The Dust of Life: America's Children Abandoned in Vietnam

By Robert S. McKelvey

Book Overview

The Dust of Life is a collection of vivid and devastating oral histories of Vietnamese Amerasians. Abandoned during the war by their American fathers, discriminated against by the victorious Communists, and ignored for many years by the American government, they endured life in impoverished Vietnam. Their stories are sad, sometimes tragic, but they are also testimonials to the strength of human resiliency.

While unique in many respects, the Vietnamese Amerasian story also illustrates themes that are tragically universal: neglect of the human by-products of war, the destructiveness of prejudice and racism, the pain of abandonment, and the horrors of life amidst extreme poverty, hostility, and neglect.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295978368
• ISBN13: 9780295978369
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Book Review

A very heart wrenching story. More people should read this and understand the difficulties associated with war, even many years after.

Great work from a dedicated author

Few seem to understand the aftermath of the US involvement in Southeast Asia better than Robert McKelvey. The stories of abandoned Amerasian children told in "The Dust of Life" ring true. The author's later work, "A Gift of Barbed Wire," tells the equally painful stories of our abandoned "allies." Having once worked with the 4,000 Amerasian children living throughout Thailand, I would love to see the author examine the fates of the Amerasian children left behind in Thailand. An examination of the Lao "seminar" (reeducation) camps is long overdue as well, and is certainly well within McKelvey's reach.

shameful heartbraking stories !

this was a very informative book about what took place during the war. These stories were really sad. I would like the author to write another book about this, and expand more on their lives after coming to America, and detailed accounts on meeting their american fathers...This story which is non fiction, has opened my eyes even larger to the horrors of love affairs during war, and the tragedy it brings to the innocent children involved.