Annotated Resource Guide
Southeast Asia Post-Vietnam/American War
Cynthia Chan Imanaka and Tracy Lai
Seattle Central Community College
April 2005
Nonfiction
History
Longman, Patrick Hearden. The Tragedy of Vietnam. New York: Longman, 2005.
At just over 200 pages, Longman’s narrative is a brief overview of the causes and
consequences of U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia. The writing style is
accessible and the text would work in a survey setting.
Kimball, Jeffrey P. To Reason Why. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company,
1990.
A multifaceted analysis of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The
anthology includes primary documents, many written by key players in the debate
over the war, from 1945-75.
Templer, Robert. Shadows & Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam. New York: Penguin
Books, 1999.
Templer uses his journalistic skills to examine the social, political, and economic
conditions and issues facing Vietnam in its efforts to modernize.
Hein, Jeremy. From Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia: A Refugee Experience in the United
States. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.
Using a historical and sociological paradigm of analysis, Hein discusses the
migration, adaptation of S.E. refugees to the U.S. He examines the Communist
regimes in S. E. Asia and within the U.S. he addresses core issues facing S.E.
Asians—racial conflict, political empowerment, family, and economic and
occupational development. A resource filled with well-documented research.
McCoy, Alfred. The Politics of Heroin. Chicago, Illinois: Lawrence Hill Books, 2003.
Subtitled “CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Afghanistan/Southeast
Asia/Central America/Colombia)”, the book explores drug trafficking, especially
the U.S. government’s covert roles.
SarDesai, D.R. Southeast Asia. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2003.
SarDesai’s textbook is in its fifth edition. The topics include ancient cultural
heritage, colonial conflicts, as well as the contemporary period. Each part
concludes with a review and commentary to help interpret the chronology of
development.
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Multiracial Children
Bass, Thomas A. Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home. New York: Soho Press, 1996.
Through the use of interviews with U.S. and Vietnamese officials, social workers
and the children of mixed descent who remain in Vietnam, Vietnamerica depicts
some the stories of the bui doi, "the dust of life” who are reminders and often
forgotten products of the war.
McKelvey, Robert S. The Dust of Life: America’s Children Abandoned in Vietnam.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999.
McKelvey was former marine during the Vietnam-American War in the late
1960s and is currently a child psychiatrist who returned to Vietnam in 1990. This
book is a collection of his interviews with Vietnamese Amerasians. The work is
thematic organized around issues of parental loss, experiences of prejudice and
discrimination, coping with adversities, and adaptation. His book explores these
issues with Amerasians both in Vietnam and in the U.S.
Nguyen, Kien. Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2002.
Memoir of Nguyen and his family after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Nguyen is the
son of a wealthy Vietnamese woman and American businessman. He recounts his
experience as an Amerasian in war torn Vietnam, and later his adjustment to life
in the U.S.
Culture & Identity
Pham, Andrew X. Catfish & Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape
and Memory of Vietnam. New York: Picador, 2000.
The bicycle odyssey of Pham from the landscapes of the U.S. to Mexico and
Japan. He ultimately lands in Vietnam where he begins his journey of selfdiscovery in defining his sense of place in America, his adopted homeland, and
his country of birth, Vietnam.
Terry, Simeon, et al. Through the Eyes of the Judged: Autobiographical Sketches by
Incarcerated Young Men Gateway Program at The Evergreen State College.
Olympia, Washington, 2001. “Truth,” Tuan Ngoc Dang.
Dang’s personal struggles, experiences traversing through and rising above
cultural differences, feelings of alienation, and incarceration to ultimately define
his sense of place on his own terms and not be judged.
Fifield, Adam. A Blessing Over Ashes: The Remarkable Odyssey of My Unlikely
Brother. New York: Perennial, 2001.
Fifield narrates a coming of age story that cross-culturally intersects between his
and his family’s life with that of their foster brother/son, Soeuth, a 14 year old
refugee from Cambodia. We follow Soeuth’s efforts to adjust to the U.S., but
lingering in his mind is the hopes that his family is still alive in Cambodia. We
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are taken on a journey that results in a visit by Adam and Soeuth to Cambodia to
meet the family Soeuth once thought was dead.
Clark, Thekla. Children in Exile: The Story of a Cross-Cultural Family. New York: Ecco
Press, 1998.
A memoir about the growing relationships of two refugee families, one ethnically
Chinese from Vietnam, one Cambodian, who are “adopted” by an American
family who reside in Tuscany, Italy.
Social Experience in Vietnam
Hayslip, Le Ly and Jay Wurts. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese
Woman’s Journey from War to Peace. New York: Plume, 1993.
A young girl’s account of her family’s harrowing struggle during a time of war
where one’s political loyalties defined one’s ability to survive and tested one’s
endurance and faith.
Mote, Sue Murphy. Hmong and American, Stories of Transition to a Strange Land.
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2004.
Mote’s interest in the Hmong community awakened through her work as a
reporter. In the introduction, Mote states, “My wish in writing this book is to
follow a few Hmong – friends, now – from their home world into the middle
forest of the tigers.” Through individual and community stories, Mote conveys
the enormity of change experienced.
Impact of Agent Orange
“Long-Term Consequences of the Vietnam War: Public Health.” Report to the
Environmental Conference on Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam.
www.nnn.se/vietnam/environ.htm
One of a series of reports produced from the 2002 Environmental Conference on
Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. An analysis of the long-term public health
consequences resulting from the Vietnam-American War.
“Long-Term Consequences of the Vietnam War: Ecosystems.” Report to the
Environmental Conference on Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam.
www.nnn.se/vietnam/environ.htm
One of a series of reports produced from the 2002 Environmental Conference on
Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. An examination of the long-term ecosystems
consequences resulting from the Vietnam-American War.
“Apocalypse Still, Robert Dreyfuss, January/February 2000, Mother Jones, 25, no. 1: 4251.
An assessment of the toxic consequences of Agent Orange on Vietnam’s social
and environmental landscape.
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Zumwalt, Jr., Admiral Elmo, and Lt. Elmo Zumwalt III. My Father, My Son. MacMillan
Publishing, 1986. Dell (reprint), 1987.
In 1968, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., commanded the U.S. naval forces in
Vietnam. He ordered the use of Agent Orange during a 3 year period, believing
that the defoliant would help make the rivers safer for his sailors. His son, Elmo
Zumwalt III, volunteered for riverboat duty during this time. Years later, he was
diagnosed with two different forms of cancer and died at age 42 in 1988. This
book is a collaboration between father and son.
Trafficking
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/madeinmisery/ Brad Wong’s expose, a series of
articles detailing the exploitation of garment workers and the escape of 12 women
from sweatshop slavery.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/28/opinion/28kristofcambodia.html?ex=1107579600&en=509c4c37eb37f2d7&ei=5070&oref=login&
ei=5070&en=eaa7 Nicholas D. Kristof’s series of Op—Ed articles on sex
trafficking in Cambodia.
Fiction
Doi Moi - Renovation
Huong, Duong Thu. Paradise of the Blind. New York: Perennial, 2002.
Previously banned in Vietnam. The focus is after the US – Vietnam War.
Growing up with her mother and aunt, Hang fights to survive in a northern village
and a Hanoi slum. Hang leaves Vietnam for Soviet Union as an export worker.
While there Hang is summoned to Moscow by her Uncle Chinh, who played an
integral role in imposing land-reform in their native village. In this novel we are
spectators to the role Communism plays in the lives of the villagers and Hang’s
family, and Hang’s struggle to moderate between tradition and a need for self
independence.
Huong, Duong Thu and et al. Memories of a Pure Spring. NY: Penguin, 2001.
Plot centers on Vietnam just before the end of the war and during Doi Moi.
Hung, the main character heads a wartime musical troupe that is sent to the front
to entertain the soldiers. His artistic career ends when he runs afoul with the
authorities. Subsequently, his marriage to singer Suong starts to falter. Frustrated
with his fate in life, Hung takes to opium, engages with prostitutes, resulting in
contracting venereal disease. Hung’s deteriorating life mirrors the erosion of
Vietnam.
Huong, Duong Thu. Novel Without a Name. NY: Penguin, 1996.
The after effects of the war are told from the perspective of a North Vietnamese,
Quan. His return to village confronts him with an understanding of the toll war
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has played on the lives of others and the sense of disillusionment felt as villagers
find that communism does not produce glorious results that they had hoped for.
This novel landed Huong in jail for seven months in 1991.
Ho, Anh Thai and et al. The Women on the Island. Seattle: University of Washington
Press, 2001.
Takes place in the 1980s during Doi Moi and explores the lives of female veterans of the
war, as well as men who came of age during the war and are confronted with the
contradictions of rebuilding Viet Nam.
Operation Babylift and Multiracial Children
Phan, Aimee. We Should Never Meet (stories). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004.
Weaving stories from Saigon, 1975 to current day “Little Saigon” in Southern
California, Phan dramatizes the story of eight characters as they intersect at
different times and places. The stories examine Operation Babylift and the
children of mixed descent, orphaned by the war, Americans and Vietnamese
whose lives were reshaped by the Vietnam-American War, and the refugees who
fled Vietnam yet struggle to define a sense of place in the U.S.
Voices from Vietnam
Ninh, Bao. Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam. New York: Penguin Group, Inc.,
1996.
From the voice of a North Vietnam veteran we are infused with the anguish of
Kien as he recalls the horror of the Vietnam-American war.
Khue, Le Minh. The Stars, the Earth, the River. Willimantic, Connecticut: Curbstone
Press, 1997.
Anthology of 14 stories. Each work sketches the experiences of those whose lives
were shaped by and after the Vietnam-American War.
Tran, Barbara, et. al., eds. Watermark, Vietnamese Poetry and Prose. Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania: Temple University Press, 1998.
Temple distributes this anthology for the Asian American Writers Workshop,
New York. The anthology adds many dimensions beyond the expected theme of
war. The aesthetic, humor, themes and issues reveal a maturity in this diasporic
community.
Karlin, Wayne and Ho Anh Thai. Love After War (Voices from Vietnam). Willimantic,
Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 2003.
Anthology of works by contemporary Vietnamese writers. Their stories lend
voice to current issues, struggles of everyday life in Vietnam.
Nguyen Du and Huynh Sanh Thong. Tale of Kieu. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1983.
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Vietnam’s epic national poem. Through the fate of Vuong Thuy Kieu the reader
learns the role that Confucianism plays in the Kieu’s life. For many, Kieu
represents the voice of the Vietnamese culture and spirit.
Life in America
Thuy, Le Thi Diem. The Gangster That We Are Looking For. New York: Knopf, 2003.
A narrated account of a Vietnamese refugee family’s adjustment to America. Life
begins after an escape from the sea. Pieced together are the stories of the narrator,
her family, and other Vietnamese refugees. We follow the accounts of their
struggles to find a sense of place in America, the narrator’s lingering need to
discover what her family left behind in Vietnam, and the resulting tensions that
arise from the hidden past.
Strom, Dao. Grass Roof, Tin Roof. Boston: Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
Tran, a Vietnamese writer who faces government persecution flees Vietnam
during the exodus of 1975. Accompanying her to the U.S. are her two children. In
the U. S. she marries a Danish American, a survivor of a different war. As the
story unfolds in America, the character development falters with the constant
shifting of characters and story lines. This causes some confusion about whose
story is being presented.
Other Novel Written by S. E. Asian Authors
Cao, Lan. Monkey Bridge. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
Cao is a law professor at William and Mary School of Law. Her novel explores the
interconnections between her own life as a young immigrant in the U.S. with the
experiences of her mother.
Khang, Ma Van. Against the Flood. Willimantic, Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 2000.
Highly controversial in Vietnam when first released because of its depictions of sex and
politics, it is the third in the series Voices from Vietnam. The characters in this modernday Vietnam experience conflicts and challenges in their jobs, the political culture and
their personal lives.
Nguyen Khai. Past Continuous. Willimantic, Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 2001.
Described as a documentary novel, Past Continuous follows the stories of three people
who were active in the National Liberation Front. Their lives during and after the war
reveal some of the issues in rebuilding Vietnam.
Tai, Ho Anh. Behind the Red Mist. Willimantic, Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 1998.
Tai is regarded as one of the most important writers of the post-war generation. Through
satire and surrealism, he explores and exposes many social tensions in post-war
Vietnam. “Behind the Red Mist” is a novella and is accompanied by a range of
short stories.
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Thiep, Nguyen Huy. Crossing the River. Willimantic, Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 2002.
Thiep’s anthology of short stories is a clear alternative to proletarian fiction during the
highly politicized years. Three of the stories have been made into films.
Thiep retells folk myths for their contemporary parallels. His characters often
demonstrate overcoming the difficulties of contemporary Vietnamese society.
Videos
Hearts & Mind, Peter Davis (1974) 112 minutes. A “classic” documentary
released while the public outrage against the Vietnam War was still fresh. Davis uses
both historical footage, as well as interviews to convey both the depth of feeling, the
confusion, as well as the collisions between values and priorities.
Story of Vinh. Keiko Tsuno (1990) 60 minutes. Vinh is an abandoned child of a
US Serviceman and Vietnamese mother. His experiences in foster care and trying to fit
in have many rough edges.
Kelly Loves Tony. Spencer Nakasako with Kane Ian “Kelly” Saeteurn and Nai
“Tony” Saelio (1998) 57 minutes. The video diary of Kelly and Tony portray the lives of
a young couple trying to negotiate the expectations of Iu Mien (Laos) tradition and the
possible opportunities in the U.S. through education and assimilation.
AKA Don Bonus. Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny (1995) 55 minutes. 18-year
old Ny creates a video diary that expresses his struggle to graduate from a San Francisco
high school and his family’s difficulties in adapting to the U.S.
Regret to Inform. Barbara Sonneborn (1998) 72 minutes. Companion website
www.regrettoinform.org/education With the help of Xuan Ngoc Evans as a translator,
Sonneborn visits Vietnam to try to understand the circumstances of her husband’s death
in combat in 1968. While there, she interviews other war widows and through their
shared pain of loss, they confront the purpose and meaning of war.
Refugee. Spencer Nakasako and Mike Siv (2002) 60 minutes. Mike and two
friends decide to try to reunite with family in Cambodia after having been separated for
twenty-two years. “A simple reunion becomes a journey of self-discovery, maturation
and acceptance, against a backdrop of war, broken families and long separation”
(www.naatanet.org).
Vietnam: After the Fire. J. Edward Milner (1988) two 53 minute episodes.
“Examines the extensive damage to the Vietnamese environment and people by the war,
including the bombing which cratered the landscape and left thousands of unexploded
bombs, and the use of defoliants such as Agent Orange which devastated the country's
eco-system and are now resulting in cancer and deformed births among the populace. The
program also shows Vietnam's environmental restoration efforts, including reforestation,
treating acid soil, and replacing wildlife.”
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-lô. M. Trinh Nguyen (1995) 20 minutes. Nguyen meditates upon the
socio-economic contradictions of her family history interweaving home movies and
traveling to visit relatives on a pedi-cab.
Letters to Thien. Trac Minh Vu (1997) 56 minutes. Thien Minh Ly, 24 years old,
was violently murdered in 1996 in Southern California. The murderers made casual
reference to having killed a “jap,” and the community struggles to confront the
classification of Thien’s death as racially motivated hate crime.
Daughter from Danang. Gail Dolgin (2002) 81 minutes. Mai Thi Hiep is one of
the mixed race children who is brought to the U.S. through Operation Babylift. Adopted
by a family in Tennessee, she is separated from her birth family for 22 years. Heidi goes
to Vietnam to reunite with her family only to discover painful cultural chasms.
www.daughterfromdanang.com
The Split Horn-Life of a Hmong Shaman in America. Taggart Siegel (2001) 60
minutes. Siegel has followed the life of Paja Thao over seventeen years, from his journey
from Laos to Wisconsin. The documentary is a close-up view of Thao’s family,
including his wife and thirteen children, as well as his spiritual leadership in the
community. As the children grow up, it becomes harder to stay immersed in the
traditional culture of their father.
Mai’s America. Marlo Poras (2002) 72 minutes. Mai is a teenage high school
exchange student who finds herself in rural Mississippi, a very different America from
what she had expected.
Amerasians. Erik Gandini (1998) 52 minutes. Based on interviews in Vietnam
and the U.S. with some of the more than 100,000 children of U.S. soldiers born to
Vietnamese mothers during the Vietnam War, with an emphasis on those who
immigrated under the Amerasian homecoming act of 1987. They talk of the
discrimination they experienced growing up in Vietnam, issues of identity and their
struggles to adapt to American society.
Children for Sale. Dateline NBC January 23, 2004. 43 minutes. An undercover
investigation of trafficking of Cambodian children, including American sex tourism.
Three Seasons. Tony Bui (1999). New Vietnam is the setting of this dramatic
film minus the benefits of Western reforms. The vignettes include a young country girl
hired to pick white lotuses for a poet ravaged by leprosy; a kindhearted cyclo driver who
falls for a proud young prostitute; a young orphan who wanders the streets of Saigon
selling Zippo lighters to tourists; and a Marine who scours the city looking for the
daughter he left behind during the war.
Precious Cargo, Operation Babylift. Janet Gardner (Filmmaker), Pham Quoc
Thai (Producer)(2001) 60 minutes. Operation Babylift is the last chapter of a war that
tore this country apart. Yet it is not quite over for more than 2,000 children airlifted from
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Vietnam in 1975 who were given love, education, but most importantly, a new beginning.
For the military, it seemed like a final act of redemption. To the government in Hanoi, it
was a propaganda ploy or a criminal act, tantamount to kidnapping. Other critics saw it as
a last effort by the U.S. government to win sympathy and financial support for South
Vietnam. But for most Americans, it was a final gesture in a war they wanted to forget.
Dancing Through Death: the Monkey, Magic & Madness of Cambodia. Janet
Gardner (1999). This is the story of Thavro Phim a Cambodian dancer, who came of age
under the Pol Pot regime and lost his father, brother and grandfather during the bloody
reign of the Khmer Rouge. Thavro's dedication to Cambodian Classical dance and to his
role as the magical white monkey kept him whole during the ordeal.
Cyclo. Anh Hung Tran (1996) 123 minutes. A young cyclo (pedicab) driver has
his bicycle stolen and becomes enmeshed in an underworld controlled by the “Poet,”
head of a crime ring.
The Vertical Ray of the Sun. Tran Anh Hung (2000) 112 minutes.
Tran Anh Hung, director of The Scent of Green Papaya, and Cyclo, presents a film that
examines the lives of an extended family that has been forged as a consequence of Lien,
Suong and Khan's (sisters) father's death. Deep secrets, however, tend to disrupt the
perceived tranquility of their daily lives.
Audio
“Hell No We Won’t Go.” Peter Knutson (1993) 74 minutes.
Peter Knutson recounts his anti-draft activism during the Vietnam War and his
expulsion as an undergraduate at Stanford University. His dramatic delivery is
accompanied by music.
Zumwalt, Jr., Admiral Elmo, and Lt. Elmo Zumwalt III. My Father, My Son. Santa Ana,
CA: Books on Tape, Inc., 1987.
In 1968, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., commanded the U.S. naval forces in
Vietnam. He ordered the use of Agent Orange during a 3 year period, believing that the
defoliant would help make the rivers safer for his sailors. His son, Elmo Zumwalt III,
volunteered for riverboat duty during this time. Years later, he was diagnosed with two
different forms of cancer and died at age 42 in 1988. This book is a collaboration
between father and son.
Museum
Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial. 9809 16th Avenue SW,
Seattle WA 98106. Dara Duong, Executive Director.
dara@killingfieldsmuseum.com
Tel/FAX 206-763-8088
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Exhibits include Cambodian artwork, also artifacts of the Killing Fields. Class
visits and presentations may be arranged.