New "Vietcong" Game Targets "Gooks"

by Melissa Biagtan
7/1/03

AAMovement has recently learned of a newly released computer game on the Vietnam War entitled “Vietcong,” where players shoot at enemy VC “gooks” in the jungles of Vietnam.

A June review of “Vietcong” in an online gaming magazine revealed the unabashed use of the racist term “gook” in the game. The reviewer, while praising the game’s realistic and gritty depiction of the Vietnam War, reported that the game’s hero would proclaim statements such as “Fuck me, I gotta find where those gooks are coming from!”
The US version of Vietcong has been toned down to calling the VCs (the still problematic), “Charlie.” However, the UK version of “Vietcong,” as well as versions in other countries, still use the term “gook” in the game.

Despite the mobilization of many Asian Americans online to protest “Vietcong,” the subject of the game’s racist language has not yet been addressed by the game’s makers.

Vietcong was published by the Gathering, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, which has also published "Grand Theft Auto" and "Mafia." It was developed by Pterodon, a company based in the Czech Republic.

Contact the game’s publishers here to show your disapproval of the game’s racist language:

Publisher:
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. / Gathering, Inc.
622 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
(646) 536-2842