1. Who was the first Vietnamese student to attend Harvard University in the 1960s?

  • Tran Van Khe
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  • Ngo Vinh Long
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  • Pham Duy
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  • Nguyen Hien Le
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Exactly

According to The New York Times , Professor Ngo Vinh Long was the first Vietnamese student to study at Harvard University in the 1960s.

He came to the United States in the early 1960s as a high school exchange student in Missouri. He then attended Harvard University, where he received both his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees. During his time at Harvard, Ngo Vinh Long was considered one of the most prominent anti-war voices in the Vietnamese community in the United States.

Ngo Vinh Long was born on April 10, 1944, in Vinh Long province. When he was young, his parents opposed the war and had to flee many times, leaving him to care for his seven younger siblings. The family was so poor that “there were often not enough to eat”, and “perhaps that is why I am about 15 cm shorter than my father”, he once said.

2. What job did you do before studying abroad in the US?

  • Primary school teacher
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  • English book translator
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  • Cartographer for the US Army
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  • Secretary for a newspaper
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Exactly

At the age of 16, Ngo Vinh Long was hired by the US military as a translator and cartographer. His hope in taking this job was to help the Americans draw accurate maps, to avoid bombing the wrong targets or villages with only civilians.

However, after witnessing the devastation and injustice of war, he decided to quit this job in 1962 and join the anti-war student movement.

3. How did you learn English as a child?

  • Self-study through BBC radio
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  • Study with American teachers in Saigon
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  • Walked 160 km with my father to buy English books, then read and memorized them together
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  • Sent to the Philippines to study
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Exactly

At the age of 6, Ngo Vinh Long and his father walked 160 km from their hometown to Saigon to buy an English novel by Charles Dickens. The two of them spent a whole year reading and memorizing every sentence of Great Expectations . “We memorized every word, every sentence, every page. That’s how I learned English,” he recalls.

4. What was your first groundbreaking book, published while you were still a graduate student, about?

  • The role of Vietnamese women in society and revolution during colonial times
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  • The life of Vietnamese farmers under French colonialism
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  • Relations between the United States and Indochina during the war
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  • History of the Independence Movement in Southeast Asia
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Exactly

According to Historians.org (American Historical Association), Professor Ngo Vinh Long published Before the Revolution: The Vietnamese Peasants under the French (MIT Press, 1973; reprinted by Columbia University in 1991) while he was still a graduate student. The work deeply analyzes the economic, political , cultural, and ideological aspects of the French colonial regime.

He is also the author of Vietnamese Women in Society and Revolution: The French Colonial Period (1974), which examines the role of Vietnamese women in colonial and revolutionary times. In addition, he co-edited the historical review book Coming to Terms: Indochina, the United States, and the War (1991), and wrote the opening chapter on Vietnam.

5. In 1985, where did he start teaching in the US?

  • Harvard University
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  • Brown University
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  • University of Maine
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  • University of Michigan
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Exactly

Since 1985, Ngo Vinh Long has been a professor of History at the University of Maine. He taught many courses on Asian history and was loved and respected by colleagues and students. He remained with the school until the end of his life, becoming one of the internationally recognized scholars of Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

6. In 2000-2001, what role did you play when you returned to Vietnam?

  • Participate in scientific seminars
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  • Teaching in Hanoi as a Fulbright Scholar
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  • Research at the National Library
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  • Writing history textbooks
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Exactly

For many years, Professor Ngo Vinh Long regularly returned to Vietnam to teach and conduct academic exchanges. In particular, in 2000-2001, he was a Fulbright scholar, directly teaching in Hanoi, imparting knowledge and research experience to domestic students.

Professor Ngo Vinh Long passed away on October 12, 2022 in Bangor, Maine (USA). In the memorial article published in the Perspectives section of the American Historical Association, he was mentioned as a historian with an open and multi-dimensional mindset, always seeking solutions based on principles, flexible in the face of circumstances but steadfast in the vision of a peaceful and just world.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/ai-la-sinh-vien-viet-dau-tien-theo-hoc-dai-hoc-tai-harvard-tu-thap-nien-1960-2445840.html