Week 9& 10 Refugee Stories: Vietnamese

I do not know much about the Vietnamese war. I was not taught about it in grade school or high school. So what i did was look up the Vietnam war timeline so that i could have an idea of what took place. It is as follows:
 1858-1884 - France invades Vietnam and makes Vietnam a colony.
October 1930 - Ho Chi Minh helps found the Indochinese Communist Party.
September 1940 - Japan invades Vietnam.
May 1941 - Ho Chi Minh establishes the Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam).
September 2, 1945 - Ho Chi Minh declares an independent Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
January 1950 - The Viet Minh receive military advisors and weapons from China.
July 1950 - The United States pledges $15 million worth of military aid to France to help them fight in Vietnam.
May 7, 1954 - The French suffer a decisive defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
July 21, 1954 - The Geneva Accords creates a cease-fire for the peaceful withdrawal of the French from Vietnam and provides a temporary boundary between North and South Vietnam at the 17th parallel.
October 26, 1955 - South Vietnam declares itself the Republic of Vietnam, with newly elected Ngo Dinh Diem as president.
December 20, 1960 - The National Liberation Front (NLF), also called the Viet Cong, is established in South Vietnam.
November 2, 1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is executed during a coup.
August 2 and 4, 1964 - North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destroyers sitting in international waters (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident).
August 7, 1964 - In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
March 2, 1965 - A sustained U.S. aerial bombing campaign of North Vietnam begins (Operation Rolling Thunder).
March 8, 1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam.
January 30, 1968 - The North Vietnamese join forces with the Viet Cong to launch the Tet Offensive, attacking approximately one hundred South Vietnamese cities and towns.
March 16, 1968 - U.S. soldiers kill hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the town of Mai Lai.
July 1968 - General William Westmoreland, who had been in charge of the U.S. troops in Vietnam, is replaced by General Creighton Abrams.
December 1968 - U.S. troops in Vietnam reaches 540,000.
July 1969 - President Nixon orders the first of many U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
September 3, 1969 - Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh dies at age 79.
November 13, 1969 - The American public learns of the Mai Lai massacre.
April 30, 1970 - President Nixon announces that U.S. troops will attack enemy locations in Cambodia. This news sparks nationwide protests, especially on college campuses.
June 13, 1971 - Portions of the Pentagon Papers are published in The New York Times.
March 1972 - The North Vietnamese cross the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the 17th parallel to attack South Vietnam in what became known as the Easter Offensive.
January 27, 1973 - The Paris Peace Accords are signed that provide a cease-fire.
March 29, 1973 - The last U.S. troops are withdrawn from Vietnam.
March 1975 - North Vietnam launches a massive assault on South Vietnam.
April 30, 1975 - South Vietnam surrenders to the communists.
July 2, 1976 - Vietnam is unified as a communist country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
November 13, 1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. is dedicated.

The book Vietnamerica paints a picture of the war and how Trans family dealt with the violence and separation resulting from the war. I think the title is a connection between Tran's culture that he grew up without, and later experienced when he went back to Vietnam after his grandparents death. Although Tran is Vietnamese he grew up in America which shaped a lot of the culture that he adapts now. However the two countries names joined together represents both of his worlds as they abundance or lack of both countries shaped the person he is.

1. What responsibility does VIETNAMERICA suggest we have to history, whether that history is personal, ethnic, or national?  Why is it important to understand the different histories in our lives?  Why is it worth doing, even if they are inconsistent or incomplete? I think the story Vietnamerica suggest that “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” That in order to find out who you are, where you going in life, and what you want, then you must understand where you come from. Tran never cared about his parents migration from Vietnam to America, therefore he could never understand their passion in life to want better for their family. Trans parents realized that they had survived what many do not. The book shows how a persons history tells a story behind who they are. After Tran realized the seriousness of the war in Vietnam and how in America his family was still fighting it helped guide him to know who he was. I think to be able to be a person who makes change in the world or has something valid to offer society must first know they own story before they can understand another persons journey.