Description
Book SynopsisA Gift of Barbed Wire is a penetrating look at the lives of South Vietnamese officials and their families left behind in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975. A former Marine who served in Vietnam, Robert McKelvey went on to practice psychiatry and, through his work in refugee camps and U.S. social service organizations, met South Vietnamese men from all walks of life who had been imprisoned in re-education camps immediately after the war. McKelvey's interviews with these former political prisoners, their wives, and their children reveal the devastating, long-term impact of their incarceration. From the early years in French colonial Vietnam through the Vietnam War, from postwar ordeals of re-education camps, social ostracism, and poverty to eventual emigration to the United States, this collection of narratives provides broad and highly personal accounts of individuals and families evolving against the backdrop of war and vast social change. Some of the people interviewed for
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One | Former Political Prisoners
1. The Doctor
2. The Engineer
3. The Tailor
4. The Spy
Part Two | Former Political Prisoners and Their Families
5. The Pilot
6. The Pilot's Wife
7. The Pilot's Daughter
8. The Teacher
9. The Teacher's Wife
10. The Politician
11. The Politician's Wife
12. The Politician's Son
13. The Politician's Grandson
14. The Politician's Daughter-in-Law
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
Index
