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JanStephen Cavanaugh, Ph.D. was born in Canada to a large, very religious family. His dream of priesthood let him to the US, but after being “turned away” from this role he turned his attention to volunteering and found himself stationed in South Vietnam, right in the middle of the Vietnam War 1967-1969. He experienced the hell of war first-hand as a civilian. A Bloodied Tapestry is the story of how JanStephen became a peace warrior. In February 2003, he wrote: “Some years ago I acknowledged to myself that I am a Civilian Vietnam War Veteran. This was the beginning of my being able to tell the story of my time in war. I find it of great concern, now some 34 years later, that America has been drawn into another guerrilla war. There is something about that war - now so long ago - that feels strangely like George W. Bush's war on terrorism. It is a sense of deja vu, or repeating old errors in war and peace that compels me to write about the Age of Terrorism that is upon us.”
He wonders if he survived to author this story in the hopes of an Age of Peace.
Reviewed by Maria Victoria Beltran for Readers' Favorite
A Bloodied Tapestry: The American War in Vietnam from a Civilian War Veteran's Perspective by JanStephen James Cavanaugh, Ph.D. is a moving autobiographical account of a civilian volunteer during the Vietnam War. His story was reconstructed from personal journals written during his time in South Vietnam from 1967 to 1969. As a young boy growing up in a farmhouse in Ontario, Canada, JanStephen, the oldest son in an Irish/French Catholic family, was supposed to be a farmer. However, his desire to become a priest brought him to Illinois, USA where he enrolled in undergraduate studies for the priesthood in the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America-Maryknoll. On graduation, he experienced a crisis of faith and was asked to take some time out to reflect on his vocation. He then joined the IVS and was sent to Vietnam. This is his story.
JanStephen James Cavanaugh’s A Bloodied Tapestry is a poignant memoir that gives readers a different perspective on the Vietnam War. Anyone interested to know what went on behind the scenes during the war should not miss this book. His reminiscences are not typical war stories but honest recollections of daily life and events of a civilian volunteer living in a village in South Vietnam at the height of the hostilities. It is also a social commentary on the horrors of war and a call to end the inhumanity of these armed conflicts and usher in the anticipated age of peace. This is a first-person account of what it was like to be in a war zone in Vietnam and is a heart-wrenching tale. Well-written and realistic, it is a highly recommended read.
