Vietnam War by Minh Bao Nguyen

The Vietnam War was a major military conflict that started on November 1, 1955 when United States poured troops into Vietnam and ended on April 30, 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists. This war was fought between the communist North Vietnamese, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The Vietnam War created a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, including about 4 million Vietnamese from both sides, 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians, and 58,159 U.S. soldiers. So given the perfect opportunity, I decided to interview my parents and my father’s friend to further my understanding of what it was like being Vietnamese people during the time of war.


Mother--- Lan Huong

I was about eight years old when the war started, when American troops began pouring in. My family and I lived in Bien Hoa district of Saigon, which was the South Vietnamese capital city. People felt relatively safe living there because it would be the last city that the Viet Cong (North Vietnamese communists) would attack. Unlike other wars that I heard about, people in Saigon did not evacuate because we were living on the Southeastern tip of Asia and there were communists everywhere around the region. There was no where to run away to.
My father was lucky enough to be part of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) airforce. We also got the privilege of living inside the military camp with many other high officials’ families. The camp was very spacious, containing loads of tanks, choppers, and battle planes provided by US. It was strictly walled off with huge concrete walls and barb wires. There is only one single gate for entering and exiting the area, guarded with dozens of heavily armed soldiers. People entering and exiting the area had to get their IDs checked to ensure that no Viet Cong could sneak inside. Relative visits became a frustration as we had to go through many steps in order to get them inside. But we did not live wealthy lives, my three sisters and I had to help our mother run a small laundry business to earn a living. We would wash the soldiers’ clothes because they did not have washing machines back then. Luckily my working hours did not intervene much with my education.
I remember Christmas was the best holiday. Every child in the camp received a card and everyone would gather at this big square to exchange those cards for Christmas gifts from the Americans, usually a fuzzy doll. Those were the only presents I’ve ever gotten in my childhood. But never did any of us complain about our conditions, in fact, we were very grateful to be able to live in such a safe place. The schools outside the area taught kids a lot of English so we can be the interpreters for the Vietnamese and American soldiers. My friends and I would wander the streets and greet the American soldiers in hope of getting ten or twenty cents from them, and that was enough to buy a delicious Vietnamese meal.
I remember hearing artillery from the Viet Cong sent into the camp where we lived. They were aiming at the high officials and the American consulates but the artillery often ended up in the houses, killing many innocent civilians. One got really close to our house and we were freaking out, had to move out for a day. Whenever the alerting alarm went off, we were expected to hide under furniture for safety.
During 1968, the Tet Offensive occurred when I was about thirteen years old. I saw Viet Congs in black pajamas climbing the over the fence and into the camp. Of course the guard soldiers were shooting like crazy and we were hiding inside our homes. But that was really my first experience with the war. Hundreds of North Vietnamese were shot down and piled up on the street for people to witness. I started questioning myself of why the same race of people, Vietnamese, was taking away the lives of other people of their own race. That event made it more difficult for people to enter and exit the camp.
Outside the camp where I went to school, I began seeing these Vietnamese women coming from the countryside looking for a living. Many of them developed relationships with American soldiers and had Amerasian babies. Those children were discriminated because of their different skin colors. Amerasians with white blood though, were not as discriminated as the black children. They were very pitiful; many went through schools in Vietnam without any friend because they were different. Most of them don’t know who their daddies are, and some were even abandoned by their Vietnamese mothers.
I had an aunt who was very beautiful at the age of nineteen. She met a young American soldier while she worked as a bartender at a club. They developed a relationship and were soon madly in love. The soldier planned on bringing her to America but when she was about to get on the bus to go meet him, she stepped on a Bouncing Betty (specialized mine) set up by the Viet Cong. The mine was intended to kill soldiers but instead it broke a love story. The soldier mourned for days at her funeral. It was a love story that I used to admire because it shows how true love has no borders. My father died in battle when I was growing up so I had to work much more to help my mother take care of my five younger siblings. It became rough from there on but I’m sure many other Vietnamese people suffered a much greater deal than me.


Father--- Quyen Nguyen

I was nine years old, living in Saigon, when the war started. My family and I lived by a South Vietnamese paratrooper base. My father was a paratrooper in Division 7. There were many protests and demonstrations against the war in Saigon. I myself participated in a few because we learned that the South government is very corrupted. They had a false freedom of speech law, none of the newspapers were able to express their points or disagree with the government. Basically, the South Vietnamese government treated us like trash; all they wanted was to defeat the North. There were also Viet Congs in disguised, sneaking around the city trying to start these protests to disrupt the government. The police threw gas grenades and would beat the protestors to teach them a lesson.
Before the Tet Offensive, the Viet Congs signed the treaty of no attacking during the three days of New Year. But then they broke the treaty by launching attacks on many major cities. They used the advantage of the loud fireworks to enter Saigon when the South Vietnamese were celebrating. Everyone hid in their homes and you could hear series of gun shots going on every minute of those days. The Viet Cong is famous for their brutalities and tricks. We heard stories of North Vietnamese soldiers being forced onto the battlefield to fight or else they would get killed. The North had the advantage of a huge supportive and determined population at getting rid of foreign influences.
Back in school, there was very little talk about the war, everything proceeded normally. But when boys turned seventeen years old, they were drafted into the ARVN. The North even drafted fifteen-year-old boys because their soldiers were dying rapidly. Luckily, I was an only child in the family and my father was already serving in the army so I did not have to be drafted. My father was often gone for battles and I mostly lived my childhood with my mother. She was able to open a small business so again, I was lucky enough to go to school and not have to join the army.
On April 30th, 1975, South Vietnam surrendered and the Viet Congs began marching into Saigon. That previous night, my mother had already paid a fisherman about US $2,000, all she had at the time, to take me to a new place. The Viet Cong was going to take all of the money they found anyway because Vietnam became a communist country. So I came on board with a boatload of people, literally, and we drove out into the open sea, hoping to get rescue and end up in another country. But unfortunately four hours into our trip we were all captured by Viet Cong’s navy. Those next few months I spent in the communist jail was probably the hardest stage of my life. We were expected to stay there for about three to four years unless we fed the officials some money to say that we’ve served enough time in prison. No trials, no regulations, no fairness, no nothing. The prisoners lived together in several big rooms. The room was crowded, stinking, sometimes rotted dead people that the guards would not clear out. Everyday we would get two meals, each containing only a handful of plain rice with some salt. We could only receive exactly nine cups of water for bath. Sick people were left to die. I myself had a major diarrhea, so bad that I was crawling on the ground groaning for help. I was almost dead and they did not even bother to check. The crazy thing is, they had a medicine bag hanging on the wall to show that they were treating their prisoners but they only used it on the officials. I am still very pissed at the Viet Congs for that. My friends in there were able to sneak in some anti-bacteria medicines and my diarrhea went away. That’s why I always say, “Never believe what the Viet Congs say but instead witness what they do.”


Father’s friend--- Chi Van Tran

I lived in Hue, central Vietnam, when the war first started in 1955. I was already a young South Vietnamese soldier fighting North Vietnamese expansion. We heard great news about how the United States was coming to help us. The Viet Cong was using very effective guerilla warfare against our infantry. It was extremely frustrating to spot them in the jungle so we just fell back and defended the province of Hue. We asked that the residences there must tell us anything they know about the Viet Cong but very few agreed to cooperate. They kept questioning why is it that Vietnamese people was fighting one another. We told them that communism is a very crazy form of government and that the South was trying to get rid of the dictators. Many of them claims that if it wasn’t for the communists that fought off the French we would all still be under French colonial rule.
After American forces made their way to Hue, I was sent back to Saigon where I met your family. Soldiers that were always on the move like me couldn’t manage to form a family because it would just be a mess. I did hit up a few women here and there, you know, soldiers like me. The war provided me the opportunity to meet a lot of new friends, most of them soldiers. We would share stories, go into battles together, experience hardships together. I believe it’s really those times of hardship that people are able to find their true best friends.
The Viet Cong launched 122mm rockets, supplied by China, into South Vietnamese residence areas and we soldiers would have to track them down. Usually a dozen of guys were sent just to find one or two Viet Cong. It was a very frustrating process. I have a friend who went into the Battle of An Lao in Binh Ninh. His unit was surrounded by hundreds of Viet Congs armed with AK-47s. Those guns are better than the M-16s that were supplied by the US because AK-47s can cool faster and has a deadlier bullet impact. The North Vietnamese would always try to outnumber their opposing forces because even with effective tactics, they always end up losing more men in every battle. Anyway, my friend somehow managed to run away from the Viet Congs. But unfortunately the American airforce dropped napalm bombs in hope of killing the Viet Congs. It burned parts of the guy’s body and he could no longer go back into battle. I followed through the whole Vietnam War and I got to tell you, it is definitely one of the worst wars known to mankind.