This story, and a perusal of the accompanying chronology, reveals how a fierce and united people have achieved their freedom against superior forces. The author retired from the federal government, as a senior intelligence analyst, after thirty-six years of service. He served three years in the Army during the Korean War but was assigned to the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) in the District of Columbia area in late 1952. Shortly after his assignment, the agency was renamed the National Security Agency (NSA). After his enlistment was up, he converted to civilian service with the NSA. He was sent to Germany as an adviser to a military intelligence battalion (Army Security Agency), that was deployed along the East-West German border and then returned to the headquarters NSA. The writer has traveled extensively in Vietnam. He has visited places on the coast from just south of Hue to Vung Tau, the mountains around Kontum and Pleiku, the Saigon area including Ben Hoa Cholon, and in the Vietnamese delta, My Toe and all the way to the town of Ha Tien on the Vietnam/Cambodian border on the Gulf of Thailand. He met and conversed with many native Vietnamese, vacationed with a Vietnamese family (a girlfriend, her mother and a young son) in the old French beach vacation town of Vung Tau, and for a brief time taught English to some young Vietnamese monks who gave him a tour of their residence and introduced him to their ways of life. After returning to NSA he used his off duty time to volunteer in the attempt to get Vietnamese refugee families together. He assisted at one of the refugee camps and for a time sponsored one, three-generation, family providing them with a residence and trying to familiarize them with the American ways of life. He has obtained official correspondences from the Truman library concerning Vietnam, including a message from Ho Chi Minh.

Learn to craft one-of-a-kind miniature boxes in a variety of shapes no matter your skill level with this assortment of twelve charming beadwork designs. Julia S. Pretl offers crafters her original method for creating decorative beaded boxes and lids in a wide range of surface designs and shapes. Working only with cylinder and seed beads, needle and thread, crafters can create an impressive array of clever and colorful miniature containers. With step-by-step illustrations and easy-to-follow word graphs and patterns, Pretl leads the reader through the techniques for creating three-sided, five-sided, and six-sided rectangular, square, and stacked boxes. Four-color photographs of each of the 12 designs introduce each set of instructions. Detailed drawings illustrate the beading techniques.

Beaders, quilters, and fiber artists will find this book invaluable for its solid technical information about how to apply beads to cloth, resulting in unique creations that will stand the test of time. This guide teaches about bead embroidery stitches; seed, bugle, novelty, and charm beads; woven, nonwoven, and knitted clothes; and Nymo, embroidery, and cotton sewing threads. The four foundation stitches as well as several variations on those stitches are illustrated. In addition, 10 beautiful projects, ranging from simple to complex, give beaders a chance to apply this new skill. Projects include an embellished small bag, an embellished jean jacket pocket, decorative pins, necklaces, and an embellished scarf.

Featuring 18 exciting projects presented with detailed step-by-step photography, color variations, and practical illustrations, this fresh approach to seed bead jewelry teaches crafters how to combine materials, techniques, colors, inspiration, and design ideas for jewelry with a contemporary edge. Inspired by a wide range of sources--from Indian Punjabi folk costumes to Native American beading--the designs in this inventive resource fuse materials such as silver, copper wire, seed beads, Czech glass, and crystals into these traditional arts in order to achieve a unique outcome. All of the basic beadweaving stitches, wirework, and stringing techniques are explained and illustrated.