Support Nam Phong Dialogues
Nam Phong Dialogues is a podcast where two Vietnamese American academics - Kevin Pham and Yen Vu - have casual chats about Vietnamese History. We show how Vietnamese intellectual history, political thought, and social change is relevant for our changing world, and we discuss what it means to be Vietnamese American in the global context.
We are professors (at the University of Amsterdam and Fulbright University Vietnam) and try to find time outside of our teaching and research duties to make this podcast. Your donations support our labor related to editing and producing the podcast, acquiring new materials like rare books to discuss, and more.
You can also support us by sending us a note, leaving feedback, and sharing our episodes to anyone who you think would be interested. Write us: namphongdialogues@gmail.com.
Our donors
T
Tuấn
donated
$50
As part of the Vietnamese diaspora, I've really enjoyed how you engage in discussion. Thanks for your thoughtful conversations!
LN
Anonymous
donated
$100
Hey Kevin & Yến, I am so grateful to have this podcast and for the two of you to be doing the wonderful research that you are doing on Vietnamese intellectual history. I have always been fascinated with the Bình Xuyên/Bảy Viễn story, and how they fed into the complex history of shaping Saigon during this tumultuous time. Did the Bình Xuyên have a political outlook on what they wanted Vietnam to be? Why did Bảy Viễn switch sides multiple times? What was their legacy on the city/country? Were they also patriots? I would love to hear an episode with an in-depth discussion as to who Bảy Viễn was, his origin, and his affiliation with the French, Ngô Đình Diệm, and the Communist forces. I've tried to do as much research into him as I can but there seems to be a limited amount of books/research on the topic. Perhaps you have some special academic avenues that house information on him that we mere mortals cannot access. I read somewhere that the eventual battle for Saigon between him and Ngô Đình Diệm was a proxy war between the French and the Americans to dominate Saigon. The former colonial enterprise still had residual plantations and businesses in Saigon that they were unwilling to depart with after the Geneva Accords, whilst the Americans were slowly wanting to sink their fingers deeper into Saigon's commercial heartbeat. Further insights into this proxy war between the French and the Americans cannot be found. Can you confirm? Any insights you may have on this topic and these fascinating characters would be much appreciated. I am eternally grateful for your masterful knowledge, generosity, and passion. Please continue to bless my ears. Best, LN