Dust Child

Dan and Linda explore Sài Gòn with their guide. Linda loves the food and takes as many photographs as she can. Dan remains distracted by his memories of the war. Back when he was still in Việt Nam during the war, he began to experience the symptoms of PTSD. When he returned to the United States, he rejected a lucrative career in commercial aviation in order to become an electrician. He didn’t want to be reminded of combat, and he wanted to solve concrete problems at work.

Now, he also cannot push away thoughts of “Kim”; although he’d once told himself that he treated her well, he now realizes that he did not. Their relationship was exploitative, and he abandoned her when she became pregnant. When Linda gets a headache and needs to lay down in their hotel room, Dan takes advantage of her absence and asks Thiên to take him to the street where he met “Kim” in the Hollywood Bar. However, they are unable to locate the bar. The street has changed entirely in the decades since the war. The two sit down to eat, and Dan tells Thiên that his friend Larry had a relationship with a bar girl named Kim during the war, which is why he wants to find her. He hopes that Thiên believes his lie, but he worries that his story is too transparent. Thiên tells Dan that many GIs have begun to return to Việt Nam to look for their girlfriends and children. He says that for a fee, he will look for Kim. Thiên is harsh in his criticism of the way that American soldiers used and abandoned Vietnamese women during the war, and Dan feels increasingly guilty. He realizes that there is more to his tour guide than meets the eye. When he returns to the hotel, it is late, and Linda is not there. He calls the reception desk, but Linda knocks on the door and storms into the room. She appears angry.

Trang resists accompanying the soldier into the back room even though the madam gets angry with her for refusing. Ultimately, Trang gives in. She allows herself to be led into the private space at the back of the bar. Although the soldier tries to force himself on her, she manages to keep her clothes on. She is disgusted when he masturbates while holding onto her and is relieved when he is finished so that she can leave. After the bar closes, Trang walks home, running into Hân on the way. She angrily asks why Hân did not warn her about the back room, but Hân laughs off the accusation. Hân says that she is not bothered by sex with the American soldiers and tells Trang that she is grateful to them for saving their country from the communists. Unlike Trang, she is not ashamed of what she does to earn money. Later, Trang apologizes and asks Hân to help her make more money. She hopes to save enough to put herself through medical school after the war.

As Trang begins to talk more with her fellow bar girls, she learns that many of them are not ashamed of the work that they do. They provide for themselves and their families, and some, like Hân, claim to enjoy sex work, feeling liberated from the strictures of life in the countryside. Quỳnh, too, seems to enjoy the work and the freedom that their life in the city provides. Gradually, Trang adjusts, although several incidents in the city scare her. For instance, Tina is found murdered, and the police visit the bar often. Also, one night, Quỳnh goes to a hotel with a soldier and returns home sobbing. Eventually, however, Trang and Quỳnh are able to afford their own room. They settle into a rhythm together. Trang even becomes more comfortable at work. She sells her virginity, managing to insist that the man wear a condom. After that, she is willing to go to the back room or to a hotel with men, and she often steals small amounts of money from them, which she sees as revenge for the way they use her. One night at the bar, she meets a young American soldier named Dan. The two talk for hours, and she finds herself genuinely attracted to him.

In the wake of his most recent visa rejection, Phong recalls his first attempt at emigrating to the United States and thinks about the years that followed. Feeling dejected, he had ended up in the countryside, in a region populated in part by ethnic Khmers, who were also dark skinned and experienced prejudice from the Vietnamese. Phong purchased a plot of land in this region, and through hard work and saving money, he added to his original parcel. He found solace in traditional Vietnamese music and often went to hear performances. He met Bình after one such performance, and the two fell in love. She married him against her family’s wishes: They objected to his dark skin and partially foreign parentage. The two were happy in the early days of their marriage, and Phong enjoyed watching their children grow. He reflects on how grateful he is for Bình’s love.

Phong arrives at the DNA testing center to provide his sample. His DNA will be registered in a database and checked against other samples, potentially one provided by his father. However, Phong learns that many people like him never find their family members. Even those who are able to locate their missing fathers are rejected by the men who—ashamed, guilty, or just traumatized by the war—refuse to recognize their Vietnamese children.

Linda reveals that she is angry because Thiên has told her about “Kim.” Although Thiên tried to preserve the fiction that Dan was searching for her on behalf of his friend Larry, Linda was not fooled. At first, Dan tries to deny his relationship with “Kim,” but he then relents and decides to tell Linda the whole story. He tries to explain how horrific the war was. He says that he and his fellow soldiers were brainwashed into believing the racist lie that Vietnamese people didn’t value human life and so should be considered subhuman. The American soldiers were encouraged to kill civilians because they assumed that even civilians were spies. However, Dan realized how untrue all of this was, and he could not reconcile with the fact that he was sent to Việt Nam to kill innocent people. When he met “Kim” at a bar, he realized that she was just a person, like him. She helped him to survive the war by showing him kindness. Dan left her when she became pregnant, giving her some money before he was shipped home.

Linda is horrified by his actions, and although he tries to explain to her that his behavior was sadly common among the American soldiers, they both know that his actions were gravely unethical. The next morning, Linda refuses to talk to Dan and puts on her sunglasses before they leave to meet Thiên. She will not meet Dan’s eye. Their relationship remains strained as they proceed with sightseeing. Dan is frustrated and defensive, and he vents his anger to Thiên, who quits.