In Le Ly's eyes, there were only four options on how to get out of Vietnam: foreign education, foreign husband, "exporter", or illegally. At this point of her life, she had become so desperate to get out that she sold herself as a prostitute in order to obtain the start-up money so she and Hung could leave. She deserted everything she believed in and disrespected her family and herself just to open the door to the opportunity of leaving Vietnam. In my opinion, this shows her deep desperation to leave the life she was leading in Vietnam and begin again in the United States.
Chapter 10's focal point is peace. Her dinner with Anh's government official friends turns out to be a successful talk about turning the country into a better place with the help of the United States. They say the goal of the war was to make Vietnam a sovereign nation, and now they must make the country a better place to live. One of the men explains the peace they must obtain, "But our peace must be the peace of a strong and independent nation--not the peace of a slave camp or a graveyard". The conversation Le Ly has with these men is meant to be didactic. They were there to teach her both how Vietnam needed to achieve peace through the help of the U.S. and how she could help.
The conversation about reuniting the two countries in order to obtain peace reminded me of the song "We Are The World".
I didnt think of the connection you made with the music video you posted
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