Scars of War: The Politics of Paternity and Responsibility for the Amerasians of Vietnam

Best First Book Award from the History Honor Society, Phi Alpha Theta

Scars of War examines the decisions of U.S. policymakers who denied American citizenship to the Amerasians of Vietnam--the biracial sons and daughters of American fathers and Vietnamese mothers born during the Vietnam War. Focusing on the implications of the 1982 Amerasian Immigration Act and the 1987 Amerasian Homecoming Act, Sabrina Thomas investigates why policymakers deemed a population unfit for American citizenship, despite the fact that they had American fathers.

Thomas argues that citizenship exclusion was a component of bigger issues confronting the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations: international relationships in the Cold War era, America’s defeat in the Vietnam War, and a history in the United States of racially restrictive immigration and citizenship policies against mixed-race persons and people of Asian descent.

Now more politically relevant than ever, Scars of War explores ideas of race, nation, and gender in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Thomas exposes the contradictory approach of policymakers unable to reconcile Amerasian biracialism with the U.S. Code. As they created an inclusionary discourse deeming Amerasians worthy of American action, guidance, and humanitarian aid, federal policymakers simultaneously initiated exclusionary policies that designated these people unfit for American citizenship.

Sabrina Thomas is an associate professor of African American history and war and society at Texas Tech University. Robert J. Mrazek is a former U.S. congressman of New York.