FVPPA Collection Continues to Help Refugees

Although the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee's (UNHCR) Orderly Departure Program closed in 1994 the Vietnam Archive's Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoner's Association (FVPPA) Collection (Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation) continues to help Vietnamese refugees immigrate to the U.S. Just this month a former Vietnamese reeducation camp prisoner was able to obtain political asylum in the U.S. by using the documents found in the FVPPA Collection to prove his case. This is an unexpected and profound use of the FVPPA Collection doucments.

20th Anniversary Ball Videos

Video of the Vietnam Center & Archive's 20th Anniversary Ball are now available on our website. The videos are divided into two parts: Part one includes the keynote address of Mr. H. Ross Perot, Sr.; The second part includes tributes to the founder of the Vietnam Center & Archive, Dr. James Reckner, buy numerous people, including Mayor Tom Martin, Representative Carl Issett, and Congressman Randy Neugebauer. Both parts include a low quality version of dial-up connections, and a higher quality for faster internet connections.

Photographs from the event are also available on our Facebook page.

20th Anniversary Ball Videos

Follow us on Facebook

The Vietnam Center and Archive is now on Facebook. Become a fan and keep up with the latest happenings at the Center and Archive, find out about upcoming events, see pictures from past events, make comments, and connect with other Vietnam Center and Archive supporters.

To become a fan, you first need to have your own Facebook page. The go to the Vietnam Center and Archive Facebook page and click Become a Fan.

The Vietnam Center and Archive 20th Anniversary Ball

The Vietnam Center and Archive celebrated it’s 20th anniversary Thursday night with a group of friends and supporters at the Frazier Alumni Pavillion on the TTU campus. Keynote speaker H. Ross Perot, Sr. spoke of the struggles of POWs and how crucial it was to preserve these stories for future generations. Lubbock Mayor Tom Martin, Texas Representative Carl Isett, and U.S. Congressman Randy Neugebauer delivered municipal, state, and national honors to founding director Dr. James Reckner. The evening included music from members of the Monterey High School Orchestra, a delicious dinner provided by TTU catering, and a silent auction. Jim Douglass of FoxTalk 950 AM served as Master of Ceremonies.

Thank you to all who attended this event!

For more information about the event, please visit the Lubbock Avalanche Journal.

Photos from the event can be seen on the AJ’s “Spotted” webpage.

Ambassador Siv Interview

Photo taken by Victoria Lovelady, Public Relations Coordinator

The oral hisotry interview of Ambassador Sichan Siv is now available online. To listen to this remarkable interview click here or search the Vietnam Center and Archive's Virtual Vietnam Archive.

Vietnam Center & Archive's 1st Film Festival

To celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month the Vietnam Center and Archive held its very first film festival on April 20th, 21st, and 23rd, 2009. The Vietnam Center and Archive collaborated with the International Cultural Center, Student Union and Activities, Tech Activities Board, Texas Tech University Libraries, PBS American Experience, and The CH Foundation to show the films New Year Baby and Daughter From Danang. The film festival was a success with an estimated combined 260 students attending the three showings. After the showing of New Year Baby on April 20th, 35 students stayed to hear a discussion panel conducted by Dr. Miriam Mulsow and Sothy Eng.

Seats on sale now for 20th Anniversary Ball

Seats for our 20th Anniversary Ball are now on sale! The event will be held on May 28, 2009 at 7:00 PM, at the Frazier Alumni Pavilion on the TTU campus. Seats are $75 each, and a reserved table for eight can be purchased for $800 (table purchases include recognition in our commemorative program, a sponsor gift, and a tax deductable donation). The evening will include dinner, music, silent auction, and a keynote address by our guest speaker H. Ross Perot, Sr.

Please call (806) 742-9010 or email amy.k.hooker@ttu.edu by May 18 to reserve your seats!

2009 Conference Videos Available Online

Session videos from the Vietnam Center's 2009 Conference "Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia and the Vietnam War" are now available online on the Conference Videos Page and in the Virtual Vietnam Archive.

Possible Email Problems

We have been informed that the Texas Tech University email servers (through which all email communication with the Vietnam Center & Archive and our staff pass through) have been experiencing problems with improperly blocking some email messages sent from outside the University system. When this occurs, senders are often not notified that their messages were blocked. TTU telecommunications staff are working on fixing the problem.

If you send a message to one of our departmental or staff email addresses and do not receive a response within a few days, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone (806-742-9010) to ensure that we received your email message.

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause.

Women's History Month Exhibit

"Not Just Pretty Faces: The Women of the Vietnam War" an exhibit highlighting and honoring the contributions and achievements of women veterans and civilians from the Vietnam War Era, is now available online. The exhibit includes photographs, letters, moving images, and other documents related to women's military and civilian service.

Image: The Vietnam Women's Memorial, Washington, D.C. , The D.C. Traveler.

2009 Conference Photographs

Still photos from the Vietnam Center's 2009 Conference "Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and the Vietnam War" are now available online. Videos of the conference sessions are currently being digitized, and we anticipate (but don't guarentee) that they will be available online around the end of April. At that time, we will place notices in this blog and on our website.

Vietnam Center and Archive's 20th Anniversary Ball

The Vietnam Center and Archive invites you to join us as we celebrate a great milestone in our history. To celebrate our project’s 20th year, we will be hosting an anniversary ball on May 28, 2009 at 7:00 pm at the Frazier Alumni Pavilion. The evening will feature keynote speaker Mr. H. Ross Perot, Sr. In addition, our guests will enjoy dinner, lively music, a silent auction and a tribute to our founder, Dr. James Reckner.

This event is an opportunity to raise funds which will allow us to continue our mission to preserve the history of the Vietnam War, help veterans and their families deal with their war experiences, and assist the US government in their search for the 1,750 men who are still missing from the war.

If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please visit www.vietnam.ttu.edu/20th for more information. The deadline for sponsoring this event is April 10, 2009. Seating will be limited, so all sponsorships will be first come, first served.

Corporate Sponsor Information
Individual Sponsor Information

An Interview With Ambassador Sichan Siv

Photo Courtesy of Victoria Lovelady, Senior Editor

On the morning of March 12, 2009 Ambassador Sichan Siv sat down to an interview with Head Oral Historian Kelly Crager and Vietnamese American Heritage Archivist Ann Mallett. Ambassador Siv, graciously agreed to be the first person to be interviewed for the Vietnam Archive's Vietnamese American Heritage Oral History Project, and to be the keynote speaker during the banquet on the evening of March 14th at the 2009 Vietnam Center Conference: Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand and the Vietnam War. Crager and Mallett conducted the interview in order to record Ambassador Siv's phenomenal story in his own words and to hear in his voice the expression, emotion, and feeling of his words that is not fully conveyed by the written word alone.

The questions Crager asked Ambassador Siv document the Ambassador's incredible life journey of faith, hope, love, and perseverance over great adversity and loss. Throughout his life Ambassador Siv has always helped others no matter how desperate his own circumstances were. As a young man in Cambodia he worked for CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) to help refugees during the Vietnam War. After surviving the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge and losing his entire family (his mother, brother and sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law, and their children were all killed by the Khmer Rouge) he escaped to Thailand where he helped his fellow prison inmates and fellow refugees living in a Thai refugee camp by teaching English (before being placed in a refugee camp he was imprisoned for illegal entry into Thailand because he no longer had any ID or documentation). Once the Ambassador immigrated to the U.S. in 1976 he continued his humanitarian efforts and worked to help refugees from his position as Deputy Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

The Ambassador walked into the room for the interview carrying his distinctive red and black jacketed memoir, "Golden Bones: An Extraordinary Journey From Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America," just published eight months prior (July 1, 2008). Immediately upon seeing Ambassador Siv one is stuck by how distinguished looking he is and the air he gives of being laid back, relaxed, and comfortable in any situation. He is tall, athletic, and looks younger than his actual age, one would not guess that he had just celebrated his 61st birthday less than two weeks prior to the interview. Siv walks with an agility and grace that belies that his legs were severely wounded by pungi sticks when he fell into a booby trap while fleeing Cambodia, and that he had been malnourished and starved for nearly a year in a Khmer Rouge slave labor camp. His eyes, smile, and jokes reveal a genuine kind and caring spirit. The Ambassador is an eloquent and gifted speaker, extremely intelligent and observant, and speaks many languages.

Crager began the interview of Ambassador Siv by asking the Ambassador about his beginnings, his childhood in Cambodia, and ended with accounts of his experiences as a U.S. Ambassadaor to the UN. Ambassador Siv was born on March 1, 1948 (year of the Boar 2490) in Phochentong (his father's village) under a full moon. (Sichan means "beautiful moon.")

Photo Courtesy of Victoria Lovelady, Senior Editor

Left to Right (Ambassador Sichan Siv, Ann Mallett, and Martha Pattillo Siv)

New Agent Orange Subject Guide

To assist researchers studying the topic of agent orange during and after the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Center and Archive has produced a new subject guide highlighting agent orange related resources in both our digital and physical collections. The subject guide is divided by media type and subcategory, and includes links to the digital objects when available. This is the first in a series of subject guides that we will produce over the next year.


Agent Orange Subject Guide - http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamarchive/resources/agentorange/index.php

Law Student Volunteers At Vietnam Archive

To learn more about the effects of the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese American immigration process, Cam Xuan Nguyen (Carrie) began volunteering at the Vietnam Archive on October 31, 2008. Carrie helps prepare the Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association Collection files for digitization by numbering folders, removing corrosive materials, and providing help with translation. Carrie speaks and writes Vietnamese, English, and Spanish. She is a Vietnamese American from Saigon. Carrie immigrated to the US in 1994 at age 10. She is a graduate student from UT Austin with a BA in English and Government (Political Science). Her hobbies include: reading, traveling, and cooking. Among the things she enjoys in the U.S. are driving and eating Mexican Food . Carrie came to Texas Tech University to get a J.D. in Business Law . She will take her BAR exam in July and hopes to work in International Law, hopeful in the Washington D.C. or New York area.