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A Vietnamese American discusses his traditions, heritage, culture, and pride in his identity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I Am Vietnamese American
The author speaks through the voice of a boy, Tran, giving information about his family name, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnam War, refugees, Buddhism, the Tet New Year celebration, and food.He celebrates his familyheritage and the America he lives in.Unfortunately, the picture captionon Buddhism erroneously states that they "worship the Buddha".Otherwise, the book fills a need for younger children to read about acontributing culture of our diverse America. ... Read more

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Centrie studies the identity formation of 20 Vietnamese high school students.Vietnamese students have a strong pro-school identity that arises from their immigrant or refugee experiences.The Vietnamese thus become model minorities in the eyes of therir teachers.Vietnamese male students stressed that their perception of freedom was closely linked to going to school and college.They also reported abuse by American students.Vietnamese female identity also centered on their refugee or immigrant experiences.Women, however, were less likely than men to have clear plans for the future, created an ideology of romance around Vietnamese males, and struggled to balance traditional female roles with American ideas gender equality.Vietnamese families and community also contribute to the student’s pro-school identity by strictly enforcing Vietnamese cultural attitudes. ... Read more

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Vietnamese first came to the United States as refugees in the 1970s, after the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese Americans, written by a former Vietnamese refugee, is the only in-depth resource especially for students and general readers with a solid introduction to Vietnam, the history of Vietnamese immigration, and a forthright analysis of Vietnamese Americans' struggles to forge a better future. As their adjustment process is chronicled from the perspectives of the family and ethnic community, the label of the model minority is debunked to reveal both minor economic successes and serious problems such as high school dropouts and gang activity. With the increasing emphasis in the curriculum on Asians and the debates on new immigration, The Vietnamese Americans provides an essential component to understanding the evolving ethnic mosaic in this country. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Vietnamese Americans
Hien Duc Do provides a good account of vietnamese americans. To often they are reduced to stereotypes like the model minority or poor boat people, however there is obviously more than that to vietnamese americans. Do covers issues of vietnamee history anbd culture especially important considering the american involvement in vietnam. It looks at how vietnames have come to this country as refugees and as immigrants. Do deals with the prejudice that vietnamese have faced such as conflicts in states like louisanaia and texas when they entred the fishing industry as well as problems with other minority groups like hispanics and blacks over goverment resources. There is a good deal of information about the generational conflicts between first and second generation vietnames who differ in areas like language and values. It looks at problems like mental health that are not dealt with all that much in the vietnamese community Do does cover the model minority issue discussing school achievement and looks at how above average poverty rates among vietnamese.

Culture, Community and Ethnic Identity
This book covers a brief history of Vietnam, Vietnamese people, of their heritage and culture.Discussed how the Vietnamese came to America more than thirty years ago as refugees and have created their own community that is now interwoven into the fabric of the American society.The author examines the Vietnamese community through their political participation, social issues such as education, community development, cultural preservation and economic survival. ... Read more

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Trieu explores the ethnic identity formation of second-generation Chinese-Vietnamese. Many Chinese-Vietnamese Americans grew up questioning which ethnicity they belonged to. By disentangling the experiences of Chinese-Vietnamese Americans from the Vietnamese Americans, Trieu reveals the distinctions that exist because of socioeconomic indicators and the adaptation process. An examination of the factors affecting ethnic identity formation reveals the importance of context in the social construction of racial and ethnic identity. Findings show that while these second-generation members are in the preliminary stages of assimilation, cultural and structural contexts still influence their paths. Trieu argues that delving within ethnic categories yields internal differences in modes of adaptation and provides a significant nuance to the studies on the second-generation. ... Read more

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"To Bear Any Burden is necessary to understand the most significant aspect of the Indochina wars: the human one."- Tran Van Dinh, author of Blue Dragon White Tiger: A Tet Story

"At least this reader would like to spend hours if not days talking to each of the people within these pages."- Jack Reynolds, Network Correspondent, NBC

The 48 American and Asian veterans, refugees, and officials who speak in this book come from widely divergent backgrounds. In their narratives we hear them reliving crucial moments in the preparation, execution, and aftermath of war. It is a riveting, eyewitness account of the war and also reclaims from this tragic continuum larger patterns of courage and dedication. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

First rate war stories on Vietnam
This book reviews the aftermath of the Vietnam-U.S. war in a down to earth tone and it's impact on the people who's involvement in the war are explained in detail.Personally i like this book because of its content which voiced out the real opinion of the one involved in the war no matter whether they're the allies or enemies.It's a great book to those who wants to know more about the Vietnam war and its aftermath.

Great and significant book
This book is worth reading for anyone interested in the history of the Vietnam War.
It is a collection of forty-eight short recollections from a wide variety of Americans and Vietnamese involved in the war, or the country, from the late 50's to the 80's.It also touches on Cambodia and Laos.Each recollection is from one-half to six pages long, and may cover one short event, or several years' experience in the country.
The book deceptively starts out slowly, and it is only with continued reading that one discovers that within this chosen group of recollections are many of the great truths of politics and military conflict in South Vietnam.
The essays cover the fatal flaws inherent within South Vietnam, which include the long history of being a colony of France, without France taking any steps to prepare the country for independence, such as training civil servants or encouraging the rule of law through local rulers.Once independent, South Vietnam was fragmented on religious lines.The civil leaders were corrupt, engaged in nepotism, and did not relate well to the peasants.South Vietnamese military leaders were promoted not on merit, but by family ties and the size of the bribes they paid to the government.For political reasons, the military zone around Saigon was intentionally unorganized and inefficient.
The geography of South Vietnam -- having all its territory within easy reach of Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam -- made it a very difficult land to defend from an enemy with safe sanctuary so close to crucial areas.This book does not mention the oppressive acts of the South Vietnamese government, which helped alienate its citizens.The book seems to understand, if not almost excuse, wrongful acts by US soldiers.
The US tactics also contributed to defeat:rules of engagement tied the military's hands in senseless ways (a SAM base couldn't be attacked under construction, but pilots had to wait until it was operational);rotating inexperienced officers through Vietnam to "punch their combat ticket" was more important than retaining experienced officers and advisors who often "got it" just before being rotated out;the battle for "hearts and minds" was often ignored;and years were wasted on ineffective strategy, until home protests compelled withdrawal.
And, yes, North Vietnam really was an oppressive regime which used terror and lies to achieve its goals.
Any discussion of Vietnam brings up many "what if's?"What if South Vietnam had a more appealing and legitimate government?What if US politicians hadn't used such ineffective strategy and tactics?Is there ANY scenario which would have resulted in a long-term stable and secure South Vietnam?
If you're at all interested in the field, this is a book well worth searching out.

Superb! Riveting!
Al Santoli's book, To Bear Any Burden, is a narrative of stories told by 47 Americans, Vietnamese (both North and South), and Cambodians regarding their experiences before the US involvement, during the US war, and the war's aftermath (after the departure of US troops). Each tale (from two to 10 pages in length) is riveting in itself. The book moves in relative chronilogical order beginning in 1954 and concludes with the present (circa 1985). Each tale is successfully interwoven with the next story such that there is a cohesiveness and a logical flow to the story telling timeline.

Some of the stories are quite stunning:from the description of US soldiers being called baby-killers and spat on after they returned to the US [difficult to comprehend in this patriotic post 9/11 world] to the horror stories of the Communist regimes in Cambodia and in North/South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon [after reading theses stories, one should question why the US would want to establish ties to Vietnam].

This "straight from the hip" narrative is recommended to anyone wishing to learn more about the scenes from a participant's point of view.

Extrodinary, The second time through.
Moving and extreme reality

A "must-read" classic of America's involvement in SE Asia
I first read To Bear Any Burden when it was originally released in 1985. This has been a 'must-read' classic of American involvement in Southeast Asia since it was published. For it, Santoli interviewed, in depth, 47individuals representative of that involvement from 1945 into the1980s--Americans, Viet-Namese (communists and anti-communists), Cambodiansand Laotians. The book is so artfully compiled as to flow like a singlenarration; yet the 'cast of characters' are separate in time, space,culture and social rank--an entire spectrum from ambassadors to villagers,soldiers to politicians, in one volume. No ones education about theViet-Nam War is complete unless they've read this book. ... Read more

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This in an interdisciplinary curriculum and resource guide for Vietnamese Americans, with lessons in history and experiences of Vietnam and Vietnamese Americans. It includes a historical overview, timelines, maps, lesson plans, a glossary, a bibliography and resources. ... Read more

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In this eloquent account, Patrick Du Phuoc Long discusses why so many children of Indochinese refugees who fled to the U.S. after the Vietnam War are turning to gang life. Du Phuoc Long interweaves the true stories of Indochinese youths with his personal experiences as a trusted counselor to Vietnamese children. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

the untold stories of a generation of Vietnamese refugee youth
One of the few books out there that capture the stories of Vietnamese refugee youth that turned to a life of gangs. The author covers the plight of the Vietnamese boat refugee population, Amerasians, and the general struggle to find themselves growing up in poverty. A great read for anyone; especially those that grew up with friends and family that were impacted by gang violence. The author focuses on San Jose because he was a counselor at one of the Ranches.

Disturbingly Real
Long, a counselor at a juvenile detention center in California, discusses the rise of Viet Namese gangs across the US.The book is essentially a lengthy illustration essay that employs narrative accounts of numerousadolescents and their families.Long provides through his firsthandexperience, a frightening but sympathetic glimpse at one of the untoldresults of the war that turned a generation upside down.It is a storyfilled with cruelty and abandonment on both an individual and a nationallevel.Perhaps the most valuable component of this study is the actualdialogue between Long and his wards.Long is engaging and wise, and thewords of his "clients" are often terrifying and explicit.

One of the most insighful books I've ever read.
The author not only addressed the problem, but also showed how he helpssolve it.He shows the pain these youth go through so poignantly.I workwith vietnamese refugee youth and this book taught me so much in how thevietnamese family works and how to adress certain problems.this isprobably the most down to earth book i've ever read. It's definatly easy toread too. ... Read more

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"Perspectives" is designed for young independent readers. The series combines core non-fiction features with an emphasis on research skills. "My Amazing Body" correlates with the science curriculum and helps students to understand the connection between humans and animals. Using magnified photographs, the basic life processes about how the human body works and comparisons with other living things are explained. The books introduce the idea or looking at the body inside and outside. ... Read more

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Thirteen visual and fifteen literary pieces from fifteen different members of the Vietnamese Artists Collective, who create and support multi-genre work from artists of Vietanamese descent in the San Francisco Bay Area.Among contributors are Thien Huu Nguyen, Sylvia Quan La, Veanne Cao, Tan Khanh Cao, Han Ngoc Pham, Phung Thi Chinh, Anh-Hoa Ti Nguyen, Jimmy Thong Tran, Dandiggity, Alisha D. Nguyen, Yimi Tong, Ill Vinh Ngo, and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Information, but not in the best format
This is an interesting way to get information about the waves of Vietnamese immigrants to America. It would be good for a report on the subject. There are many essays by different authors and sometimes the information overlaps between the authors, which can be slightly annoying, but the writing style among all essayists is good. The book chapters are divided into time frames beginning with right after the fall of South Vietnam through the present and we learn the differences between the people during each of those following periods. I wish there had been photos, but there were not. It is a good book, but it could have been better.
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The Vietnamese refugee experience calls attention to issues commonly raised by migration: the redefinition of group relations, the reformulation of identity, and the reconstruction of social and musical life in resettlement. Fifteen years ago, Adelaida Reyes began doing fieldwork on the musical activities of Vietnamese refugees. She entered the emotion-driven world of forced migrants through expressive culture, learned to see the lives of refugee-resettlers through the music they made and enjoyed, and, in turn, gained a deeper understanding of their music through knowledge of their lives. In "Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free", Reyes brings history, politics, and decades of research to her study of four resettlement communities, including refugee centers in Palawan and Bataan, the early refugee community in New Jersey, and the largest of all Vietnamese communities Little Saigon, in southern California's Orange County.Looking closely at diasporic Vietnamese in each location, Reyes demonstrates that expressive culture provides a valuable window into the refugee experience.Showing that Vietnamese immigrants deal with more than simply a new country and culture in these communities, Reyes considers such issues as ethnicity, socio-economic class, and differing generations. She considers in her study music of all kinds performed and recorded, public and private and looks at music as listened to and performed by all age groups, including church music, club music, and music used in cultural festivals.Moving from traditional folk music to elite and modern music and from the recording industry to pirated tapes, Reyes looks at how Vietnamese in exile struggled, in different ways, to hold onto a part of their home culture and to assimilate into their new, most frequently American, culture. "Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free" will attract the attention of readers in Asian-American studies, Asian studies, immigration studies, music, and ethnomusicology. Author note: Adelaida Reyes is a leading ethnomusicologist and Professor Emerita of Music at New Jersey City University. During her years of teaching at Columbia University, she led the development of urban ethnomusicology as a field of study. ... Read more

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"A tremendously important contribution to the study of gender and migration with its focus on the oft-ignored topic of masculinity."-Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, author of Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes"This book should be required reading for anyone with an interest in transnationalism, migration, cross-border marriages, or postwar Vietnamese diaspora."-Nicole Constable, author of Romance on a Global Stage: Pen Pals, Virtual Ethnography, and "Mail Order" Marriages "A beautifully conceptualized and fascinating book."-Barrie Thorne, University of California at BerkeleyMarriage is currently the number-one reason people migrate to the United States, and women constitute the majority of newcomers joining husbands who already reside here. But little is known about these marriage and migration streams beyond the highly publicized and often sensationalized phenomena of mail-order and military brides. Less commonly known is that most international couples are immigrants of the same ethnicity. In For Better or For Worse, Hung Cam Thai takes a closer look at marriage and migration, with a specific focus on the unions between Vietnamese men living in the United States and the women who marry them. Weaving together a series of personal stories, he underscores the ironies and challenges that these unions face. He includes the voices of working-class immigrant men speaking about wanting "traditional" wives and young Vietnamese college-educated women, who express a preference for men of the same ethnicity but with a more liberal outlook on gender-men they imagine they will find in the United States. Thai captures the incompatible viewpoints of the couples who appear to be separated not only geographically but ideologically. Hung Cam Thai is an assistant professor of sociology and Asian American Studies at Pomona College. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses the history and political conditions of Vietnam and examines the situation of Vietnamese refugees, their immigration, socialadjustments, employment, and contributions to Americanculture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

MUST HAVE for young Vietnamese Americans!!!
If you are a Vietnamese American and immigrated to America before you turned 10 years old, this book is a must have.

Ever wonder why your parents offered only terse replies (e.g., why do you want to talk about such bad times?) when you asked them about the war and the boat ride?Or why your older siblings (who prolly have thicker accents than you when you speak English) just don't understand why you are more Americanized than them?

Trust me, once you read it you'll come to understand your family and other Vietnamese people much more fully.

Oral Histories of Vietnamese Refugees
Fourteen different Vietnamese describe their lives and experiences in Vietnam and the United States.The narrators include soldiers, a Buddhist nun, a Catholic Priest, teachers, merchants, and a poet. They tell their stories in a 400 page book covering a period from 1906 to 1985.This is a virtual history of the tortured country and people of Vietnam.

Most of the oral histories describe experiences during the war with the Americans, life under the communists, escapes from the country, and resettlement in the United States.Interspaced among the oral histories are intelligent essays by the editor who labored long and hard to understand the experiences of his Vietnamese informants and to put them in a comprehensible academic framework. "Hearts of Sorrow" is an apt title for the tone of most of these accounts.

There are a number of books about Vietnamese refugees in the United States.This is one of the best.

Unforgettable experience.
This is the story of 14 Vietnamese who had escaped Vietnam after the end of the war and came to reside in the USA. The author had spent a long time interviewing them and penning down their stories.

After the war, these people were ready to "accommodate to the communist life style" when they realized they were harassed then thrown into concentration camps where they had to endure punishment and revenge for years and years. Even after release from the camps, they were watched closed, lost their human rights and were returned to jails at the slightest infraction. Unable to live under this suffucating environment, they escaped abroad.

An ex-colonel detailed his incarceration in a northern camp where 12 inmates out of 500 died of dysentery (a curable form of intractable diarrhea) and others hunted for and ate mice and crickets "raw" in order to survive. He was then transferred to a Nghe An camp where he was forced to collect human wastes with his bare hands to be used as fertilizers and was not allowed to wash his hands before having supper. After one week of such treatment, all inmates in his company gave up resistance.

This is a fascinating book, which although published in 1989 remains an important contribution to the Vietnamese American literature and folklore. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Note to Vietnam Tourists
I bought this for my husband, who served in Vietnam,after a recent tripthere. He said it is fascinating reading for anyone who has visited or plans to.

Articulating Feelings I Could Never Express
I listened to Nguyen Qui Duc's long running radio show "Pacific Time" for its 7 year run and was heart broken during its close.Researching more about the host of this show, I realized he wrote a series of poems, stories, and hosted several literary events.I immediately scoured the web to find a copy of this book and managed to get an autographed one through Amazon.

Having grown up in America with a very traditional family while living in a Westernized environment, I often felt the tug between the two worlds.Although I do retain a lot of the traditional side of things, it was always difficult for me to relate to the old stories that my parents always told.

Although I still have very different views from my parents and grandparents, Duc's ability to articulate much of what I have felt my whole life but never yet able to express and has made my journey to find myself easier.

expressive of compassion for Vietnam and its people
The author, having grown up in an uppler-class family with aristocraticscholarly roots in the central region, thus gives another perspecitve tothe Vietnam experience.His father, Nguyen Vän -Dãi (pen name Hoàng Liên),was a high-ranking civil servant who oversaw the central region from hisoffice in Danang.During the Tet Offensive of 1968 in Hue, where thefamily had come to visit the author's grandparents, the father was takenaway by the communists.Transferred from one prison camp to another fortwelve years, he was finally released and reunited with his wife who hadstayed behind in Vietnam to care for their mentally-ill daughter, whoeventually died.The author, who had left VN in 75 at seventeen, wasreunited with his parents in 1984.In 1989, the author returned to Vietnamon a radio assignment, and only in the last chapter before the epiloguedoes he tell of his visit.The book is more about the story of his familyfrom 1968 onward than a personal memoir.The writing is direct, notsentimental, rough at times, but always expressive of compassion forVietnam and its people.His love for the land of his birth allows him tobe objective against the opposing political viewpoints that are expressedironically all in the name of "loving the country."Though he isgrateful to be live in the land of opportunity, he maintains a wariness ofthe excessiveness, cold routine, and "green-lawn" conformity ofAmerican society.In the epilogue he writes:"I know that my notionsof my homeland are romanticized.But I am also aware of the difficulties Iwould face if I were to return to live and work in Vietnam.And yet, howcould I not yearn for the open and gracious ways of the Vietnamese, fromcity folks to villagers, who smile and share with me everything from foodto time and wisdom?How could I not be drawn to a people whose foremostquality is their ability to sustain unceasing hardship and loss, all thewhile retaining hope and faith and dignity?How could I not be drawn to apeople whose dark-humored cynicism can also easily blossom into radiantinnocent?How could I not be drawn to a people who can easily laugh in themidst of their own misery?I miss it all so deeply, and I want it allback, yet I know that going home and staying there is nearlyimpossible."He closes with, "Perhaps I will come to accept lifein America.In the end, it is imperfect, and it will always remain so, forto me it is not home.But it will be the place where my parents have founda home, and the place where my parents were given back to me.As forVietnam--perhaps I should be content that it may one day be the home of mychildren.It may be they who, in the future, will welcome me back there. And they will know, they will know, to bring my ashes home."Thislast wish of his is probably futile, but I can share in his feelings abouthis predicament: always longing for Vietnam yet knowing one can never livethere but always feeling that the US is not one's true home.One exists ina floating exile-like state, not self-imposed or politically-imposed, butimposed by the circumstance. ... Read more