This Web site has been created to show that we must not forget this important outcome of the war: these children and their sufferings.

"MISS SAIGON"

"These kids hit walls on every side "I never thought one day I’d plead

They don’t belong in any place For half-breeds from a land that’s torn

Their secret they can’t hide But then I saw a camp for children

It’s printed on their face." Whose crime was being born."

"Miss Saigon" is a magnificent Broadway play that shows both of these relationships. It displays Vietnamese women as prostitutes or bar girls which American soldiers take advantage of, and the other relationship, where character Kim falls in love with Chris, an American soldier, and in result, she has a baby. This baby and all children like this one, were born into the world as the English language labels Amerasians, a mix between the two races, not ready to face the discrimination that they were tortured with throughout their lives.

This particular story was of extreme circumstance because the father, the American soldier, came back for his son and wanted him to live in the United States. The story was about a mother’s love and how she would do anything to make a better life for her son. Most children were not so lucky as to have their American fathers come back to Vietnam for them. Orphans were built for these children, and have succeeded with aid such as the one named Ben Tre, which has been financially supported by what is called the Amerasian Network.

AMERASIAN NETWORK

This program also helps these kids by rebuilding elementary schools in many low economic parts of Vietnam. The program provides for students’ basic needs such as textbooks and desks. Also, the program has established exchange programs between universities in the United States and Vietnam.

DISCRIMINATION

These children, as Amerasians had many sufferings throughout their life in Vietnam due to their anonymous American fathers. These children suffered widespread discrimination and poverty. Most Amerasians were taunted with names by their classmates or peers such as "My lai" or "Con Lai", and "My den" which is the worst name of all three, used to taunt Black Amerasian children. However, one Black Amerasian girl, Huynh in the book Children of the Enemy, by Steven DeBonis, says, "Nobody made trouble for me, because they think I’m Indian. It’s easier to be Indian than American." Many children tried to hide their true identity to avoid discrimination because socially and culturally, both the North and South Vietnamese did not like Americans at all because of the war and the Vietnamese could not handle seeing their children mixed in the white race which America symbolized to them. I believe it is worse for the child to be a Black Amerasian because it mixes all of the races that we see as groups: Anglo-Saxon, African-American and Asian-American. These three groups have developed hatred and prejudice between each other over decades and to see one person from all of these races is difficult in all of the races’ eyes.

While growing up, many children could not handle and tried to avoid discrimination as much as possible from their classmates and even classmates’ parents, so they quit school. An example of discrimination that they felt is during an American history class, the Amerasian children felt embarrassed because it emphasized their status as "children of the enemy."

One girl tells her story in the book, Children of the Enemy. This story is quite typical of the Amerasian child:

"I was born in Pleiku. I lived in a cement house with stepparents and their five Vietnamese children. When my mother gave birth to me she hired a baby-sitter to take care of me. My mother worked as a waitress at the American base in Pleiku. When I was four, my father returned to America and my mother went away, leaving me with the baby-sitter who became my stepmother. I never heard from my mother again.

I never went to school in Vietnam, not even one day. Vietnamese didn’t let me be friends with their children. Some people wouldn’t even let me work for them. My stepparents treated me badly. When I was about six years old, they sent me out to work to make money for them. I was a maid or a baby-sitter. My stepparents were teachers, but they never sent me to school or taught me at home. They just made me work. They didn’t love me, I grew up without love."

RE-SETTLEMENT

Despite the discrimination and poverty that these Amerasians faced in their daily lives, many had initiative to take a course in the Philipine Refugee Processing Center in Bataan which is a program that was organized to prepare U.S.-bound refugees for life in America. Many took a 5-month course in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL), before their resettlement in the United States. Most of these Amerasians predominantly had their father’s looks, strongly identifying with the American half of their parentage, but they were Vietnamese in culture, language, and habits. This is the identity crisis that these Amerasians faced throughout their lives. Many of these children, now teens at this time, were self-destructive. The bui doi found it extremelhy difficult to adapt to life in the PRPC and in the United States as well. Many mutilated themselves. Many Amerasians calls it "the externalization of inner pain." The Amerasians who have participated in this behavior say that it is mostly due to depression, which sometimes increases to suicidal measures.

This behavior is discussed by an Amerasian named Raymond:

"This is very common in Vietnam among the Amerasians. They prove that they are tough, they aren’t scared of anything. If it’s a girl, then that means she’s a wild girl, maybe a drug user or a prostitute. And sometimes if you don’t see many of scars, just one, or one cigarette burn, they might do it to prove their love to someone or their pain over a misunderstanding."

The Amerasian Homecoming Act in 1988 exploited the Amerasians as tickets out of impoverished Vietnam to the United States. There was an exit procedure, involving an interview with the American Orderly Departure Program and an exit permit from the Vietnamese Ministry of the Interior. It escalated to a number of steps that the ODP enacted such as applying to the program and interviews.

Unfortunately, after this procedure is completed and Amerasians began to resettle in the United States, the Amerasians still continue to face conflicts with their identity, eventually most see that they are culturally, linguistically and in all ways except for appearance, Vietnamese. Most Amerasians developed an unrealistic expectation of the United States and their futures in the country of freedom and justice. Their beliefs were too optimistic only to be shattered with increasing conflicts of identity. Many of the Amerasians were not educated in Vietnam and found it difficult to deal with the structure of school when they came to America.

It is advised to the Amerasians that are re-settling in the United States that they do not begin searching for their lost fathers right away because they should adjust to American life, look for jobs and settle in. Many Amerasians have very little information to give in the search for their fathers, and for others, they have a huge fear of rejection. Many searched through the American Red Cross. If the father is found, he is told of the situation and it is up to him to contact his son or daughter. Many of these men who have fathered children with Vietnamese women and lived to see the end of the war have gone on with their lives, have new families of their own. Therefore, a sudden appearance of seeing a child years later could be quite a shock, and definitely not always welcome. It can be estimated that approximately only 2 percent of these father searches ended positively.

Some facts about Amerasians and emigration:

Debonis, Steven. Children of the Enemy, McFarland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, North Carolina, 1995.

Horne, A.D. The Wounded Generation: America after Vietnam, Prentice-Hall, Inc. New Jersey, 1981.