MY  VIET  NAM  STORY 

Oral History Project at 

UC Irvine

My Viet Nam Story is an oral history project at the University of California, Irvine, dedicated to preserving the experiences of those who lived through the Viet Nam War and its aftermath. Working with narrators from around the world, our project captures, documents, and archives their first-hand testimonies to be made available for researchers and the general public.

Offering a deeply intimate window into the political, economic, social, and cultural transformations brought about by the conflict and its enduring aftermath, MVNS contributes to ongoing discussions of the Viet Nam War, uplifting perspectives often overlooked in conventional interpretations of this epochal event. The interviews, like no other, convey the experiences of people as they shaped history, just as it shaped them: the dread of a soldier preparing for an operation, or the excitement of a child on the eve of Tết; the fears of a refugee on a boat adrift in the ocean, as well as the quotidian occupations of a grade-school teacher; the relief of those upon returning home, and the uncertainty of others on the journey to find a new one—together, these stories give us greater purchase on the human experience. 

Interviews were conducted by the project assistants as well as students of “The Viet Nam War Seen Through Oral History,” an upper-division history course taught annually by Professor Nguyễn Dịu-Hương. Students learned about the war  history and received training in the theories and methods of oral history, before they were then paired with a narrator. After completing their interviews, students created digital exhibits, placing narrators' accounts within the larger context of the war.  These exhibits are featured on the website’s Interviews page. These interviews along with other related materials will be housed at the Special Collections at UCI Libraries and can also be accessed through the Calisphere.

If you are interested in sharing your story of your life in Viet Nam during the war, please feel free to contact us via the Google form under the tab Contribute, or email us at myvietnamstory@gmail.com.