I like the beginning scenes of the film, The Lover (L’Amant). You see a ferry crossing the Mekong that is filled with Vietnamese taking goods to market, but those people…
“You better watch out / You better not cry / You better not pout / I’m telling you why / Santa Claus is coming. . . . . . to…
For better or for worse, English has become “the” global language. This is very much evident in Southeast Asia where English proficiency is being promoted as key to the integration…
It’s well known that one of the ways that the US started to support South Vietnam in 1954 was through propaganda. Edward Lansdale is the person who is usually associated…
Back in the late 1980s I was friends with a guy who was the manager of a failing rock band in the Soviet Union. The band he managed was not…
Looking around again in the US National Archives through the Online Public Access portal, I found this letter from Hồ Chí Minh. To quote the description on the web page,…
I came across this nice map of Vietnam in 1890 that the Library of Congress (LOC) has digitized. This then made me think about all of the wonderful old Vietnamese…
A while ago I wrote about a letter I found that US consul in Sandakan, British North Borneo (BNB) Lester Maynard wrote to the Buick Motor Company in 1907 in…
If you want to understand the past, you have to engage in comparative history. If you just study about one place, then you cannot possibly gain an accurate understanding of…
I came across these images today by using the Online Public Access page of the US National Archives. Apparently the US Information Agency created these posters in 1953. Written in…