The Sympathizer
In The Sympathizer, a key attribute of the main character is his ability to view and understand something from various different perspectives of a given situation. I would like to expand on such ability and extend it to the historical time period of which the story surrounds, the Vietnam War. Upon reading about this historical time period, I discovered a book: A People’s History Of the Vietnam War.
One of the reasons that this book stood out to me is because it presented a perspective of the war, which differed from most historical textbooks that I’ve read. This was especially true in this book’s explanation of why the United States got involved in the Vietnam War. Most historical textbooks justify U.S. involvement by focusing primarily on what was going on in Vietnam. However, this book provided an alternative perspective, explaining that some of the reasons why United States got involved in the war were due to reasons that came from outside of Vietnam.
The book began by stating that at the time of the war in Vietnam, the United States was already heavily committed to anti-communist regimes in many other parts of the world, and a win for communist in one country can lead to a potential domino theory effect on the rest. Thus, when it looked like the communist were going to win the war in Vietnam, the U.S. became directly involved in attempt to stop that from happening. Also, the United States was facing a major domestic battle of socialism and the rise of labor unions within businesses. The government found anti-communism to be essential in weakening unions and socialism domestically. If the United States would stand by at allow for a communist victory in Vietnam, it would lead to weakened anti-communism domestically, which is something that the United States wanted to avoid from happening.
One response so far
I agree, the fact that this book was written in the perspective of a Vietnamese person made this book unique. Like you, I have read the same book that gave immense insight into the reality of why the United States joined the war. Reading the book makes one realize how much the United States glosses over historical texts and events in order to make themselves and their actions seem justified. Thus, making me believe that we are always given the “American” perspective of wars to keep up the facade of why we enter wars in the first place. That is why I believe that The Sympathizer is an important novel as it depicts a new perspective of a war we were taught and led to believe was justified in order to defeat communism.