Book excerpt: The Bridge Generation of Vietnam: Spanning Wartime to Boomtime is a compilation of profiles and essays relating to three critical time periods in Vietnam's recent history. The focus is on a group of people who grew up during wartime, lived through a devastating period of famine and hunger, and are now leading the country in its economic boom. We divided these experiences into three parts, mirroring the time periods. Part 1, War, includes experiences during the American War, as well as the conflicts with Cambodia and China which lasted into the 1980s. Part 2, Hunger, focuses on the subsidy period, from 1975 until 1986, but continued mostly until the end of the 1980s. Part 3, Launch, spans the time from the official start of Doi Moi, or economic renovation, when the country began to shift toward a market economy, to the present. Although it began officially in 1986, Doi Moi's impact started to take major effect toward the mid 1990s and beyond.