When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman’s Journey from War to Peace

A memoir of the Vietnam war from a woman’s point of view – seen through the eyes of a child who survived the horror.

Le Ly Hayslip, the inspiration for the musical “Miss Saigon”, tells the story of a young peasant girl’s struggle to survive. Pressed into service at the age of 12 by the Vietcong, Le Ly Hayslip was captured and tortured by government forces. She found sanctuary at last with an American soldier and after affairs with several GIs, she fled to America to escape the horrors of the war.

But as the traumas of the war years lingered on in painful nightmares, Le Ly Hayslip returned to her homeland in 1986. Horrified and shocked to discover the country and the people still profoundly scarred by the war, she took the biggest decision of her life – selling her property to start a foundation dedicated to building health clinics jointly staffed by Americans and Vietnamese.