well, i do still feel that way to a certain extent, but i think that it takes effort to feel a part of anything. i was actually born six months after the war ended, coming really close to being born in vietnam (my mom was already an american citizen when she married my dad in saigon in 1970 and came to the states shortly thereafter). i apologize in advance if i don't respond much after this because i don't log into tribe much anymore, but i thought i'd share my thoughts.

You must live someplace with a Vietnamese community! In Oregon where I live we have maybe two dozen VN families in the entire city. I imagine they know each other, but I have only met a few. What happens to help you to feel not accepted? What could happen to make you feel more accepted?

When I went back to Vietnam for a vacation back in '97 I was treated as 100% American. I thought it was liberating to learn that if I wanted to be known as VN I could, or if I wanted to be known as American I could.

My take on it is that I have to BE myself more than I I have to be defined by my observers. :)

Hi there Randy (and everyone else)....

My Vietnamese name is Nguyen Thi Le Thuong. I was born in Saigon in 1973, towards the very end of the war. My grandmother raised me until my mother decided she wanted to get out when Saigon fell in '75. I was one of the lucky ones that got out from the embassy. My father was Irish American (I just know his last name), he was either KIA or MIA during the time when my mother was pregnant. NOt sure if he is alive or dead. Regardless to say, I favor my father's genes LOL. This caused me ALOT of grief growing up; my mother raised me Viet (food, language, culture, religion), yet I look and feel American. Now that I am older, I am more comfortable in my skin---yellow and white :) I am raising my children to be bi-cultural, and have become better with the issues concerning my heritage. There are so many mixed-cultured people in the world, that it is easier to accept in society. The only sad thing that concerns me, is that facts get skewed about the politics and the tragedies and triumphs of the Vietnam War. History and miseducated people have warped the details and truths about a war that is always misinterpreted and misrepresented. I think the same can be said of the children that were born of this war---those of Vietnamese women and American soldiers. There are hundreds, if not thousands of us, and thus thousands of stories. Each one is significant. Each one of us is significant.