Pulitzer winner Nguyen to Al Jazeera: US repeats Vietnam mistakes in Afghanistan and Palestine

In an interview with Al Jazeera marking Saigon's 50th anniversary, Viet Thanh Nguyen—USC professor and Pulitzer winner for The Sympathizer—recalled arriving in America as a 1975 child refugee. The Vietnamese-American scholar linked US failures in Vietnam to current Middle East campaigns, calling Israel's actions "settler colonialism" and noting America's pattern of backing occupations. Having lived through Saigon's fall, he compared Afghan and Vietnamese refugees' desperation when "betrayed" by US withdrawals. An outspoken critic of US foreign policy, Nguyen argued successive administrations only learned "to wage wars better", repeating mistakes from Iraq to Palestine. His novels dissect these war legacies while his academic work examines displacement trauma. Speaking as both refugee and intellectual, he stressed how colonialism shaped Vietnamese-American identity—a duality informing his critique of US global interventions. The interview highlighted his unique perspective bridging lived experience and geopolitical analysis.

Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe
Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera
Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/
Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/
Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile

#Vietnam #VietnamWar #VietnamWar50 #AfghanistanWar #GazaWar #Colonialism #HumanRights #AlJazeeraEnglish

Post from Al Jazeera on April 30, 2025

View Original Post