American author James G. Zumwalt was in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday to promote a new Vietnamese translation of his latest book Bare feet, Iron will - Stories from the other side of Vietnam’s battlefields.

The book, translated into Vietnamese by Thanh Nien reporter Do Hung, tells the story of the Vietnamese people’s fighting spirit, during the fierce war against American invaders.

In the book, Zumwalt, a retired Marine who served in the Vietnam War, also wrote about his eldest brother who succumbed to cancer caused by dioxin.

The tragedy of his brother’s death was compounded by the fact that his father, Admiral Zumwalt, authorized the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

In an effort to overcome his losses and psychic scars, Zumwalt first travelled to the country in 1994 and began building ties to his former enemies. During the ensuing decade, he returned to Vietnam on some fifty occasions.

Bare feet, Iron will was published in 2010 in the US - the result of Zumwalt’s extensive interviews. The Vietnamese version of the book will be published through a cooperation of the First News Company and the Ho Chi Minh City General Publishing House.