A DIFFERENT JOURNEY

Berliner recounts his experiences as an aid worker during the Vietnam War.

The author volunteered with the International Voluntary Services and arrived in Vietnam in September 1966. IVS was subsidized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Berliner recounts his experiences learning the Vietnamese language and learning about local customs from spending time with families in rural areas. At one point, he celebrated the festivities of Tet with a local family. While “in-country,” Berliner worked as a medical assistant, providing health care for remote villages in South Vietnam. The longer he spent there, the more he understood the opposition to America’s role in the war. The author resided in Saigon for a time, choosing to live in a disadvantaged neighborhood among locals, which made him feel less isolated from the experiences of the people he’d been brought in to serve. In his free time, he found other ways to contribute, helping villagers with infrastructure projects and volunteering for recreational efforts aimed at young people. Berliner also expresses deep reservations about some of the things he did. At one point, for example, he participated in the forced resettlement of a Vietnamese community to a refugee camp. Over time, Berliner was one of many IVS workers who grew disillusioned and signed a 1967 letter to President Lyndon Johnson calling for peace negotiations. Eventually, Berliner transitioned to a new role, working with an organization that helped children who’d been injured as a result of the conflict. Some Vietnam War memoirs are sharp and insightful, while others simply cover familiar terrain. Count Berliner’s account among the brilliant ones, as it offers readers a unique set of experiences through which to analyze and interrogate the war. For those unfamiliar with the blow-by-blow of American involvement in Southeast Asia, he provides just enough information and context to keep them on track. At the same time, he doesn’t bog readers down in repetitive details that will be familiar to longtime readers of Vietnam War histories.

A memorable wartime memoir from an uncommon perspective.