Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War by Trin Yarborough

From the Publisher

Surviving Twice is a dramatic and moving human-interest nonfiction book, based on the true stories of what happened to five of the 100,000 or more Amerasian children born during the Vietnam War to American soldiers and Vietnamese mothers.

Although almost 4,000 books have been written about the Vietnam War, few even mention the tens of thousands of Amerasian children born during the conflict. This book adds important new information to the studies of the war as the 30th anniversary of the war’s end (April 30, l975) approaches. Written by journalist Trin Yarborough with help from a Rockefeller Fellowship, it is based on extensive interviews with the Amerasians, as well as other research. The first half of Surviving Twice deals with the Amerasians’ first struggles to survive in Vietnam after l975, when many were abandoned to orphanages or the streets, grew up in extreme poverty, and were the victims of racial, class, and political prejudice. Half-black Amerasians were treated especially badly.

In l987, returning U.S. members of the first commercial post-war tours to Vietnam drew media attention to the masses of young Amerasians living homeless in the streets, and pressured Congress to pass the Amerasian Homecoming Act. Under this Act, Amerasians were given the opportunity to come to the U.S. and bring close relatives or caregivers. Fraud quickly swamped the program as Vietnamese hoping to leave the country lavished the now teenaged Amerasians with sudden affection and lavish gifts, trying to persuade the teens to take them to America as false relatives. The second half of Surviving Twice is about the Amerasians’ struggle to survive in America, where most hoped to find their U.S. fathers, about whom many held life-long fantasies. Majorities of the Amerasians were illiterate, unskilled, and unable to speak English. They also suffered from physical and emotional problems, including post traumatic stress disorder. Their fake families quickly abandoned most of them, and soon they were left to deal with a new country and culture with very few sources for help. Many became homeless or turned to crime. Suicides were not uncommon. Some survived and assimilated; many did not.

Surviving Twice raises significant questions about how mixed-race children born of wars and occupations are treated and the ways in which the shifting laws, policies, social attitudes, and bureaucratic red tape of two nations affect them their entire lives

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents