Life in the Vietnam War - Nancy Tran

Introduction:
I interviewed three people who lived in Saigon during the time of the Vietnam War. They were my grandpa, uncle, and mom. Some of their stories intertwine, and they're all about the things they have seen during the war. Here are their stories.

Interview #1: Chieu Tran
Chieu Tran was born in Cambodia, but later moved to Vietnam when he was really young. He was in Vietnam for most of Vietnam’s civil war.
During the time of the war I was at Saigon, Vietnam; the capital city. Most of the fighting of the war was near the 17th parallel; the border between north and South Vietnam. Because of this my family was mostly safe. In the time of the war, I worked for a bike shop. Before I had worked there, workers had dug these hideout holes used to hide from the bombers that flew over. They were similar to tunnels. Each tunnel was really small and fitted about ten people. Whenever a bomber was in sight, sirens in the city would go off telling people that they should go hide. This way the pilots flying the bombers are unable to see the people and bomb them. If we were unlucky, it was possible for the bombers to drop a bomb right on top of the tunnel, and the people in the tunnel would die.
Many people who were unsatisfied with the government in the North would come to South Vietnam. Also, many communists would also come to South Vietnam or communists already in the South would stay in order to disrupt our government. War was fought mostly from north to south. It wasn’t until the Tet Offensive when the war grew worse.
On the day of the Tet Offensive, my wife was sick. We had just gone to the hospital that morning for her to get a checkup. She was released that same day of the Tet Offensive and in order to go home, a bridge had to be crossed. When we left the hospital, everything was closed off. We luckily crossed the bridge before it was closed off, if not we could not have reached our family and the children would’ve been left alone. Later that day, we fled to the hospital in order to stay safe and away from any Viet Cong. If we were near and Viet Cong with South Vietnamese soldiers around, we were sure to be shot and dead. Luckily, we made it safe to the hospital and stay there for three weeks.
At the time when America was still a part of the war we had to mostly stay in the house. We had to watch out bombs. Our house was really close to the bombs, especially since it was near a military base. The place we stayed in was safe, but many other don’t believe the same. The only time where our house would be unsafe was if a Viet Cong had enter the small area in which we had lived in.
Many school children were influenced by the war. Some children were already influenced by the Viet Cong, and they would preach as a Viet Cong. During the school time they would try and peer pressure other students into thinking like a Viet Cong and helping them. Children helped the Viet Cong through propaganda. They handed out fliers to others even though they didn’t really know what they were handing out.
Luckily, I did not have to enter war. This was because if a man had six or more children they did not need to enlist into war. Also, if a family had one adult son, then that son did not have to enlist in the war. If a family had two or more sons, then one of the sons had to enlist in the war while the other son takes care of the family.
This happened to my brother-in law. My wife’s youngest brother was enlisted into the war. Once he had entered the battlefield in 1972, he was quickly killed. It was the night of the war, and he was shot by the enemies in the kidney causing him to die.
Times in Vietnam were rough. The war lasted a really long time, and there wasn’t a long period of peace in Vietnam because there was always war.



Interview #2: Tony Chiem
Tony Chiem was around the age of 20 during the Tet offensive in 1968. He was born in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), Vietnam. He later immigrated to America in the later 1970s.
The Viet Cong were similar to rats. That’s what we called them. In the day, they would hide in forests or jungles in order to avoid the South Vietnamese soldier. At night they would cause a commotion. When they are hiding, if a South Vietnamese soldier walked by, they would jump out from behind and kill them. At night they were always moving around so they would never get caught. Their goal was to revolutionize the South Vietnamese government, and in order to do so they had tried to disturb the government and ruin it. Nobody could tell the difference between Viet Cong and normal citizens. The Viet Cong people wore normal clothing, so sometimes you could be communicating with them and not know. A large factor as to why the North had won was because of this. The citizens of the South could make friends with anyone. You could meet a guy at a coffee shop and start talking to him. Eventually you may even be friends with him for 10 years. During those 10 years, you could tell him all these secrets you may have, and if you’re a part of the government you could be telling him upcoming plans. Once the North has won and gained control over the South, your friend tells you that he is a Viet Cong. That’s when you’ve realized that you have been trick, and you’ve given out all the secrets.
Communists were really cruel people. Viet Cong people would always inform the North leaders about the secret we had, such as planned attacks and conferences. In the end of the war, the Viet Cong people were never awarded. The leaders of the North would take all of the credit and never gave any power to the Viet Cong. In the end, the Viet Cong were betrayed for they never received anything for their work.
Many people didn’t like the government of North Vietnam, so most of them migrate to South Vietnam and become refugee. Even after North Vietnam gained power in 1975, anti-communists of North Vietnam would migrate to South Vietnam then look for refugee camps outside of Vietnam, such as in Malaysia and Thailand.
On the day of the Tet Offensive I was about 20 years old. Tet was supposed to be a day of happiness. During New Years, it’s part of tradition to set off firecrackers and keep things really simple and happy. The communists took advantage of this. Because there were firecrackers they would set off things to kill people. For example, they would kill people and shoot them. People thought it was firecrackers. During that time, I went to the countryside to visit my family since it was New Years. I didn’t know what was happening. All I remembered was when I was coming back from the countryside; I saw all the roads destroyed. The bridges were broken and everyone was in terror. Everyone looked really sad and quiet that day, and something seemed off. It wasn’t until I asked people about what had happened when I found out.
The point of the Tet Offensive was for the Viet Cong to disrupt the government. By disrupting the government they had hoped to cause South Vietnam to fall and surrender to the North. In the end, the communists were unsuccessful. The South did not fall until 1975. In 1969, the leader of the North, Ho Chi Minh dies. Everyone laughed at him for his unsuccessful attempt at bringing down the Southern government. He looked like a really sad humiliated old man.
From then the war had gotten worse. From 1968 to 1975 was the highlight of the war in the South. After 1968, a small bomb went off in a small town right next to Saigon. All the houses burned there and everyone there had died. The Americans had suspected there were Viet Cong people in the town, and so they decided to bomb it. By bombing it, they had hoped to get rid of all the Viet Cong there.
Every morning I would stand outside and watch the outside of my house. I would just stand in the front staring. Every day I would see far out a bomber flying over a small city or town and dropping a bomb. Then a suddenly explosion would arise and dust would be everywhere. I lived near a place where there were a lot of Viet Cong around. The Viet Cong were never in my block exactly, but they were a few blocked down the road. Sometimes I would see men and women run to my block for safety. There were all kinds of people, from pregnant women to little boys and girls.
Right after 1968 was when I met my wife. She worked for my aunt and helped organized books and documents. Back then she was extremely poor and could not afford a vehicle. Every night I would drive her home. When people found out about this, they would tell me “Are you crazy? I heard there were a lot of Viet Cong people in that area, you could potentially die there.” What they didn’t know was that there were actually no Viet Cong ever there. It was a safe place, but people just assumed that it was dangerous since it was so isolated like the country side. Every night I made it back fine without harm. Eventually a few years later I had married my wife.


Interview #3 : Nu Tran
Nu Tran was born in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), Vietnam. She was around the age of 10 during the Tet Offensive. She was a normal civilian who remembers her days during the Vietnam war.
During the Tet offensive the North had attacked the most. I was about ten years old at the time. As I was getting water from a faucet using buckets for the family to use, I suddenly saw all these people fleeing away carrying bags. I didn’t know what was happening. So I asked the people around why they were fleeing. People told me “there’s a war! The Viet Cong has arrived!” people were fleeing because they didn’t want to be caught in the middle. If the US soldiers saw a Viet Cong they would automatically shoot at them along with everyone around the scene because it cannot be helped. I quickly ran home with the water because I too did not want to be caught in the middle of the war.
I lived in a small house that was in Saigon. We lived in a little isolated area across a bridge that was really similar to the country side. By our house there was also a US military base. This was why everyone was so afraid to come near our home. If there had a been a Viet Cong in the area of which we had lived in, then I would’ve died. The US would’ve just blew up the place and everyone would die. That day when I went home I had gone to go pack with my family. We had also fled. One of my little brother was only eight months old so we had to carry him on the run. We fled to the hospital like everyone else. It was a really big place there, so everyone felt safe.
We stayed at the hospital for about three weeks and nobody had brought food on their flee. So the Americans had brought food for us. They would have a huge pot of rice and food, and once they were ready to serve they would call everyone up. You tell them the amount of people there are and they give you the right portion of food. If it were for the Americans, then everyone would have starved to death. During the time in the hospital, an old lady wanted to sell coffee for people to drink and for her to make money. She had trouble walking, so my little brother helped out. He sold coffee to all kinds of people, even soldiers. Once he had finished selling what he had, he gave the money to the lady where she would give him something to eat or a bit of the money.
During the Tet Offensive, people of all kinds had died; from people from Thailand to Korea to South Vietnamese citizens to the Viet Cong. It was basically just a massive attack. Those who were unlucky and caught in the middle off the war would just be killed off. There were many deaths in different places. Places that had the most deaths were school; many school children in there had died, and the market place. This was because the Viet Cong would try and hide amongst the people, so soldiers would shoot everyone in order to catch the Viet Cong. When people returned home after hiding out, they would go to the market place in order to buy food. There they saw all these dead bodies of Vietnamese people. All the US soldier’s bodies had already been removed because they were going to be returned home for their families.
Nobody could tell the difference between the Viet Cong and normal people. The only times they could identify them is if they were wearing a red bandana. The Viet Cong also wore mostly black. Yet you could never know if they are around you because anyone could possibly be a Viet Cong. For example, in 1970, at the place I was working, it was a normal day. Then suddenly at 1am two police cars came and called out a name. They arrested this man and he turned out to be a Viet Cong. At his house he was hiding bombs and guns for the Viet Cong. Nobody had known that that man was a Viet Cong.
Once a Viet cong was caught they would torture them into telling the government who was the boss of their clan and who were the members. They were tortured by being electrocuted through the fingers. They clipped on clamps that would electrocute them. Once they lost conscious they would dump water on the Viet Cong and continue to torture them. They would never tell.