The events depicted in Miss Saigon on that 1990 New Year's Eve were pure theatre but they were at the same time all too real; the Vietnam War was still relatively fresh in the minds of people of my generation. I had followed the War, in my Guardian newspaper, read of the carpet bombing by American war planes, seen photographs of the dreadful burns injuries inflicted by napalm, I had watched successive American Presidents wring their hands and promise to end the war soon as the body bags filled with US service men were returned home, and I had seen on the TV the increasing unrest and dissatisfaction of the American public at what was happening in their name. When the war had at last ended in ignominious “failure”, like many others, I believed that lessons must have been learned. How wrong I was.
So, this week we went to Nottingham’s Theatre Royal to see the show again. I didn’t have any great expectations believing that what I would see would not have the impact that the original had had upon me. I knew the plot, I knew what would happen, I knew the songs, I knew many of the words……..I was prepared. And anyway, I reasoned, however good these actors of 2026 were they could not, would not reach the dramatic and emotional heights that the great Jonathan Pryce had in his portrayal of the Engineer or that the previously unknown but soon to become a super star Lea Salonga had as Kim in 1990. How wrong I was.
From the moment the house lights dimmed and the reverberating terror of helicopter blades filled the theatre and my senses I was back in time, back to 1990, my heart again racing, As the story progressed on its tragic journey, the tears streamed, my heart felt it would burst out of my chest, my fists were clenched in both terror and now rage, for I knew with certainty that the lessons of Vietnam had not been learned; the American war machine was again on the rampage. I found myself wanting to turn away from what was happening a few feet away from me on the stage, but unable to take my eyes and my mind away from what I was witnessing and what I was now knowing. This was every bit as dramatic and devastating as the show I had seen almost 40 years ago; like Shakespeare’s King Lear, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and other great dramatic works its power and message spanned the years. To describe Miss Saigon as a “rock opera” trivialises it; this is indeed high and powerful drama, musically and dramatically marvellous but now, as I sat in the theatre's darkness witnessing the events on the stage a great and sorrowful regret filled my thoughts, a rage dwelt in my heart – this was a damning and terrible indictment on our times and upon America.
Have we, has America, learned nothing? Vietnam was a lifetime ago and it should have taught America and all nations a lesson but it didn’t and it hasn’t. Over the 50 years plus since the Vietnam War ended America (and too often we its allies) have felt the need to make war or impinge on the life and government of other sovereign nations on the pretext of “saving them from themselves” or making a “war on terror”. Iraq, Rwanda, Congo, Liberia, Cuba, Venezuela, Afghanistan………..and now Iran. Few, if any, have gone well for anyone. As Miss Saigon approaches its terrible climax, Chris the well meaning and desperate Marine, cries out in anguish to his wife Ellen as he tries to explain to her what it was like in Vietnam and how he came to fall in love with Kim: “Christ Ellen, I’m American. How could I fail to do good” he cries “But I made a mess just like everyone else, In a place full of mystery That I never once understood”. Mmmm – most of America’s foreign incursions were founded in the hope of “making things better” and were thought through by what I might term sensible well intentioned Presidents: Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, Bush (both of them!) and Obama and as Chris sobs “I’m American, how could I fail to do good” they, too, I sincerely believe, were "trying to do good". But all of these past, well intentioned Presidents and their administrations, like Chris in the story, never once understood the mentality and the aspirations, the “mystery”, of these far off countries and peoples – hence their failure. Had they understood, had they followed the advice of Atticus Finch in the great American novel To Kill a Mockingbird and put themselves in the “skin” of others, of Afghans or Iraqis or Rwandans or Iranians and sought to see things from their perspective, to come to terms with their life and the mysteries of those far off cultures then just maybe they might have thought twice before taking action. But sadly empathy and understanding doesn’t stand much chance in the hearts and minds of America, a nation that shoots first and ask questions afterwards, a nation that feeds upon violence, a gun obsessed nation that weekly kills so many of its own citizens on the streets, so many of its own school children in their classrooms and playgrounds, and treats its most vulnerable with uncaring harshness. We should not be surprised that what it allows to happen to its own citizens in the name of what its Republican politicians, adherents and outriders call "freedom" it can happily do to other nations across the world.
So, as the tears ran down my face and my weak heart pounded in the darkened theatre and the helicopter rotors drowned out the screams of people on the Embassy roof top desperately trying to reach safety I cried. I wept not only for Kim and Chris but for America and what we, the world, have allowed America to become under the malign and mad leadership of Donald Trump and his cohorts – a man who delights in talking of “obliterating” other human beings, a man who bombs Iranian schools, who lies to the world, a man who doesn’t even try to cover his evil inadequacy for his high office with at least a patina of understanding, empathy or grace. Miss Saigon is not just a wonderful, yet terrible, piece of theatre, it holds up a mirror to what it is to be human amidst the horrors of violence and war. Given America’s undoubted propensity to shoot before thinking, both on its streets and in the wider world and to not seek to understand the “mysteries” of other nations and other beliefs I fear that Trump and America’s latest excursion into gun boat diplomacy will end not just in what Chris called “a mess” but in a terrible and long lasting Armageddon for the world. As we have seen in the past, America's actions will be remembered and perhaps retribution will be sought by these injured and violated peoples - and who can blame them? And when the next terrorist revenge attack happens – another 9/11 in America or 7/7 in London - I’m afraid I will have little sympathy.
America has not learned the lessons of history and has chosen this evil, hateful, amoral and unpredictable man to lead them and are doing nothing to stop his madness. And we, the rest of the world, have done nothing, we have not said “This shall not be”. As Einstein famously said “If I were to remain silent I’d be complicit” – and we, and our leaders, have been silent. Both Trump and Israel's Netanyahu have tried to justify this latest war by saying that they are seeking to destroy an "axis of evil"; the only axis of evil here is that of America and Israel and without America Israel is nothing. Quite frankly if we allow Trump and America to carry out these unprovoked, illegal and amoral actions against other nations, cultures and beliefs then both America and we, who have looked the other way are culpable by our silence and deserve both their anger and perhaps their retribution.
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