Tom Wiseman, political science, wrote Reclaiming the Soul about his return to Vietnam.

Journey to Vietnam is healing quest

Although it had been nearly 33 years since Tom Wiseman, political science, served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, the demons that took up residence within him during that war continued to haunt him.

Neither the passage of time nor the many accomplishments over three decades of service to his community and fellow veterans had healed the wounds inflicted upon his psyche, he said. Perhaps out of an unexpressed need to regain inner peace, he continually thought about going back to the war-torn country he had left behind upon his return from the service.

As it turned out, Wiseman was not alone in his urge to revisit Vietnam. In 2002, he and two veteran friends made the journey back in an effort to reclaim their souls. Wiseman wrote about the experience in a book by the same name: Reclaiming the Soul, co-authored with Theresa Bowen, was published last summer by PublishAmerica.

The book is available at the University Bookstore as well as on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble.
Max Cleland, Vietnam veteran and formerU.S. senato , wrote of Reclaiming the Soul, “Dr. Tom Wiseman has shown us in this enchanting volume that each of us has an odyssey of the soul. We veterans of the Vietnam War are challenged at the deepest level of our lives to reclaim our soul which many of us thought we lost in the war. Tom Wiseman encourages all of us Vietnam veterans to give ourselves a ‘second chance.’”

After years of contemplating it, the logistics of returning to Southeast Asia were surprisingly easy, Wiseman writes. But the culture shock of suddenly being in a hotel bar in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) was almost as jarring as abruptly finding oneself back home only hours after being shot at in the rice paddies of Vietnam.

“One thing that made Vietnam, where we lost 58,000 troops, different from World War II, where we lost 290,000, or Korea, where we lost 37,000, was the speed. Now that we’re living in the Jet Age, there’s no time to adjust. In Vietnam, 24-36 hours after you were being ambushed, you could be sitting in a fast food restaurant in southern California,” Wiseman explained.

Uncertain how they would be received back in Vietnam and with scenes of the war fresh in their minds, the three men traveled around the country, meeting with civilians, former enemies and fellow soldiers. Wiseman writes of the various people they encountered on their travels and of the places they revisited, such as the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison, where they left an American flag in memory of all who suffered there. Though for the three travelers and other veterans—both American and Vietnamese—the memories are still vivid, for the most part, “Vietnam doesn’t remember,” Wiseman said. “Sixty-two percent of the people who were alive during the war are dead now.”

Wiseman and his friends found they felt most connected to those who shared their experience as soldiers, whether American, South Vietnamese or Viet Cong. The differences of nationality, belief and background turned out to be insignificant in the larger picture, and they enjoyed filling in one another’s memories about the events of so long ago.

Common emotions and experiences were what emerged from their conversations, as well as the need to move on with their lives. Wiseman asked Dong, a former Viet Cong soldier now operating a China Beach parking lot, what he liked to do now that he no longer had to fight, to which Dong responded, “I like to spend time with my grandchildren.”

Wiseman writes that, thinking of his own grandchildren halfway around the world, “For the first time it truly hit me, and suddenly I realized that we former enemies really wanted the same thing. We both wanted to be grandfathers now.”

Though going back is definitely not for everyone, Wiseman said, for him it presented the opportunity to heal. Wiseman, who was mayor of his hometown of Defiance, Ohio, for eight years, a county commissioner and the county veterans services officer, finally found the peace that had eluded him.

“I contend that when a war veteran can shake hands with his former enemy, there’s a cleansing that happens,” he said. When, for example, Dong said to him, “We be friends now,” the sense of forgiveness he felt helped wash away the pain.

He was also uplifted to see the progress in the country since the war. Where 30 years ago most people lived in thatched huts with ditches for latrines, today most live in small but sturdy homes with running water and electricity. Wiseman compares it to the mid-1950s in the United States.

And when he drove past the place where he used to be assigned to lie in ambush and saw that today it is a beautiful, peaceful spot with no reminder of the violence that had taken place there, “tears of joy came to my eyes,” he said.

For Wiseman, the healing process has brought a profound change in his thinking: “Vietnam is no longer a war—it’s a country.”

Now back at home and a political science instructor at BGSU, Defiance College and Northwest State Community College, he is working to establish a Defiance chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

Wiseman earned a bachelor's degree in history from Defiance College, a master’s degree in public administration from BGSU and a Ph.D. in intergovernmental mediation from Andrews University in Berrien, Mich.