WELCOMING PROF. KENTON CLYMER FROM NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY (NIU), THE US

On the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of Vietnam’s reunification, Dr. Tran Dinh Lam – Director of the Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies – had a chance to meet up with Prof. Kenton Clymer, an expert on Asian history, of the Department of History, NIU (the US).

By 1975, the professor and his friends raised their voice to contribute to the struggle for Vietnam’s reunification. He visited Hanoi for the first time in 1988, seeing the difficulties that Vietnam faced after its earlier days of reunification. He returned to Vietnam in 2004 and was surprised at the reforms as well as advancements Vietnam had achieved. According to the professor, lessons from Vietnam’s history have brought benefits to the communities, particularly the equal distribution of development for the society, which would be a useful experience to the country’s socio-economic growth in later years.

He hoped that Vietnam would invest more in human resources training and development. The professor also expressed his concern for the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the Vietnamese society nowadays. Besides, the problem of corruption results in sluggishness, which, in turn, has negative effects on Vietnam’s development. He hopes that the young workforce with profound knowledge and enthusiasm will help Vietnam foster in the future. Also, he wishes to contribute to the educational advancement in Vietnam and plays the role as a bridge for human resource exchanges between NIU and universities of Vietnam National University – HCMC.

Expertise:

-       History

-       Diplomatic history

-       International Development

-       The US policies

-       The US foreign policies

-       Southern Asia and Southeast Asia

Some publications:

1. John Hay:  The Gentleman as Diplomat. Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press, 1975.

2. Protestant Missionaries in the Philippines, 1898-1916:  An inquiry into the American Colonial Mentality. Champaign:  University of Illinois Press, 1986.

3. Quest for Freedom:  The United States and the Independence of India.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 1995.  Indian edition, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall, 1997.

4. The United States and Cambodia, 1870-1969: From Curiosity to Confrontation.  London and New York: Routledge, 2004) [Together with the following book, winner of the Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize for 2005 from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.]    

5. The United States and Cambodia, 1969-2000: A Troubled Relationship.  London and New York: Routledge, 2004) [Together with the previous book, winner of the Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize for 2005 from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

6. Troubled Relations: The United States and Cambodia since 1870.  DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007.

7. “The Trial for High Treason of the ‘Burma Surgeon,’ Gordon S. Seagrave,” Pacific Historical Review (2012)

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