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

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These 22 memoirs focus on life after the Communist victories of 1975 and escape by land or sea. Unlike the accounts in The Far East Comes Near: Autobiographical Accounts of Southeast Asian Students in America ( LJ 7/89), the stories in this book 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. Appendixes listing the names of inmates in four "seminar" camps in Laos are included. Recommended for most libraries.
- Charles R. Bryant, Yale Univ. Libs.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

This poignant collection of oral histories tells the stories of nine Laotians, four Cambodians and nine Vietnamese: what their lives were like before 1975, what happened after the Communist takeover that made them decide to flee their native countries, and how they escaped. The storytellers (housewife, Amerasian child, schoolteacher, government clerk, military officer, security agent, Buddhist monk, artist) create a broad and moving picture of the new realities of contemporary Indochina.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (July 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899504159
• ISBN-13: 978-0899504155
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,782,157 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Favor Of Freedom, July 19, 1997

By A Customer

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)

5.0 out of 5 stars Harrowing Stories, July 19, 1997

By A Customer

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

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for Most Libraries, July 19, 1997

By A Customer

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