What you probably don’t know about the Vietnam War, you can learn Thursday with the Southwest Seattle Historical Society‘s next online presentation. If you haven’t already seen it in the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, here’s the announcement:

‘Words, Writers & Southwest Stories,’ a speaker series of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, is excited to announce that it is hosting Dr. Julie Pham for a live Zoom presentation on Thursday, December 9 at 6:00 PM. Pham will deliver a presentation titled “Hidden Histories: The South Vietnamese Side of the Vietnam War.” Registration is required. Please register HERE.

The Vietnam War is seen by much of the Western world as being fought between the Americans and North Vietnamese Communists, with the South Vietnamese largely absent. Yet many Vietnamese refugees who came to America after the war served in the South Vietnamese military, and there is little recognition and understanding of their contributions and role in the war. In fact, in American and Vietnamese Communist histories, the South Vietnamese are painted as corrupt, apathetic sidekicks to the Americans.

How did the South Vietnamese military really experience the Vietnam War? Historian Julie Pham draws from interviews she conducted with 40 South Vietnamese military veterans in the United States, and illuminates how people can remember historical events differently.

Julie Pham (she/her) is the CEO of CuriosityBased, a consulting practice focused on fostering curiosity in the workplace. Her family owns Northwest Vietnamese News. She published “Their War: The Perspectives of the South Vietnamese Military in the Words of Veteran-Emigres“ in 2019. She earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Pham lives in Seattle.

The ‘Words, Writers, and Southwest Stories’ speaker series is a program of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society in partnership with Seattle Public Library. This presentation is part of the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau The Historical Society is grateful to Humanities Washington for their support.