Making Two Vietnams

"North and South Vietnamese children had very different experiences of growing up during the Vietnamese War. The book gives a unique perspective on the conflict through the prism of adult-youth relations. By studying these relations, including educational systems, social organizations, and texts created by and for children during the war, Olga Dror analyses how the two societies dealt with their wartime experience and strove to shape their futures. She examines the socialisation and politicisation of Vietnamese children and teenagers, contrasting the North's highly centralized agenda of indoctrination with the South, which had no such policy, and explores the results of these varied approaches. By considering the influence of Western culture on the youth of the South and of socialist culture on the youth of the North, we learn how the culture of the children of both Vietnams diverged from their pre-war paths and from each other. Olga Dror is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Texas A&M University."--Provided by publisher.