This essay details the profound economic and social impact of the Vietnam War on Hong Kong. The British colony provided essential strategic facilities to the U.S. war effort and ranked among the largest destinations for American servicemen on R&R. Between 1965 and 1970, Hong Kong annually hosted about 200,000 U.S. ground and naval personnel on holiday. This influx annually earned Hong Kong about US$300-400 million (in 2009 dollars) and employed thousands of residents working in the colony’s service and entertainment industries. In addition, American servicemen and the local businesses catering to them became a contentious issue in local society. Servicemen excited widespread interest, but their misdeeds and their bar and brothel stomping grounds provoked intense anxiety. Hong Kong residents’ ensuing debates exercised the available civil channels and stimulated the colony’s emerging public sphere, from English- and Chinese-language newspaper battles to outspoken unions and neighborhood associations. In tandem with famed events such as the Star Ferry Riots of 1966 and the communist agitations of 1967, American R&R was an essential ingredient to the emergence of a distinctive Hong Kong identity and citizenry during this period. While residents’ objections failed to curb the GIs’ holidays, Vietnam tourism and its reverberating effects pressed new sectors of Hong Kong residents to grasp and articulate their investment as citizens in the city’s future. Thus, the Vietnam War and its U.S. presence in Hong Kong were major factors in developing Hong Kong’s modern economy, civil society, and contemporary self-conception as a political, legal, and cultural ‘haven.’ / text

The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the views that the three metropolitan Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet had on the Vietnam issue between 1969 and 1973. The source material consists of clips from Swedish newspapers from press archives at the Department of Government at Uppsala University, which is in the form of microfilm at Umeå University Library. The source material has been studied using quantitative content analysis with qualitative elements.The results shows that there is a difference in the perception of Vietnam issue between, on the one hand, social-democrat Aftonbladet and liberal Dagens Nyheter and conservative Swedish Dagbladet on the other hand, during the whole investigation period. Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter denounced the American war and presence in Vietnam and took a stand for North Vietnam; The United States was regarded as a great power which had goat on a small and poor country. From this perspective, small Nations had the right to independence from the great powers, regardless of social system. The two newspapers regarded the United States as the party to the conflict who did not want to negotiate and instead wanted to continue the war. Svenska Dagbladet regarded the United States instead as the guarantor of freedom and democracy in South-East Asia. The United States would defend South Vietnamese people from Communist North Vietnam, which was regarded as the offending party in the conflict: from this perspective United States deserved thus support. Svenska Dagbladet's view of the conflict was thus marked by the cold war. The newspaper regarded the United States as the party of the conflict who wanted peace and wanted to negotiate, in contrast to North Vietnam.The investigation also shows that Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter supported the Swedish Government, who supported North Vietnam and condemned the American presence in Vietnam; the Government's policy on the other hand, got a harsh criticism from Svenska Dagbladet, that considered that the Government's stance towards the United States would be harmful to the Swedish neutrality policy. Keywords: Vietnam War, Cold War, Swedish press, Social-democratic Party, Liberal Party, Conservative Party, negotiations, Swedish Government, Unites States, Communism

Agrichemicals have been misused by rice farmers in Vietnam for a long time. This thesis has studied the rice farmers’ knowledge, risk awareness and risk perception to get an understanding of the rice farmers’ agrichemical management. 15 rice farmers in An Giang province in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam were interviewed in 2015 when the winter-spring rice was cultivated. Field method Contextual Inquiry was used to observe and interview the rice farmers. The rice farmers in Mekong Delta, Vietnam think that they are exposed to a medium risk when handling pesticides. They think that pesticides are the most effective pest controlling method. They do not use any protective gear because the weather is to hot which makes the protective gear uncomfortable to wear, even though the majority of the farmers have experienced health effects. The farmers overuse agrichemicals. The rice farmers can increase their gross income if they start using agrichemical more responsible. The majority of the farmers do not follow recommendations established in research. The Vietnamese government have a big responsibility to implement new laws to create a healthier and more environmentally sound agriculture.

This thesis investigates the role of politically-motivated visual culture relative to the social and cultural transformations taking place at the University of Virginia between 1968-1974, culminating in the “May Days” student strike of 1970. This study seeks to recognize the ways through which these visual materials reflected, as well as influenced student response and identity relative to the contemporary social issues of the time, such as the advancement of Civil Rights, the de-acceleration of the Vietnam War and the military draft, and the arrival of co-education at the University of Virginia. This thesis seeks to expand traditional boundaries of the field of art education and its relevance both within, as well as outside of the educational classroom, and demonstrate the significance of visual culture in relation to social conditions and context. / text

The purpose of this mixed-methods case study research is to discover how, in relation to trade liberalisation in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, intangible assets affect livelihood outcomes of the ethnic majority Kinh and the ethnic minority Khmer people. Methods used include a random survey of 150 ethnic majority (Kinh) rice farmers combined with focus group data from Khmer ethnic minority people. Data shows that lack of access to information about the changing economic circumstances generated by trade reform has caused farmers to take sub-optimal decisions about the diversification of their crops. The economic outcomes on Khmer farmers have also been negatively affected by a lack of information, compounded by rigid gender roles, lack of education, discrimination, language problems and isolation from the majority ethnic group. These factors have contributed considerably to the negative outcomes of liberalisation, including loss of land, and have impeded people's ability to make use of emerging opportunities, including better access to markets and new ways of making a livelihood. This research shows that intangible assets interact with trade liberalisation to exacerbate existing inequalities.

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The development of shrimp aquaculture in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam is implicated in several patterns of local and regional change. These change trajectories are the emergent properties of complex processes embedded in particular social and spatial contexts. While places have become more interconnected through the global shrimp trade, those interconnections have been highly uneven, distributing risks and rewards disproportionately and producing new forms of conflict and cooperation among participants in the production network.Land use and farming systems in the coastal delta have changed profoundly in recent years. While some areas have become effectively `locked in' to shrimp farming due to environmental changes initiated by salt-water aquaculture, others have remained more flexible, able to rotate rice and shrimp seasonally. Hydrologic conditions, water infrastructures, and farmer experience all contribute to the path-dependence of these change trajectories, but commodity prices exhibit the strongest influence on their direction. Price stabilization may contribute to making prices a sustaining, `slow' variable in system change, not a disruptive `fast' one, heightening overall resilience.The production network of Mekong Delta shrimp is articulated through a variety of socially embedded relationships. Most producers are linked with international markets through informal ties with input suppliers based on trust and shrimp buyers, a relationship marked by opportunism. Processors operate through long-term informal relations with importers based on quality and consistency. This variegated network of relationships means farmers bear the brunt of price shocks, but processors lack quality assurance and traceability. Efforts to link chain participants into closer affiliation must pay attention to these relationships' effects on commodity chain governance.The globalization of the shrimp industry brought about conflicts between producers in the Mekong and Mississippi Deltas. Feminist geographers have posited several responses to globalization, from `counter-topographies' to `diverse economies/resubjectivization.' Living in Viet Nam and working with shrimp producers, I attempted to use these approaches to articulate an internationalist and trans-regional politics. Interactions with people there primarily resubjectivized me and reinforced national-scaled spatial imaginaries, however. Nevertheless, being `Uncle America' offered an insightful perspective into how some Vietnamese understood themselves and Viet Nam's tortured relationship with the U.S.

Introduction. The relationships among military service, combat intensity and long-term health effects were investigated in a cohort of 6,355 Vietnam-era American Legionnaires who were recruited in 1984 and followed through 1998. First, the effect of Vietnam service on coronary heart disease (CHD) risk was assessed among 3,781 veterans who responded to both questionnaires. Next, the effect of serving in Vietnam and combat exposure was investigated as risk factors for the mortality of the cohort. Finally, potential threats to the validity of this study were evaluated.Methods. Military service and lifestyle factors were assessed by questionnaires in 1984 and 1998. Vital status in 1998 was determined and causes of death were ascertained through the National Death Index. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for CHD incidence and mortality in relation to service location and combat exposure, adjusting for age, smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass, and hypertension. Response bias and reliability of self-reported data were examined.Results. Serving in Vietnam was associated with an increased hazard of developing heart disease (HR=1.37, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.73), after controlling for independent risk factors. Vietnam veterans experienced a 50% higher mortality than non-Vietnam veterans during 14-year follow-up (HR=1.48, 95% CI= 1.13 - 1.93), which increased with combat intensity after adjustment for other risk factors, (low combat: HR 1.17, 95% CI 0.79 - 1.73; medium combat HR=1.51, 95% CI 1.05 - 2.17; high combat HR=1.82, 95% CI 1.20 - 2.76). A stronger relationship was observed by level of combat for CHD mortality (low combat: HR =1.48, 95% CI 0.75 - 2.95; medium combat HR= 2.01, 95% CI 1.06 - 3.79; high combat HR= 2.27, 95% CI 1.08 - 4.79). Results showed that non-respondents differed only slightly from respondents for important variables potentially related to exposures and chronic disease outcomes. Furthermore, veteran self-report was moderately to highly reliable when measured over a 14 year period.Conclusions. Vietnam veterans are still experiencing higher rates of adverse health effects, even more than thirty years after their military service. These data support a long term and independent adverse effect of military service in Vietnam on cardiovascular health.

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