Truong Nhu Tang

The author. Tang is a young man in college with plans to work toward a degree in pharmacology when he meets Ho Chi Minh. He is taken with the man who makes time to spend two afternoons with students and who tells them to call him "Uncle Ho." From this encounter, Tang learns about earning respect and loyalty rather than trying to beat others into submission. It's also from this encounter that Tang develops a desire to learn more a about the political situation of Vietnam, and he soon drops out of pharmacology school to study politics.

Tang is allied with a resistance movement called the National Liberation Front, or "the Front." He gives up everything to work toward what he believes will be the ultimate goal of the Front - Vietnamese people living under a unified government. However, when the NLF forces a military surrender...