Southeast Asia

The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars  by Andrew X. Pham, Harmony (2008)  Author’s Father This book is about the life of Pham Van Thong, the father of the author, Andrew X. Pham. The book describes Thong’s childhood in North Vietnam during the 1940s and 1950s, and his adulthood in South Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s. So you get to see what life was like under the French, the Japanese, Viet Minh and the South Vietnamese government. The chapters alternate between his c

Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes  by Chantha Nguon, Algonquin Books, 2024.  Khmer Rouge The author,  the daughter of a Khmer mother and a Vietnamese auto mechanic father, had a comfortable, middle-class childhood in Cambodia. That is, until the Khmer Rouge came to power. The Khmer Rouge persecuted non-Khmer ethnicities, such as Vietnamese and Chinese. Interestingly, the preceding ruler, Lon Nol, had also persecuted these ethnicities. But the

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge  by Chanrithy Him, W. W. Norton Company (2001)  Expulsion of Urban Elite The city dwellers were removed from the cities. The Khmer Rouge steal anything of value that the city people have, such as watches and jewelry. The author and the other females of her family were separated from the male members of their family by the Khmer Rouge, which then killed the male members. Becoming Peasants The women and girls were taken

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers  by Loung Ung, HarperCollins (2000)  Timeline April 1975 Khmer Rouge ent4r cities and tells residents the the United States will bomb the city., They must evacuate to th countryside for a few days. The Khmer Rouge stole their watches. The Khmer Rouge tells her family about the Angkar, the Organization, to which they must be loyal. They are sent to the countryside to be with the "base people", the peasants. They ar

A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam  by Neil Sheehan, Vintage, 1988.

Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam  by Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, University of North Carolina Press, 2012.  Viet Minh The Communist Party of Vietnam was called the Viet Minh. They promoted both Vietnamese nationalism and Communism. They fought to expel both the Japanese (during World War II) and the French (after World War II). South Firsters It was not a majority of the North Vietnamese communist party (the Viet Minh) that wanted to convert Sout

Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam  by H. R. McMaster, Harper Perennial, 1998.  Escalation This is a detailed description of how the administration of LBJ got involved in a ground war in Asia without ever explicitly deciding to do so. Contempt for the Military Another theme is that the civilians had contempt for the military men and tried to keep them out of the loop. The civilian politicians s believed that bra

The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family  by Duong Van Mai Elliott, Oxford University Press, 2000.  North Vietnam It was fascinating to read the author's description of the changes following the arrival of the French. But the problems caused by the French were mild compared to the Japanese invasion during World War II. Northern Vietnam endured a famine during the winter of 1944-1945, primarily due to this invasion. At least four hundred thousand

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey  by Pascal Khoo Thwe, Harper Perennial, 2002. Between the Shan State and the Karen State He was born in 1967 in Phekhou, which is between the Shan State and thee Karen State. Education But he also has exposure to Western culture because he was educated in Roman Catholic schools. In 1984 he went to college in Mandallay. Here he studied English, history and literature. Because of his interest in literature, he met John Casey, a l

I Little Slave: A Prison Memoir From Communist Laos  by Bounsang Khamkeo, Eastern Washington University, 2006.  Laos There are several different ethnic groups living in Laos. Lowland Lao (Theravada Buddhists), who speak the Lao language, which is similar to the Thai language. Lao Theung, on the mountain slopes, who speak a Mon-Khmer language, the language group of Vietnamese and Cambodian. Lao Soung, on the mountain tops, who speak Hmong.  Author's Education The author, Bouns