From my teaching and research, I have compiled some of my favorite readings, films, artists, and online archives. These resources can be used as teaching materials for courses on Vietnam War or Vietnamese American refugees, or as an introduction to the complex history of the war and its impact upon diverse Vietnamese and Vietnamese American communities. This list is a work in progress, and I will continue to update it with new materials and useful resources I have used in the classroom with students. In sharing this list, I also strive to recenter the narrative of the war from the perspective of Vietnam and its diaspora from 1954 to 1986 (and even to present day).
Historiography and Debates about the Vietnam War
Memory & History from Vietnamese Perspective
- Nha Ca, Mourning Headband for Hue: An Account of the Battle of Hue, Vietnam 1968 (1970) (translation by Olga Dror, University of Indiana Press, 2014).
- Nguyen Thi Dinh. No Other Road to Take [Không có đường nào khác]. Translated by Mai Elliot. Data paper No. 102. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1976.
- Truong Nhu Tang, A Viet Cong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and its Aftermath (New York: Vintage, 1985).
Understanding and Challenging the Capital ‘H’ History of the Vietnam War
- Goscha, Christopher, Vietnam: A New History. New York: Basic Books, 2016.
- Bradley, Mark. Vietnam at War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Bradley, Mark, and Marilyn Blatt Young, eds. Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars: Local, National, and Transnational Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. (Introduction)
Between History and Memory
- Schwenkel, Christina. The American War in Contemporary Vietnam: Transnational Remembrance and Representation. Tracking Globalization. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.
- Arnold-de Simine, Silke. Mediating Memory in the Museum: Trauma, Empathy, Nostalgia. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
- Ly, Boreth. “Of Performance and the Persistent Temporality of Trauma: Memory, Art, and Visions.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 16, no. 1 (2008): 109–30.
- Um, Khatharya. “Exiled Memory: History, Identity, and Remembering in Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian Diaspora.” Positions 20, no. 3 (June 20, 2012): 831–50.
- Nora, Pierre. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire.” Representations, no. 26 (April 1, 1989): 7–24.
- Ho-Tai, Hue-Tam. “Faces of Remembrance and Forgetting,” in The Country of Memory: Remaking the Past in Late Socialist Vietnam, pp. 167-195.
- Eisner, Rivka Syd. “Performing Pain-Taking and Ghostly Remembering in Vietnam.” The Drama Review 56, no. 3 (Fall 2012): 58-81.
- The Collective Memory Reader, Ed. Olick, Jeffrey K., et. al. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Trouillot, Michele-Rolph. “The Power in the Story.” In Silencing the Past. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2015 (2nd Revised Edition). pg. 1-30
Vietnamerica: Diasporic Storytelling
Nam le’s the boat
http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/ – Interactive website, multimedia story based on Nam Le’s The Boat
matt huynh’s cabramatta
Literature, Novels, Poetry on Post-War Vietnam & Vietnamese-America
- DVAN’s Vietnamese American Literature Reading List
- Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam. Riverhead Books Reprint, 1996
- Hồ Anh Thái. Women on the Island
- Nguyễn Huy Thiệp. The General Retires
- Duong Thu Huong, Paradise of the Blind. New York: William Morrow, 1993.
- Linh Dinh, Love Like Hate. Seven Stories Press
- Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer: A Novel. Grove Press, 2015
Arts, Film, Graphic Novels, Multimedia
- Sad Song of Yellow Skin (1970) by Michale Rubbo (Film)
- Run, Walk, Cha Cha (Short Film) by Laura Nix (The New York Times) about Paul and Millie Sao (2019)- Read the story here: nyti.ms/2Q4i78c
- A Lotus in a Sea of Fire (Exhibition) and The Boat People (Short Film) by Tuan Andrew Nguyen
- First Generation (Short Film) by Jeannie Nguyen, Andrew Yuyi Truong, Loan Hoang (2018)
- No Crying at the Dinner Table (Short Film) by Carol Nguyen (2019)
- Sigh Gone (Short Film) by Jeannie Nguyen, Andrew Yuyi Truong, Nau Pham (2018)
- “The Vietnam War: 1945-1975” (Murals, Interactive Online Presentation) at the New York Historical Society by Matt Huynh
- Nailed It (Documentary) by Adele Free Pham and Center for Asian American Media
- PAPER BELLS BY PHAN NHIÊN HẠO TRANSLATED BY HAI-DANG PHAN, 2020 (Poetry Collection)
- Tran, G.B. Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey. Ballatine Group, 2013
- Bui, Thi. The Best We Could Do. Abrams, 2017
- Truong, Marcelino. Translated by David Homel. Saigon Calling: London 1963-75. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017
- Truong, Marcelino. Translated by David Homel. Such a Lovely Little War: Saigon 1961-1963. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016
Artists to Follow
- Matt Huynh – Illustrator, animator
- Tuan Andrew Nguyen -Director
- Jeannie Nguyen – Director, Writer
- Susan Lieu – Performance artist, producer, activist
- Andrew Yuyi Truong – Cinematographer
- Carol Nguyen – Filmmaker
Archives, Oral History Projects, Resources
- PBS Storycorps “First Days in America” Project (collaboration with StoryCorps and American Experience)
- Read and Listen to My Interview with My Mom (Vietnamese)>
- Vietnamese in the Diaspora Digital Archive (ViDDA)
- UCI Vietnamese American Oral History Archive
- Virtual Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University
Publications, Journals, New Media
- Ajar Press – Vietnamese/Southeast Asian independent publisher
- Diacritics.org – arts & culture in the Vietnamese diaspora
- DVAN (Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network) and see DVAN’s Thorough Vietnamese American Literature Reading List
- Vietcetera Website | Videos
Cindy A. Nguyen 