Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home - Softcover

Bass, Thomas A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156947088X ISBN 13: 9781569470886

Publisher: Soho Press, 2003

Synopsis

A study of the plight of the Amerasian children, abandoned by their fathers in a xenophobic society that ostracized them, discusses their difficult lives, the impact of the Amerasian Homecoming Act, their repatriation to America, and their struggle in anunfamiliar society

About this title

Review:

The Vietnamese called the Amerasian children of U.S. servicemen bui doi, "the dust of life." Half American and half Asian, they had been abandoned by their fathers to a xenophobic society that ostracized them. Nor was the U.S. government anxious to acknowledge their paternity and accept responsibility - until the Homecoming Act opened the door to their immigration.

This poignant account renders the lives of these divided souls, resulting in an unflinching look at two countries, two cultures, and the legacy of a war that tore them both apart.

From Library Journal:

Left behind when South Vietnam fell in 1975, the children of Vietnamese women and American servicemen remain a deeply disturbing symbol of the racism rooted within both traditions. The Vietnamese term for these young people literally translates as "dust of life," a term which Bass (Reinventing the Future, LJ 11/1/93) demonstrates is apt. The United States has consistently mismanaged both the question of repatriation and the process of resettlement for those Amerasians who have managed to make it to the "Big PX." Bass offers anecdotal accounts of several Amerasians as they move from their surreal existence in Vietnam to life in a resettlement center in grimy and decaying Utica, New York. The firsthand descriptions are tragic and compelling and lack the happy ending so common to the hardship stories of other immigrants. Gripping as the individual biographies are, Bass's undisciplined writing detracts from his message. Certainly not the final word on the subject, this work will serve as a useful starting point.?John R. Vallely, Siena Coll. Lib., Loudonville, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 156947088X
• ISBN 13: 9781569470886
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278