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STUDYGUIDE
KATE RAYNOR
ISSUE 36 SCREEN EDUCATION
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“Some of us are born in peacetime, some are born in wartime.
The unlucky ones experience the smoke and fire of war, feel
the misery of mourning for loved ones, and endure wrenching
social and political changes. I belong to this unlucky group.”
Tran Van Lam, 1913–2001
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Introduction
ALL POINTS OF THE
COMPASS is a testament
to the enduring
bonds of family.
Against a backdrop of
uncertainty and political
instability, Tran Van Lam, South
Vietnam’s Foreign Minister during the
Vietnam War, fathered nine remarkable
children who have set out to all
points of the globe. This documentary
chronicles the Tran diaspora, exploring
the key socio-political events against
which this one family’s history unfolds.
It is ultimately a very moving tribute to
a man who endured great losses and
disappointments with remarkable dignity
and integrity. His powerful legacy
is to be seen in his adult children, with
their ongoing commitment to the need
for decency and personal responsibility
in the world. The stories circle
around migration, assimilation, intergenerational
loyalties and conflicts,
and multiculturalism. Each member of
the Tran family contributes their own
particular perspective on the nature
of identity and family, in a documentary
that makes rich and poetic use of
home movie footage, newsreels and
interviews.
Curriculum links
All Points of the Compass will be of
interest to senior secondary SOSE
students. It may also have application
in Media Studies and English.
Director’s statement
The Vietnam War was my war and
I have always been very sure of my
position on it: Nixon lied to South
Vietnam and ultimately betrayed them.
Nothing has changed with the passing
of time but I guess, like everyone else
in this sordid war, I did not pay enough
attention to the South Vietnamese
– our allies. As a young filmmaker, I
went to Malaysia to film the wretched
plight of the boat people arriving on
beaches or, worse still, being turned
back to sea; but I didn’t really ask how
this had happened to South Vietnam
when their ally was one of the two
most powerful countries in the world.
Two years ago, a woman called
Therase Tran walked into Bevan
Childs’ and my life, saying she thought
there might be a story in her family. As
a filmmaker, I often have this experience
and I dread it. She did mention
a very interesting aspect to her idea,
however: her father was a film buff
and had shot film of her family as they
grew up in 1950s Saigon. I thought
it would be a good idea to look at
the films. After I’d seen the footage I
was hooked. Then I read about Tran
Van Lam and realized that we had a
marvellous new take on a story that
has jerked from one lie to the next for
thirty years. And our man was honest
and honourable.
The Tran family made their decision
to make the film with us through the
typical dynamics the family employs
to make all family decisions: a lot of
discussion intra-family and then we
had to meet Mai, the oldest daughter,
who would make the decision on the
family’s behalf. Luckily, Mai gave us
the nod.
The Tran family have led me, and I
hope the audience, to re-examine the
position of the South Vietnamese in
the Vietnam War. With the benefit of
new documents coming to light, one
can clearly see the duplicitous nature
of the American juggernaut at the
highest levels. Most importantly, the
openness and candour of the family
members gives us all an opportunity
to appreciate and gain insight into the
lives of individuals tossed randomly
around the globe by the capriciousness
of warmongers.
—Judy Rymer
The Tran family children
1 Mai
2 Elise
3 Agnes
4 Paul
5 Lucie
6 Marie
7 Therase
8 Bosco
9 Patrick

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Activities and discussion
points
Immigration,
multiculturalism and
identity: new lives in
foreign lands
• How many South Vietnamese
refugees came to Australia during
the 1970s?
• Using census information, what
can you find out about the ethnic
backgrounds of the Australian
population in 2005? Present your
discoveries in a visual/graphic
format.
• Describe your ethnic background.
• List six advantages that Australia
has reaped from immigration.
• Tran’s wife blamed him when one
of their children, Agnes, married a
foreigner. She felt that the children
were losing their sense of their
culture, and she cried throughout
the wedding. Mai, Tran’s eldest
daughter, has raised her daughter
in America and wonders how you
can instill Asian values in children
born and reared in Western
countries. What does it mean to
assimilate into another culture?
What can you do to preserve your
sense of cultural background while
fitting into a new country?
• Debate topic: ‘Assimilation means
cutting ties with the past’.
• Patrick observes that you adapt to
fit with the people whom you live
amongst. Do you agree? How do
you think you might change if you
had to live in a foreign country for
any length of time? What aspects
of your identity do you believe are
immutable?
• What does ‘multiculturalism’
mean?
• Therase believes that belonging
to the Australian community and
adapting to the Australian way
of life, all the while maintaining a
sense of her Vietnamese cultural
heritage, has enabled her to reach
her own personal objectives. She
believes this is the true meaning
of multiculturalism. Discuss her
definition of this complex term.
• Enter ‘multiculturalism in Australia’
on an Internet search engine.
Choose an article and present your
analysis of it to the class.
• Mai notes she was happy to abandon
certain aspects of traditional
life: ‘And some of us also make a
choice. Do we really want some
of these very Asian values and
beliefs, or don’t we? Certainly one
that I have completely abandoned
is the submissiveness of women’.
What might Mai and her sisters’
lives have been like if they had not
been educated in the West and
had instead remained in Vietnam?
Do you think that Mai was able to
make certain choices about her
values and lifestyle because of her
independence from her parents?
• Eldest son Paul is now a maxillofacial
surgeon in Glasgow. He
says: ‘Sometimes I don’t even
think I’m Vietnamese’. He forgets
about his background in the rush
of everyday life. He talks about a
current shift in attitudes towards
asylum seekers and says that he
worries about his children, Richard
and Cathy, and the possibly hostile
world that they will enter after
their schooling. Born in Scotland,
they have an Irish mother and a
Vietnamese father. They don’t
consider themselves Vietnamese,
but then what are they? The film
offers many examples of these
racial melting pot identities. What
might be gained and what lost by
the sort of ambiguity experienced
by Paul’s children? How important
is it to be able to define where you
come from?
• Lucie is a French citizen, working
in West Africa for the World Bank
as an agricultural analyst. She says
that a lot of people working for
the World Bank don’t feel at home
anywhere; they share a sense of
displacement. While her mother
would have happily kept all the
children in Vietnam to preserve
their culture, her father gave her
a sense of the bigger world out
there, a broader perspective.
She hasn’t settled anywhere, just
keeps roaming the globe; but now,
as she gets older, she wonders
where she will be buried. Where is
your home? What does it mean to
you? Where would you like to be
buried?
• What does it mean to have a sense
of place? Write an account of a location
that has special significance
for you and your family (for example,
your family home, a holiday
destination, a grandparent’s grave
site).
• How important is it to know where
you have come from?
• What or who makes you feel like
you belong?
• Mai spoke French at her primary
school in Vietnam: Vietnamese
was taught as a foreign language
and the students were expected
to speak French at all times.
Lucie’s daughter Lisa has lived in
France all her life. She considers
herself French and doesn’t speak
any Vietnamese. Her husband is
Italian and her son is being raised
in England. Therase tried to teach
her daughters Vietnamese, but
at school they learnt Italian and
Mandarin and it has become one
linguistic muddle. How important
is language to identity?
• The fall of Saigon meant the loss
of the Tran home. Lucie talks of
‘not knowing who you’re going to
turn into’. List three key influences
on your sense of personal identity.
Where do you get your identity
from? Who do you think you will
turn into? Why do you believe this?
• Tran told Bosco that to succeed in
a foreign country, you must excel.
Do you think this is true? Why or
why not?
• What were the Vietnamese ‘reeducation
camps’ Lucie refers to?
• How has Australia’s immigration
policy changed in the years since
Tran and his wife arrived in Australia?
• Has the treatment of asylum
seekers improved in the last thirty
years?
• Tran was granted asylum in Australia
by the Whitlam Government
with a condition attached: ‘I, Tran
Van Lam, solemnly declare that if
admitted to Australia for permanent
residence I will not engage in
political activity of any kind and I
will not permit my name to be lent
to or associated with any such
prohibited activity’. Why might

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the Australian government have
felt such a condition was necessary?
(On 18 February 1976, Tran
received a letter from Parliament
House rescinding the condition: ‘…
the [Fraser] government considers
it inappropriate for you to be required
to sign that undertaking …
the government has decided that
the undertaking will no longer be
binding upon you. The document
will be cancelled and your continued
residency in Australia will be
entirely unconditional in respect to
its contents’.)
• Tran never made it back to Vietnam.
What does it mean to be in
exile from one’s homeland?
Vietnam: socio-historical
context
• Divide the class into groups of
four. Assign each group a research
field on the topic of Vietnam, for
example, culture (food, dress,
music, dance, art), history, geography,
industry, the war. Each group
presents a report on its findings to
the class.
• Vietnam has become an increasingly
popular tourist destination
among Western travellers. Visit a
tourist web site and collect some
travel brochures, noting the key
features of the area that are promoted.
Vietnam: war and peace
Tran: I don’t consider the revolutions
in Russia and China to be successes,
given their huge costs in human lives
and in people’s pride, dignity and
personal freedom … Independence
without freedom, peace and prosperity
is not enough.
• Tran notes that ‘we had lost our
country for over eighty years … I
felt ashamed of being a citizen of a
colonized nation’. The documentary
mentions that during the twentieth
century, Vietnam was colonized
by the Chinese, French, Japanese
and British. Using the Internet and
resources available in your library,
compile a brief account outlining
the terms of these various colonial
rules. What influences did each of
these countries have on the culture
of Vietnam? Discuss what it means
to be a colony, with reference to
Australia’s colonial past.
• Construct a timeline indicating the
key dates and events of the Vietnam
War. When were: the fall of
Saigon; the Tet offensive; the Paris
peace talks?
• Write brief profiles of Ho Chi Minh
and President Thieu.
• John F. Kennedy’s fear of Indo-
China precipitating a ‘domino
collapse’ to the ‘Reds’ was
replaced by concern about public
reaction to the mounting death
toll of US soldiers. When Lyndon
Johnson resigned, Richard Nixon
was elected partly on the promise
of a negotiated peace in Vietnam.
Explain the ‘domino’ theory which
led to US intervention in the region.
How important was the War in
terms of US domestic politics?
• Why was the Tet offensive a turning
point in the War?
• Images of terrible civilian and
military casualties fuelled public
protests in America. What can you
find out about media coverage of
the war, particularly on television?
• Many political commentators have
likened US intervention in Iraq to
the country’s involvement in the
Vietnam war. What similarities and
differences can you identify?
• The Paris peace talks took shape
around a ten point plan proposed
by the North. Can you find out
anything about the substance of
this plan?
• Discuss the following statement by
Henry Kissinger, then US Secretary
of State: ‘As far as Saigon is
concerned, it is, of course, entitled
to participate in the settlement of a
war fought on its territory’.
• During the peace talks, America,
represented by Kissinger, entered
secret negotiations with North
Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho. The South
was not to learn of these dealings
for another four years. South
Vietnam’s President Thieu received
thirty-one letters from Presidents
Nixon and Ford guaranteeing
military and economic aid should
the North remain in the South. With
such absolute guarantees from
the presidents of the most powerful
country in the world, Thieu
formulated the South Vietnamese
approach to the Paris peace talks,
assuring South Vietnam it could
depend on the ongoing support of
the US. In 1973, on Thieu’s instructions,
Tran Van Lam sought and
received assurance from Kissinger
that the promises declared by
Nixon in his letters would be honoured.
Having received Kissinger’s
promise of support, Tran signed
the Paris Peace Accords. North
Vietnamese troops remained in
South Vietnam in contravention of
the Paris peace agreement. Tran
had trusted America to defend the
South from attack by the Communist
North, but his trust was
misplaced, with the US abandoning
the concerns of its ally. US
withdrawal resulted in the advance
of the North Vietnamese and, on
30 April 1975 Saigon fell to the
Communists. With the fall of Saigon,
Tran lost his home, his livelihood,
his country and his identity.
Given these facts, do you think
Tran had reason to feel betrayed
by America? What might he have
said to Nixon if the opportunity had
presented itself? How did America
represent its withdrawal and its
lack of support for the South during
this time?
• One South Vietnamese diplomat,
Bui Diem, a former ambassador
to the US, says that the South
Vietnamese had to live with the
consequences of American policy:
‘For the Americans, it is a chapter
in American history. They call it
“honourable peace”. They turn the
pages, but the South Vietnamese
have to suffer the consequences of
it. And you have seen the consequences
of it’. If the Tran family
had stayed in Vietnam after the fall
of Saigon, they would probably
have been killed by the Communists.
What implications did
the withdrawal of US troops have
for the people of South Vietnam?
What can you find out about the
fate of the South Vietnamese who
were unable to flee?
• In one of his speeches at the

time of the US withdrawal from
Vietnam, President Richard Nixon
used the phrase ‘peace with honour’.
What did this mean?
• Discuss the following quote from
Nixon: ‘A nation cannot remain
great if it betrays its allies and lets
down its friends ... The greatest
honour history can bestow is the
title of peacemaker. This honour
now beckons America. If we succeed,
generations to come will say
of us now living, that we mastered
our moment, that we helped make
the world safe for mankind. This
is our summons to greatness ... I
think history will record this may
have been one of America’s finest
hours’.
• Tran was air lifted off the roof of
the US embassy. What thoughts
might have gone through his mind
during this experience? Imagine
you are Tran, caught up in these
historic events, torn by your sense
of loss for your country. A letter
he wrote to one of his sons at this
time began, ‘My dear son, today is
the saddest day of my life …’ Write
an account from Tran’s perspective
of these moments, and of the traumatic
journey away from Vietnam.
Biographical details of Tran
Van Lam
30 July 1913: Born
1954: Elected Governor of South
Vietnam
1956: Elected President of the Constituent
Assembly
1957: Speaker of the National Assembly
1961–63: Ambassador to Australia and
New Zealand
1969–73: Minister for Foreign Affairs
Republic of Vietnam.
January 1973: Signing of the Paris
Peace Agreement
March 1973: The end of US military
involvement in South Vietnam
1974–75: President of the Senate
Republic of Vietnam
29 April 1975: Airlifted off the roof of
the American Embassy
30 April 1975: Fall of Saigon
6 July 1975: Granted asylum in Australia
2001: Died
Tran: an honourable life
• Tran served as Vietnam’s first
ambassador to Australia in the
early 1960s. What duties might this
position have entailed?
• What personal qualities does a
diplomat need?
• Tran: ‘It is often said that people
are born with a predestined fate. I
don’t really believe it. I believe that
we influence our own destinies
greatly, within limits set by the time
and circumstances of our own
birth’. Do you believe in destiny?
Explain your position; what have
you observed or experienced that
has led to this opinion? What can
you do to influence your own fate?
What are the limits of your time
and circumstances?
• Tran believed an honourable life
was a life of service. His daughter
Therase notes that his ‘biggest
fault was that he actually thought
everybody started from the same
premise of integrity’. He says:
‘I rarely declined a position or a
responsibility that I believed was
worthwhile ... I have always carried
with me a lesson that one of my
primary school teachers taught
me: failure is when you do not dare
to act, not when you do’. Write a
statement of principle or belief that
guides your actions and decisions.
How did you arrive at this principle?
• Tran had a saying: ‘If your house
has no roof, life still goes on’. What
do you think this means?
Family values
• Tran and his wife tried to instil in
their children a sense of duty and
responsibility to Vietnam. How
strong a part does a sense of your
country play in your family’s life?
• Lucie says: ‘My childhood was
pure bliss. I was always surrounded
by family, my parents were
there, all the brothers and sisters
were there, it was complete, a
sense of true belonging – it was
very hard to recoup later’. Write an
account of your childhood, noting
key relationships, events and
places, and attempting to capture
some sense of the tone and mood
of your childhood experiences.
What aspects of your family of
origin would you like to replicate
in your adult life? What aspects
of your family of origin might you
hope to distance yourself from?
• We see footage of Tran family holidays
at Cap St Jacques, a beach
resort an hour and a half drive from
Saigon. Tran, a man who met with
Kissinger and Nixon to discuss
and decide the fate of his country,
builds sand castles with his children.
These are precious memories
for the Tran children. Describe
a special memory you have of a
childhood holiday with your family.
• Bosco says he finds himself teaching
his children some of what his
father taught him. What would you
like to pass on from your parents
to any children you might have?
• In the late 1960s, there were half a
million US troops on the ground in
Vietnam. The Tran children returned
to Vietnam each summer to
holiday in a war zone. The children
experienced nightly curfews and
they recall the sounds of gunfire,
helicopters and bombs. In a letter
to Paul while he was studying
medicine in Australia, Tran said
the boy should be ashamed to be
living in a peaceful country while
everyone at home was fighting a
war; it was only acceptable because
he was studying to improve
the country’s future. We see old
photos of the youngest boys playing
with guns: ‘I didn’t think I was
in a danger zone. I thought that
was part of normal life’. What does
‘normal life’ mean to you? What
can you take for granted about
growing up in a peaceful country
such as Australia?
• Mai’s daughter, Mai-Trang, has
grown up thinking one of life’s
key aims is to be happy. That was
not central to Mai’s upbringing,
where much greater emphasis
was placed on civic and familial
responsibility. The right of the
individual to pursue happiness is a
tenet of modern Western societies;
it’s even enshrined in the US
constitution. Essay topic: ‘The
pursuit of happiness might actually 7
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make its attainment more difficult’.
Discuss.
• After they migrated to Australia,
Tran and his wife opened a coffee
shop and their youngest boys
continued their schooling. The
older children had to make new
lives for themselves in foreign
countries. Mai, at twenty-one,
based in Washington, was responsible
for four of her sisters. Paul,
the eldest son, sent money to
Australia to help with the education
of his youngest brothers. His
father repeatedly reminded him of
his responsibilities as the eldest
son. During the filming of the
documentary, we learn that Paul
has helped to buy one of his less
prosperous siblings, Marie, an
apartment – they’ve all ‘chipped
in’. Despite being scattered around
the world, the Trans demonstrate
a deep commitment to the belief
that the family is there to help each
of its members. Do you think this
belief is more pronounced in Asian
cultures than in Western society?
How do the parents inspire such
dedication and loyalty in their
children? Do you feel your siblings
would come to your aid if you ever
needed help?
• Make a list of five advantages and
disadvantages of belonging to a
large family.
• While the eldest child Mai was
overseas, Tran made films of the
children singing and dancing to
send to her in America. Describe
something special that a family
member did for you at a difficult
time in your life.
An overseas education: ‘All
of his children blown to the
winds …’
In 1956, Tran was Governor of South
Vietnam. It was a time when the
sons of politicians were at risk of
kidnapping. When a grenade blew
up under Tran’s car, he decided to
send the children away. Mai was
the first to leave; a gifted pianist at
fifteen years of age, she was sent
to America. Next was Agnes, sent
to New Caledonia to a boarding
school where she lived unhappily
for two years. Therase followed
Mai and Elise to America. She
says, ‘It was intensely lonely. I
was the only Asian in the school’.
Sometimes she would go a year
or two without seeing her parents.
Paul was educated at a Christian
Brothers School in Australia, where
a teacher struck him on the head
with a ruler because he didn’t
understand English. At the age of
eight, Lucie was sent to a convent
school in Goulburn, NSW. She
says that her sense of security
quickly disappeared; she came to
the realization that you have to rely
on yourself to survive. Everyone
who left wrote to those remaining
behind in Vietnam, saying how
they missed the family; but each
of them managed to deal with the
sense of separation and loneliness
by focusing on their (or their
father’s?) ultimate purpose.
• How do the Trans’ experiences of
schooling differ from your experiences?
• Write an account of a time in which
you felt lonely.
• Write an account of an experience
that made you feel like an outsider.
• Do you have a sense of the purpose
of your life? Does it differ
from your parents’ ideas?
• Mai claims she was not served well
by her sheltered boarding school
education. What do you think she
means by this? Do you feel your
educating is equipping you for
adult life?
• Therase says it was important to
their father ‘not just [that they] get
educated and make money, but
[that they] do something with it’.
Tran saw education as a means
to serve the community, and tried
to instil in his children a belief that
education carries an obligation to
service. In point form, outline the
education received by your parents
and grandparents. How important
is formal education to your family?
• Tran hoped his nine children would
eventually return from the West to
serve their country. None of them
now lives in Vietnam, and as one
of the daughters comments, if they
return, it will be as tourists. Do you
think this would be a source of
disappointment to Tran?
A study of family
• Construct a family tree.
• Interview an elderly relative or
friend and find out what their
childhood was like. What are their
strongest memories?
• Interview a sibling and compare
their thoughts about family with
your own. How different are your
impressions of family life and your
childhood? What factors might account
for these differences?
• In what ways does your family
influence your identity?
• Write a biography of a member of
your family and present it to the
class.
• Interview the oldest member of
your family. What does family
mean to them? What was important
to their family? What was their
childhood like? Present your findings
to the class.
• What is the best thing about your
family? What is the worst thing
about your family? What makes
your family different from other
families you know?
• All families have experiences that
change their members. Describe a
major event that shaped your family.
• Describe the ‘times’ into which
you were born. What have been
the key political events of your
lifetime?
• List three similarities and three differences
between your family and
the Trans.
• One of the Tran daughters describes
their grandmother as a
simple woman who cared for
everyone and respected everyone’s
points of view. In two or
three sentences, describe each of
your grandparents and their place
in your family.
• Patrick says he was his mother’s
favourite child. Have you ever felt
that either of your parents favours
one of your siblings?
• Patrick also says that as the
youngest he had to contend with
a lot of advice from his many siblings.
How significant is birth order
in shaping personality? Write an

account of a piece of advice you
have been given by a sibling or
cousin, and of the effect it has had
on you.
• Patrick and Bosco both say they
think they were spoilt, treated like
family pets. What does it mean to
spoil a child?
• Patrick misses his parents and
regrets that as the youngest, he
hasn’t had the opportunity to prove
to his father that he can be as successful
as his more established,
older brothers and sisters. Is there
anything you would like to prove
to your parents? How important is
your parents’ approval to you?
• Patrick says his interest in fitness
comes from his father, who saw
exercise as an important part of his
mental discipline. What interests
have you inherited from your parents?
• Therase recounts hiding under
a table during the Tet offensive
bombing. As she puts it, all the
women under the table were preying
to their various deities, her
grandmother to Buddha, Chi Tam,
Patrick’s nurse, to her god, and her
mother clutching her rosary beads.
Describe the methods two of your
family members use to deal with
difficult and stressful situations.
• Bosco notes that his father never
said much about the loss of his
country; despite his sense of
betrayal, he was very circumspect
and diplomatic in his comments
about the American withdrawal.
Bosco’s mother, however, was very
open about her pain and sad to
have her children scattered around
the globe. From this brief observation,
we gather a sense that his
parents had very different emotional
styles and different methods of
dealing with their life experiences.
Describe an incident in your family
that highlights a dramatic contrast
between two family members.
• After the fall of Saigon, Tran settled
in Canberra, having been issued
a temporary visa which he had to
have stamped every three months:
alien status. Tran’s daughter says
he didn’t say anything when she
arrived to pick him up from the
refugee camp. She says she had
never seen him cry before. Describe
an experience where you
have been struck by the emotion
of one of your parents.
• Patrick was born in 1963, and for
one brief moment the family was
complete and all together. It would
be another twenty-seven years
until they would be reunited at their
parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Describe an occasion in your
family’s history when you were
all gathered together to celebrate
or commemorate something of
importance.
• In one letter, Tran notes his pride
that all of his children are growing
into decent, honest people. What
makes your parents proud of you?
What qualities do your parents
hope you will embody as an adult?
• Bosco says: ‘You always support
your family: that’s the key.’ What
do you think is the key to a happy
family?
• Despite their father’s death, the
family doesn’t use the past tense
when they speak of him because,
as Bosco says, ‘that would imply
that he is gone and no longer
relevant in your present life – and
that’s just not the case’. This gives
some sense of the father’s profound
impact on the lives of his
children. Describe someone in your
life whose influence will extend
well beyond the grave. How do
you and your family commemorate
dead relatives?
• As well as using newsreel footage
of significant events of the
time, the filmmakers had access
to some wonderful home movie
footage and still photographs.
Choose a family photograph that
has particular significance to you
and present it to the class.
• One of the daughters says that
every morning Tran would go into
his wife’s room, where they would
discuss the children, their concerns
and hopes for their education
and future. What are your
parents’ hopes for your future? Do
you have regular family discussions?
• Imagine you have been commissioned
to produce a documentary
about your family. Write a synopsis
of your project: what aspects of
your family life might be of interest
to a TV audience? What approach
would you take?
Where are they now?
Mai’s first husband died suddenly
when she was thirty-five years old,
leaving her with a young baby. She
found support from other Vietnamese
migrants in America. She is now
based in Washington DC, and has
developed government language programs
for immigrants learning English.
She has a degree from Georgetown
University and a doctorate, but she
was initially required to work as a
teacher’s aide rather than a teacher
because her qualifications were ‘not
recognized’ (or were over-shadowed
for racist employers by her Asian appearance?).
Therase lives in Sydney and works as
a financial controller in broadcasting.
She says none of them have anything
to complain about or to regret. They
are all well-educated; from there, ‘you
make or break it on your own terms’.
Paul is a surgeon living in Scotland
with his Irish wife and their two children.
He has a Scottish accent.
Bosco lives in Adelaide and works as
an engineer for the Australian Submarine
Corporation.
Patrick runs a health and fitness business
in Vancouver.
Lucie is a French citizen, working in
West Africa for the World Bank as an
agricultural analyst.
Two of the other sisters are based in
Canberra.
References
Books on Vietnam
NB These two books are really worth
reading to gain insight into Nixon’s
letters and the South Vietnamese point
of view.
Nguyen Tien Hung and Jerrold L 9
ISSUE 36 SCREEN EDUCATION

Schecter, The Palace Files, Harper and
Row, 1986
Bui Diem and David Chanoff, In the
Jaws of History, Indiana University
Press,1987
Richard Balkwill, Discovering Vietnam,
Hampshire, Zoe Books, 2000.
Joseph Buttinger, A Dragon Defiant:
A Short History of Vietnam, New York,
Praeger, 1972.
Jim Cairns, The Eagle and the Lotus:
Western Intervention in Vietnam,
1847–1971, Melbourne, Lansdowne
Press, 1971.
Books on migrants and
refugees
Sonya Dechian, Heather Millar and
Eva Sallis (eds), Dark Dreams: Australian
Refugee Stories by Young Writers
Aged 11 to 20 Years, Adelaide, Wakefield
Press, 2004.
Frank Lewins and Judith Ly, The First
Wave: The Settlement of Australia’s
First Vietnamese Refugees, Sydney,
Allen and Unwin, 1988.
Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh (ed.), Voices
of Vietnamese Boat People: Nineteen
Narratives of Escape and Survival,
McFarland, 2000.
Ewan Angus
Cinematographer: Ron Croft
Sound: Paul Finlay
Additional sound: Michael Bakaloff
Editors: Paul Hamilton and Michael
Horton
Production designer: Michelle French
Composer: Jan Preston
Vietnamese instrumentalist: Dang Lan
Researcher: Lois Harris
Archive researcher (USA): Joan Yoshiwara
Sound post-production: Mark Tanner
Sound
Post-production facility: Frame Set &
Match
Year of production: 2005
Duration: 55 minutes
Michael Charlton and Anthony Moncrieff,
Many Reasons Why: The American
Involvement in Vietnam, Ringwood,
Penguin, 1991.
Neil Demarco, Vietnam: 1939–75, London,
Hodder and Stoughton, 1998.
Web sites
www.immi.gov.au/multicultural/
accessed 5 May 2005
Department of Immigration and Multicultural
and Indigenous Affairs:
Developed and produced in association
with The Australian Film Commission
and The Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. Distributed exclusively
by ABC Content Sales Tel 1300 650
587 Fax 02 8333 3975 www.abc.net.
au/programsales
ISSUE 36 SCREEN EDUCATION
10
William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary
of Vietnam, Metuchen, Scarecrow
Press, 1981.
James Pinckney Harrison, The Endless
War: Fifty Years of Struggle in Vietnam,
New York, Free Press, 1982.
George C. Herring, America’s Longest
War: The United States and Vietnam,
1950–1975, New York, Wiley, 1979.
Neil Jameson, Understanding Vietnam,
Berkeley, University of California
Press, 1993.
Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History,
New York, Penguin, 1997.
Phil Melling and Jon Roper (eds),
America, France and Vietnam: Cultural
History and Ideas of Conflict, Aldershot,
Gower Publications Company,
1991.
Ron Thomas and Jan Stutchbury,
Vietnam, South Melbourne, Macmillan,
1995.
Australia and Refugees, 1901–2002,
annotated chronology based on
official series, Parliamentary Library,
at www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/
chron/2002-03/03chr02.htm
accessed 5 May 2005
‘What Does it Mean to be Australian?’
at www.beenleigss.qld.edu.au/
webquest/actualquest/actualquest.
htm
accessed 5 May 2005
Marion Le, ‘Migrants, Refugees and
Multiculturalism: The Curious Ambivalence
of Australia’s Immigration
Policy’, at www.arts.anu.edu.au/sss/
greig/Le.htm
accessed 5 May 2005
www.boatpeople.org
accessed 5 May 2005
Credits of All Points of the
Compass
Director: Judy Rymer
Producers: Judy Rymer and Bevan
Childs
Writer: Judy Rymer
Associate producer: Lois Harris
Executive producer: BBC Scotland,
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