Face of the Enemy: An American Asian's War in Vietnam and at Home

Face of the Enemy: An American Asian's War in Vietnam and at Home PDF Author: David O. Chung
Publisher: BookLocker.com, Inc.
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Face of the Enemy is not your run-of-the-mill memoir. The second son of a mixed-race family of mainly Asian descent was challenge enough. His father’s American values were overpowered by his mother’s enforcement of the traditional Chinese culture of her homeland. His home life couldn’t have been more dissimilar than the culture of 1960s Chicago that was just outside his front door. Out on the streets, his Asian face said, “I’m not one of you.” At home, his status as the Number Two son said, “I am a servant.” Chung, Doc to his friends, quickly learned that he had two identities, and that he was trapped in between them. He had to fight, many times with his fists, to discover where his place was in his own country. The Vietnam War was winding down when Chung joined the Air Force. As a transportation specialist for the United States Air Force in Vietnam, he made sure aircraft delivering supplies were loaded and balanced properly. How much trouble could there be? Plenty, as he discovered. Many of his American comrades in arms viewed him with suspicion. He had the face of the enemy. The Vietnamese took one look at his American uniform and knew he was not one of them. After coming home from Vietnam, Doc found his own country struggling to move on from an unpopular war. The public blamed the veterans, some of whom were struggling with the demons they had brought home with them. The only defense from the public shaming was for veterans to hide in plain sight. Uniforms were packed away. Nightmares weren’t talked about. The only thing that remained the same for Doc was the racism and bigotry. How do you overcome having the face of the enemy? How do you free yourself from the jaws of a trap that is part of who you are? Doc found the answer in saying yes. Saying yes to joining a fledgling company called Federal Express. Saying yes to joining veterans groups to help change the way Vietnam veterans were treated. Saying yes to the journey of driving the Vietnam Women’s Memorial across the country to Washington DC. Saying yes to a position in the Veterans Affairs Office in Washington DC. Saying yes to changing his own life through helping others. This is a memoir of an ordinary man with an extraordinary conviction to change the status quo, first through activism, and then through an uncanny understanding of how to navigate the bureaucratic obstacles of the United States government.

Face of the Enemy: An American Asian's War in Vietnam and at Home

Face of the Enemy: An American Asian's War in Vietnam and at Home PDF Author: David O. Chung
Publisher: BookLocker.com, Inc.
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
Face of the Enemy is not your run-of-the-mill memoir. The second son of a mixed-race family of mainly Asian descent was challenge enough. His father’s American values were overpowered by his mother’s enforcement of the traditional Chinese culture of her homeland. His home life couldn’t have been more dissimilar than the culture of 1960s Chicago that was just outside his front door. Out on the streets, his Asian face said, “I’m not one of you.” At home, his status as the Number Two son said, “I am a servant.” Chung, Doc to his friends, quickly learned that he had two identities, and that he was trapped in between them. He had to fight, many times with his fists, to discover where his place was in his own country. The Vietnam War was winding down when Chung joined the Air Force. As a transportation specialist for the United States Air Force in Vietnam, he made sure aircraft delivering supplies were loaded and balanced properly. How much trouble could there be? Plenty, as he discovered. Many of his American comrades in arms viewed him with suspicion. He had the face of the enemy. The Vietnamese took one look at his American uniform and knew he was not one of them. After coming home from Vietnam, Doc found his own country struggling to move on from an unpopular war. The public blamed the veterans, some of whom were struggling with the demons they had brought home with them. The only defense from the public shaming was for veterans to hide in plain sight. Uniforms were packed away. Nightmares weren’t talked about. The only thing that remained the same for Doc was the racism and bigotry. How do you overcome having the face of the enemy? How do you free yourself from the jaws of a trap that is part of who you are? Doc found the answer in saying yes. Saying yes to joining a fledgling company called Federal Express. Saying yes to joining veterans groups to help change the way Vietnam veterans were treated. Saying yes to the journey of driving the Vietnam Women’s Memorial across the country to Washington DC. Saying yes to a position in the Veterans Affairs Office in Washington DC. Saying yes to changing his own life through helping others. This is a memoir of an ordinary man with an extraordinary conviction to change the status quo, first through activism, and then through an uncanny understanding of how to navigate the bureaucratic obstacles of the United States government.

In Buddha's Company

In Buddha's Company PDF Author: Richard A. Ruth
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824860853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
In Buddha’s Company explores a previously neglected aspect of the Vietnam War: the experiences of the Thai troops who served there and the attitudes and beliefs that motivated them to volunteer. Thailand sent nearly 40,000 volunteer soldiers to South Vietnam to serve alongside the Free World Forces in the conflict, but unlike the other foreign participants, the Thais came armed with historical and cultural knowledge of the region. Blending the methodologies of cultural and military history, Richard Ruth examines the individual experiences of Thai volunteers in their wartime encounters with American allies, South Vietnamese civilians, and Viet Cong enemies. Ruth shows how the Thais were transformed by living amongst the modern goods and war machinery of the Americans and by traversing the jungles and plantations haunted by indigenous spirits. At the same time, Ruth argues, Thailand’s ruling institutions used the image of volunteers to advance their respective agendas, especially those related to anticommunist authoritarianism. Drawing on numerous interviews with Thai veterans and archival material from Thailand and the United States, Ruth focuses on the cultural exchanges that occurred between Thai troops and their allies and enemies, presenting a Southeast Asian view of a conflict that has traditionally been studied as a Cold War event dominated by an American political agenda. The resulting study considers such diverse topics as comparative Buddhisms, alternative modernities, consumerism, celebrity, official memories vs. personal recollections, and the value of local knowledge in foreign wars. The war’s effects within Thailand itself are closely considered, demonstrating that the war against communism in Vietnam, as articulated by Thai leaders, was a popular cause among nearly all segments of the population. Furthermore, Ruth challenges previous assertions that Thailand’s forces were merely "America’s mercenaries" by presenting the multiple, overlapping motivations for volunteering offered by the soldiers themselves. In Buddha’s Company makes clear that many Thais sought direct involvement in the Vietnam War and that their participation had profound and lasting effects on the country’s political and military institutions, royal affairs, popular culture, and international relations. As one of only a handful of academic histories of Thailand in the 1960s, it provides a crucial link between the keystone studies of the Phibun-Sarit years (1946–1963) and those examining the turbulent 1970s.

To Bear Any Burden

To Bear Any Burden PDF Author: Al Santoli
Publisher: Dutton Books
ISBN: 9780525243274
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
" To Bear Any Burden is necessary to understand the most significant aspect of the Indochina wars: the human one." -- Tran Van Dinh, author of Blue Dragon White Tiger: A Tet Story "At least this reader would like to spend hours if not days talking to each of the people within these pages." -- Jack Reynolds, Network Correspondent, NBC ..". remarkable insight into the human aspect of the war." -- Library Journal The 48 American and Asian veterans, refugees, and officials who speak in this book come from widely divergent backgrounds. In their narratives we hear them reliving crucial moments in the preparation, execution, and aftermath of war. It is a riveting, eyewitness account of the war and also reclaims from this tragic continuum larger patterns of courage and dedication.

"Face of the Enemy"

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Comic books, strips, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description


A Report on Asian Pacific Islander Veterans

A Report on Asian Pacific Islander Veterans PDF Author: Vet Center Asian Pacific Islander Veterans Working Group
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Asian Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description


Letters from Vietnam

Letters from Vietnam PDF Author: Dennis Hoy
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1543498671
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Letters from Vietnam is the memoir of a Vietnam War army infantryman, based on letters he wrote home to his new wife and his parents that give an on-the-ground view of combat, and a soldier's life beyond combat, through the eyes of a Silver Star recipient.

Invisible Enemies

Invisible Enemies PDF Author: Edwin A. Martini
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Drawing on a range of sources, from White House documents and congressional hearings to comic books and feature films, this text shows how the United States continued to wage war on Vietnam 'by other means' for another 25 years.

A Companion to the Vietnam War

A Companion to the Vietnam War PDF Author: Marilyn B. Young
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405172045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
A Companion to the Vietnam War contains twenty-four definitive essays on America's longest and most divisive foreign conflict. It represents the best current scholarship on this controversial and influential episode in modern American history. Highlights issues of nationalism, culture, gender, and race. Covers the breadth of Vietnam War history, including American war policies, the Vietnamese perspective, the antiwar movement, and the American home front. Surveys and evaluates the best scholarship on every important era and topic. Includes a select bibliography to guide further research.

The Psychological War for Vietnam, 1960–1968

The Psychological War for Vietnam, 1960–1968 PDF Author: Mervyn Edwin Roberts III
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700625836
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
The Psychological War for Vietnam, 1960–1968, for the first time fully explores the most sustained, intensive use of psychological operations (PSYOP) in American history. In PSYOP, US military personnel use a variety of tactics—mostly audio and visual messages—to influence individuals and groups to behave in ways that favor US objectives. Informed by the author’s firsthand experience of such operations elsewhere, this account of the battle for “hearts and minds” in Vietnam offers rare insight into the art and science of propaganda as a military tool in the twentieth century. The Psychological War for Vietnam, 1960–1968, focuses on the creation, capabilities, and performance of the forces that conducted PSYOP in Vietnam, including the Joint US Public Affairs Office and the 4th PSYOP Group. In his comprehensive account, Mervyn Edwin Roberts III covers psychological operations across the entire theater, by all involved US agencies. His book reveals the complex interplay of these activities within the wider context of Vietnam and the Cold War propaganda battle being fought by the United States at the same time. Because PSYOP never occurs in a vacuum, Roberts considers the shifting influence of alternative sources of information—especially from the governments of North and South Vietnam, but also from Australia, Korea, and the Philippines. The Psychological War for Vietnam, 1960–1968, also addresses the development of PSYOP doctrine and training in the period prior to the introduction of ground combat forces in 1965 and, finally, shows how the course of the war itself forced changes to this doctrine. The scope of the book allows for a unique measurement of the effectiveness of psychological operations over time.

Our Year of War

Our Year of War PDF Author: Daniel P. Bolger
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306903245
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Two brothers--Chuck and Tom Hagel--who went to war in Vietnam, fought in the same unit, and saved each other's life. They disagreed about the war, but they fought it together. 1968. America was divided. Flag-draped caskets came home by the thousands. Riots ravaged our cities. Assassins shot our political leaders. Black fought white, young fought old, fathers fought sons. And it was the year that two brothers from Nebraska went to war. In Vietnam, Chuck and Tom Hagel served side by side in the same rifle platoon. Together they fought in the Mekong Delta, battled snipers in Saigon, chased the enemy through the jungle, and each saved the other's life under fire. But when their one-year tour was over, these two brothers came home side-by-side but no longer in step--one supporting the war, the other hating it. Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and his brother Tom epitomized the best, and withstood the worst, of the most tumultuous, shocking, and consequential year in the last half-century. Following the brothers' paths from the prairie heartland through a war on the far side of the world and back to a divided America, Our Year of War tells the story of two brothers at war--a gritty, poignant, and resonant story of a family and a nation divided yet still united.