Nearly 30 years later, war echoes on a Vietnam tennis court

Nearly 30 years later, war echoes on a Vietnam tennis court

(EXCERPT) MARGIE MASON, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

(12-10) 11:09 PST HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) --

She is Vietnam's top-ranked female tennis player. Still, Noel Huynh
Mai Huynh is criticized by the state-run press and jeered by
Vietnamese crowds who do not accept her as one of their own.

It's a personal struggle symbolic of the lingering resentment and
distrust between communist Vietnam and the hundreds of thousands who
fled the south at the end of the Vietnam War nearly 30 years ago.

"I play tennis for my family," Huynh said during a break from practice
at the Southeast Asian Games, a regional competition that runs through
Saturday. "There's a lot of pressure because I know a lot of people,
they don't like me very much."

Huynh, 18, was born in the U.S. territory of Guam. She is the first
"Viet kieu," or overseas Vietnamese, to receive dual citizenship from
the communist government to compete for Vietnam.

Huynh was 4 years old when her family moved back to Ho Chi Minh City,
formerly Saigon, in 1989. She did not speak Vietn...

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Associate Librarian
The American War Library
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