We Are Here, By Geoffrey Blainey

Stephanie Coontz is a teacher, historian, author and a scholar activist. She has also very indulged in the world of public debate on families, this mostly due possible because of her extensive skills to study modern families as well as historical patterns. In her book The Way We Never Were, Coontz presents a historical look at the family and how it has changed over time. Her interest in the subject comes for her need to understand how families functioned in the past and present, and what lead to notion and definition of family nowadays.

‘The Happiest Refugee’ discusses various concepts including the effects of war, the trauma that refugees experience, their desire to contribute to society and our negative attitudes towards them. After the war, South Vietnamese soldiers and their families were captured by the North Vietnamese Communists and held in labour camps. Some of these prisoners were eventually released (after 1976), however, they had no right to education, employment or government supplied food rations. If Ahn had not left this oppressive environment, he would have grown up in extreme poverty and would be a very different person due to the trauma that

In Danielle Allen’s essay, Our Declaration, she argues that all people should understand and recognize that the Declaration gives all people in the United States the undeniable freedom to self-govern. One person has the power to change the government; although this is not specifically stated, the freedom to self-govern implies every voice matters. She guides the reader to this idea by using simple and easy to follow examples to show the reader that they have the power to invoke a change the government. Allen also uses credible sources in order to give her reasoning credibility as well as using arguments that elicit an emotional connection.

The political instability in Vietnam from 1950 to 1975 between the communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam during the Cold War era has led to the United States’ inevitable intervention in Vietnam. The main motivators for the United States’ incremental decision to intervene and commitment in Vietnam can be viewed as an accumulation of socio-political, political and economic catalysts. In recognition that there were many other factors that may have contributed to the U.S’s involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, this essay will largely focus on these three factors. As the cold war resonates, the American’s crusade was propelled by the fears of the domino theory and perception of Communist threat and expansion affected the

The Fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975, marked the end of nearly two decades of fighting between the Russia and China backed communist North Vietnam and the US backed right wing South Vietnam. When the North Vietnamese army entered Saigon, the free world was horrified at what it believed to be major drawback in its attempt to defeat communism around the world. In accordance with the domino theory, that same year, the capitals of neighboring former french colonies, Cambodia and Laos, both of which were also run by right wing regimes supported by the US, fell to communist insurgencies Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao respectively. It took the communists three decades, millions of lives, and the destruction of billions of dollars in infrastructure and assets overthrow these western backed governments. So what gave these people, especially in Vietnam, incentive to sacrifice so much to “free” themselves from those governments and embrace communism as their system of governance? As this question is answered, it is important to identify aspects of the communist ideology that appeal to the general population, as well as how it goes along with Vietnamese culture, the actual practice and execution of the ideology.

Since World War 2 and the Vietnam War, Australia has become a multicultural country. Before the Vietnam War, though, the Australian government tried their best to keep Australia ‘white’. After the fear of communism from Vietnam, the government thought it would be in the country’s best interest to try and build up the population in Australia, but only allowing ‘white’ Europeans and British people to come. What is included in this report, is to discover how and why the migrants from non-European countries manage to change the face of modern Australia.

No one person wakes in the morning and decides to tackle years of institutional rule without thinking certain doom, discomfort, or in some cases, death. Citizens living during the times within the United States (1775 – 1784) and Vietnam (1955 – 1975) decided to fight as one voice, for a cause they believed and shared together. This unified voice, the will of the people, started as a single voice. Soon there were many voices with the same cry, to push out policies, ideals, and laws that were not their own. Peaceful talks, debates, or discussions did not work, soon there was no other means but the violence to break the will to continue.

Communism as a political philosophy has had both its critics and nationalist proponents throughout recent history. As a tool for nationalistic movements in recent, one of the most compelling examples is how communism was introduced and used by Ho Chi Minh to help Vietnam become a unified and independent nation in the 1970s. Ho Chi Minh, a Marxist Leninist, charismatic and populist leader, adopted communism through his experiences, struggles, and challenges. Communism came to play an important role in bringing Vietnam independence and freedom from the French and subsequent colonialist rulers. Ho Chi Minh used communist to help the Vietnamese develop feelings of patriotism and nationalism toward the country. Ho Chi Minh created several

The book begins by discussing the historical context of the war and time period in which refugees emerge into the scene. According to Tang, “the United States publicly positioned itself as the champion of displaced Cambodians, passing the 1980 Refugee Act and casting it as a global freedom project and Cambodian refugees as needing rescue by U.S. liberalism” (15). Throughout the book, Tang discusses how the United States contributes to the constant state of captivity that refugees experience from the minute they leave home to the moment they arrive in America. The United States’ participation in the Vietnam War gave rise to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; these conditions caused a lot of unrest and forced many people like Ra to flee or remain trapped in captivity under the Khmer Rouge. The United States’ perspective on their actions during the war do not acknowledge their contributions to the national refugee crisis. Refugees are viewed as a solution to the war in the American perspective; thus, Eric Tang introduces the concept of refugee exceptionalism: “the ideologies and discursive practices that figure refugees as necessarily in the hyperghetto but never of it” (14). Tang effectively outlines the subsequent chapters where they each address a certain way in which captivity is maintained for Ra and other refugees. In Chapter 3 that mentions the Welfare Resistance, Ra is shown to be

In 1975, the ‘Fall of the Saigon’ marked the end of the Vietnam War, which prompted the first of two main waves of Vietnamese emigration towards the US. The first wave included Vietnamese who had helped the US in the war and “feared reprisals by the Communist party.” (Povell)

In the essay, we have discussed a Vietnamese family, how they suffered, in their own country, escaping through Cambodia and Thailand, finally, finding a refuge in Australia. Nguyen’s book is the premise for the essay; there are sourced references supporting the statements used. The first years, after abandoning the White Australia policy, during the time of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is looked at briefly. Blainey’s debate is shown as an anti-racist idea, which most Australians did not agree with. The book is well-written by a woman who was not born or was too young to know most of the information, that means that the book was written by gleaning knowledge, from her parents and relatives. Nguyen has chronologically time lined the book excellently.

In Meredith Small’s article Our Babies, Ourselves she focuses on people’s social and psychological development through examining the different cultural aspects of raising a child. During this process she compares the American perspective of treating babies, to those of the Gusii and the Dutch. Throughout her examination many points are made that I believe can give the reader’s a valuable understanding of the impact of different means of parenthood on a child’s future development.

For centuries Vietnam had been under Chinese rule. The Vietnamese people were an oppressed society and were exploited by the Chinese. Forced labour was brought upon the Vietnamese people, and there were many tyrannical Chinese governers along with constant demands of tribute for the Chinese rulers. There had been many revolts by

Furthermore, one of the major ideologies of the Vietnam War was what type of government should rule Vietnam and neighbouring countries. Ho, although he believed in Nationalism, became a Communist because their was no other way to ensure Vietnam's future of becoming an Independent country. Communism believed in the unity within the country, the equality of financial status and in the home, and to have a ‘utopian' society where everybody accepted each other on the same level and therefore, having only one party to have ruling power over the country with no disagreements. However, to become a Communist Government, there needs to be a party willing to use force against it's own people to gain authority. Ho, was one such person to lead the Viet Minh against the Viet Cong, which contained an army of the South Vietnamese soldiers and allied forces. Communism believes that a Democracy, such as America's, was full of greed and that it was a society that did not determine equality very well in both economical values and also within the community. However, the Viet Cong, or known as Diem's and US's army, believed the opposite in which Communism was a vile type of government, and that their Democracy was the ‘superior' type of government. America especially wanted to create social cohesion by introducing their type of Democracy to South-East Asia before the Domino Theory came into effect. Consequently, different ideologies on what type of government

As a great family of nations, involved in a struggle greater than us, Australia’s assistance for South Vietnam commenced in early 1960’s to enforce the policies of other prosperous nations to limit the spread of communism in Asia (RSL NSW, 2014). From the time of the arrival of the first forces in 1962 approximately 60,000 fellow Australians, including ground troops and airforce and naval force work force, served in Vietnam (NFSA, 2017). To you we are thankful.