ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES
Vietnamese American Experiences
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Has leaving Vietnam as refugees impacted what it means to be Vietnamese American?
Chapter objectives
- Learn about how and why Vietnamese refugees came to the United States in relation to the Vietnam-American War and postwar conditions in their homeland.
- Understand how the experiences and memories of Vietnamese refugees shape the political stances of the community.
- Explore the complexity of a community’s history through different sources such as community archives, poetry, and public art.
The Vietnamese American experience challenges us to rethink narratives about history, identity, and power. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this chapter explores and examines the lasting effects of US militarism and empire, and the impact of refugee resettlement and community building. It also engages understanding, analysis, and critical thinking about the Vietnam War and its impact from the lens of Vietnamese Americans. Beginning with an overview of Vietnam’s history prior to the Vietnam War—also called Cuộc Kháng chiến chống Mỹ (The Resistance War Against America) and Chiến tranh Việt Nam (The Vietnam War)—this chapter profiles the Vietnamese as evacuees, “boat people” refugees, and immigrants; and later as Vietnamese Americans, survivors, heroes, and contributors to the American story.
Modules in this chapter
An Introduction to Vietnamese Americans
The Vietnam-American War
The Vietnamese Refugee Exodus
Building Community in “Little Saigon”
Politics and Remembrance in the Vietnamese American Community
An Introduction to Vietnamese Americans
The Vietnam-American War
The Vietnamese Refugee Exodus
Building Community in “Little Saigon”
Politics and Remembrance in the Vietnamese American Community
Chapter Sources
Aguilar-San Juan, Karin. Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Bradley, Mark Philip. Vietnam at War. London: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Bui, Timothy Linh, dir. Green Dragon. Columbia Pictures, 2001. 115 minutes.
Chan, Sucheng, ed. The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation: Stories of War, Revolution, Flight and New Beginnings. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.
Chiang, S. Leo, dir. A Village Called Versailles. ITVS, 2009. 67 minutes.
Duong, Lan, and Isabelle Thuy Pelaud. “Vietnamese American Art and Community Politics: An Engaged Feminist Perspective.” Journal of Asian American Studies 15, no. 3 (October 2012): 241-269. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2012.0034.
Espiritu, Yên Lê. Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees. Oakland: University of California Press, 2014.
Espiritu, Yên Lê. “Toward a Critical Refugee Study: The Vietnamese Refugee Subject in US Scholarship.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1, no. 1–2 (2006): 410–433. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/vs.2006.1.1-2.410.
Freeman, James M. Changing Identities: Vietnamese Americans 1975-1995. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995.
Grooms, Anthony. Bombingham. New York: One World/Ballantine Books, 2001.
