The Girl from Tam Hiep: Synopsis for the Novel & Screenplay

This book is meant to be a ‘slice of life’ in that time during the American war in Viet Nam in the late Sixties.  It is not a memoir.  I think of it as ‘living’ in a particular time. The protagonist, Private Bill Collins, is something like me but not really….maybe a fantasized version of myself…and other people too.

Red Beach in Da Nang where the Marines landed in 1965

 The original title, ‘My Friend Me’ is an expression used frequently by locals when speaking with GIs during that era but 'The Girl from Tam Hiep' took over. 

With an old VC in the fields outside of Da Nang 1993

It’s the story of a farm kid from the States out in the world for the first time and a young girl from Cambodia who lives in Viet Nam and works for the American GIs. 

A girl from Tam Hiep

It’s the story of the beginnings of their stumbling relationship and where it goes; ultimately to present day Viet Nam.

Downtown Tam Hiep

It’s also the story of other American boys from varied  backgrounds and their relationship with the powers that be that control army life, the Green Machine, the US Army.  And  their relationships with other GIs and the Vietnamese ….especially the girls.

Another girl from Tam Hiep

In many ways it explores the relationship of two peoples who have great differences in background  but are very much alike at the human level. 

The author 

There is a larger story of a rich and powerful country enveloping a small, poor and distant one that is very unlike itself.

The boys from the Company

From the Long Binh Ammo Dump to the village of Tam Hiep, from Bien Hoa to Saigon, from Da Nang and Hue to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. the narrative follows US Army Private Bill Collins on his treck through the many and the quiet complexities of the Viet Nam War