Over a 7-year period, Tony and Eva Worobiec, two of the greatest photographers of all time, traveled the dusty paths of rural America, particularly in the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming. The fruits of their journey are pictures so poignant and evocative of the American West that they are the photographic equivalent of a Steinbeck novel. Each amazing photo vividly reveals the struggle for survival, of a disappearing way of life, in the forgotten countryside and backroads of the U.S. In the often harsh and unforgiving landscape, the Worobiecs shot affecting and beautiful pictures of abandoned farms, schools, gas stations, grain elevators and tractors, diners, and trucks.
Tony's pictures are large format, shot in black and white, and then hand tinted. The results resemble postcards from the 1950s. Eva shoots directly in color for a more starkly modern aspect. Both achieve magnificent, and ultimately emotionally touching, results.
Along with the photographs are the words of the remaining residents, who speak sadly of better times, the friends and neighbors for whom things didn't work out, and of their own, once-flourishing piece of abandoned America.
This remarkable achievement is both an exquisite photography book and a commentary on the American way of life.

A stunningly photographed examination of the roadside icons that dot America's landscape. Lost America celebrates the boom-to-bust towns, aircraft bone yards, and filling stations of days past that were sacrificed at the altars of speed and technology and relegated to windswept desert plains and abandoned fields. The eye-catching and memorable photography is complemented with a succinct text history that details the rise and fall of each subject. The result is an impressive tour of an America still standing, yet largely forgotten.

Customer Reviews:

The Real "Land That Time Forgot".......2007-02-02

Now in its second print-run, Troy Paiva's LOST AMERICA is the equivalent of a medieval "Ubi sunt?" poem, with abandoned drive-ins and car shells standing in for the Roman temples and aqueducts. His striking, beautifully lit night-shots are more than nostalgia or kitschy tributes; they're documents of an American culture that sheds identities and icons with unsettling ease. As others have noted, Paiva's as good a writer as he is a photo-artist, and so the accompanying essays are just as evocative as the images. The only things LOST AMERICA lacks are a sturdier hardcover edition and a follow-up.

More Then Just Junk.......2006-11-18

When I first came across this book it intrigued me because, I was so in tuned to the wasteful nature of our culture. The incredible thing is when I show most people the book at first they say "So you wasted $15 on photo's of junk?", but a few hours or few days later their asking to see the book again. This time they remark on the genius of it all, the beauty of the photo's, and the magical way the objects come to life. I would also tell them to read what Troy Paiva has written in the book itself. In a way his words open up the true nature of the photos, not just revealing pictures of forgotten and rusted objects, but of memories that we may have of those objects in their heyday. Like the way he mentions an old rusted Cadillac once having been someone's dream car, or the way a nearly scarped Boeing 707, was once the height of technology and the jet set. The book can also get creepy in parts especially the part you'll read about a forgotten fire station near Edwards AFB. But overall it's more then just junk, it's a tribute to the very nature of our being in the United States, and ghosts that haunt us in the form of memories

Excellent book!.......2006-05-19

Amazing pictures and very well written stories.
Definitely a book worth having if you like photography.

DON'T GET LOST, AMERICA!.......2006-01-23

I received Troy Paiva's, LOST AMERICA this past Christmas from the Mother of a girl I went with from 1989 to 1994, and I'd like to think that this says something positive about both, her Mother, and myself. The book is filled with dramatic and intriguing photographs executed by a true artist. It seems that Paiva petitioned Stan Ridgway (a Rock star) to write the Forward to LOST AMERICA, but ironically - based on what I found in the book - Ridgway isn't half the writer that Troy Paiva is. (That's right - Paiva is as good a writer as he is a photographer! This guy has really been blessed with talent!) Even so, Ridgway nails it when he says, "Some people can be obsessive. Artists usually are, and the great ones are excessively so. They are driven by an inner vision."

And the attempt to manifest this inner vision for the benefit of others can often come at a price for the artist. Paiva is a junky joint junkie : his vision is to take long exposure photographs at night of abandoned things and places. He attempts to capture the Lost and Lonely Heart of the Past (usually with a mixture of hot and cool colored lights illuminating certain areas of his subject matter). It is important to remember when viewing these poetic and mysterious photos, that Paiva often had to pay a price for them beyond the cost of film, developing and printing : in the course of tramping through junkyards and forlorn places at night, he has been swarmed by bats, attacked by owls, and chased back to his truck by packs of wild dogs. He's had heart-stopping encounters with angry rattlesnakes, and witnessed mysterious tarantula and cricket migrations. Once, a praying mantis as big as his hand followed him around an old junkyard like a pet, for most of an evening. More than once, his hand has swollen up like a balloon from painful spider bites. So, unless the idea of being stalked by a monstrous praying mantis all evening is your idea of a fun Friday night, you shouldn't take these very cool photos for granted.

As I said, Troy Paiva's writing impressed me as much as his photographs did, and on page 14 he writes, "The songs of old broken things are everywhere." The moment I read that, the perfect song sprang into my mind. Composed by another artist with the poetic heart of a juice joint junkie (Tom Waits) is the song, 'BROKEN BICYCLES' from the movie soundtrack for 'One From The Heart' : "Broken bicycles, old busted chains / With rusted handle bars, out in the rain / Somebody must have an orphanage for / All these things that nobody wants any more." Well, there IS an orphanage for these abandoned things - it's called, "Troy Paiva's Camera." Let Tom sing the song while you explore Paiva's photos, and you will have discovered a match made in the junkyard of your dreams!

Now, I will confess that there are a few times when I feel Paiva's lighting is detrimental to the image. Occasionally the colored lights infuse the scene with an artificiality that spoils it. Nowhere is this more evident than in 'Daggett Beams, 2000' in which an otherwise truly stunning photo is spoiled by a harsh yellow spotlight in the background. I sometimes preferred his photos with less intrusive, minimal lighting, such as the moody blue, 'Road Closed, 2001' which features two battered, old pickup trucks parked like sentinels under an unhappy Winter sky.

But most of his photos do feature spotlighted areas of red, green, blue or yellow - this is Paiva's style - and the vast majority of the time, it works; it adds a sense of supernatural foreboding, or Little Boy Lost to his "Broken Bicycle" scenes. Some of the real standouts for me are 'Ludlow Cafe, 1990'; 'Concourse, 2001'; 'Salton Sea Beach Trailer, 1992' (so creepy that I could probably write an entire horror story around that one image); 'Cabover And Tires, 1992' (maybe my favorite photo in the book. Who or WHAT might live in that abandoned camper? I think I'd rather not know!); and then there's 'The King, 2002', that looks like some nightmarish image from a bizarre, childlike somnambulistic landscape - Alice in Vegasland! Quickly click those heels and scream, "There's no place like home!" Many of Paiva's photos would make great imagination-starters for would-be writers.

'CL, 2001' shows us the dilapidated snack bar of the abandoned Burlingame Drive-in theatre. In the foreground is an old sign, the only remaining letters on it being "CL." The caption states, "So far past being closed, it's only CL now." I told you this guy could write! Chapter Four, titled, "Salvage", contains several shots of old and weathered Las Vegas casino signs taken in the Vegas Neon Museum's "boneyard." It's interesting to note that the scene in the movie, 'One From The Heart' in which the plaintive Tom Waits song, 'Broken Bicycles' plays, occurs in a Las Vegas junkyard littered with old, dismantled casino signs, and a mournful train whistling in the background. I never imagined that such a place really existed...until I got LOST AMERICA. The book is sure to appeal to every melancholy weirdo like me, and I would recommend you buy it, except for one thing: it was printed in China...

Yes, this is the same China that embraces Communism - a failed economic/social system responsible for murdering approximately 100 million human beings worldwide, and torturing and starving many millions more. The same China that enforces its one-child family policy with forced abortions. The same China that got caught smuggling AK-47s into the U.S. to be sold to Los Angeles street gangs; threatened to nuke L.A. if the U.S. militarily defends Taiwan; kills its citizens who have the audacity to publicly request freedom; sells body parts of executed prisoners to medical facilities; enslaves political opponents & Christians for their faith, and puts them to work in forced labor camps, producing all imaginable types of goods, and printing books, all to be sold to Americans.

Everytime we purchase a Chinese-made product, we are feeding the human rights-abusing monster that has made no secret of its hatred for us - a monster that is increasing its military might at an astonishing rate and will someday overrun its neighbor, Taiwan, and declare war on the United States. Let's have a little foresight for once. Let's stop building our enemies. Let's boycott ALL Chinese products and sleep better at night. LOST AMERICA is a nice book, but until it is being produced in a country that values human life, it's a book that we can LIVE WITHOUT! (Of course, if you're buying a used copy, this is not an issue.) The good news, however, is that many of Troy Paiva's photos can be viewed at his lostamerica w-page. It may not be this book, but it's still worth a look.

just ok.......2005-09-10

I was disappointed in the photos and the lack of more detailed text.

Average customer rating: Great work from a dedicated author shameful heartbraking stories !

The Dust of Life: America's Children Abandoned in Vietnam Robert S. McKelvey Manufacturer: University of Washington Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books General | Vietnam | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books Oral History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books Child Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books | Development | Psychology General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books General | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Children's Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Similar Items: Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth (Awards)) The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood A Gift of Barbed Wire: America's Allies Abandoned in South Vietnam The War Cradle ASIN: 0295978368

Book Description

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 human resiliency.

Robert McKelvey is a former marine who served in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Now a child psychiatrist, he returned to Vietnam in 1990 to begin the long series of interviews that resulted in this book. While allowing his subjects to speak for themselves, McKelvey has organized their narratives around themes common to their lives: early maternal loss, the experience of prejudice and discrimination, coping with adversity, dealing with shattered hopes for the future, and, for some, adapting to the alien environment of the United States.

Customer Reviews:

Great work from a dedicated author.......2002-12-15

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 !.......2002-08-07

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.

Average customer rating: Rusted Relics Live

Roadside Relics: America's Abandoned Automobiles Will Shiers Manufacturer: Motorbooks ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Architectural | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books General | United States | Travel | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books General | Transportation | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books General | Automotive | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Similar Items: Junkyard Jewels: Diamonds in the Rust Salvage Yard Treasures of America The Cobra in the Barn: Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology Route 66 Lost and Found: Ruins and Relics Revisited Vintage Car Wrecks: Motoring Mishaps 1950-1979 ASIN: 0760327483

Book Description

Abandoned junk to some, the rusty shells of vehicles are treasures to others, holding memories of a bygone era, or the promise of a pristinely restored, radically customized automobile. Here are the beautiful husks Shiers has found in U.S. fields and barns, shops and salvage yards. Divided into five categoriesGeneral Motors, Ford, Chrysler, independents, and special vehiclesthese wrecks and relics from 1910 to the 1970s come equipped with all the relevant information: history, model, location. And because few salvage yards today keep anything older than a 1980 vintage, many of these cars have been lost to the metal crusher. The most comprehensive and beautifully photographed collection of abandoned cars ever published, this volume preserves for all time the exquisite skeletons of American automotive might.

Customer Reviews:

Rusted Relics Live.......2007-01-19

Beautiful images of burnt out, rusted, and
dead classic cars, trucks and vehicle parts,
dressed in weeds, grass and mud...lovely.
Not so much in your neighborhood, but they
make fabulous images in their abandoned settings.

Average customer rating:

Abandoned on the Wild Frontier: Peter Cartwright (Trailblazer Books #15) Dave and Neta Jackson Manufacturer: Bethany House ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items: Danger on the Flying Trapeze: D. L. Moody (Trailblazer Books) The Forty-Acre Swindle: George Washington Carver (Trailblazer Books #31) The Bandit of Ashley Downs: George Muller (Trailblazer Books #7) The Warrior's Challenge: David Zeisberger (Trailblazer Books #20) Journey to the End of the Earth: William Seymour (Trailblazer Books #33) ASIN: 1556614683 Release Date: 1995-04-01

Book Description

His father killed and his mother kidnapped by Sauk Indians, young Gilbert Hamilton searches for his mother with the help of an evangelist. Ages 8-12.

Average customer rating: I was so nieve before reading this book! Very Educational! Lost Daughters of China A must read for anyone contemplating adoption from China Outstanding and still timely

The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America, and Their Search for a Missing Past Karin Evans Manufacturer: Tarcher ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Minority Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Children's Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Adoption | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Similar Items: National Geographic - China's Lost Girls Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son: Abandonment, Adoption, and Orphanage Care in China I Love You Like Crazy Cakes When You Were Born in China: A Memory Book for Children Adopted from China A Passage to the Heart: Writings from Families with Children from China Accessories: philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer ASIN: 1585420263 Release Date: 2000-05-04

Amazon.com

The Lost Daughters of China is that rare book that can be many things to different people. Part memoir, part travelogue, part East-West cultural commentary, and part adoption how-to, Karin Evans's book is greater than the sum of its parts. Evans weaves together her experience of adopting a Chinese infant with observations about Chinese women's history and that country's restrictive, if unevenly enforced, reproductive policies. She and her husband adopted Kelly Xiao Yu in 1997, and anyone curious about adopting from a Chinese orphanage--which houses girls and disabled boys--will learn about the mechanics and the emotional freight of the two-year process. Borrowing an image from Chinese folklore, Evans conveys herself, her husband, and their daughter as tethered by a red string that yoked them across an ocean and an equally awesome cultural divide.

The elegant prose is spiced with bits of ironic cultural dissonance. A discount shopper, Evans "felt more than a little strange buying China-made [baby] clothes with which to bundle up a tiny baby, one of China's own, and bring her home." On a bus tour through southern China, she is one of a "bunch of Americans with Chinese infants singing 'Que Sera Sera' in the middle of a sea of traffic. Will she be happy? Will she be rich?" To suddenly hear Doris Day over the horns of a Kowloon traffic jam is heady stuff indeed.

The Lost Daughters of China is at its best when describing Evans's tally of emotional loss and gain. At one point the bureaucratic adoption process is unaccountably delayed, but her father dies during that time and she's able to sit by his bedside. The most mysterious example of this emotional calculus is Kelly's birth mother. Evans invents many plausible scenarios that caused this unknown woman to abandon her three-month-old daughter at a market. These incomplete, necessarily provisional stories help give a face to the larger cultural processes that compel new parents to abandon 1.7 million girl babies annually. The stuff of headlines--human rights, infanticide, rural and urban poverty--is rendered personally relevant in Evans's compelling book. --Kathi Inman Berens

Book Description

A personal and journalistic exploration of American and Chinese culture at a unique point of intersection: the thousands of baby girls who are abandoned in one country each year and adopted in the other.

Today Karin Evans is the mother of Kelly, a thriving Chinese-American toddler. But two years ago, her daughter was one of the hundreds of thousands of infant girls abandoned in orphanages all over China. The story of how Kelly came to be there is rooted deep in China's history, in an ancient political, economic, and cultural preference for baby boys that began in the time of Confucius and was still going strong when China's notorious one-child policy was introduced in the 1980s.

Through extensive research combined with the moving account of bringing Kelly home, Evans investigates the conditions that engendered generations of abandoned girls in China and a legacy of lost women. She provides insight into the historic place of sons and daughters in the Chinese family, the philosophical underpinnings of filial piety, as well as the selective abortions and other desperate acts undertaken by contemporary families convinced of the need for a son to perpetuate the family line. In this eloquent journalistic memoir, Evans compellingly links the lives of an abandoned Chinese baby girl, an adoptive American mother, and a Chinese mother hidden in the shadows.

"Not only an evocative memoir on East-West adoption but a bridge to East-West understanding of human rights in China." --Amy Tan

Lyrically written, precisely observed and emotionally evocative . . . Evans is simply dazzling." --Tim Cahill

Customer Reviews:

I was so nieve before reading this book!.......2007-08-22

All I can say about this book is that it really opened my eyes. A couple times while reading I thought to myself, "Could this be real?" The statistics and information given in this book are mind blowing. The book delivers the information in an organized, easy to understand way. After reading so much about the adoption process it was a nice change to read about the culture my child will be coming from. I gained historical and political perspective as well a real understanding about the way things "actually" are in China. I have to say that anyone adopting a Chinese daughter should read this book. I can only imagine it will also help me answer some questions that may arrise as my daughter grows.

Very Educational!.......2007-05-16

A must read. Very informative on China and how the adoption process came to be what it is today & why. Sad and heartbreaking at the same time. Did not agree w/all aspects (belief system of author) but apart from that, it is a really good book.

Lost Daughters of China.......2007-02-01

Since my own daughter is in the process of adopting a baby from China, I thought this book would give me insight in the whole process. The author is from the Bay area so we had much in common.The book was very informative.

A must read for anyone contemplating adoption from China.......2007-01-03

I found this book to capture a lot of the concepts involved in the path to adoption. The style of writing is very good and enjoyable and easy to read. I have sent this book out on loan to many of my friends and family to open their eyes to the "big picture" of adoption. There was a bit of repartition in a couple of spots but that's about all I could critisise. A great read to help prepare for the whole process.
Highly recommended!!

Outstanding and still timely.......2006-12-18

This is still the preeminent resource. I have read so many memoirs, stories, studies and the like in this subject area. I want to be very informed as I have adopted from China. I read this one before I went to China and was awaiting our referral. Some of the material is a tad dated but the essence still holds true. There isn't a better resource to read in my opinion. The Children Can't Wait by Laura Cecere is also fabulous but more stilted but well worth your time if you can find a copy. The Lost Daughters of China is fabulous and worth your time.

Average customer rating: The best book about postwar Vietnam's reeducation Ultimate betrayal Enlightening. Rather late than never

A Gift of Barbed Wire: America's Allies Abandoned in South Vietnam Robert S. McKelvey Manufacturer: University of Washington Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books General | Vietnam | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Southeast Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books Prisoners of War | Military | History | Subjects | Books Disaster Relief | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Emigration & Immigration | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books Similar Items: The Dust of Life: America's Children Abandoned in Vietnam A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War ASIN: 0295982241

Book Description

A Gift of Barbed Wire is a searing 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 escape or 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.

All the people interviewed for the book eventually reached the United States, some by the desperate route of the boat people fleeing Vietnam in unsafe vessels, others, after rigorous screening, through U.S. Government-sponsored programs. But even in the safety of the United States they had to begin anew, devoting all their remaining energies to survival. While crediting the courage and resilience of these families, McKelvey holds a critical mirror up to our culture, exploring the nature of our responsibility to our allies as well as the attitudes that obscured the reality of war as "a grinding, brutal interplay of complex forces that often develops a sustaining energy and momentum of its own, driving us in directions that we neither anticipated nor desired."

"Despite the horrors portrayed, these are tales of courage and successful survival in the broader human tragedy of war and its aftermath. McKelvey's skills as an interviewer and his knowledge of the Vietnamese community, especially the survivors, and their willingness to trust him with stories which they usually hold closely, make A Gift of Barbed Wire both persuasive and cogent. They are also reasons why not many people in the world could undertake such a project."--Charles Holzer, University of Texas Medical Branch

"A Gift of Barbed Wire is the only study of Vietnamese re-education camp experiences that includes in some detail the family members of those who were incarcerated and the effects--economic, social, and psychological--that imprisonment had on the whole family."--James Freeman, author of Hearts of Sorrow: Vietnamese American Lives

Customer Reviews:

The best book about postwar Vietnam's reeducation.......2006-01-17

McKelvey, a Marine veteran of Vietnam, penned a marvelous oral history of former reeducation camp survivors. The Introduction is personal and touching. The book contains four major sections dealing with interviews with former prisoners: a doctor, an engineer, a tailor, a pilot and a spy. Families of prisoners give their stories of carrying on while their loved ones were in captivity.

The author probes deeply into the postwar lives of these former public servants and officers of South Vietnam. From the initial reporting date in June 1975 until their release, the interviewees recall the brutal details of the camps, their captors and the communist indoctrination--basically hard labor and starvation. "Reeducation" is a misnomer.

Nixon and Kissinger's "Peace with Honor" never materialized. Ford took care of the refugees in the U.S. but didn't/couldn't intervene. Carter, well...he was busy with pardoning draft dodgers and Iran. The U.N. and Amnesty International finally took notice in 1979 when it was too late for the majority of those who had perished.

I give this book four stars only because it reeks of academia, its format of Q&A rather than an arcing narrative. It should be included in every Vietnam class, especially those professors and students who care to learn about America's defeated and abandoned allies.

Ultimate betrayal.......2004-06-07

I have returned to Vietnam many times...I speak the language and have known about the atrocities that occured after April 30, 1975. I have read and re-read this work and I compare it to another great book...Decent Interval by Frank Snepp. The stories are unique yet the same, reeking of betrayal and abandonment by a "friend".
The author reveals arduous research and the ability to place these anecdotes onto paper without losing emotion and perhaps color. As a previous reviewer has stated...better late than never. My congradulations and thanks to the author.
I would give this book more stars if possible.
I am the author of ...Eye of the Tiger and Thoughts Etched in Jade.

Enlightening........2003-01-06

In this book, Dr. McKelvey wrote a detailed and intimate account of the South Vietnamese military officers' fates after the end of the Vietnam War.

The message is troublesome but not surprising: the military personnel were rounded into re-education camps and suffered untold tragedies from humiliation, torture, mental degradation to physical impoverishment within a communist prison system. The majority of the officers were jailed from ten to fifteen years; one officer was detained for a total of 22 years.

While 70,000 former political inmates and their families were allowed to immigrate to the U.S. through the ODP (Orderly Departure Program), many more are still living on the fringes of the Vietnamese communist society. A former major drives a pedicab for a living. In this McKelvey's book, we heard the voices of a doctor, a tailor, a politician, an engineer, a spy, a pilot, and a teacher. They all endured "grueling and unforgiving ordeals that only the strongest would have survived." Family members were ostracized for being related to the political prisoners; their wives suffered uncounted financial, emotional, physical hardships, their children barred from a decent education.

The book is one of the few that deal with the long-term psychological effects of the incarceration on the inmates and the sufferings of their relatives.

The author concludes that: 1) War does not end when peace treaties are signed because the negative rippling effects of war and destruction affect many generations to come. 2) The U.S. should be very careful about intervening militarily in any part of the World. 3) The U.S., if it does go to war, cannot simply abandon friends and allies to the mercies of common enemies.

Rather late than never.......2002-10-14

I am a student from Vietnam and now studying in the U.S. I chanced to read this book in our university library. Thanks the AUTHOR for an insightful book.

In fact, my family background was 'clean' in the eyes of our government because my parents were not involved in any military service for the former government. But I have friends whose family situations were exactly the same as those portrayed in the book. I must say those are incredible human sufferings, and not only for one generation. I am glad some of those stories are now heard, perhaps a bit late but still, better than never.

Here's a life-time lesson for me (and perhaps some others): no matter how and what communists tell you, don't hastily believe them. Just look at what and how they do, and you'll see it for yourself. For many of them, human dignity and lives are trivial and cheap.

Books:

1. Harbors and High Seas, 3rd Edition : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, Third Edition
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
3. Henri Cartier-Bresson (Aperture Masters of Photography)
4. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
5. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
6. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
7. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
8. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
9. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
10. History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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