Varzally - Children of reunion: Vietnamese adoptions and the politics of family migrations

Children of Reunion

Children of Reunion

Vietnamese Adoptions and the Politics of Family Migrations

ALLISON VARZALLY

The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill

2017 The University of North Carolina Press

All rights reserved

Set in Charis by Westchester Publishing Services

Manufactured in the United States of America

The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Varzally, Allison, 1972 author.

Title: Children of reunion : Vietnamese adoptions and the politics of family migrations / Allison Varzally.

Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016021188 | ISBN 9781469630908 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469630915 (pbk) | ISBN 9781469630922 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH : Intercountry adoptionVietnam. | Intercountry adoptionUnited States. | Vietnam War, 19611975Children. | Vietnam War, 19611975Evacuation of civilians. | Adopted childrenUnited States. | Amerasians. | VietnameseUnited States.

Classification: LCC HV 875.5 . V 37 2016 | DDC 362.734089/95922073dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016021188

Cover illustration: Merrie Li and Tung Joe sitting in a play airplane at a park in Vietnam. Courtesy of Merrie Li Camp.

Portions of chapter 1 were previously published as Vietnamese Adoptions and the Politics of Atonement, Adoption and Culture (December 2009): 15899. Used here with permission.

For John and Zeke

Contents

Illustrations

, 2

, 3

, 4

, 40

, 43

, 50

, 80

, 101

, 108

, 109

, 119

, 122

, 122

, 123

, 133

, 135

, 136

, 149

, 150

Acknowledgments

A curiosity about wars in Southeast Asia, Vietnamese migrations, and the family as a location of social and political change motivated this book. As a child of 1970s Philadelphiaa city where a sizable population of Vietnamese refugees resettled, veterans organizations mobilized, and the nation celebrated its bicentennialI noted, if only indirectly, the import of American interventions abroad, their outcomes, and the difficulty of reconciling notions of freedom and obligation. In this book, I wished to explore these ideas and continue my efforts as a U.S. historian to reveal changing conceptions of community and citizenship in the most multiracial of nations.

During its infancy, this project received nourishment from a friendly set of interdisciplinary scholars, adoptive parents, and adopted Vietnamese, who belonged to the Alliance for the Study of Adoption, Identity, and Kinship. The organization accepted my paper for presentation at its annual conference and published my early exploration of the political discourse about Vietnamese adoption in its journal, Adoption and Culture (2009). Exchanges and conversations with academics most animated by topics of immigration, Asian America, transnationalism, gender, and the twentieth-century United States have greatly influenced the course of my research and writing. I am grateful for the insights and encouragement of Donna Alvah, Karen Balcom, Shana Bernstein, Catherine Cezina Choy, Mary Dudziak, Ellen Herman, Eleana Kim, Becky Kluchin, Phonshia Nie, Meredith Oda, Arissa Oh, Kim Park, Paul Spickard, Rachel Winslow, and Susan Zeiger. The books reviewers offered encouraging and thoughtful criticism that improved the manuscript. At the University of North Carolina Press, Brandon Proia energetically guided this project to publication.

Patient and dedicated archivists at the Social Welfare History Archives; University of California, Irvine Southeast Asian Archives; Pearl S. Buck House; Swarthmore Library Peace Collection; University of California, Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library; and the National Archives at San Francisco responded quickly to questions, identified relevant, unexpected sources, and reassured me of the books promise. I am grateful for the Clarke Chambers Travel Fellowship, which permitted my foray into the Social Welfare History Archives.

Faculty at California State University, Fullerton, especially members of the History and American Studies Departments, have shaped the project, sharing their expertise and collegiality. Kristine Dennehy, Laichen Sun, and Lisa Tran brought my attention to scholarship, exhibitions, and documentaries in modern Asian history relevant to my investigations. A generous cohort of AmericanistsGordon Bakken, Margie Brown-Coronel, Kate Burlingham, Ben Cawthra, Natalie Fousekis, Volker Janssen, and Jessica Sternoffered invaluable comments on content and organization that have strengthened the book. By good fortune, Susie Woo, whose interests in Asian immigration and adoption so closely align with my own, joined our university three years ago. Collaboration with colleagues across the College of Humanities and Social Sciences in a film and speaker series commemorating Southeast Asian legacies allowed me to frame my research in a new way. I also appreciated the painstaking work of Jim Park and Justin MacMingus, two history graduate students at CSUF, who transcribed many of my oral histories.

Without the photographs and stories of my narratorsan unusually candid, generous, and eloquent set of individualsthis book would have less substance and little spirit. Rather than conceal their sometimes painful pasts, these adoptees, Amerasians, and their families revealed themselves in ways that inspired and complicated singular, simple narratives. My conversations with Ken Armstrong, Ri Armstrong, Bert Ballard, Merrie Li Camp, Jeffrey Corliss, Ahn o, Kim Delevett, Gretchen and Stephen Duling, Trista Goldberg, Tiffany Chi Goodson, Le Thi Hang, Virginia Littauer, Angelina Memon, Jimmy Miller, Nhu Miller, Tom Miller, Tung Joe Nguyen, Jared Rehberg, Jay Sheridan, Vikki Sloviter, Kimberly Nguyen Thompson, and Truc Tran reminded me of the joys and the necessity of oral history.

Longtime and new friends provided distractions and reassurances that lightened the labor of research. My family cheered me on and convinced me that I could complete a second book. I am most thankful for the love and laughter of John and Zeke. John remains my dearest companion, coach, and adviser. And Zeke makes my heart sing every moment of the day. His love of stories and insistence that his mom write more and more pages motivated me to continue.

Abbreviations

AVI

Adopted Vietnamese International

ARVN

Army of the Republic of Vietnam

CCR

Center for Constitutional Rights

COR

Committee of Responsibility

DRV

Democratic Republic of Vietnam

FCVN

Friends of the Children of Vietnam

FFAC

Friends for All Children

FMSVC

Friends Meeting for the Sufferings of Vietnamese Children

GAO

Government Accountability Office

INS

Immigration and Naturalization Service

ISS

International Social Service

LIRS

Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service

ODP

Orderly Departure Program

PRG

Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam

PRPC

Philippines Refugee Processing Center