Patrina Tern -- Week 4

            When reading this book, I found it interesting that people from the United States actually went to Vietnam during the war. I knew there were activist but I did not think that they would risk being in the midst of a war. I am surprised they were able to survive to tell their stories. With the election and Trump winning presidency the issue of immigration has come to play within Southeast Asian communities and other ones as well. There are many families torn apart from the recent activities with Immigration and Custom Enforcements showing up to people’s home and taking away people’s mothers, fathers, uncles and other relatives. People are fighting hard to prevent this by vocalizing. I have come across many articles amongst social media platforms that were narratives of Cambodian youth expressing their grief from being torn from their parents or grandparents. Many may think this issue only affects the Latino community because of the spotlight Trump has put on their community but it affects all immigrants of all color. In addition, what really struck is the feminist movement during the time, how women from the U.S. were rising up to go against the War because they felt for their “Asian sisters,” I found that to be such great timing with the present time in which women all around the U.S. marched together. Uniting even from different cities, marching for their rights. As a woman myself, even though the women involved in activist work for the war was not women of color I still felt empowered that they stood up for what they believed in. They took a stand for all women and look where we are now, although we may have a bigot as a President, women are resilient and showing what we are made of. A question I had was, what did the author mean, when they stated that the American’s decision to fight in a hot war was from the context of the Cold War? How did the women get involved in the activist work, did their husbands disagree with their work? Who gave them permission to fly into Vietnam especially since it was so risky?