Maps

	a historical map of North and South Vietnam that shows the 17th Parallel
	physical map of Vietnam (used in the IN FOCUS series)
	ethnic map of Vietnam (used in the IN FOCUS series)
	political map of Vietnam (used in the IN FOCUS series)
	Southeast Asia (elevation)
	Southeast Asia (political)
	Asia (political)

12 Recommended Books

Jamieson, Neil L. Understanding Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

Jamieson paints a portrait of twentieth-century Vietnam. Against the background of traditional Vietnamese culture, he takes the reader through the saga of modern Vietnamese history and Western involvement in the country, from the coming of the French in 1858 through the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Throughout his analysis, Jamieson allows the Vietnamese to speak for themselves through poetry, fiction, essays, newspaper editorials and reports of interviews and personal experiences.

Hayslip, Le Ly. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman’s Journey from War to Peace. New York: Penguin, 1990.

This book explores the author’s childhood in Ky La and her return to Vietnam in 1986 to search for the family she had left behind.

Boudarel, Georges and Nguyen Van Ky. Hanoi: City of the Rising Dragon. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2002.

For many Westerners, Hanoi evokes memories only of war and bitter loss. But Hanoi is much more than the capital of Vietnamese communism. Ancient seat of the royal house, then center of the French colonial empire in Indochina, and finally birthplace of Vietnamese independence, Hanoi is today a thriving urban center with a rich history all its own. Georges Boudarel and Nguyen Van Ky paint a vivid portrait of a city that is now awakening to the modern era. Together they reveal Hanoi in its myriad facets, from the aromas of its traditional cuisine to its destruction in wartime to the modern era of motorcycles and movie theaters. Part history, part paean, this book takes us into the heart of a city just emerging from the storms of the twentieth century.

Thomas, David, ed. As Seen by Both Sides: American and Vietnamese Artists Look at the War. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.

A catalogue for an exhibition of the same name. The exhibition was curated by C. David Thomas and organized and circulated by the Indochina Arts Partnership. Lucy Lippard and David Kunzle selected the American work. The Vietnamese work was selected by David Kunzle, William Short, Lois Tarlow and C. David Thomas with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture in Hanoi and the Fine Arts Associations in Hanoi, Hue, DaNang, and Ho Chi Minh City.

McLeod, Mark W. and Nguyen Thi Dieu. Culture and Customs of Vietnam. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Readers will find that this is the only general book on Vietnamese culture in English written by specialists. McLeod and Nguyen, historians specializing in Vietnam engagingly show the various forces of Vietnamese culture in narrative chapters on the land, people, and language; history and institutions; thought and religion; literature; art and architecture; cuisine; family, marriage, gender, and youth culture; festivals and leisure activities, and performing arts.

Nguyen, Phong Thuyet and Patricia Shehan Campbell. From Rice Paddies and Temple Yards: Traditional Music of Vietnam. Danbury, CT: World Music Press, 1991.

An in-depth look at the music and culture of Vietnam, written by one of the foremost scholars and performers of traditional Vietnamese music.

Duong Thu Huong.  Paradise of the Blind.  Perennial: New York, 1993.

The first Vietnamese novel ever translated and published in North America. Duong Thu Huong creates a devastating portrait of three women fighting to maintain their dignity in a society that expects ever greater sacrifices from them. At the center of the novel is Hang, a young woman forced to grow up too fast in the slums of Hanoi and the turbulence of modern Vietnam. The intoxicating beauty of the Vietnamese countryside, the hunger, the pride, the endurance of ordinary Vietnamese people confronted with the hypocrisy and corruption that surround them - all of these elements are found in this novel.

Unger, Ann Helen and Walter Unger. Pagodas, Gods and Spirits of Vietnam. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

This book reveals through text and illustrations the extraordinarily varied and prolific religions of Vietnam. Despite decades of government discouragement of all religion, the deeply anchored faiths of the Vietnamese people have continued to flourish. In most guide books, Vietnam is described as a Buddhist country; but in contrast to their neighbors in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, the Vietnamese follow a Buddhism that is far from pure. The faith and its teachings were taken over from India about 2,000 years ago, but Vietnamese Buddhism was mingled with more ancient indigenous ancestor cults and spirit beliefs suitable to local customs and needs. Other strains were also absorbed: elements of Hinduism as well as the teachings of Confucius and Taoism. The text explains this complex situation and shows how the great number of beautiful, serene religious buildings throughout the country reflect the multiple strands of the country's religious fabric.

Ashwill, Mark A. and Thai Ngoc Diep. Vietnam Today: A Guide to a Country at a Crossroads. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 2005.

Vietnam is faced with pressing political and economic problems but is full of promise and potential. This book provides a broad picture of Vietnam, past and present, and addresses the defining issues and trends of today.

Cooper, Nicola. France in Indochina: Colonial Encounters. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001.

The period of French colonial rule in Indochina spanned some ninety years and not only did it witness France's Fourth Republic's first experience (and loss) of colonial war, it also exemplified the often contradictory representations and perceptions of imperial identity, colonialism and the legacy of the 1789 Revolution. Framed by political, ideological and historical developments and debates, each chapter develops an intriguing socio-cultural account of France's own understanding of its role in Indochina and its relationship with the colony. The author brings together striking images from colonial expositions, metropolitan fiction, travel journalism, world exhibitions, popular song, gendered and familial representations as well as film to reveal the confusion over imperial identity that prevailed in France until the eve of the Second World War.

This authoritative work provides an important re-evaluation of French Indochina and its legacy.

Dinh, Do Duc. Vietnam-United States Economic Relations. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 2000.

This detailed book is divided into three chronological periods (War period 1945-1975, Embargo and Sanctions period 1975-1995, and Normalization period after 1995).  In the first section discussion includes: economic aid, trade, and investment from the US to South Vietnam.  In the second section: the US embargo and the impact of on Vietnam.  In the third section: economic cooperation, and the history of the influx of American products.

SarDesai, D. R. Vietnam Past and Present (3^rd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.

Examines the normalization of U.S.-Vietnamese relations, Vietnam's policy of economic liberalization, the role of industrialized nations in the globalization of Vietnam's economy, and Vietnam's growing participation with the Allied countries of the Pacific region. A new chapter on the Vietnamese-American community in the United States is also included.

6 Recommended Films

Indochine (1992)

Regis Wargnier's epic is set during the French occupation of Southeast Asia in the 1930s. Catherine Deneuve plays a plantation owner who searches for her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camille (Linh Dan Pham)            after the young woman falls in love and becomes a communist revolutionary. "This intimate and tautly scripted work interweaves layers of deep affection with stirring historical details of 30s French Indochina, maintaining throughout an unshakable tension of a world about to change" (Toronto Festival of Festivals). Winner of the 1992 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Quiet American (2002)

Saigon, 1952, a beautiful, exotic, and mysterious city caught in the grips of the Vietnamese war of liberation from the French colonial powers. New arrival Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an idealistic American aid worker, befriends London Times correspondent Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine). When Fowler introduces Pyle to his beautiful young Vietnamese mistress Phuong (Hai Yen) the three become swept up in a tempestuous love triangle that leads to a series of startling revelations and finally - murder. Nothing, and no one, is as it seems, in this adaptation of Graham Greene's classic and prophetic story of love, betrayal, murder and the origin of the American war in Southeast Asia.

The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)

A moving and undeniably brilliant film by the talented Vietnamese-exile filmmaker Tran Anh Hung, set in 1951 and centered on a young woman who becomes a servant for a turbulent family. The film follows in exquisitely lyrical detail the quiet beauty and stoically accepted hardships of her life as, ten years later, she starts a love affair with her next employer. Shot entirely on a Paris soundstage, this, says critic Roger Ebert, "is a film to cherish."

Cyclo (1995)

Cyclo is a survey of a society in decay. In the heart of Ho Chi Minh City,  “Cyclo”, a poor urban teenager, transports anonymous passengers through the teeming streets on his bicycle taxi, trying to eke out a meager living for his two sisters and elderly grandfather. When his bicycle is stolen by a local gang, he descends into the underbelly of this corrupt and violent city. Seduced by easy money, Cyclo is swept deeper into the crime ring lead by the quietly charismatic Poet, the son of an upper-class family who has drifted into pimping and fencing--wartime rackets still thriving in the new Vietnam.

Three Seasons (1999)

It is the new Vietnam.  The beautiful old city of Saigon is quickly fading into the neon glare of Western progress, leaving four ordinary people as expatriates in their own country.  The young Kien An is a living memory of the old ways.  Hired to pick white lotuses for a reclusive ex-poet, her singing reminds him of his youth and inspires him to write again.  In the center of the city, Hai, a cyclo driver, enters a race with the hope of winning fifty dollars to spend an evening with an ambitious prostitute he has fallen for.  Meanwhile, a street urchin, Woody, who sells trinkets from a suitcase hanging around his neck, meets James Hager (Harvey Keitel), an ex-G.I. searching for the daughter he left behind in the war.  These haunting stories merge to paint a portrait of a country in transition…a culture which, through a second invasion by its former enemy, will never be the same.

Nostalgia for the Countryside (1996)

Powerful and poetic, this film explores the tensions and traumas of everyday life in a rural Vietnamese village. Highly controversial at the time of its release, Nostalgia for the Countryside has been acclaimed as a masterpiece, due largely to the sensitive and compassionate storytelling of director Dang Nhat Minh.