Summit Gathers Vietnamese Groups

Featuring a key-note address by a former CIA agent, traditional bánh-mì Vietnamese sandwiches, and a “sexual” poetry reading, the third summit for the New England Union of Vietnamese Student Associations brought together Vietnamese students from nine different schools in a two-day event hosted by the Harvard Vietnamese Association this weekend.

“We tailored the entire summit program to expose students to Vietnam not only in terms of its history and culture, but also modern Vietnam in an economic and political sense,” said Tri D. Chiem ’10, co-president of the Harvard Vietnamese Association. “We wanted to get the participants to go away from the program feeling they have been enriched with new perspectives on their heritage and culture.”

The summit began with a keynote speech by Rufus Phillips, a recipient of the CIA’s Intelligence Medal of Merit and author of “Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned in Vietnam.” Phillips, although an American citizen, spent 14 years living in Vietnam, part of it during his tenure in the CIA.

Phillips said that many mistakes that the U.S. made in Vietnam War are being repeated in the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We must not let ourselves be undermined by our own sense of superiority,” Phillips said during the talk. “Only the local people we are trying to help can win this kind of struggle. Democracy has to grow from ground up.”

Phillips also had a special message for the Vietnamese-American audience. “Do not forget your Vietnamese roots; keep them and nourish them with pride,” he said.

During the two-day event, the summit featured speakers and smaller presentations about premodern and modern Vietnamese history, the current economic and political state of the country, and humanitarian efforts in Vietnam.

One favorite of many attendees was a presentation about Vietnamese poetry and music by Nguyen Ngoc Bich, a translator and lecturer specializing in Vietnamese literature.

Many students said this was their first time being exposed to Vietnamese poetry and music.

“It was just amazing to be able to hear poetry from a thousand years ago,” said Jeremy N. Tran ’09, last year’s president of the Vietnamese Association,

“Vietnamese poetry isn’t boring. It’s quite sexual and talks a lot about desire and being drunk,” said Trieu H. Ton ’11, one of the coordinators of the summit. “Bich also sang for us, and talked about how Vietnamese music is quite original.”

According to Tran, the summit series was first organized last year by the Vietnamese student associations from Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, with a goal of establishing relationships between Vietnamese students in the New England area. While the first summit at Columbia only included students from three schools, this year’s summit welcomed nine schools from the New England area.

“This summit was definitely successful. I just wish we had more schools come,” said Tran. “The New England Vietnamese community is still developing.”