Q: Why did you decide to write this book, and why did you opt to fictionalize your protagonist’s life?
A: Little is known in the West about what it was like to grow up
on the Plain of Jars in the aftermath of the devastating bombing to which the
area was subjected during the Secret War.
For years, Westerners were prohibited from entering Laos, and when
the country finally reopened its doors few northern Laotians could speak any language
other than their own.
But Manophet (the protagonist) had taken a far-sighted decision to
teach himself English, and this gave him a rare ability to communicate the
missing history to outsiders.
I felt his unusual story deserved to be more widely heard, but the
Lao have no tradition of story- or biography-writing, so there was a risk that it
would simply be forgotten if a westerner didn’t step up to the plate.
It soon became clear that much of the information that I was gleaning
in interviews was only moderately reliable.
Until recently, most northern Lao depended exclusively on the
spoken word, writing nothing down, and accounts of events could vary, depending
on who I was talking to – particularly when it came to events that had taken
place 30 or 40 years earlier.
To confuse matters further, “the whole truth and nothing but the
truth” is not really a recognized concept in Laos. Truth tends to be offered
piecemeal, and some Lao have a habit of borrowing truth from the lives of
others when it suits them.
Against this background, fictionalizing the story seemed to make more
sense than trying to write a biography, and this approach felt increasingly appropriate
as I proceeded, even though many of the “characters” in the book were still
alive.
A: With so little written material to draw on, my primary objective
was to interview as many of Manophet’s family, friends and acquaintances as I
could persuade to talk to me.
Arranging an audience with his mother (who is almost 90) and other
siblings presented an interesting challenge. Following Manophet’s untimely
demise, the only English-speaking member of the family was a brother based in the
U.S., so I began by flying across the Atlantic to meet him.
Once he had satisfied himself that my desire to write a book was
genuine, a rapport developed, and in due course I asked if he would be prepared
to arrange a meeting with the rest of [his] family and act as interpreter.
It took several months to overcome the logistical difficulties, but
eventually he flew 8,000 miles west around the globe, while I flew 6,000 miles east,
and we all met up at his mother’s house on the Plain of Jars.
It came as a delightful surprise to learn that Fred Branfman had retained
Manophet’s e-mails to him and was happy for me to read and reproduce them. They
convey a wonderful sense of both men reaching out to one another.
Fred was already something of a legend in Manophet’s eyes when
they met, but Manophet then became a significant piece in Fred’s jigsaw,
because Fred was painfully aware that his seminal book, Voices from the Plain
of Jars, had been written in absentia. Manophet was able to supply him with the
insight and context for which he had always thirsted.
Q: What do you think are some of the most common perceptions and
misperceptions about Laos in the United States and Britain?
A: A not-uncommon misperception in Britain is that Laos is in
Africa! From what I can gather, education levels in the U.S. (as regards Laos,
at least) are higher than in Europe, possibly because the Vietnam War does not feature
prominently in school curricula over here.
Many Europeans are not even aware that Laos was bombed, let alone
that it is the most heavily bombed country on earth. There is a widespread perception
that an incompetent regime was entirely to blame for Laos’s failure to prosper between
1975 and 2005, a time when most other countries in the region were flourishing
– when in fact the country’s war legacy was also a significant factor.
Most visitors are profoundly shocked when they discover how many
Lao are still being killed by unexploded cluster bombs each month, even though
mortality levels have fallen steadily over recent years.
Q: What do you think Manophet’s story says about relations between
Laos and the United States?
A: The Lao living on the Plain of Jars give the impression that
they are ready to forgive the enemy who turned a blind eye to their country’s
neutrality and razed their state capital and its environs to the ground. U.S. politicians,
for their part, appear more than happy to capitalize on their generosity and let
the misapprehension that America never bombed Laos take root anew.
And yet, as the book highlights, there is a chasm between the
reaction of successive U.S. administrations, which have one by one abrogated as
much responsibility as they can for clearing up the mess left behind by the
bombers, and the reactions of ordinary U.S. nationals when they are apprised of
what was done in their name by the U.S. government of the time.
Several individuals have recently tried to make reparation in
their own way, and their generous actions have gone some way to restoring
America’s reputation.
Q: How did you choose the book’s title, and what does it signify
for you?
A: Lone Buffalo was Manophet’s self-styled sobriquet (the school
that he founded is now called the Lone Buffalo School). On the face of it, the
name derives from a situation that arose when he was at his lowest ebb, which
is described in the book.
But when I asked him about this in 2001 he gave me a different,
rather elliptical, explanation that hinted at something deeper. Alas I was
never able to get to the bottom of this riddle.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’ve always felt a writer should abstain from writing unless
he’s convinced he has something worth saying. Right now, I have no compelling
idea up my sleeve.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Digging into the Secret War and its legacy can be a grim
exercise, but Manophet’s determination not to be beaten by his circumstances
makes this an uplifting book, as opposed to a depressing one. He set a
remarkable example during his short life, one that I hope readers will find inspiring.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. This Q&A also appears on www.hauntinglegacy.com.
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