Acknowledgments

This project weaves together multiple facets of my life. In college, I became a student activist, working with people of varied backgrounds—white, black, Chicano/a, Native American, Asian American, and international students. We advocated for more courses that examined race and inequality in American society, and we also called for more institutional support for ethnic student service centers so that students of color might feel more at home on the university campus. My best friend at the time was Vietnamese American, a comrade-in-arms in our activist endeavors and a great companion for food adventures, too. She introduced me to pho and Vietnamese coffee in excursions to San Jose. Her family, though, had been separated by war and relocation. Her dad and most of her siblings successfully made it to the United States as refugees. Her mother and younger brother were not as lucky. I remember driving her to the airport one day so that she could reunite with her mom after a separation of more than ten years.

As I found my identity and a sense of community through political organizing, I also discovered the joys of academia. My favorite undergraduate class was on the History of the Vietnam War. Taught by Gordon Chang, who eventually became my graduate adviser, the course presented an exciting new view of history to me. Rather than absorbing a series of recorded dates and events, we debated ideas and diverse interpretations of the past. Consequently, I decided to try my hand at research. Drawn to the topic of activism, I focused my honors thesis on social movements in San Francisco Chinatown during the 1960s and 1970s. It was during this initial foray into historical research that I first interviewed Alex Hing and discovered the Red Guards, U.S.A., the Anti-Imperialist Delegation, and the Indochinese Women’s Conferences in Asian American activist newspapers. Spending a year working at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project after college confirmed my decision to pursue graduate studies in history.

For Radicals on the Road, I analyzed a range of archival printed materials, including letters, memoirs, speeches, government documents, movement publications, visual art, and newspaper and journal accounts. I also utilized oral history extensively. Even though these interviews occurred many years after the fact, they are invaluable sources. The oral histories provide insight into how my interview subjects remembered the past. That is, their accounts shed light on what they found significant about their travels, experiences, conversations, and activism as well as how these interpretations of international travel shaped their identities. Regardless of their accuracy, the interviews reveal what my subjects wanted to communicate about the past to a researcher like myself. In some instances, their recollections meshed well with the archival materials that I collected. In others, the interviews raised new perspectives that I had not gleaned from the printed sources. The interviews sometimes supported and at times contradicted one another as well as written sources. In these cases of divergence, I tried to ask questions of my subjects as well as my findings to understand why such differences might exist.

My interest in Robert S. Browne emerged from a fishing expedition to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The staff there recommended that I examine his papers given my interest in African Americans who traveled to Vietnam. Browne had passed away by the time I began this research, but his voice and personality came alive through his writings. He deposited papers not only at the Schomburg but also at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, which contains a treasure trove of information for anyone interested in pacifism. This institution holds papers of significant peace organizations like the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Women Strike for Peace, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. In addition to conducting archival research in Philadelphia and New York City, I also examined government records at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, to understand the International Cooperation Agency and the U.S. Overseas Mission in Cambodia and Vietnam. To supplement these written sources, I conducted interviews with Robert Browne’s family, including his daughters, Hoa and Mai; his wife, Huoi; and his half-sister, Wendelle. I also interviewed Browne’s friends and colleagues, including those who continue to operate the Twenty-First Century Foundation. The foundation shared with me Browne’s unpublished autobiography and put me in contact with his family.

My sources for the Anti-Imperialist Delegation came from the mainstream press, like the New York Times, and activist publications, like the Black Panther, Getting Together, and Gidra. In addition, I researched archival collections like the Steve Louie Asian American Movement Collection at the Asian American Resource Center at the University of California, Los Angeles; the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation Collection at Stanford University; the Eldridge Cleaver Papers at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley; and the Elaine Brown Papers at Emory University. Also, the extensive collection of FBI materials on Eldridge Cleaver, available through Freedom of Information requests, shed light on how he, other Black Panthers, and Anti-Imperialist Delegation members were tracked by the U.S. government. Oral histories were vitally important for this portion of the manuscript as well. I am grateful to those who agreed to speak to me, particularly Kathleen Cleaver, Ann Froines, Alex Hing, Randy Rappaport, and others, including those who chose to remain anonymous. Also, a special thanks to Daryl Maeda, Sean Malloy, Suzanne McCormack, and Ryan Yokota, who generously shared their research with me.

For the Indochinese Women’s Conferences, I conducted archival research in various locations in the United States and Canada. In addition to the rich materials at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, significant papers related to women’s antiwar activism and the Indochinese Women’s Conferences are also housed at the Chicago History Museum, the Schlesinger Library, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, the Library Archives Canada in Ottawa, the Third World Women’s Alliance Archives in Oakland, and the Wright State University’s Special Collection. Also, many of the women whom I interviewed in person or over the phone shared their private archives, which include newsletters, pictures, mementos from travel to Vietnam, literature that they received during their journeys, and other movement documents. I particularly want to thank Charlotte Bunch, Nina Genera, Betita Martinez, Maria Ramirez, and most especially Cora Weiss for their generosity and support. They have dedicated their lives to social justice, and they continue to be an inspiration. I also thank Agatha Beins, Jessica Frazier, and Ann Koblitz for sharing their research and interpretations with me.

Most of my research focused on “Americans” who traveled abroad, but I also was able to gain insight into the perspectives of Asian activists. During August 2010, I traveled throughout Vietnam with the support of the Vietnam-USA Society. Founded in 1945, this organization was active during the U.S. war in Vietnam in hosting American antiwar activists. They continue these educational and citizen-diplomatic initiatives today. Through their assistance, I interviewed various people (diplomats, journalists, members of the Vietnam Women’s Union, and veterans) who played significant roles in developing political dialogue with those in the West. I do not speak or write Vietnamese. These interviews occurred either through translation or in English, depending on the desires of the interview subjects. In addition, I visited museums and historic sites, like the village that became known for the My Lai Massacre, to understand how the war is documented and presented to the public. My special thanks to Nguyen Lien-Hang for putting me in contact with the Vietnam-U.S.A. Society and to Mr. Bui Nghi and Ms. Quynh Phan for hosting and translating for me.

I have incurred many intellectual debts in completing this project. I have benefited enormously from the encouragement and critiques offered by Mark Bradley, Paul Kramer, and Michael McGanty. I am honored to have this work become part of Cornell University’s United States in the World series, and I want to thank the anonymous reviewer for taking the time to offer such helpful feedback. I also want to acknowledge Sarah Grossman, who sent such encouraging e-mails and helped me through the process of obtaining permissions for this book. And I appreciate the care with which Karen M. Fisher, Barbara Goodhouse, and Karen Hwa copyedited my manuscript.

My colleagues, students, and research assistants at the Ohio State University have provided me with tremendous intellectual support. My thanks to Leslie Alexander, Dan Amsterdam, Greg Anderson, Curtis Austin, Kevin Boyle, John Brooke, Cindy Burack, Jill Bystydzienski, Alice Conklin, Theresa Delgadillo, Theodora Dragostinova, Elsadig Elsheikh, Lilia Fernandez, Vicky Getis, Ken Goings, Donna Guy, Susan Hartmann, Mary Hershberger, Hasan Jeffries, Cricket Keating, Brian Kennedy, Mitch Lerner, Bob McMahon, Lucy Murphy, Joe Orser, Joe Ponce, Paul Reitter, Amy Shuman, Stephanie Smith, Wendy Smooth Mytheli Sreenivas, David Stebenne, David Steigerwald, Maurice Stevens, and Monica Trieu for their advice and insights. I also want to thank my research assistants for their hard work: Katie Bausch, Wenjuan Bi, Zel Caldwell, Zachery Fry, June Kang, Duo Li, Brena Tai, Jeffrey Vernon, and Yan Xu. The students in my women’s history research seminar during fall 2010–winter 2011 are a special group. Along with some interested guests, they helped me to complete the first draft of this work. Best wishes to all of them (Joseph Arena, Gregory Freitag, Seunghyun Hwang, Nicole Jackson, John Knight, Kimberly McKee, Perry Miller, Lindsay Peiper, Peggy Solic, Tyran Steward, William Sturkey, Jeffrey Vernon, and Adrienne Winans) as they embark on their academic careers. And a special thanks to Lynn Demyan for her exceptional transcription skills.

I have benefited from the mentorship and insights of many colleagues and friends outside of OSU, including Rick Baldoz, Tani Barlow, Rosalyn Baxandall, Charlotte Brooks, Nick Calluther, Melanie Castillo-Calluther, Paul Chamberlin, Derek Chang, Gordon Chang, Tina Chen, John Cheng, Jeremy Clarke, Kathy Coll, Frank Costigliola, Maria Cotera, Nancy Cott, Bruce Cumings, Nina Dayton, Prasenjit Duara, Mary Dudziak, Angela Earnest-LeBlanc, Augusto Espiritu, Judith Ezekiel, Michael Flamm, V. P. Franklin, Estelle Freedman, Diane Fujino, Van Gosse, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Eric Hayot, Nancy Hewitt, Emily Hobson, Madeline Hsu, Jane Hunter, Ryan Irwin, Joan Johnson, Waldo Johnson, Gregory Jue, Moon-ho Jung, Amy Kesselman, Ginah Kim, Suzy Kim, Anna Krylova, Scott Kurashige, Emily Lawsin, Christopher Lee, Jessica Lee, Jo Lee, Shelley Lee, Ian Lekus, Karen Leong, Tessie Liu, Mary Lui, Daryl Maeda, Tracye Matthews, Caroline Merithew, Edward Miller, Pablo Mitchell, Francesca Morgan, Donna Murch, Mae Ngai, Rodney Noonan, Franny Nudelman, Jeffrey Ogbar, Jolie Olcott, Christopher Phelps, Steve Pitti, Renee Ramono, Dave Roediger, Vicki Ruiz, Leila Rupp, Robert O. Self, Nayan Shah, Naoko Shibusawa, Nico Slate, Gregory Smithers, Robyn Spencer, Jack Tchen, Akinyele Umoja, Penny Von Eschen, Kim Warren, Lora Wildenthal, Ara Wilson, Shelley Wong, Steve Yao, Kathleen Yep, Henry Yu, and Ji-Yeon Yuh.

My work has been enriched and strengthened by the opportunity to present at the American Crossroads: Migration, Communities, and Race Conference at the University of Texas, Austin; the American Historical Association Annual Meeting; the American Studies Association Annual Conference; the Asian American Studies Workshop at the Stanford University Humanities Center; the Association for Asian American Studies Conference; the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora Biennial Conference; the Bandung and Beyond: Rethinking Afro-Asian Connections during the Twentieth Century Symposium at Stanford University; the Berkshires Conference of Women’s History; the CIC Asian American Studies Workshop held at Pennsylvania State University; the Communist Feminism(s): A Transnational Perspective Workshop, cosponsored by the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University and the Department of History at Duke University; the Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide Conference held at the University of California, Riverside; the Diasporic Counterpoint: Africans, Asians, and the Americas Symposium held at Northwestern University; the From Bandung to Tehran: Transnational Networks in the Postcolonial World Conference held at Williams College; the National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference; the New World Coming: The Sixties and the Shaping of Global Consciousness Conference held at Queen’s College, Kingston, Canada; the Newberry Seminar on Women and Gender in Chicago; the Organization of American Historians Annual Conference; the Out of the Margins: Asian American Movement Building Conference at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; the Race, Radicalism, and Repression on the Pacific Coast and Beyond Conference at the University of Washington, Seattle; the Reproduction of Race and Racial Ideologies Workshop sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago; the Race, Roots, and Resistance: Revisiting the Legacy of Black Power Conference sponsored by the African American Studies and Research Program at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana; the Religious Crossings in Literature, Art and Practice Symposium at the Ohio State University; the Sequels to the 1960s Summer Seminar held at the Schlesinger Library; the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting; and the War, Intimacy/Trauma and Asian American and African American Crossings Forum at Wesleyan University. I also benefited from the opportunity to present and receive feedback at Arizona State University; the Claremont Colleges; Cornell University; Duke University; Hamilton College; Indiana University, Bloomington; Middlebury College; Oberlin College; Rice University; the University of Dayton; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Yale University.

I would not have been able to complete this project without generous financial support provided by the Arts and Humanities Publication Subvention grant given by the Ohio State University; the Coca-Cola CDW Faculty Research Grant administered by the Women’s Studies Department at OSU; the College of Humanities Seed Grant at OSU; the Emory University Short Term Fellowship sponsored by the Robert W. Woodruff Library; Mershon Center for International Security Studies; the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend; the Schlesinger Library Research Support Grant given by Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; the Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship given by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago; the SHAFR Diversity/International Outreach Fellowship; the Special Research Assignment given by the College of Humanities at OSU; the TELR Research-on-Research Student-Faculty ePartnerships Grant given by the OSU Digital Union; and the Virginia Hull Research Award at OSU.

Earlier versions of this work have appeared in the following publications: “An African-Vietnamese American: Robert S. Browne, the Anti-War Movement, and the Personal/Political Dimensions of Black Internationalism,” Journal of African American History 92 (Fall 2007): 491–515; “Journeys for Peace and Liberation: Third World Internationalism and Radical Orientalism during the U.S. War in Viet Nam,” Pacific Historical Review 76, no. 4 (November 2007): 575–84; and “Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Peace Activism and Women’s Orientalism,” in No Permanent Waves: Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism, ed. Nancy Hewitt (Rutgers University Press, 2010), pp. 193–220. I also am in the process of completing two additional essays and have benefited from anonymous reviewers as well as the editorial guidance of Moon-Ho Jung and Gregory Smithers. In addition, I want to recognize Christopher Lee for his thoughtful insights and suggestions.

Finally, I want to offer my deepest gratitude to the people who have given me the personal support to complete this project. My parents, John and Betty Wu, always ask how my work is going, even when I don’t really want to talk about it. But they are just as eager to celebrate and be proud of their daughter, even when I don’t deserve it. My tennis friends offer wonderful companionship and fun exercise. Some of them even read what I write! Christel, Manfred, Andrea, and Juniper Walter (my family-in-law) are always eager to welcome us into their homes in North Carolina and play with our rambunctious kids. By the time this book is published, Konrad will be nine and Langston will be five. They live every day as an adventure, and I hope they will travel through life with this spirit. Their father, Mark, is a patient, hardworking person who envisions a green, sustainable future. He deconstructed and rebuilt our home with thoughtfulness and love. Despite his busy schedule, he always makes time to take care of us. I look forward to more time together to share our life journeys.