Blog 1

After watching the PBS documentary: American Experience, Vietnam War, "America's Mandarin 1954-1963", I learned about how repressive Ngo Dinh Diem was to the South Vietnamese. On May 8, 1963, Buddhists gathered in order to celebrate the birth of Buddha, but because Diem was a Catholic he wanted the crowd to disperse. The police did this by killing one woman and eight children. This sparked the demonstrations that the monks later held.

In Robert Olen Butler's A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, the story starts with Dao, almost 100 years old, reminiscing about the important people in his life. The first person that visits Dao is Hồ Chí Minh, the Prime Minister and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Minh asks Dao about a glaze, because they used to work together at the Carlton Hotel in London. Dao was a dishwasher and Mihn was a pastry cook. Dao and Minh were great friends but they chose different things, Dao chose the life of Buddhism and being at peace, where as Minh got very involved with politics. The narrative gets broken up as Dao has his family come in to say their farewells. Dao's son and grandson talk about the death of Mr. Le and why he was shot. Mr. Le recently made a newspaper and in it said that: "it was time to accept the reality of the Communist government in Vietnam and begin to talk with them (238)." In America at this time that this story is being told, the Vietnamese in the Country did not want to believe that Communism was taking over and because of this Mr. Le was killed. Dao believes that his son in law and his son where involved with the murder. Dao is reminded of a time of struggle in the past, and the killing of Mr. Lee illustrates how the same struggle is still going on in America. Mr. Le and Hồ Chí Mihn believe that the Communist government needs to be accepted, which seems to be the main point in the story. The two narrations show the constant political debate and even in America, the struggle continues for the Vietnamese.