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9781916346369

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"""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 T�m'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"""

""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""

Author Information

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.

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