While working through Trin Yarborough's book Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War and Chung Hoang Choung's and Le Van's (California) study on Amerasians from Vietnam, I've already come across a number of salient themes as well as citations and resources about Vietnamese Amerasians that I had not included in my original minuscule bibliography.
Since American servicemen had occupied Viet Nam between 1961 and 1975, the contemporary Vietnamese Amerasians history and experience extends at least 50 years. My study aims to trace this history in somewhat of a similar chronological order, starting with the relationships between troops and Vietnamese women to the poverty and hardships faced by Amerasians in the U.S. and Viet Nam today.
However, resources will be added to each "unit/time period" as this blog progresses and it goes without saying that some themes including racial prejudices, U.S./Viet Nam power dynamics, exploitation of Amerasians, poverty, assimilation/ loneliness/ and suffering, and most of all relationships extends well beyond the boundaries of historical time periods.
"UNITS" are approximately equivalent to the topics I will attempt to address weekly starting with unit one but again, as I find more resources, the units will be extended.
Also, although I attempt to maintain some "academic integrity" in the conventional understanding of the term, I am a subjective individual (and anthropology student) with ties to this area of study and feel deeply for the lives of people affected by this issue, therefore I will not hide behind a facade of distance and objectivity.
Unit1: Introduction: The Amerasian.
Unit 2: History and Context: Fathers-- the American Minority Military Men.
David, Jay and Crane, Elaine. The Black Soldier: From the American Revolution to Vietnam. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1971. Print.
Nalty, Bernard. Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military. London: The Free Press, 1986. Print.
Terry, Wallace. Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans. New York: Random House, 1984. Print.
Unit 3: History of Interracial Relationships Between Vietnamese Women and American Men: How, Why, and When They Met.
Chuong, Chung Hoang and Van, Le. The Amerasians from Vietnam: A California Study. San Francisco State University. 1994.
Yarborough, Trin. Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War. 2006. Washington D.C. :Potomac Books. Print.
Unit 3A: Aftermath of Interracial Relationships Before and After the Fall of Saigon/ Treatment of Amerasians in Viet Nam.
DeBonis, Steven. Children of the Enemy: Oral Histories of Vietnamese Amerasians and Their Mothers. North Carolina: McFarland, 1995. Print.
Unit 4: History of Interracial Relationships Between AmerAsians and Vietnamese Peoples in Viet Nam.
Unit 5: The Journey Between Viet Nam and the U.S.
Unit 6: History of Interracial Relationships Between AmerAsians and Pure Vietnamese/ U.S. Americans in the United States.
Unit 7: Fathers and Mothers Today.
Unit 8: Dual Identity, Dual Citizenship.
Overarching themes: Race/ Ethnicity/ Prejudice/ Loneliness
