This article explores the representation of cross-cultural love in the postwar narratives of Vietnamese women. The end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and Vietnam's reunification under a communist regime ...led to one of the most visible diasporas of the late twentieth century, in which more than two million Vietnamese left their homeland in order to seek refuge overseas. The main countries of resettlement were the United States, Australia, Canada and France. Vietnamese women in Australia who chose to marry outside their culture constitute a minority not only within the diaspora but also within Australian society and the Vietnamese Australian community. In contrast to the largely negative representations of cross-cultural relationships in novels and memoirs of colonial and wartime Vietnam, these women's accounts highlight underlying commonalities between themselves and their European partners such as a shared understanding of political asylum or war. The narratives of these women illustrate cross-cultural 'rencontres' that were made possible by the refugee or migration experience, and that signify a distinct shift in the representation of exogamous relationships for Vietnamese women. Oral history provides these women with the opportunity to narrate not only the self but also the interaction between the self and the other, and to frame and structure their experiences of intermarriage in a positive light.
This article interweaves the personal and archival by exploring the intersection of official Australian records on the fall of Saigon and government handling of Vietnamese refugees in 1975 with my ...family history. As transitional justice addresses the legacies of human rights violations including the displacement and resettlement of refugees in post-conflict contexts, Australian responses to the Vietnamese refugee crisis of 1975 provide a relevant case study. Drawing on a wide range of archival documentation at the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia, including policy papers, Senate findings, confidential cables, ministerial submissions, private correspondence and photographs, I trace the effect of government decisions on Vietnamese refugees seeking asylum. In the process I reveal actions by senior bureaucrats and in particular by then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam that are largely unknown. Combining archival research with personal history enables me to not only shed light on past actions of governance and uncover past injustice but also explore the enduring impact of government decision-making on individual lives.
War veterans of the former Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) form a significant component of the Vietnamese refugee and migrant community overseas and yet their experiences remain ...under-researched and under-explored, with their histories having been largely silenced in the wider historiography of the war and erased within the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This article draws on oral history interviews in order to reclaim some of these forgotten histories. In all, the post-war experiences of veterans who reconstructed new lives in Australia form a marked contrast with those of veterans who stayed in Vietnam. Oral history provides a rich source of personal testimony, and this article examines the veterans' formulation of their wartime memories and experiences, and identifies strategies developed by the veterans to deal with war, trauma, loss and migration.
In one of the major diasporas of the twentieth century, more than two million Vietnamese fled their homeland after the end of the Vietnam War. Among the least-known components of this diaspora are ...the former soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF). Their histories have been suppressed in Vietnam War historiography and erased in post-war Vietnam. Drawing on a new oral history project, this article seeks to address this imbalance in the historical record by exploring the narratives of two military doctors who served in front line units. Their stories convey their unique perspectives as medical professionals in combat situations. While their accounts reveal a series of traumas and losses, they also display a remarkable level of resilience and adaptability, illustrating both the commitment of well-educated officers in the RVNAF as well as the capacity of refugees to rebuild their lives in a new country.
The articulation of Kim Lefevre's and Kien Nguyen's difficult and traumatic chidhoods in wartime Vietnam in their respective books "Metisse blanche" (White Metisse) and "The Unwanted" are examined. ...They had Vietnamese mothers and Western fathers.
Looks at the narratives of 4 Vietnamese women who fled from their nation to live in Australia after the war ended. These women married non-Vietnamese men and began new lives. By looking at their ...narratives, seeks to understand their relationships with their past and with memory. Further, by taking non-Vietnamese husbands, asks in what ways this reflects a divorce from their past, including the traumas of their birth nation. Begins this approach by understanding what marriage, and especially cross-cultural marriage signifies to Vietnamese people. Adapted from the source document.
Moving beyond the Past Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh Chau
The Vietnam War in the Pacific World,
11/2022
Book Chapter
This chapter examines the service of second-generation Vietnamese Australians in the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The Vietnamese form the largest refugee community in Australia, growing from 1,000 ...people in 1975 to 277,400 people in 2016 or 1.2 percent of the Australian population. Australia has formally recognized the service of Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) veterans. As allied veterans, they are entitled to an Australian service pension and full membership of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL). Drawing on oral histories conducted in Australia in 2017–2018, this chapter argues that the narratives of second-generation Vietnamese Australian personnel reveal not only the ways in which they have interpreted their family histories and heritage culture and the role of the past in their decision to enlist in the military but also the advantages conferred to them by flexible bicultural identities. It analyses the concepts of gratitude, agency and belonging in relation to refugee histories in Australia.
Moving beyond the Past NATHALIE HUYNH CHAU NGUYEN
The Vietnam War in the Pacific World,
11/2022
Book Chapter
The top graduate at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in 2013 was a second-generation Vietnamese, Midshipman Nam Nguyen, the winner of the Commander in Chief Medal and the Megan Ann Pelly ...Perpetual Memorial Award.¹ Nguyen’s maternal and paternal grandparents came from northern Vietnam and formed part of the one million refugees who moved from the communist north to the republican south following partition in 1954. His paternal grandfather became an interpreter for the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) and was interned in the reeducation camp system for seven years after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, more than two million Vietnamese left their homeland and made new lives for themselves overseas, primarily in the United States, Australia, Canada, and France. It ...was one of the largest and most visible mass migrations of the late twentieth century. The scale of this diaspora was unprecedented in Vietnamese history. Although many left their country under traumatic conditions in the postwar years, an increasing number of overseas Vietnamese are traveling home. This article will explore the narratives of six Vietnamese women, and their perceptions of return journeys. The narratives form part of an oral history project conducted in Australia between 2005 and 2008. Women reflect on their memories of "home," and convey their experience of loss, displacement, and migration. For most, the return journey is an intensely emotional experience that enables women to reassess and modify their conception of home and homeland. Their narratives illustrate a clear disjuncture between past and present. Four of the six women have returned to Vietnam, but two have opted not to, and their accounts will reveal why. The author will review the literature on return journeys, and then proceed with an analysis of the women's narratives. Return journeys range from difficult early returns in the 1980s to the imaginary undertakings of those who choose not to travel back to Vietnam. The article will examine three factors: how women remember the past, how they negotiate the return journey, and the role of memory in their narratives.
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