Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home

Freelance writer Bass (Reinventing the Future) spent a decade investigating the tragic story of children fathered and abandoned by American servicemen in Vietnam. Outcasts in Vietnam's family-oriented society, regarded as an embarrassment by the U.S., the Amerasians were not authorized to emigrate to their fathers' country until 1987. Bass weaves interviews with U.S. and Vietnamese officials, social workers and, above all, the children themselves into a sorry tale of racism and fraud, corruption and inefficiency that continues to keep these by-now young adults outcasts in a world that often regards their very existence as a mistake. Although Bass admits that not all the stories he recounts may be true in every detail, Vietnamerica compellingly depicts a pain behind the stories that is all too real and all too enduring. This book is a poignant, effective reminder that America's longest war did not end when the shooting stopped. Author tour. (Apr.)