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Indochina's Refugees: Oral Histories from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam

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Stories that American have been reluctant to listen to-non-American participants' stories of the horrors of the Vietnam War itself, of escape from new but undemocratic countries, of conflict-ridden adjustment...personal details about the effects of the war...Scott's collection is prefaced by a dramatic frontispiece, a painting by a Vietnamese artist that depicts boat people on the high seas, titles "A people forced to go a dangerous drama across feats of darkness and turbulent seas in favor of freedom." Collected from Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese in Philippine refugee camps in October 1985 [through] May 1 1986, these twenty-five stories are the testimonies closest in time to many of the events they describes. Scott identifies empathetically with the refugees' search for "the freedom land," as well as with those who failed to come here. In lengthy appendices, she provides maps of the Laotian reeducation camps and memorializing lists of those who have disappeared in them. Pictures of the refugees in the Philippine camps supplement the written stories. Some narratives are told by camp advisors; some are presented by "Name Withheld." While one story was given to Scott "in perfect English," others were told only through an interpreter. Scott presents her subjects' narratives entire, occasionally segmented by asterisks, with provocative titles ("The Hope of Ho Chi Minh Is Fallen Now") and with brief headnotes characterizing the individual or the historical situation. The narratives are occasionally quite long; almost all are organized chronologically... Here is Khamsamong Somvong, a former first lieutenant in the Royal Lao army: "In the seminar camp there were a few men who were Communists. They were there to execute the policy of the Politburo. And it was they who decided who should be killed in the camp. We were supposed to respect the Party only. If one of the Communists said, `This is red,' we had to say, `Yes, this is red.' If we said, `No, this is black,' we would be killed. So I lived a very hard life in there. I saw many people killed before me."--Oral History Review 21/2 (Winter, 1993)

Indochina's refugees, who in jungle death camps felt the chill of the heart or saw life turn cold in crowded boats, give their harrowing stories in this collection

These 22 memoirs focus on life after the Communist victories of 1975 and escape by land or sea. The stories are all from refugees at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center who have not yet reached the United States. They are an older group of survivors from a wide range of backgrounds. Each story is preceded by comments by the author on the storyteller or on life in and outside the Processing Center. Appendices listing the names of inmates in four "seminar" camps in Laos are included. Recommended for most libraries.--Library Journal, August 198

In this volume, Joanna Scott shares the personal stories of nine Lao, four Khmer, and nine Vietnamese refugees whom she interviewed at the Philippine refugee Processing Center between October 1985 and May 1986. "The one thing they had in common, both with their fellow-countrymen and their fellow Indochinese, was a fervent passion for freedom that overwhelmed their mourning for a lost country." The book is divided into three sections, "Vietnam-Land of the Boat People," "Cambodia-Land of the Killing Fields," and "Laos-Land of the Seminar Camps." The refugees speaking in this book come from all walks of life and include teachers, military officers, a Buddhist monk, a housewife, a farmer, an artist, and a student. Their stories not only relate their personal ordeals in surviving, but also provide their unique perspectives and details about the political situations of their countries. One Lao refugee even reveals information about American POWs still incarcerated in various areas of Vietnam. Another Lao refugee describes the sorry fate of the Lao Royal Family and includes a photograph of the king and queen in a seminar camp. A map of seminar camps in the Viengxay area of northern Laos and four lists (compiled from memory) of those who were incarcerated in the camps are also included in this publication.

Scott provides the readers with a perspective which is totally new. I have never read a book which focused on the people who loved in Indochina before, during, and after the Vietnam war. Scott has interviewed people from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in order to find out what life was like during the war and how it has been for them since the Communist takeover in that region. Most of her interviews were conducted in Philippine refugee camps with people who have fled their homes because of the repression and persecution, and are trying to emigrate to the United States. The refugees' accounts, on the whole, indict the Communists as being liars interested only in maintaining their power over Indochina. Each refugee has a different story about how he/she has been treated; however, all agree that the situation is so bad that they must flee. The book is informative since a lot of Americans have not thought about Indochina since the United States pulled out in 1975. Scott, by using these oral histories, fills in the gaps. I encourage adolescents and teachers to read the entire book. If the readers do not have the time to do this, then they should at least read a couple of the refugees stories from each country. Scott has succeeded in providing some original historical research on a group od people who might otherwise have been forgotten. - VOYA, Feb. 199

Since the flight of South Vietnam in April 1975, and the subsequent waves of refugee peoples from Southeast Asia, researchers have attempted to capture the horror of the flight experienced by refugees from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The transition necessitated by flight from one's homeland, including treacherous trips by land and sea, and stories of atrocities experienced by Indochinese refugees, rapidly filled the world's papers and periodicals. Even so, the magnitude of separation from one's family, the treatment by national government in refugee camps, and the uncertainty of one's final destination had never been fully investigated in one volume; not until now, that is. Scott's book is an attempt to relive the experiences of the refugee people from their own point of view. In that regard, the book listens carefully to the refugee voices and provides for the reader sufficient background in order to best comprehend, as much as one can, the reality behind the stories and the humanness of the persons involved in the retelling. The book is full of anger, pain, horror, and the emotion of the refugees' stories without compromising historical accuracy. The book also provides a greater composite of stories than has been presented previously in the literature. Interviews, for instance, with Vietnamese refugee people include conversations with persons who left the country illegally, as well as with persons who are part of the Orderly Departure Program. Interviews involving Cambodians deal with Pol Pot's regime, the initial camps inside Thailand, and the transfer to camps in the Philippines. The book provides insight into the migration of peoples who have been displaced by war, brutality, and injustice which is difficult for those outside the region to fully understand, while maintaining its academic integrity. It is honest in admitting apparent contradictions, or at least gaps in a few stories, but documents well the stories gathered and the persons involved in the narratives. This is a rare book in that it has the ethos of the participants without diminishing the historical record and the data foundation of the stories. Of the countless number of books beginning to appear containing interviews with Indochinese refugees, this is by far the most balanced, best written, and most historically accurate. I recommend it highly for those interested in the refugee movements from the academic point of view, and for those who are practitioners in the field of refugee assistance. It will serve both groups well without patronizing either of them.--Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 3 No. 1

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