Naval Institute Press Flyer on Last of the Annamese

A novel that transcends the limitations of “war fiction,”
Tom Glenn’s Last of the Annamese is a book that
examines the choices forced upon those who fight
wars, those who flee them, and those who survive them.
The rare novel that eloquently describes the burden of loss,
Last of the Annamese evokes a haunting portrait of the
lives of those trapped in Saigon in April 1975 as the city,
and surrounding country, fell to North Vietnamese forces.
Drawing on his own experiences in the war, Tom Glenn tells
the tale of Chuck Griffin, a retired Marine doing intelligence
work for the United States in Vietnam; his friend, Thanh, an
incorruptible South Vietnamese Marine colonel; and Tuyet,
the regal woman whom both men love. As the grim fate of
South Vietnam becomes more apparent, and the flight from
Saigon begins, Tuyet must make a somber choice to determine
the fate of her son Thu, herself, and those she loves. During
the fall of Saigon as the North Vietnamese overwhelm the
South, Tom Glenn paints a vivid portrait of the high drama
surrounding the end of a war, end of a city, and end of a
people. Reaching its harrowing conclusion during the real
Operation Frequent Wind, a refugee rescue effort approved
by President Gerald Ford, Last of the Annamese offers a
glimpse at a handful of people caught in an epic conflagration
that was one of modern history’s darkest chapters.

TOM GLENN’s prize-winning seventeen short stories
and four novels draw upon the thirteen years he shuttled
between the United States and Vietnam on covert intelligence
assignments before escaping under fire when Saigon fell.
Comfortable in Vietnamese, Chinese, and French, he writes
and speaks frequently on war and Vietnam. He lives in Ellicott
City, Maryland.