In November 1967, journalist Oriana Fallaci embarks on a harrowing journey to Saigon as a war correspondent for the journal L’Europeo. She quests for answers to profound questions, including the one posed by her younger sister Elisabetta – “What is life?” – to which she did not have an answer. Looking for the answer, she finds herself in the heart of a brutal, violent, and hypocritical reality, which she reports in the form of a daily journal. Upon landing in Saigon, Fallaci engages in war discussions with fellow journalists from the French press and joins military forces to witness the atrocities committed by the Americans and the Viet Cong. The Battle of Dak To marks her initiation into the grim world of war, and she meticulously reports its horrors, capturing the raw emotions of anger and fear. The American assault on Hill 875, a pivotal military objective, claimed the lives of countless young American soldiers. Fallaci underscores the absurdity of war: 358 young recruits perished while capturing the hill, only for it to be abandoned once conquered. Fallaci engages in thought-provoking conversations with figures such as Nguyen Van Sam, a terrorist responsible for twenty-nine attacks, discussing the meaning of life and the fear of dying alone and anonymously. She interviews the Vietnamese General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, engaging in discourse on philosophy and political ideals. Her interview with Venerable Mother Thich Nhu Hué explores the Buddhist ritual of self-immolation as a protest against war. In a unique reportage, Oriana Fallaci translates the diaries, discovered by the Americans, of two deceased soldiers from North Vietnam. Lastly, she helps American General Pip recover a fragment of his lost memory during combat. She finds it and, in an act of poignant symbolism, she discards the retrieved fragment, hoping to shield Pip from further pain. Over the course of a year, the journalist returns to Vietnam thrice, relentless in her search for answers. However, as time passes, she witnesses increasing atrocities, she loses friends and her hope in humanity, and she questions the values of humankind. Ultimately, she recites a blasphemous prayer: “Our Father who art in Heaven, give us this day our daily massacre, deliver us from pity, from love, from trust in man, from the teachings thy Son imparted. For it has availed us nothing, and so let it be.” Disillusioned and bitter, Oriana Fallaci leaves Vietnam for good in 1968, heading to Mexico to document a student uprising. There, on the 3rd of October 1968, in Tlatelolco, a district in Mexico City, she is caught in a brutal massacre of students by the orders of the Mexican government. She finds herself in a hail of bullets, and while seriously injured, she rediscovers her love for humanity and finds the answer for Elisabetta.
'Nothing, and So Be It' is a biographical essay on the Vietnam War. Oriana Fallaci delves into the lives of the people she encounters, seeking to understand humanity with love and disdain, going beyond judgment and forgiveness. She describes with biting, audacious, and unapologetic prose the atrocities and human inconsistencies, passing judgment and offering forgiveness. In the process, she learns and teaches the art of loving life.