Thang Nguyen 555

Unlike Pyle (Brendan Fraser, previously in George the Jungle and the Scout), his Vietnamese quiet counterpart – our fictional Phuc – is truly quiet. He wouldn’t venture out to dance nor to make waves. Not good to draw attention to oneself until and unless looking anti-social in a socially mediated society (odd man out). Before studies in Bell Curve, our quiet Vietnamese already know now to blend in the middle mass for safety in numbers.

Unlike Pyle, he wouldn’t dare proposing to Phuong, Fowler’s live-in girlfriend – to him, it’s too much of an unknown, too short a dating runway. Not without first bouncing off first a trusted matchmaker (Pyle later cleared with Phuong’s older sister, a go-between). Like AI, he needs to gather enough data (Fisher Temperament Index) ” xem xet tinh hinh”, consulting the wide men who consults the horoscope, like Nancy Reagan, before allowing the process/fate run its course (just like cooking rice: not too soon, not too late).

After all, our quiet Vietnamese has already lived a dozen lives: inoculated against “mal jaune” (Bernard Fall’s term via Ron Nessen, Ford’s Press Secretary) commonly occurred among Euro expats who traded individualism for a sense of belonging absent in Western individualism culture (in the Deer Hunter, it’s an extreme case of endorphin addiction to stay on in Cho Lon for a final game of Russian roulette).

By nature, he treks and talks with caution (“uon luoi hai lan”). Walls can hear. In Hamburger Hills, G.I. draftees were warned: ” the enemy might lay quietly, face down in the mud, faking dead, but hear everything.” In the fog of war, even Mc Namara couldn’t “empathize” with what’s in the head of “dead” people. Clan conformity scores higher than compliance to Western abstract notion e.g. Liberté, égalité, fraternité. “Not guilty” and this goes on and on.

To no one’s surprises, his roots reach far back thousands of years enduring millions of edit i.e. whitewashed mythological heroines and heroes, defenders and offenders, swords and elephants, ships and even tanks. Our quiet Vietnamese was taught not so much in school nor at home, but by a life-long learning process and by country course-correction enforced by collective tradition (ancestors whose hologram eyes lurking ever judging). Wise sayings, repeated by the living drilled into the recess of memory.

Permanent village life – a village within city walls. In Houston (top 5 city in America), there is a restaurant called “Hem” (alley) to reinforce the concept of geographical and cultural scarcity. You can take one out of “hem”, but you cannot take “hem” out of Phuc.

In short, everyone is a quiet “law man” without a shield or being deputized. Good luck with abortion, contraception etc.…in a pre-dominantly Catholic agricultural village (a double safety guard).

So ingrained he is more at home with peasantry (que qua!) e.g. dining on the floor from an oval tray (Canh Dong Bat Tan), as opposed to an outdoor cafe in District 1 (as our TIME magazine perfect stringer/spy – always seen with his German shepherd by the side). When it comes to class and caste, even Alain Delon, as the talented Mr. Ripley, acted awkward with fork, feeling out of place in a rich-man’s yacht (as opposed to a quick bite of the “banh mi” – le pain). You are what you have.

Phuc is content with voluntary servitude, having lived “downstairs” for so long: Oui oui Monsieur. Excuse Moi, Mademoiselle (Ong Tay, Ba Dam, thang tai-xe). Not just race but revenge in the wait that’s suffocating and self-imploding (in “Fog of War”, when war was behind, McNamara learned that Vietnam wanted independence – out of their colonial context, while him, former Sec of Defense operated in the context of the Cold War calculations.)

High and long in context, Phuc is reluctant to assert himself even in an egalitarian debate (again, caution is virtue – besides, being assertive needs constant practice and free speech First Amendment upbringing).

The mike is on “mute” comes his turn in groups. It keeps people guessing. Silence is golden. If it were perceived as wisdom all the better. The more unscripted, the more prone to mistake. Only in tight and close circles would one shoot the breeze. Unedited speech and unchecked rants in unguarded moments over drinks: “Look, my scars are bigger than yours” (fake left go right, one step back two steps forward.) “vach ao cho nguoi xem lung”.

Most times, he just observes and stands back with stock reply – to deflect and discourage further probing (Xoay tua). Dale Carnegie would be proud.

Just listen. Act agreeable. Don’t give away proprietary and battle-scarred wisdom e.g. the second mouse always gets the cheese etc.…” An co di truoc, loi nuoc theo sau”, “Nhat phao cau, nhi dau canh” (chicken ass tastes best, then come wings and third the head).

Always humble and unstated (via major religious instruction, humility ironically ranks on top) he would wait to be situated i.e. never out front, where there are plenty empty seats. This reverse psychology is all too familiar. Event organizers who anticipated and proactively prepared would remove those flex and folded chairs to make room for stage. Wedding invitations often print precise venues but not prompt start-time (time is understood as when everyone in the village gets there, gift is always in cash to transactionally pay for the banquet).

Showing up too early might be misconstrued as not having enough to eat at home.

Phuc would rather be dead than to be perceived as weak, hungry and humiliated. Ask someone to ask someone for a loan or a handout. Always indirectness. Status and face-saving are more guarded than gold at Fort Knox.

Answered Yes to a negative question, by reflex (supposedly and grammatically a more correct “No” in English) to avoid disagreement. Being uncertain and wavering on issues, not unlike Western journalists: “only time can tell” “that remains to be seen” etc….lazy wrap up.

Since any version of truth is time-tested, he would lash out if forced (down the funnel of binary choices e.g. AI voice prompt). He lives and breathes synthesis and harmony i.e. someone’s brother, Phuong’s sister, a Ba, chi Tu …Brother 3 Sister 4 …numerically branded in the order one is born. In fact, salesmen always cut through the chase to close by naming prospects as if they belong in the same birth bag (100 eggs). OK Mr. Nguyen. Yes, Mr. Nguyen.

More past lineage-centric than future-centric, Old Testament than New. It’s as if his native language dictates; from lineage to seniority/status, damn thousand-years weight just sits on you, without wiggling room. “Kinh lao dac tho”. Older = wiser. Don’t argue or disagree. BTW, legalese also demonize and dehumanize “inmates” and “incarcerate” them by a bunch.

In early 80’s, World Relief organization built a model of an American house at Bataan, Philippines for Cultural Orientation. Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees need to adapt to future environment: dish washers and toasters, oven and Frigidaire, language and culture so strange as if from another planet (their kids later swung far the other way…” hey, bro” in Stockton or Long Beach to survive Skinhead supremacy: “Born-to-run” and drive along the West-Coast). ” Fences make good neighbors” (R. Frost).

The organization might as well hang NO LOITERING and “NO TRESPASSING”. “This land is for you and me?” What kind of a C.O. lesson!

Once under Colonial power always under colonial power (1000 years then 100 years) i.e. habitual servitude “luon cui”, positioning at low posture to prevent harder fall. After all, foreigners e.g. Chinese, French, Japanese, American always bear bad news (except for Fowler, a brief brush with the British). Centuries of hard-wired occupation by “the 0thers” i.e. foreign “devil” or invaders – pushing opium and opioid, leaving behind half-breed babies, Phuc’s initial and in-bred option is to stay quiet, to be flex, to assess and reassess the situation (danger brings hidden opportunity).

Foreigners! the best one can hope for were “Ma-Roc” (Ma = ghost from N Africa) French Legionnaires: brown half-breed, despised and unwanted. Amerasian, in the 80’s saw a reversal of fortune with “Homecoming” status, once rejected turns corner stone. On Earth we are briefly gorgeous, yeah!

He himself knew racism in and out. His people did the same. To the Chams (Cochin China). Westerners often misread non-verbal cues (Gooood Morning Vietnam, where a date is not a date, unless accompanied by an entourage of chaperons (you can’t afford us, money and millions of years). On film set, they call this “a sex coordinator” in case the scene gets too hot. Courtesy of Michael Douglas on Politically Incorrect.) Cut. Let’s try another take, for my mother.

Only after repeated invite and insistence, (khach sao) that No yields to Yes, as if eating free foods did the host a favor. Unlike Western counterparts, without hesitation, would jump right in” Oh! fish sauce” (Anthony Bourdain). Second serving, please. One errs on the side of caution, the other knee-jerk reaction.

Sociologists noted third-generation immigrants would eventually study Roots if not as an elective. Meanwhile, having survived the Killing Fields and bombing fields, these extended families evolve i.e. shredding old-world ideologue. Crossing over means transitioning from Phuc to F**k? from ancestral worship to Thanksgiving, from duck to turkey, chopsticks to forks, straight to gay, politics to economics. Again, you are what you have. Ain’t cook to discuss politics at the table. Where? the bathroom? the boardroom? the barstool? the jail house?

With high-context/circular existence vs Western low context/linear thinking – he – deer facing headlight – found himself speaking out of turn and living out of place (Woody Allen once said” nobody is walking in LA”. Otherwise, it would be out of place to see pajamas and cone hats on OC city streets). Everyone now drives in Little Saigon, then “parked” himself and his Lexus – much like Pham X An – next to his spy’s German Shepherd – at outdoor smokers’ cafe.

He is not apt or up for a panel discussion (ready 2, take 2 – on camera we see him only in reaction shot – self-conscious and nonverbal nod not to show disagreement). Due to fear of missing out he would self-designate a “tension relief” in group dynamics. Sarcasm greases social. So are gums that water the mouth e.g. Fowler’s Vietnamese contact in Cho Lon warehouse – or our Indian friend in “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest”. The former didn’t speak much English, the other, pretended to be “quiet” until the very end:” Want some Juicy Fruits?”. The 60’s Ken Kesey and our quiet Phuc would get along fine, as both are anti-social, anti-war and establishment.

To him, disagreement and resolution are settled via a third party (lawyering). Never in a direct confrontation. Passive aggressive disorder. Offline rant to sympathetic ears or online to no one. What (harmony) worked always works, as he saw his ancestors got by albeit limping along. Being Stoic, wait, wait, wait since Karma and VIP tend to show up late. Why now, why here, why him. The nail that sticks up always gets hammered down e.g. 1963 seven successive coups.

Meanwhile, low-context individualist couldn’t control his/her urge to over-talk (let’s not get sidetrack at the mentioning of the American electorate, who nowadays are nothing but quiet:” Hang Mike Pence!”). Here in the West, one must toot one’s horn and chant the chants (often in 3 words e.g. “Push them back, push them back, way back” at Game Day). Greene notes in his signature sarcasm: “The only quiet American is a dead one”.

By contrast, the only quiet Vietnamese was Phuong, given in to all stakeholders e.g. sister, lover and future suitor. They fought over her still warm body and future as if she weren’t there. It’s pre-ordained, like “beo troi song” – raft that floats, wherever the river runs, until and unless intervention is needed “If you don’t ask, I (older sister) will”. Old maid? that’s a stigma.

“How are you” = “hi”. It’s an acknowledgment of your existence in the West. Not to be milked out and followed by a series of “how is your buffalo doing “(ke kho – sympathy-seeking). Narayan plays on this variation in his journal when visiting New York. Time = money (In and Out burger). In the West, we found plenty of psychiatrists (pay per session). The East, not too many, since all already are (Phuong’s sister and neighbor). In the age of TikTok, the loud Vietnamese.

To no one’s surprises it’s Kissinger who caught the drift” Vietnam would find more ways of breaking one’s heart than anyone could ever have conceived” (pg. 11 Making the News Taking the News). As it turned out, he and Le Duc Tho split a” Peace with Honor” Nobel Prize for crossing the chasm. The later declined.

The West and the Rest, time vs eternity, the Past and the Future, being stoic vs moving-fast-breaking-things. On Russia’s centuries-old ambition, Undersecretary for Defense Colin Kahl” It’s always weird to read things like that – Russia Imperial Ambition- as an American, because our history doesn’t go back very far. So the notion that countries would give a shit about what happened 9,000 years ago or whatever or, you know, 2,000 years ago or 1,000 years . Americans don’t think like that.” (Woodward’s War pg. 45).

That explains Pyle’s messianic complex (per Graham Greene). After a brief brush with death – hiding in the tower with Fowler, he offered Fowler’s “birdy” a way out: a more stable American Dream (a Green Card = more future). Legally she was not married, just Fowler’s live-in flat mate. The fact that drove her sister to protectively and proactively (lo xa) arrange forced security-marriage for her sibling – Quyen Huynh The Phu – in the absence of parent, older siblings stand in for parental double” What would become of my Phuong, my young sister, once that old geese repatriates!” (or recalled to England HQ).

Feeling humiliated, our old reporter played by Michael Caine, failed at divorcing his ambivalent London wife. Even among “white folks”, there exists razor-thin nuance i.e. for Pyle “I have all the advantages of a strong and sustained commitment, Hell, we won at D-Day; hence, I can provide more for her, with your permission, of course”.

For Fowler:” we have been going steady and sufficiently i.e. already a win-win arrangement, why rock the boat?” His face-saving and being in denial (of the Law of Diminishing return)– between black-market exchange rate and a live-in housemate, he could spartanly get by on just a typewriter and books. Besides, the situation is volatile! What’s is this all about! in Caine’s “Alfie days” there was always someone younger (Pyle?) and more qualified” to “take over the account” (played by Susan Sarandon). Fowler feeling insecure and jealous! Open the book at the window to set the wheel (of assassination order) in motion. The quiet Brit murderer.

For context, it turns out to be Dien Bien Phu 2.0 = Da Nang – China beach, where the French handed off hot potato to the American (Eisenhower’s footing 75% of the war bills).

{You are here, per Thich Nhat Hanh. Existence and presence. There is no need for self-justification. Walk the ground feel the grass and smell the sea. Savor your uninfected hemoglobin (Measel or Covid). Let illusion go. What happened in far shores e.g. repeated rape and robbing (in the case of our quiet boatpeople) stayed in far shores. Even when labeled by sheer and shanty mode of transport, you are to count the beads. Focus on your breathing.

Nothing to fight for. Nothing to prove. Each moment links up to the next. Endlessly. Raft or boat. Just a journey. One of many. Unlike the Mayflower’s which BTW got fireworks treatment, you are to remain incognito. Just be quiet. All blood and illusion.

Stealth mode is Phuc’s modus operandi. He just listens e.g. News, from the BBC in Vietnamese etc. without volunteering his opinion (years of focus listening to the radio as in “Yesterday Once More”.) Exhaustively he bounces off others opinion, soliciting their comment (group think) to solidify and reinforce his pre-judgment. Of this, we found common ground everywhere.

The Orient mystique is non-absolute non-binary; a yin/yang relativism. Our own Viet Thanh Nguyen calls out” the man with two faces”. One is always right and only wrong because of circumstances, context, bad luck or lack of sufficient evidence (small data) or someone to assign blame. No individualism, no individual accountability. Only harmony, Today’s news is tomorrow’s history in endless cycle.

That situational ethic accommodates and entertains various interpretations i.e. the more power, the more correct – per Balzac, “a man might be wrong, but not his money”. Or else, how could you explain the multitude of Nguyens and Trans. He who paid bribe finds a seat on a crowded sampan. Out to sea, it’s 50-50 toss-up. It’s best not to draw attention.

Let the other 50% discover Nirvana first. Get in the longest beheading line. No eye contact (but once in America, get behind the shortest cashier line). Andrew Lam once mentioned it’s unadvisable to stare at someone in that culture. (Daughter from Danang).

Versions of “Truth”, not The Truth, are distilled from multi data points via multi generations. Course correction. Like an old IBM mainframe with garbage in/garbage out “facts” filtered, refined and sanitized by huge propaganda machinery that tranquilizes. Hard vs software of the mind. What Harari would coin a “Nexus” of inter-subjective reality. Business decision or marital decision, public or private, expert or amateur, all consensus/compromise. If that doesn’t work, blame it on fat Buddha (“cuoi tru”) – nowadays, malfunctioning AI – who smiles away all troubles.

“Truth” is subjected to endless wash/dry cycles, like faded torn-off jeans. There will always be plenty (Eves and eons) to spread the blame and ash around e.g. not a boy? No problem. Let me connect you (to your next mistress “di hang hai” – man of two minds). One-child policy, then, reversing course. War then peace. then war again. It’s pragmatic, not principled. Harmony, not revenge. The age of forever-delayed karma.

I saw you (generic) lie there in the infirmary, upstairs of a make-shift camp (Jubilee prison in Hong Kong). Eyes closed, bodies still. Passive and stoic. Your boat behind, but nightmares not. Perhaps you were still shaken and paranoid. Strangers (male) reminded you of foreign (Thai) aggressors who violated in waves. What do they want this time? Shouting in undecipherable voices. Another pound and pleasure of the flesh? Wow! Rape = power. Gratification via self-elevation (gifting their compatriots with geo-location pinpointing.

At sea, you either get beaten or eaten. You must have felt convulsive and consumed by survivor’s guilt after helping yourself to dead passenger’s stale flesh, while offering your own unwashed for survival. Against all odds. If it were today, they could have used Facebook to post and brag about their “coonskin” to fellow “bros” after having their fill.

Far out in blue ocean, pirates could easily spot Boat people. Human traffic to them were just a flow of fresh “meat”. It’s easy a harvest, both profitable and pleasurable (BTW, they would never wish for their mothers to be on the receiving end).

Having absorbed all the punches (oppression, persecution, deprivation and desperation), you passively and reflexively make concessions beforehand. Self-recrimination. It fits the bill. Consistent with Phuc’s upbringing.

Syncretistic Cao Dai-ism appealed to Pyle, A possible Third Force for a nation typified by bamboo branch swaying spinelessly. Bent but unbroken, just like that quiet, slim dancer at Continental Dance Hall. To join forces i.e. staying in group, strength in numbers, execution-time delay in anonymity – minimizing accountability.}

So far, it seems to work, wolf-like. To buy time, until the last “domino”: the Pentagon Papers, Santa Monica and Watergate break in (“Game over” as Ford said)

Our foreign-affairs expert x-president thought his voice alone could “trickily” have won him the Kennedy debate, “if only American voters had listened to him over the radio” – a hot medium – and not watching him sweat on TV – a cool medium which required a powdered and not elongated nose. As it turned out, it’s his VOICE on two WH “missing” tapes that did him in.

{After repeated and failed attempt at bribe, suddenly you were told to leave without a hush-hush goodbye. Equipped with just a faint hope and an ill-defined notion of Social Contract i.e. La Liberte, egalite and fraternite – you ignored the absurdity and futility of it all (if vanished at sea, at least you would float and be joined up with loved ones.)

Like today’s displaced, you spilled out to sea. Out in the middle of nowhere (safer zone?), and in the absence of coast guards, even the USA-flagged Mayaguez was vulnerable (76)

So, you remain quiet, scrolling distractedly through trivial posts wherever AI leads. YouTube blocks out drama of the past and fills the void with click-bait drama. Other People’s Drama. In today’s TikTok space, the only quiet Vietnamese are the ones who stand at the crossroad of assimilation, not sure which way to turn. All the while, his countrymen already leverage YouTube incentives to profit from it. Nothing but quiet. In compliance, you fill out forms (INS) and stop at STOP signs (who wants citation). Human-to-documents chain, as mentioned in Nexus.

So, Peter, Paul, and Mary, whatever you are called nowadays. May I call you by your new name, Tommy since it’s more personal and better than John/Jane Doe – plenty at city morgue. After all you’re a naturalized American, a quiet individualist who stops at traffic lights (lots of and with increasingly longer wait per adaptive software). You have shredded your ID, burned your document, played God to your birthyear, erased your identity and ideologue to blend in (during the Pol Pot regime, wearing glasses was asking for trouble).

You face not just “fear of missing out” but fear of being found out (that you do still owe a moral debt to both old and new society – BTW, per Christopher Lasch, in the Revolt of the Elites, globalists with subtlety double-dip at the top, but evade responsibility at the bottom).

When it comes to human acting inhuman, it’s best to keep quiet, in denial (of the guilt of complicity). It’s bad enough your mere presence already serves as a walking reminder of CREEP (Committee to re-elect Nixon) and CRAP (Constructive Republican Alternative Proposals). From Pol Pot to Post-Cold War. Then post-post-Cold War World (per Friedman). Why do the birds, go on singing…All quiet on the Cambodian front.

{That night, that first night out to sea was the longest. Sunrise couldn’t come sooner. Your old self sunk to the bottom of sea, next to tons of chopper steel. To live on is to exist, zombie-like in the spectrum of self-loathing (survivor’s guilt) and self-delusion. “yeah, my kid is white after all”}

Today’s people found it easier to air dirty laundry, their prejudice and rant – sponsor-paid and powered by AI programmatic ads TikTok. High context living low context asserting e.g.” Where’s the beef” (as opposed to “Anh xoi com chua?” have you eaten yet? Yes, but actually No).

Not on Hamburger Hill nor Capitol Hill. Not without future-forwarding statement in fine-print disclaimer. Digital preying and virtual pirating, maximizing eyes balls, and monetizing attention; turning grievances into gold, tragedy into treasury. Get to the point before “SKIP AD”. We need more “Likes”. Chuck Chink! More revenue to pay for hefty fines (anti-trust or Cambridge Analytics).

You left things unsaid. By default, your no-contest = voluntary servitude. Even with a selective past, not all that romantic e.g. Camelot via Colby and Lodge, a few degrees of separation = plausible deniability e.g. Diem and Nhu – then found himself (JFK) and his brother with the same fate (1963/68). In deep thoughts and with heavy burden. The weight of war sat invisibly on his stooped shoulders Our quiet Vietnamese.

But for those brief moments, between red and green light, you want to scream: “I don’t just exist”. They can rob, rape or draw blood. But per Victor Frankl “they cannot harm or hurt you, who resides inside your body”. Hey, you can’t just press a button and expect:” How high?” Like Born-Again Chuck Colson, “Hell I even run over my grandma!”

Talking of politicians and D.C., where 58,220 names are on black marble, deep dark sorrow of war. echoing “voices never share…the Sound of Silence”. You can be done with the killing, but not the healing.

Ironically, you participate in long Silicon tradition, the legacy of secrecy i.e. turning calculation into communication, defense weaponry into peace-time consumption of excess goods (hand-finished by fellow countrymen) sold by Amazon algorithms, yet you stay incommunicado and in Cognito.

Unlike Pyle, Phuc doesn’t succumb to love at first sight (in the opening scene, Pyle found face down in the gutter while Fowler, for alibi, ordering drinks and nervously looking at his watch, torn by guilt from having “triggered” Pyle’s assassination. All quiet on 1952 Colonial China Town (Cho Lon). Really!

Country folks often equated white American with French counterparts, since European migrated and made-up early America (France, British and US Embassies even located on Thong Nhat boulevard – much like Chinese ghetto). European conversely view Asian as monolithic. Graham Greene foresaw the implosion and erosion of the colonial way based on years in India (total war vs limited intervention, thousands of years vs every four years, kill ratio of 10:1 or 16:1 casualties).

What can you do, given your short life against a long war (of attrition) nightly on Network News: My Lai and Killing Fields, look, look (more TV dinners, please) all the shooting in “shit-ass countries” (BTW, during the Nixon’s era, “going downtown” meant “carpet bombing” with more bombs than WWI and II combined, 400X Hiroshima. Operation Breakfast meant switching bombing targets already airborne. Army surplus or freshly manufactured, exploded or un-exploded ordinance, not the hit parade song “Downtown” which Madison Avenue uses to sell Tiffany jewelry). All contributed to defoliated and deformed land and people (ecocide and genocide) with visible and invisible scars e.g. PTSD as portrayed in the Deer Hunter.

By estimate, it would take another 350 years to rebuild Gaza. Often times, as Greene’s novel last line,” How I wished there had existed someone to whom I could say I was sorry”. Xin Loi Vietnam. Xin Loi 58,220 American families. Xin Loi the conscientious objectors – like Tony Russo. Those who can’t or no longer want to come home (no yellow ribbons on summer oak tree).

The quiet Vietnamese. God knows the things he carried: millions of mini calculations? Inarticulate thoughts and immature impulses? Survivor’s slow-burn guilt? Pain hidden in plain sight. In the absence of war, you create your own mini-Trinh-Nguyen Civil wars, a replay of your and US Civil Wars against neighboring countries and county.

Instead of roaring like Tiger in triumph over Elephant, you can’t handle victory. Back and forth in the zoo cage. Uncertainty within or without is never good for business and the flow of FDI. Synthesis is the new thesis to be challenged.

Hence, your anger turns inward while others Rambo. What’s unprocessed occasionally and eventually flares-up. Most times it’s self-mutilating (armed to the teeth per Second Amendment, not unlike Japanese in the jungle without war-end news – out of catharsis (in 1975 Congress refused funding request for ammo resupply… so “…Asian boys ought to do it for themselves…”)

War-torn world with intangible and tangible damage e.g. enemy ears for trophies (S Korean joint forces at the urge and nudge of LBJ to replenish his Hill Country coonskin collection and exhibition). His successor resigned, while he himself refused to be nominated for a second term. Remember Kissinger’s comment about Vietnam ‘s more ways than one… (from Eisenhower to Ford).

In reality, DOD needs to document everything e.g. Army PX or ammunition inventory, kill ratio as KPI since “winning is the only thing” (from Vincent Lombardi football field to McNamara’s “Vietnam Muon Nam” – Vietnam wants to lie down – mispronouncing “Forever” for “wanting to lie down” in his 1964 field visit). Later, he went from crunching numbers for DOD to World Bank. Per Mac Bundy” the price to keep up appearance is still cheap” (3 million men war).

At LBJ urging: ” …Asian boys ought to do it for themselves.” during Tet 68, it took Col. Loan only a fast High-noon draw to execute a terrorist where Graham Greene had his Continental Hotel terrorist scene (with Pyle helping like a Red Cross nun). Meanwhile, it took the Longest War for the West to get OBL. (Col Loan later went from pistol to pizza, fast draw to fast food, from barking out arrest orders to taking down delivery orders, one new quiet American).

Yet, even when everything is lost or looted, when your gun (VP Ky’s gun, a gift from John Wayne) or radio confiscated, you still can hear “News from the BBC”. Ear-deafening explosion might muff out Bolero beats but not heart beats.

For Boat People, the journey was a tossup, with destiny in the hand of whichever vessel happened to sail by (Statue of Liberty both in France and NYC welcome the huddle mass, not Jerry Brown who at first did not want Pendleton to be repurposed from a boot camp to a refugee camp. The irony that did not escape neighboring Orange County’s beach bum.) Sang, this is for you in Norway.

In today’s environment, they would be grouped to “sanctuary city”, to reoccupy vacancy once occupied by Hippies and War deserters. Back then, those Pennsylvania Quakers did not want to “barn-raise” for Vietnamese state boys either (even when one non-violent conscientious-objector Quaker burned himself at the steps of the Pentagon to protest; later, his fellow congregant, sitting in the Oval office, cursed in baritone – now available on DVD – de-classified WH tape: ” Bomb the sob. back to Stone Age” per Curtis LeMay). So much for the Quaker declaration of “sanctity of human life” per Yoder’s conscientious objection.

Having found safe harbor, you remain shamefully and sinfully quiet. As a survivor, you tell no tales, not even to your American-born (Mom! I want to go to prom). By now your Anglicized name and naturalized status (FICO score helps) upgrade you to a low-middle class life. You AKA Peter, Paul or Mary, with divorce and remarriage, child support and alimony afforded by law.

You’re poised to climb up the Immigration and Naturalization totem pole. You glide through with Model Minority insignia and convention-hall badge (for entry and exit – a legit appearance. After all, tech is democratized and agnostic. No section of 230 could hold the water). All pre- paid color-coded convention hall pass.

That arduous journey stripped you bare. It’s stressful enough to turn stoics into shoppers (of goods made in China – ironically, old arch enemy), as if one could resupply what’s been lost. Life exterior substituting for life interior (President Carter saw and spoke of this “malaise”). Instead of the call to serve, it’s the call of the mall.

On rare occasion, on soul searching, like Jacob in the well, our quiet Vietnamese asks himself: “What’s it all about, all this and this (suspenders and shoulder pads, yew!);” at what cost “to spend the money he didn’t have, to buy things he didn’t need just to impress neighbors he didn’t like – or will never meet, only online”.

Oh, how I wish there had been someone to whom I could say I was sorry.

Then as if on cue, off he goes, to the store, Black Friday or any Friday. Amazon-recommended and Prime delivered. One cannot live without the dopamine and endorphin.

Congratulations! Now let’s yelp and help us do better on Cyber Monday. When it comes to self-service, our quiet Vietnamese calculates (tinh nham) much faster than others. From Phuc “Muon Nam” to “F**k” “wants to lie down”, from pajamas to tuxedo, from all-white funeral to all-black funeral. In group picture, he is timid – standing a bit sub-due toward the middle – remember the Bell Curve studies, for “safety”. But, unwatched, in Armani with subtle Art of not giving a F**k, all bets are off (this is universal). Our “Vietnamese” Will! Up from the South (VN).

What happens online, stays online. Offline? Our quiet Vietnamese always washes his hands, as if history could somehow be scrubbed away by hand soap or sanitizer. Heck, the past is not even past.

He gets it (those SNL punchlines). After all, he’s trained in the art of “noi lay” (the punch line in reverse order, much like Japanese books that flip from the back frontward). He reflexively curses in English (what the ….) just as his kids. A badge of honor. Acquisition of an US passport always comes with acquisition of foul speech – colloquially, F**k this, F**k that to prove complete assimilation and naturalization.

No longer quiet you are. Per Greene, it’s to show you are not dead yet. Not in the time of TikTok. Liberated and unshackled, sterilized and sanitized, vetted and tested, fully inoculated against mal jaune or measled: smallpox or flu. Picture perfect! Except for the lighting.

Our entire extended Model-Minority family! Except some unfortunate deaths by attrition, or suicide – hush hush – deleted or self-edited for the sake of face-saving. PTSD behind, pension ahead.

All set (who would want to “vach ao cho nguoi xem lung” – It’s ashamed to show off your scar).

Just click “I agree” (to the terms of agreement). Advertiser-paid, after all. Unlike Thai pirates that took, took and took (then passed on their geo-location as social deposit links to fellow pirates). It doesn’t coast a thing to pass on digital link, except when it’s Zelle.

Our modern society. An advertiser-supported funnel. Database replenishing and resorting. Curating and collecting. Data = 21st-century gold, rare Earth new diamond. Nvidia = King.

No one knows where the line is from a Quiet Vietnamese to an Ugly American. Up to you, the last line of defense, having paid dear price for evolving and assimilating.

Remember, don’t be first to the floor, Phuc. The journey of a thousand miles starts with that single step. Of all people, you should know and foresee the undesirable end (face down in the Cho Lon gutter).

Since time = money, we now resume “our sponsored podcast schedule” i.e. day-time soap TV, “Brought to you by”. As long as someone out there can capitalize on eyeballs 24/7. Born to run or to be wired? On the Net, nobody knows you’re a dog, a robot or a man, anti-social or quiet one. American or Vietnamese. Just dumb and dumber data, flowing through an agnostic firehose. Fast and furious on fiber. Our vast waste land. “Hello! Is anyone out there!”

Everyone! quiet, by default in the end.