Book Review: The Dust of Life

by Lang Reid

America’s children abandoned in Vietnam

This book was published in 1998 and is a collection of personal and often tragic stories told by children left behind in Vietnam, following a liaison between their American fathers and their Vietnamese mothers. Children of mixed marriages are always set apart, even in the more “enlightened” cultures; however, children who are considered to be the product of a union between an enemy and a collaborator are always destined for repression.

The author is Professor Robert McKelvey, a specialist psychiatrist dealing with child and adolescent problems, and a man who had also seen action himself in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

He begins chapter 1 with the strong statement, “Vietnamese Amerasians are a living legacy of America’s longest and least popular war.” Having set the ground rules, McKelvey goes on to state that it was not until 1987 that an act of Congress was passed, called the Amerasian Homecoming Act, to assist these Amerasian children to come to America. That was 12 years after the North Vietnamese had taken control of South Vietnam. A 12 year hiatus in hell for some of these children and young adults.

That the “system” can be unfeeling comes as no shock. It took many of the Amerasians years to get through the process of being accepted to go to the United States, and many were rejected, only to re-apply and live at the Transit Centre for many years while hoping that they would finally be accepted to go to a country they did not know, but felt that it had to be better than the Vietnam which they did know.

Unfortunately, bribery and greed were also present in these situations, with many Vietnamese families claiming to be part of the family of an Amerasian, hoping to gain access to what was known as a “golden passport” out of post war Vietnam. The unfortunate Amerasians were usually so repressed and poorly educated that they just went along with what their “adoptive” family told them.

Author McKelvey carried out his interviews with Amerasians in Vietnam, and with those who had successfully made the trip to America. For many of these people, even the most menial and underpaid job in America was so much better than the life they had as labourers for hire in the paddy fields, that it is no wonder they have done well in adoptive countries such as America.

Available at Bookazine, corner of Beach Road and Soi Pattayaland 1 for 495 baht, this is a disturbing book that demonstrates, “the neglect of the human by-products of war, the destructiveness of prejudice and racism, the impact of losing one’s mother and father, the pain of abandonment, and the horrors of life amidst grinding poverty.” Thank your personal God if you have not had to suffer these pains and make sure you and your children read and understand before we, the human race, do it all again. The title “Dust of Life” comes from the Vietnamese “bui doi” which means the poorest of the poor. How true!