist.

Lundquist works for the Water Health international project in developing countries like India and Bangladesh. She worked on national community service issues for President George Bush Sr. and President Bill Clinton. In addition, she worked as an entertainment reporter for CBS television.

Jacqueline’s husband, Richard Celeste, served as Ambassador to India under President Clinton from 1997-2001. Jacqueline worked on a variety of issues including HIV/AIDS, women’s and children’s causes, the environment, breast cancer awareness and the promotion of fashion and the arts. In 2002, Jacqueline was awarded the Special Award for Contribution to Promotion of Indian Fashion Globally at the Zee Gold Bollywood Awards in New York City.

As an author of over 14 books, Ngo Thao, who was born in 1941 in the central province of Quang Tri, was the editor-in-chief of San khau (stage) magazine and director of San khau Publishing House. “I don’t know of this book being born as my children want to surprise me. That’s why it lacks lots of letters and photos that I have kept during the war. My children putting me next to a Lieutenant Colonel is quite inappropriate as I was just an enlisted man in the army. However after reading all his letters to the daughter I can find similarities between me and him despite our different cultures and countries. We have deep love for family and a sense of responsibility for our jobs and countries,” said Ngo Thao.

SGT/VNN