Week 1_Raymond Trinh_ASA 150

Raymond Trinh

Professor Valverde

ASA 150 

In Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugee, the author Yen Le Espiritu explores further the term “refugees”. Espiritu, states “The conjoined term ‘refuge(es)’ is meant to encapsulate this symbiotic relationships: that refuge and refugees are co-constitutive, and that both are (by) product of U.S. militarism-what I term ‘militarized refuge(es)’". Overall, this book argues that the figure of the Vietnamese refugees and their grateful beneficiary of the U.S. “ gift of freedom” is the result of the recovery of American identities and the shoring up of U.S. militarism in the post Vietnam War era. Majority of Americans believe that they have rescued these South Vietnamese refugees from the way. However, many Americans never understood and recognize the difficulties and challenges that refugees had to face post war. This book can also make connections of what we discussed in lecture about the Vietnam War. CIA operatives rounded up any communist or suspected communist individuals for interrogation or execution. However, many refugees internalize the “gift of freedom” from the United States due to their lack of information what the United States involvement was. Furthermore, Espiritu explores the importance of various refugee’s stories before and after the Vietnam war. 

How can we stop people from rewriting history about the Vietnam War? (For example: When former President Obama dialogue about the Vietnam War) 

Le Espiritu, Ye. " Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees".2014