The Winning Side

The book describes life in Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War and the reunification of the country. It is a two-volume work. The first volume, Giải Phóng (The Liberation), was published as an e-book in 2012, followed by a hardcover edition. Even before publication he published excerpts and chapters on his Facebook page; the excerpts were widely circulated through the internet. The second volume, Quyền Bính (The Power), was published the same year. The name “The Winning Side” is inspired by a quote from Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Duy: “In every war, whichever side wins, after all/ It’s the people who take the fall.” The Vietnamese government has not officially banned the book, but the state-run media has been critical of it. In some cases the Vietnamese government has seized copies of it and questioned people who had them. Critics have described the book as “perhaps the first critical, comprehensive history of Vietnam since 1975 by someone inside the country.” The book ranked number one in the category Southeast Asia History for several weeks on Amazon, and since its publication it is one of the most downloaded electronic Vietnamese books.

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