Scars of War

<p><strong>Best First Book Award from the History Honor Society Phi Alpha Theta</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Scars of War</em> examines the decisions of U.S. policymakers who denied American citizenship to the Amerasians of Vietnam--the biracial sons and daughters of American fathers and Vietnamese mothers born during the Vietnam War. Focusing on the implications of the 1982 Amerasian Immigration Act and the 1987 Amerasian Homecoming Act Sabrina Thomas investigates why policymakers deemed a population unfit for American citizenship despite the fact that they had American fathers.</p><p>Thomas argues that citizenship exclusion was a component of bigger issues confronting the Nixon Ford Carter and Reagan administrations: international relationships in the Cold War era America's defeat in the Vietnam War and a history in the United States of racially restrictive immigration and citizenship policies against mixed-race persons and people of Asian descent.</p><p>Now more politically relevant than ever <em>Scars of War</em> explores ideas of race nation and gender in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Thomas exposes the contradictory approach of policymakers unable to reconcile Amerasian biracialism with the U.S. Code. As they created an inclusionary discourse deeming Amerasians worthy of American action guidance and humanitarian aid federal policymakers simultaneously initiated exclusionary policies that designated these people unfit for American citizenship. </p><p></p><p><strong>Sabrina Thomas</strong> is an associate professor of African American history and war and society at Texas Tech University. <strong>Robert J. Mrazek</strong> is a former U.S. congressman of New York.</p><p></p>