This comprehensive review of the gulag system instituted in communist Vietnam explores the three-pronged approach that was used to convert the rebellious South into a fully-fledged communist country after 1975. last months of the war to their escape from Vietnam and explores the emotions that gripped them throughout their stay in the camps. Individual reactions to the camps varied depending on philosphical, emotional and moral beliefs. This reconstruction of those years serves as a memoir for all who were incarcerated in the bamboo gulags.

The biggest diaspora in Vietnamese history occurred between 1975 and 1992, when more than two million people fled by boat to escape North Vietnam's oppressive communist regime. Before this well-known exodus from Vietnam's shores, however, there was a massive population shift within the country. In 1954, one million fled from north to south to escape war, famine, and the communist land reform campaign. Many of these refugees went on to flee Vietnam altogether in the 1970s and 1980s, and the experiences of 1954 influenced the later diaspora in other ways as well. This book reassesses the causes...

Vietnamese make up one of the largest refugee populations in the US, some arriving by boat in 1975 after the fall of Saigon and others coming in the 1990s. This collection of 22 essays illuminates Vietnamese-American culture, views of freedom and oppression, and the issues of relocation, assimilation and transition for two million people.

The fall of Saigon in 1975 triggered an exodus of 2 million persons in search of freedom. "The Vietnamese Mayflowers of 1975" tells the experiences of a group of professionals who left their homeland under dire situations. Now well adjusted within a diverse American society, they identify themselves with the Mayflower pilgrims as they too crossed the seas in search of freedom. For anyone with an interest in Vietnam and her people, this book will be a source of information and inspirations. "The Vietnamese Mayflowers of 1975"is about growing up within a culturally vibrant South Vietnamese...

Throughout its 300-year modern history, Saigon has remained the unknown city of the Mekong Delta. This historical text examines the development of the city from 1698 to 2010, from the years as a Khmer village in the swampy and lush lands of the delta through its evolution into a huge, industrialized city. The book examines in detail the numerous political and cutltural transitions through the hands of the Chams, Khmers, Vietnamese, Chinese, French, Japanese, Americans, nationalists and communists. By way of Saigon's story, the story of the South Vietnamese is also told.

Our life is a reflection of the times we lived in. "The Vietnamese Mayflowers" is about growing up within a culturally and spiritually vibrant South Vietnamese society, about a uniquely challenging and enriching wartime medical education, about losing the only world and life that one ever knew, about surviving the rigors and humiliation of reeducation camps, about embarking onto dangerous and unpredictable odysseys, and most importantly about the poignant rebuilding of personal and professional lives. Humbled by chains of events beyond human comprehension, many referred to fate, providence,...

The field of legends has long been neglected by serious intellectual minds who have considered it to belong to the realm of children's literature. Legends, however, are a mirror of the culture that creates them, a revealing lens through which to observe society, religion, history, and traditions. This volume explores Vietnamese legends from 1321 to today--tales of gods, spirits, ghosts, giants, extraordinary individuals, heroes, common people, and animals; legends that have delighted both young and old for centuries. It explains the mores, thought processes, and religions that formed the...

The Battle of An Loc was one of the bloodiest battles in the Vietnam War and a defining moment in the history of the Republic of South Vietnam. A few square blocks tucked among vast rubber tree plantations, the provincial town was thought to be of little strategic value to the North Vietnamese. Yet for 66 days in 1972, it was the scene of savage house-to-house street fighting as artillery and mortar fire pounded the town daily until almost nothing was left standing. Facing three North Vietnamese infantry divisions, General Le Van Hung defended the town with 7,500 men, vowing to "die with An...