On the Move: The Internal Refugee Experience in Wartime Vietnam

Rosemary Plummer
BA History
‘On the Move: The Internal Refugee Experience in Wartime Vietnam’

David Hunt began his talk by defining key concepts and terminology, before explaining the sources which his work is reliant upon. The first section of his talk explained how the refugee crisis in wartime Vietnam came about. This initial summary was followed by an exploration of the social experiences of refugees, focusing especially on their difficulties in finding employment in urban areas. Hunt then moved on to commenting on those who did not become refugees, those who for whatever reason stayed behind upon agricultural land. As women did not have to flee from conscription in the same manner as men, this section of the talk was particularly gender based, highlighting how many historians have not given women the credit they deserve for keeping the traditional male sector of agriculture alive in such a crucial time. While I praise Hunt for his focus on the female experience, his use of only 14 female accounts as opposed to 271 male ones was disappointing. Although this imbalance is not Hunts’ fault; and indeed, he insightfully explained why female narratives were overlooked when gathering interviews, his claim that men’s accounts are fully able to tell us about women was questionable. While I agree that men’s accounts can indeed tell us about the actions of women, for example the ways in which they acted as co-conspirators in their husbands escapes, accounts through the male lens miss out important social aspects of the internal female narrative, such as how women felt, or indeed what they did in the time that their husbands were away from home. While I praise Hunts’ interest in female involvement in agriculture, to truly understand the social side of this phenomenon, more female accounts need to be explored, especially in the field of oral history as men already dominate the literary field, making it even more crucial to seek female accounts where they are available.  

The final section of Hunt’s talk focused upon the way that he felt refugee experiences were crucial to the offensive launched in 1968, which clearly was a vital discovery in the historiographical field. Although I know little about Vietnamese history, I could understand the excitement at finding such an unexpected link and Hunt did an excellent job of explaining and justifying how he had come to such a conclusion. The significance of this link is however limited by Hunt’s small geographical focus, although he himself did acknowledge this in his presentation, noting that his claims could only be applied to the one area he was focusing on. Further research into whether such trends were true in other areas of Vietnam would be very interesting.  

As a whole, Hunt’s presentation style was surprisingly engaging, considering he mainly read from a script, he still managed to captivate his audience. While merely reading aloud can in circumstances be monotonous, the simplicity of this approach really worked for him and I appreciated his efforts to stick to his points so as not to run over time. This simple presenting style helped me to think differently about my final few presentations which I will have at University, as, as useful as visuals can be, content and engagement are clearly so much more important. 

For me personally, what I found most interesting about this talk was the potential to acknowledge a link between past and present refugee experiences. As I currently volunteer at a refugee centre, Hunt’s descriptions of the struggles of finding work and leaving family behind really struck a chord with me and indeed, such descriptions would easily be found today among my own contacts. Similarly, Hunt’s emphasis on refugees’ desire for peace and security really stood out to me as a clear acknowledgement of the human side of refugee crises. For my own final year project, this talk really served as a reminder to me to not forget the more human side of history while exploring the politics behind events.  Hunt’s basis upon interviews with refugees, linked with my own experiences, served as a real reminder that history is about more than just trends, conflicts and politics, it is about how on a human level, people lived with and lived through incredibly trying times and prevailed.