Thirty Years After Vietnam: UCLA's Amerasia Journal Publishes Commemorative Issue

September 14, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Russell C. Leong, editor (rleong@ucla.edu)

Thirty Years After Vietnam: UCLA's Amerasia Journal Publishes Commemorative Issue

UCLA Asian American Studies Center--Amerasia Journal announces the publication of a special 200-page issue (volume 31. number 2, 2005) which commemorates the 30th anniversary of the "Fall of Saigon" and "exodus from Vietnam." The issue is guest edited by Professor Yen Le Espiritu, professor of ethnic studies at UC San Diego, and Prof. Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo, who teaches globalization and Vietnamese Studies at UCLA. This special issue is useful for students, scholars, and for anyone who wants to understand the Vietnam war and the United States in a deeper way: what was the result of the loss of at least three million lives, the maiming of countless bodies, the poisoning of water, land and air, the devastation of most of Vietnam's infrastructure, and the emergence of the Vietnamese refugee diaspora today.

This issue,one of the most compelling in Amerasia's 35-year history, according to Russell Leong, Amerasia Journal editor, raises provocative new questions and asks readers the following:

• Who won the so-called Vietnam War--Vietnam, or the U.S.?
• Why is the Vietnam War always invoked when the U.S. media and politicians talk about Iraq and the Middle East?
• What do Vietnamese Americans themselves--scholars, writers, artists, and community persons, think of their past and future?
• How do Vietnamese Americans--both as survivors and successful people -- face the contradictions of the current-day U.S. foreign policy in relation to themselves and and others?

Ironically, as Prof. Espiritu states, "on the 30th anniversary of the "Fall of Saigon" the United States indeed seems to have 'won' the Vietnam War. Ten years after normalization of relations with Vietnam, the United States has emerged as Vietnam's top trading partner, and the two countries are moving to 'increase security ties through military-to-military contacts and intelligence co-operation." Within this New World order, "Vietnam appears to be well on its way to become yet another satellite regime of the United States."

Yet, according to the editors, the voices and bodies of Vietnamese people, before and after the war, "have not been accorded the same humanity and dignity given to American bodies." One example of this is the Vietnam War Memorial, commissioned to commemorate the U.S. soldiers who fought in Vietnam. In this memorial, the Vietnamese people themselves--either as victims or enemies--are simply absent.

The purpose of Amerasia's special issue therefore, is to present the voices, the figures, the expression, and the ideologies of Vietnamese people in the United States from an alternative perspective: one of remembering the past and re-examining the present. Vietnamese refugees in the United States during the past 30 years have been seen as, for the most part: 'successful, assimilated, and anti-communist." According to the editors, this positive view of that links economic success, democracy, and freedom of U.S. Vietnamese is today being used as a rationalization to justify continued U.S. military intervention in other parts of the world "in the service of defending and bestowing freedom."

How should Vietnamese and other Asian Americans respond to their being used as the "model minority" in relation to America's "terrorist enemies" today? This special Amerasia Journal provides analyses of various Vietnamese American perspectives on the past and the present: Fifteen scholars, writers, and activists contribute essays that examine Vietnamese American communities today--including local organizations and local politics, Vietnamese American film, literature, and art. Among the featured writers are: Lan Duong, Viet Le, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Fiona I.B. Ngo, Thuy Vo Dang, Loan Dao, Thu Minh Pham, and Brandy Lien Worrall-Yu.

A special Forum discusses Vietnam and the U.S. in relation to the current Middle East crisis and Iraq. Scholars John D. Blanco, George Dutton, Denise Ferreira Da Silva, Khatharya Um, and Lisa Yoneyama contribute to this Forum section.

Amerasia Journal may be purchased by sending a check made payable to "UC Regents in the amount of $15 (plus $4.00 shipping/handling, and 8.25% tax for California residents) to: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, Box 951546, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546. Visa, Mastercard, and Discover cards are also accepted; please include account number, expiration date, and your phone number. Inquiries for purchasing the book or for textbook discounts, contact Ming Tu at aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu or (310) 8250-2968.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE PURCHASING INFORMATION.

Annual subscriptions for Amerasia Journal are $35.00 for individuals, and $55.00 for libraries and other institutions. Amerasia Journal is published three times a year: Winter, Spring, and Fall.

Amerasia Journal
Volume 31, Number 2, 2005

Table of Contents

30 Years AfterWARd :
Vietnamese Americans & U.S. Empire
Guest Editors: Yen Lê Espiritu and Nguyên-Vo Thu-Huong

To Our Readers

Moment of Empire:
An Editorial Dialogue
Russell C. Leong & Brandy Liên Worrall-Yu

Introduction

Thirty Years AfterWARd:
The Endings That Are Not Over
Yen Lê Espiritu

Section I: Producing Cultures

Manufacturing Authenticity:
The Feminine Ideal in Tony Bui's Three Seasons
Lan Duong

The Art of War:
Vietnamese American Visual ArtistsDinh Q. Lê, Ann Phong and Nguyen Tan Hoang
Viet Le

Entering Linh Dinh's Fake House:
Literature of Displacement
Isabelle Thuy Pelaud

A Chameleon's Fate:
Transnational Mixed-Race Vietnamese Identities
Fiona I. B. Ngô 51

Section II: Moving Communities

The Cultural Work of Anticommunism in the San Diego Vietnamese American Community
Thuy Vo Dang

What's Going On with the Oakland Museum's
"California and the Vietnam Era" Exhibit?
Loan Dao

Section III: AfterWARd-A Forum

The Gothic Underside of U.S. Imperialism
John D. Blanco

Reflections on Two American Wars
George Dutton

A Tale of Two Cities:
Saigon, Fallujah, and the Ethical Boundaries of Empire
Denise Ferreira da Silva

The "Vietnam War": What's in a Name?
Khatharya Um

On the Unredressability of U.S. War Crimes:
Vietnam and Japan
Lisa Yoneyama

Section IV: Whose Memories?

My Mother's War
Thu Minh Pham

Legacies
Brandy Liên Worrall-Yu

Afterword

Forking Paths: How Shall We Mourn the Dead?
Nguyên-Vo Thu-Huong