:: Research & Programs

Exchanges With Vietnam

Early Initiatives and Exchanges with Vietnam

Early contacts with Vietnam on the issue of Agent Orange in the late 1980’s, resulted in a host of new programs. In 1987, after meetings with the Vietnamese Mission to the United Nations in New York, the center arranged to send its first delegation to Vietnam to meet and discuss the social, cultural, and humanitarian legacies of the war

Medical Programs

Under an agreement with the Ministry of Labor and War Invalids signed in 1988 the center sent several delegations of U. S. veterans to meet and work with their peers. In 1988 a delegation of medical personnel, comprised of Vietnam veterans travelled through Vietnam to assess medical needs. Following on their recommendations, a proposal was drafted for a mid-wives training program to operate in Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City. With funding secured through the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, a larger delegation of teacher/trainers was sent in 1990 to initiate training programs for nurses and physician assistants. Other Joiner Center teaching initiatives were conducted by Dr. Robert Masters, director of the Boston University School of Public Health, and Dr. Myron Allukian, Director of the American Public Health Association. Masters and Allukian, both veterans of the war in Vietnam, made the unique decision to travel to Vietnam with their sons. From these early visits links were established with hospitals, medical schools centers for the disabled around the country. With the assistance of groups such Direct Relief International, medical supplies and equipment were shipped by container or carried and personally delivered by groups of returning veterans.

Writers and Artists Exchanges with Vietnam

Joiner Center cultural exchanges with Vietnam date back to the first visit of Vietnamese writers Le Luu and Nguy Ngu to the U.S. in 1988. In 1990 the center co-hosted of the first conference of U.S, and Vietnamese writers. Held in Vietnam, with venues in Hanoi, Hai Phong , Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City the conference brought together writers from across Vietnam to meet with a delegation of writers from the U.S. which included Bruce Weigl, Yusef Komunyakaa, W.D. Ehrhart, Phil Caputo, Larry Rottman, and George Wilson. In with the support of the Ford Foundation, the center sponsored exchanges of publishers, editors, and writing association leaders from both countries to discuss the issue of international copyright and facilitation of translation rights.

Vietnamese ESL Teacher Exchanges

In 19 UMass Boston graduate Edith Shillue travelled to Vietnam to become one of the first American ESL teachers since the end of the war. Coming to work at the Joiner Center as editor of the Vietnam Newsletter, she initiated a series of exchanges with the cooperation of the Harvard-Yenching Institute which would bring young English teachers from universities in Can Tho, Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City, to study in the university’s Bilingual ESL Masters Degree Program through the 1990’s.