History of the Diaries Deepika Sharad An Tang

History of the Diaries… Deepika Sharad An Tang Phuoc Phan Caroline Downs Ng Tin Hon

Fred Whitehurst – Viet Nam 1970 22 years old U. S military intelligence specialist. “Whitehurst’s duties had included taking a last look through the accumulated captured documents and destroying those of no military value (Pham). ” In 1970, while burning the documents, he was stopped by South Vietnamese translator, Sergent Nguyen Trung Hieu from burning the second diary, “Don’t burn this one, Fred. It has fire in it already (Pham). ” He kept the diary

Fred Whitehurst: 1970 -1990 s The third diary was brought to the base after Thuy’s death in 1970. “Human to human, I fell in love with her (Pham), ” Whitehurst said after reading the diaries. Against the military rules, Whitehurst took the two diaries with him to the U. S. in 1972.

Cont. After returning to the U. S. , his search for Tram’s family was unsuccessful, so he kept the diaries in his filing cabinet. He later became a forensic scientist in the FBI, and it was even harder to approach Vietnamese embassy. He kept the diaries for 35 years. The 2 nd and 3 rd diaries were kept, the 1 st one was burned.

Fred Whitehurst: mid 1990 s Whitehurst quit his job at the FBI due to some conflicts, and restarted his mission for finding Tram’s family. Hoping that publishing the diaries would help in finding the Tram family, Whitehurst gave the diaries to his brother Robert, who was also a Vietnamese veteran and had married a South Vietnamese woman. Rob also fell in love with the diaries and encouraged publishing them.

Publication: 2005 Rob and Fred took the diaries to a conference at Texas Tech University in March 2005. They gave the copies of the diaries to an Air Force Veteran, Ted Engelmann who was traveling to Hanoi in April 2005. Engelmann, with the help of a staff member in Hanoi Quaker office, located Dr. Tram’s mother The diaries were published in Hanoi on July 18, 2005 under the title Nhật ký Đặng Thùy Trâm, and the book was a bestseller. The young generation was attracted to the book, which was not a typical heroism diary; it had romance and emotions.

Last Night I Dreamed of Peace The diaries were translated to English by Andrew X. Pham with help of his father, Thong Van Pham. The diaries were translated into English and published in September 2007. The diaries have been archived at Texas Tech University, Vietnam Collection. The diaries have been translated into at least sixteen different languages. In 2009, a movie about Dr. Tram named Đừng Đốt (Don’t Burn) was released.

Đừng Đốt (Don’t Burn) Started Casting: 2008 Release date: 2009 Director: Đặng Nhật Minh, famous Vietnamese director.

Đừng Đốt (Don’t Burn) cont. The actors and actresses were all unknown before the movie released. The director wanted to improve the realism of the movie by avoiding preconceptions.

Awards Fukuoka Film Festival in Japan: Highest Viewer Rating Award Bong Sen Vang (Golden Lotus) Award 4 Awards from Canh Dieu Vang (Golden Kite) Festival in Vietnam: ◦ Best Sound Effects ◦ Best Main Actress (Minh Huong) ◦ Highest Viewer Rating ◦ Best Director Ratings on IMDB: 7. 2/10. 0

Works Cited The Vietnam Center and Archive. http: //www. vietnam. ttu. edu/resources/tram_diary/ Dang, Thuy Tram. Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. Trans. Andrew X. Pham. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007. Print. Look at Vietnam. http: //www. lookatvietnam. com/2009/04/dont-burnhighlights-dang-thuy-trams-spirit. html Vietnam Media Corporation. http: //vietnammediacorp. com/vmc/Feature. Films/85/ Vietnam Travel Look. http: //www. vietnamtravellook. com/news/entertaiment/ 160 -dont-burn-to-represent-vietnam-at-oscar 2010. html