A father's forgotten memoir of the Vietnam War

For Patricia Rykiel, the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War is a poignant day for reflection.

The war dominated her early childhood because her American father, Robert Dodd, was sent there in 1966 as an agricultural expert.

"I didn't meet my dad properly until I was five years old and he never talked about the war," Ms Rykiel, from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, told BBC Radio Sussex.

Mr Dodd died suddenly in 1987 when Ms Rykiel was 21, but it was not until the pandemic that she rediscovered a manuscript of his - that she had published two years later.

Don't Break My Rice Bowl by Robert H Dodd is a fictional memoir, inspired by her father's experiences in Vietnam.

He gave Patricia the draft when she was 17, but it lay forgotten in a drawer until the Covid lockdown in 2020.

"My Dad came back to life for me as I worked on his manuscript – in a way, it was like having one last conversation with him," she said.

Bringing his memoirs to life through print became a family labour of love.

The book includes a foreword by Ms Rykiel, an afterword by her father's second wife, and hand painted illustrations by his granddaughter.

Ms Rykiel was born in 1966, the year her father accepted an assignment to go to Vietnam, where he remained for nearly four years - missing out on her early childhood.

"My friends all had mums and dads - we stood out as an all female household," she said.

"I remember coming back from school aged five and there was this man just sitting in the lounge - that was my Dad.

"I know he was trying to do good over there... but it's slightly ironic that he did neglect his own family."

Reflecting on the finished book, she said: "I think he would be amazed. He probably thought it would sit in a drawer and never be published."

Wednesday - 30 April 2025 - marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, when the government of Saigon surrendered to North Vietnamese forces.

It saw the end of a conflict that had spanned three decades.

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