Download or read book Laotians in the San Francisco Bay Area written by Jonathan H. X. Lee and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the 19th and up to the mid-20th centuries, immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, India, and the Philippines came to America through San Francisco. The end of the decades-long Vietnam War changed the modern Asian American demographics of the city, this time with refugees coming from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The San Francisco Bay Area remains a hub for Laotian American culture, history, and community resources, and it has been a center for Laotian American advancement since the early 1980s. After calling the United States home for more than 30 years and battling the scars of war, a new Laotian American society is seeking meaning from its past while moving forward with hopes of a better future as Americans.
Download or read book A Great Place to Have a War written by Joshua Kurlantzick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of how America’s secret war in Laos in the 1960s transformed the CIA from a loose collection of spies into a military operation and a key player in American foreign policy. January, 1961: Laos, a tiny nation few Americans have heard of, is at risk of falling to communism and triggering a domino effect throughout Southeast Asia. This is what President Eisenhower believed when he approved the CIA’s Operation Momentum, creating an army of ethnic Hmong to fight communist forces there. Largely hidden from the American public—and most of Congress—Momentum became the largest CIA paramilitary operation in the history of the United States. The brutal war lasted more than a decade, left the ground littered with thousands of unexploded bombs, and changed the nature of the CIA forever. With “revelatory reporting” and “lucid prose” (The Economist), Kurlantzick provides the definitive account of the Laos war, focusing on the four key people who led the operation: the CIA operative whose idea it was, the Hmong general who led the proxy army in the field, the paramilitary specialist who trained the Hmong forces, and the State Department careerist who took control over the war as it grew. Using recently declassified records and extensive interviews, Kurlantzick shows for the first time how the CIA’s clandestine adventures in one small, Southeast Asian country became the template for how the United States has conducted war ever since—all the way to today’s war on terrorism.
Download or read book Hmong Means Free written by Sucheng Chan and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-17 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three generations of Hmong refugees expose the trauma and the joy of their lives.
Download or read book Eternal Harvest written by Karen Coates and published by ThingsAsian Press. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karen Coates and Jerry Redfern spent more than seven years traveling in Laos, talking to farmers, scrap-metal hunters, people who make and use tools from UXO, people who hunt for death beneath the earth and render it harmless. With their words and photographs, they reveal the beauty of Laos, the strength of Laotians, and the commitment of bomb-disposal teams. People take precedence in this account, which is deeply personal without ever becoming a polemic.
Download or read book Tragic Mountains written by Jane Hamilton-Merritt and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tragic Mountains tells the story of the Hmong's struggle for freedom and survival in Laos from 1942 through 1992. During those years, most Hmong sided with the French against the Japanese and Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh, and then with the Americans against the North Viemamese.
Download or read book I Demand written by Bounsang Khamkeo and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-15 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laotian-born Bounsang Khamkeo was a political prisoner for seven years before emigrating to the U.S. with his family in 1989. In his second book I Demand: A Laotian-American's Memoir of Hope, Determination, and Pursuit of the American Dream, he recounts not only his struggles and successes, but also the obstacles to fairness and equality he encountered in attempting to fulfill his American dream. Assimilation was difficult for Khamkeo. He arrived in the U.S. at the age of 47 with a French degree in political science and was unable to find employment in his field. His family of six was on public assistance before he finally found a job as a high school teacher aide for English as a Second Language students. Subsequently he served the Asian community in Portland, Oregon, for twenty years as a mental-health counselor, a career he never expected to pursue but accepted for the sake of his family.Khamkeo's first book, I Little Slave: A Prison Memoir from Communist Laos, was written with the goal of advancing regime change in his country. With a group of friends, Khamkeo entered into a venture to produce a film based on the book. The project ultimately failed because Khamkeo refused to soften his story to fit the U.S. government's and investors' desire to avoid confrontation with the communist regime in Laos. With the failure of the film project, Khamkeo realized that American democracy was based as much on profit as on free speech and liberty and equality for all. It is Khamkeo's belief that Americans must try to appreciate one another's way of life to truly understand each other as a nation. I Demand was written in this spirit. Despite his frustration and disappointment with consumer capitalism and the American way of doing things, Khamkeo still believes that America is a land of freedom and hope. As his own story illustrates, there are many avenues of opportunity for those who are willing to work hard. "Regardless of your age, if I can do it, you can, too," Khamkeo says. "That is America's greatness."
Download or read book Shooting at the Moon written by Roger Warner and published by Steerforth Italia. This book was released on 1996 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Shooting at the Moon, Roger Warner chronicles a covert operation that used Hmong villagers as guerrilla fighters against the North during the Vietnamese War. Thought to be an expendable resource by Central Intelligence Agency strategists, the Hmong died by the thousands fighting the North Vietnamese. Those who survived were abandoned to their fate when the United States pulled out of the war. Warner's history is the moving and tragic story of how America's 'secret war' devastated its own allies in Southeast Asia.
Download or read book Even the Birds Don t Sound the Same Here written by Robert Proudfoot and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1990 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This seminal work is a one-of-a-kind coverage of the initial encounters of Laotian refugees with North American culture during the period of 1979-1984. Through the stories of Refugees in the Pacific Northwest the author documents the perceptual and cultural adjustments and problems for the Laotian and American populations alike. Laotians encounter overcoming and coping with loss of culture, status and support groups; adjusting to a new culture, language and values system; recovery from war and refugee camp experiences including social, psychological and physical deprivation; surviving during a period of difficult and changing post-Southeast Asian war economic conditions in the United States; as well as adjusting to a new culture with realities of living in it as a refugee.
Download or read book Another Quiet American written by Brett Dakin and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2023-11-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION In Another Quiet American: Stories of Life in Laos, Brett Dakin takes you through the corridors of power and into the living rooms of Laos. Among many others, you'll meet Brett's boss, a wealthy general who strikes fear into the heart of all who hear his name; an aging prince pining for the French colonial past; an American pilot who left home to fight and never returned; and a new generation of Lao who have more money than they can use, but still search for happiness. It's a sympathetic yet irreverent glimpse of one of the world's few remaining communist nations - and a way of life that is fast slipping away.
Download or read book Before the Quagmire written by William J. Rust and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2012-06-29 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical study of US intervention in the Laotian Civil War is “a major contribution to the literature on America's Southeast Asian involvement” (Publishers Weekly). In the decade preceding the first US combat operations in Vietnam, the Eisenhower administration sought to defeat a communist-led insurgency in neighboring Laos. Although US foreign policy in the 1950s focused primarily on threats posed by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, the American engagement in Laos evolved from a small cold war skirmish into a superpower confrontation near the end of President Eisenhower's second term. Ultimately, the American experience in Laos foreshadowed many of the mistakes made by the United States in Vietnam in the 1960s. In Before the Quagmire, historian William J. Rust examines key policy decisions made in Washington and how they were implementation on the ground in Laos, setting the US on a path to wider war in Southeast Asia. Drawing on previously untapped archival sources, Before the Quagmire documents how ineffective assistance to Laotian anticommunist elites reflected fundamental misunderstandings about the country's politics, history, and culture. A Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Download or read book Another Quiet American written by Brett Dakin and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hmong Means Free written by Sucheng Chan and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of evocative personal testimonies by three generations of Hmong refugees is the first to describe their lives in Laos as slash-and-burn farmers, as refugees after a Communist government came to power in 1975, and as immigrants in the United States. Reflecting on the homes left behind, their narratives chronicle the difficulties of forging a new identity. From Jou Yee Xiong's Life Story: "I stopped teaching my sons many of the Hmong ways because I felt my ancestors and I had suffered enough already. I thought that teaching my children the old ways would only place a burden on them." From Ka Pao Xiong's (Jou Yee Xiong's son) Life Story: "It has been very difficult for us to adapt because we had no professions or trades and we suffered from culture shock. Here in America, both the husband and wife must work simultaneously to earn enough money to live on. Many of our children are ignorant of the Hmong way of life.... Even the old people are forgetting about their life in Laos, as they enjoy the prosperity and good life in America." From Xang Mao Xiong's Life Story: "When the Communists took over Laos and General Vang Pao fled with his family, we, too, decided to leave. Not only my family, but thousands of Hmong tried to flee. I rented a car for thirty thousand Laotian dollars, and it took us to Nasu.... We felt compelled to leave because many of us had been connected to the CIA.... Thousands of Hmong were traveling on foot. Along the way, many of them were shot and killed by Communist soldiers. We witnessed a bloody massacre of civilians." From Vue Vang's Life Story: "Life was so hard in the [Thai refugee] camp that when we found out we could go to the United States, we did not hesitate to grasp the chance. We knew that were we to remain in the camp, there would be no hope for a better future. We would not be able to offer our children anything better than a life of perpetual poverty and anguish."
Download or read book The Far World Comes Near written by and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The End of Nowhere written by Charles A. Stevenson and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Universe Unraveling written by Seth S. Jacobs and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Laos was positioned to become a major front in the Cold War. Yet American policymakers ultimately chose to resist communism in neighboring South Vietnam instead. Two generations of historians have explained this decision by citing logistical considerations. Laos's landlocked, mountainous terrain, they hold, made the kingdom an unpropitious place to fight, while South Vietnam—possessing a long coastline, navigable rivers, and all-weather roads—better accommodated America's military forces. The Universe Unraveling is a provocative reinterpretation of U.S.-Laos relations in the years leading up to the Vietnam War. Seth Jacobs argues that Laos boasted several advantages over South Vietnam as a battlefield, notably its thousand-mile border with Thailand, whose leader was willing to allow Washington to use his nation as a base from which to attack the communist Pathet Lao.More significant in determining U.S. policy in Southeast Asia than strategic appraisals of the Laotian landscape were cultural perceptions of the Lao people. Jacobs contends that U.S. policy toward Laos under Eisenhower and Kennedy cannot be understood apart from the traits Americans ascribed to their Lao allies. Drawing on diplomatic correspondence and the work of iconic figures like "celebrity saint" Tom Dooley, Jacobs finds that the characteristics American statesmen and the American media attributed to the Lao—laziness, immaturity, and cowardice—differed from the traits assigned the South Vietnamese, making Lao chances of withstanding communist aggression appear dubious. The Universe Unraveling combines diplomatic, cultural, and military history to provide a new perspective on how prejudice can shape policy decisions and even the course of history.
Download or read book The Universe Unraveling written by Seth Jacobs and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Laos was positioned to become a major front in the Cold War. Yet American policymakers ultimately chose to resist communism in neighboring South Vietnam instead. Two generations of historians have explained this decision by citing logistical considerations. Laos's landlocked, mountainous terrain, they hold, made the kingdom an unpropitious place to fight, while South Vietnam-possessing a long coastline, navigable rivers, and all-weather roads-better accommodated America's military forces. The Universe Unraveling is a provocative reinterpretation of U.S.-Laos relations in the years leading up to the Vietnam War. Seth Jacobs argues that Laos boasted several advantages over South Vietnam as a battlefield, notably its thousand-mile border with Thailand, whose leader was willing to allow Washington to use his nation as a base from which to attack the communist Pathet Lao. More significant in determining U.S. policy in Southeast Asia than strategic appraisals of the Laotian landscape were cultural perceptions of the Lao people. Jacobs contends that U.S. policy toward Laos under Eisenhower and Kennedy cannot be understood apart from the traits Americans ascribed to their Lao allies. Drawing on diplomatic correspondence and the work of iconic figures like "celebrity saint" Tom Dooley, Jacobs finds that the characteristics American statesmen and the American media attributed to the Lao-laziness, immaturity, and cowardice-differed from the traits assigned the South Vietnamese, making Lao chances of withstanding communist aggression appear dubious. The Universe Unraveling combines diplomatic, cultural, and military history to provide a new perspective on how prejudice can shape policy decisions and even the course of history.
Download or read book Multicultural America 4 volumes written by Ronald H. Bayor and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-07-22 with total page 2389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This encyclopedia contains 50 thorough profiles of the most numerically significant immigrant groups now making their homes in the United States, telling the story of our newest immigrants and introducing them to their fellow Americans. One of the main reasons the United States has evolved so quickly and radically in the last 100 years is the large number of ethnically diverse immigrants that have become part of its population. People from every area of the world have come to America in an effort to realize their dreams of more opportunity and better lives, either for themselves or for their children. This book provides a fascinating picture of the lives of immigrants from 50 countries who have contributed substantially to the diversity of the United States, exploring all aspects of the immigrants' lives in the old world as well as the new. Each essay explains why these people have come to the United States, how they have adjusted to and integrated into American society, and what portends for their future. Accounts of the experiences of the second generation and the effects of relations between the United States and the sending country round out these unusually rich and demographically detailed portraits.
